Resurrection Sunday Sunrise Service at the Garden Tomb!!

 I went to the Garden Tomb the day before the Sunrise Service (on Passover Saturday), just to get some pics of it for you before the huge crowds are there. The Garden Tomb is a site that has a hill that sort of looks like Golgotha, and a nearby tomb. This is not likely the actual place of Jesus' death and resurrection (there is much stronger evidence that the actual place is at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre), however this a beautiful garden area, and a wonderful place to come and pray, meditate, take communion, and worship.

 They have a place to take communion, on that table is some matza and grape juice, and I just sat there under the shade trees in the garden and took communion by myself, it was wonderful.

 Here's the hill that looks like Golgotha, actually a stone quarry place. It does sort of look like a skull.

 The Garden Tomb...this tomb dates to the Byzantine period, after the time of Jesus, but gives you an idea of what tombs were like back then.

 Here's a pic from inside the Garden Tomb.

 Some of the girls and I decided to have a picnic on Saturday. We just grabbed our lunch from the dining room, and walked way down into the Hinnom Valley (also called Gehenna, or "hell" in the Bible, because here is where refuse used to burn, and pagan and even child sacrifices use to take place), right below Mt. Zion where our school is. One of the girls, Clara, commented that this was the day that Jesus descended into Hell before His ressurection. Wow, she is quite perceptive, and there we were in the Hinnom valley, remembering His death and ressurection.

 OK, this is the next morning, Sunday, VERY early...about 5:45 am. This is Clara, and we were walking through the streets of the Old City to get to the Garden Tomb for the Sunrise Service. It seemed so strange that the streets were completely quiet and empty, as during the day they bustle with activity, shops, people, noise, etc.

 Here we are waiting in line in the dark to get into the Garden Tomb, there were hundreds and hundreds of people there, maybe a thousand, I don't know....so we weren't the only ones who got up early to come worship the Lord on Resurrection Sunday!

Here's a video of one of the songs we sang...it was powerful!!

 People were there from every continent of the globe, all worshipping together.

HE IS RISEN!!  We're in the garden, right after the service, now it is about 7:30 am..this is Laurie, Laura, Chelsea, Liz, me and Clara, all sweet girls, all being constantly mothered by me:)

Passover evening - a Triclinium meal!!

 So what is a Triclinium meal?? It's a reclining meal, just like Jesus had with His disciples the night He was betrayed. Well, maybe not 'just like', but similar. Before the meal, which we had on Good Friday evening, I am having my feet washed by the 'servants'.

 The students really got into dressing up in togas, and they loved laying down to eat!!  A Triclinium meal is 3 tables put in a U-shape, and the servants come down the middle of the U to serve. Ordinarily, you wouldn't have people reclining/eating in the middle of the U, but we had to fit everyone in.

 We started our meal with some dried apricots, figs, nuts, etc. We ate food that would have been traditional to eat in Jesus' time.  Later we had some flat unleavened bread, and some delicious thick stew that we dipped the bread into. No forks or spoons allowed:)  Dessert was some kind of date cookie and fruit.

Dr. Wright did a wonderful job teaching us about the Triclinium meal, about where Jesus, the guest of honor would had traditionally sat, and where John, Peter and Judas would have sat, etc.  (Notice how some of the students are laying their heads on the table..hmmm, I don't know if that was in the script). He also did a wonderful narrative about Jesus' last week of life, I wish I would have had a recording of the whole thing.  Here's just a little taste of what he said:

 After a big meal, we are all just lounging around, feeling a little sluggish, but listening to Dr. Wright.

The best-dressed Toga wearers...don't they look spiffy??

Palm Sunday in Jerusalem!! pics and a video, come join us:)

Today was Palm Sunday, and I went on a walk on the ramparts (top of the walls) of the Old City, in order to get a good view of the thousands of people walking down from the Mount of Olives waving palm branches, on the same road where Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey the week before His crucifixion.  This is just a pic along the way.

 I am perched on the wall, looking down at the Church of All Nations, where all the people are supposed to emerge when they get down from the Mount of Olives.

 Double-click this one to make it larger, and you will see a stream of people (looks like ants) at the top of the Mount, making their way down.

 Here are dozens of buses parked at the foot of the Mount of Olives, who have dropped off their tour groups to join the march.

 From my vantage point, I am also looking down into a Muslim cemetary, where many other people are waiting for the parade of people, who will be entering the Old City at Stephen's Gate.

 I came down, lower, now positioned just in front of Steven's Gate, and see more people waiting for the crowd. In the top right, you see some JUC students, whom I was just walking with on the Ramparts, they are waiting as well, cameras in hand.

 Here comes the first of the thousand(s)!! They are all singing and marching (not sure how many people!)

Many children in the parade, having a good time.

 Enjoy this video, get a sense of what it was like to be there...I see several of the JUC students in this video, including Clara and Liz:)

 Chelsea, Amy, Emily, Rissy and Laura all have walked the distance, enjoying every step.

 More JUC students, everyone smiling, singing 'Hosanna!!'

 Well, there's Anna and Peter!!

 Not to mention Liz and the other Peter!!  Love those guys....

After they passed by, I jumped in the crowd and continued walking with them through the Stephen's Gate, which you see here, entering the Old City where the walk ended at St. Anne's church.

