Trip to the seaport of Acco for my Islamic Studies class

 We took a 2 hour bus ride up to Acco, an ancient city on the Mediterranean Sea, as part of my Islamic Thought and Practice class. We stopped here at the Bahai gardens, which was truly an exquisite garden. This one is the most holy place in the world for Bahia, where the founder of their religion is buried. Bahia is an offshoot of Islam, and has about 15 million followers worldwide.

Tbe Bahia gardeners put a lot of work into their gardens, everthing is just perfect.

 Have you ever seen inside a Mosque??  Well, I never had either...so let me show you inside.

This is the mosque from a distance.

The entrance...this a 'Friday Mosque', meaning large mosque where many muslims gather to pray at noon on Fridays. All muslims are required to attend prayer service on Fridays.

The inside...notice the carpet, printed with pillars, and each person kneels in one spot, keeping the people lined up and facing the Kibla..which is the wall that faces Mecca.  The door with the stairs going up that you see on the right is the Minbar, the place where the Imam goes to preach the Friday sermon.

Here we have all the exact times they are to pray facing Mecca of the 9th of April...five times a day, to the exact second, today starting at 4:52 am. The prayer times are announced from the minaret.  The sixth time that is on the clock is for those that are fasting (if they missed fasting on Ramadan, they have to make up the days) and it tells them what time they can break the fast...in this case at 8:29 pm)

The blue arabic writings on the border tiles are from the Quran, their holy book. The 2 green round circles, one says Muhammad (the prophet) and the other says Allah (the name of their god).

I am sorry this picture is sideways...but at this mosque they are very proud to posses one of the hairs of Muhammad...they would not show us the actual hair, but this is a pic of the container with the one hair in it. People come to look at it, touch the container, and receive a blessing.  Double click the pic to make it larger so you can see the hair....sadly far out.

We walked through a market in the Old City of Acco...and you can see what we were smelling...LOTS of fish...this is a seaport, so naturally there's lots of 'em.

To add to the smells...lots of spices!

Hanging around, waiting for our professors to buy us tickets to get into some other sites.

Here we are at the remains of a Turkish bath house.  Seems like the ancient patrons got petrified in the hot sauna room.  These bath houses were very popular places of social gatherings, political discussions, etc.

Walking along the old city streets, here's a home with a picture of the 'Ka'aba' (the black structure) in Mecca, the most holy place for Islam. One of the 5 pillars (things you are obligated to do) of Islam, is that you must travel and make pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia  (called Hajj) once in your life.  The occupant of this home has made Hajj and proudly displays this sign above the entrance.

And then there's the sea...a few JUC students stand on the end of the wall facing the water.  It seems wherever we go, if there's something you can climb, they just do it!!

Enlarge this picture to read this sign...I'll have you know I did NOT climb on the wall..THEY did!!

The stone wall in the water that you see is the remains of a Crusader fortress that had been destroyed.

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.