Yarushalem

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hello all,
today was a fun day of tramping all over Jerusalem. Ryan, Liz, and I went through the city and saw some recent archaelogical proof of first temple era. After that we went to the pools of Bethesda and saw the Damascus gate. Ryan left us to go to school and we tried to do the ViaDoloroza, which is the walk of Christ carrying his cross. They actually have groups that carry crosses and sing songs as they walk. It was interesting because the mosque started their prayers right before one of the cross walks started. Both groups were singing and it sounded like a competetion. Anyways, there are 14 stations of his walk that the churches celebrate. We saw the final five at the Church of the Holy Sepluchre earlier this week. Unfortunately we got to station 7 and were unable to find 8. We decided to try to just go to the Dome of the Rock because we spent half and hour trying to find 8 and 9. Pretty sure we covered the entire Muslim quarter. Ryan just talked to us tonight saying that its very hard to find station 8. Anyways, unfortunately the Dome of the Rock was closed because of a Muslim holiday. We are going to try to see it Monday before we leave. This afternoon I watched the boys while Liz and Sara went shopping. We had fun making hot chocolate and watching The Incredibles, and Liz said that Sara must be the fastest walker in the world. Tonight, Liz and I went out and looked at the Old City from some rocks above the Jaffa Gate and enjoyed a waffle with chocolate syrup and ice cream. Jerusalem is a very interesting city because many of the spots they consider "holy" are largely based on assumptions. For example, in the Armenian quarter today, we saw the tomb of David and the Dormitian Abby, where Mary died. Both are huge assumptions that they are pretty sure are not true, but its interesting to see how much emphasis religions put on the ideas of places even if they are not accurate. One of my favorites today was the Pools of Bethesda. I actually laughed a little picturing people all sitting around these pools then racing to get into them if someone saw the water moving. I wonder if people would mess with them and toss in small pebbles or rocks. Maybe people went crazy from staring so much at the pools and would jump in because their mind would play tricks on them and as a result, everyone else would try to jump in. Anyways, it was interesting to find out that the pools were originally a pagan idea. For me, it changes the story of Jesus at the pools dramatically because he heals a Jewish man by the pools that were a pagan practice that the Jews were participating in. Also, it was finally nice to see a site that was preserved without a church, cathedral, or shrine directly on top of it. That whole idea of the pools of Bethesda reminds me of our trip to Uganda where their medicine was prayer. Sometimes we rush too often to the advil, tylenol, drug store, or doctor and forget to just pray and ask for God's help in that time. Faith of a mustard seed can move mountains. We saw that Herod moved a mountain when he built the Herodian, so where's our faith? We have one more day in Israel to hit some final sites before we head off on our wild adventure to Egypt. We have taken lots of pictures so we will have plenty to show you all when we get back. We love you all.

.....nick

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