Abu Gosh - Palestinian village near Jerusalem

 Yesterday I went on a field trip to Abu Gosh, a Palestinian and primarily Muslim village very near Jerusalem, that is known for it's peaceful co-existance next to a secular Jewish Kibbutz, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, 2 orthodox Christian churches, and even a Messianic Jewish Moshav (village) called Yad Hashmona.  There has never been a conflict/violence between these groups, and they seem to be a picture of how it is possible co-exist and still maintain separate religions.
This view is looking from the top of Castel, a battleground in the 1948 war, where the local Jewish forces tried to secure the important highway linking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  You can see the 4 lane highway below which is winding its way toward Jerusalem.

 Another view from Castel..in the foreground you can see trenches where the soldiers would hide with their weapons.

 This man's name is "Isa" which is Arabic for Jesus. He's a Muslim man and lifetime resident of Abu Gosh and he gave us a tour. He is standing with a nun at the church/convent property where it is believed Abinadad lived and housed the Ark of the Covenant for 20 years (1 Sam. 6:21-7:2).  David had to come and get it from here. Once he became King in Jerusalem, the first thing he wanted to do was to bring the ark up to Jerusalem.

 This statue on top on the church is of Mary holding Jesus, and she's standing on the ark, which has the (cherubim) angels on it. Pretty strange actually.

 Isa is sitting on an approximately 1000 year old olive tree, discussing Abu Gosh with us.  I love these old olive trees, so thick and knarled and still producing olives for centuries.

 The ceiling of the church of the Ark of the Covenant is covered with angels.

A painting in the church painted hundreds of years ago, depicting David playing his harp before the ark.

 The other Christian church in Abu Gosh, we walked in while they were having a service.

 Look carefully at this painting on the wall, painted during the Crusader period.  When the Muslims came and took over, in the Ottoman period, they blotted out the picture of Jesus on the cross..that's the big blank splotch you see in the center, with His arms barely visible.

 Here we are in Isa's home, discussing what it's like to be a Palestinian Israeli citizen, loyal to Israel with all the citizenship benefits, but yet having relatives in Gaza and the West Bank, and sympathetic to their plight.

Isa with his 13 year old daughter, posing with me and some other students.  We had a pleasant day in Abu Gosh. I want to return to the Messianic village Yad Hashmona, which is very close to here, and spend some time there.

Incredible Opportunity...do you want to come to Israel this fall??

Living in Israel for the past couple months, I have become quite overwhelmed with this land, the people, the conflicts, and the purposes God has in all of it. As you know, I have seen soooo much, and have begun to experience His amazing heart for Israel. I want to share it with all of you very much, that's why I created this blog, and have hoped to transmit just a small portion of what I have been blessed to experience.  But much more than that, it would be an honor for me to personally be with you when you see Israel for the first time.

This fall Michael will be coming to Israel to join me for the last 11 days that I am here (November 25th-December 6th). I have arranged for a private tour guide named Aubrey, who is adjunct faculty here at JUC, to take us around the land of Israel in a private vehicle (10 passenger van, including driver and tour guide). We will be coordinating the itinerary together, but believe me, this will not be an ordinary tour...where you are crowded into a bus and herded to all the popular tourists site, and often told wrong information about them. We will be seeing things that many never get to, as God leads us to visit the often more remote places where He wants to touch our hearts. We will have a full itinerary, but also take time to pause and pray and look at God's Word as we experience the Land.

The first several nights we will be staying right in the Old City, at the Gloria Hotel, where we can walk to many sites, including the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, the City of David, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Garden Tomb, and soooo much more.  We will also take day trips, e.g, down to the Dead Sea, Masada, Qumran, etc. The next several nights we will be staying at a beautiful resort on the Sea of Galilee. From there we will see many northern sites, and of course, Capernaum and the places where Jesus did most of His earthly ministry. We will return to Jerusalem for the last couple nights, possibly staying at a beautiful log cabin guest house in the Judean hills near Jerusalem.

I could tell you much more, but I just wanted to put out the invitation and ask anyone who may be interested to contact me asap at my email address cltyler1@juno.com for more information. Obviously, we only have seats for just a few people, our space is very limited because we want to keep the group small (actually only about 4-5 seats left). You would need about $1500 to purchase the plane flight very soon, and about the same amount of $ for the hotels and tour expenses, but that half won't need to be paid until just before the trip in November.

I am praying the Lord will stir the hearts of the ones who are to come and be with us. 

Many blessings to you all,
Cheryl

Baptism in the Jordan River! come see what it is like...

Yesterday I had the awesome experience of going with one of our students, Clara (who is dear to my heart) to be baptized in the Jordan River. She was baptized by another one of out students, Ikwan, who is a Korean pastor at a Korean congregation in Tel Aviv.

 This is where we turned off...it's about a 40 minute drive from Jerusalem, near Jericho, in the Jordan River Valley next to the wilderness.  This is the actual site (or close to it) where Jesus was baptized, as the scripture says he went down from Bethany to the Jordan, and Bethany is close by.  There is another more popular site for baptism up near the Sea of Galilee called Yardenit, but this one is closer and just right for Clara, who has been wanting to do this for weeks.

 Clara has to get ready...so here's the women's changing area.

They have these cool bamboo changing booths.

 Look what I get to wear!

 Here's the site...the Jordan River is not very wide here. That's the country of Jordan you see across the river with the church, as the Jordan River is the border between the two countries.

 Clara with her 2 roommates, Chelsea and Liz.

 Ikwan goes in the water to check it out, but went in a little too deep!!

Definitely a great and memorable day in her life:)

 Ok, here goes....(watch the video)

 Baptized, Blessed, Beaming...

 A little Korean boy about to be dedicated to the Lord and baptized.

Dad proudly holds his son as Ikwan blesses him with the water of the Jordan River.