Pilgrimage Day Eight

Pilgrimage Day Eight, Friday, February 6, 2009 Resurrection, Emmaus, Recreation and Shopping

Resurrection
I do not know if I was just excited of still suffering from jet lag, but I awoke at 4AM this morning. A group of us were going back to the church of the Holy Sepulcher to see if we could have a different experience than we did yesterday. Well we did. The church was anything but quiet. But, the noise was the noise of 4-5 different masses going on at the same time. (the picture on the left is the slab where Jesus laid inthe tomb)




We went first to the Chapel of Saint Helena, the wife of Emperor Constantine. No one was down there so we got to spend some time there. Then we went to the room below the chapel; which is at the foot of Mount Calvary. There we got to touch the rock and pray in silence. Bishop Michael blessed some of the crosses that the group had purchased. I had my small olive wood cross that was given to us at the start of the stations yesterday blessed. I wasn’t expecting this so I left some items that I had purchased back at the hotel. So I vowed to bring them back to bless them myself later in the day.

We then went up to the sepulcher where a priest was saying mass inside on the altar above the slab where Jesus was laid. We prayed the mass with the people that were there and received communion. Now think about this – we were inside the tomb where Jesus was laid after his crucifixion and we received his body in the sacrament of the Eucharist. I will never be the same again, nor will the hymn “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord” ever mean the same for me again. I now know what it means when “sometimes it makes me tremble, tremble, tremble…” That is because I was trembling when I left the tomb and for sometime after that.

Emmaus
There are several places in the Holy Land that claim to the place where the event on the Road to Emmaus took place. (Luke 24:13-35) This place we went to is a Benedictine Monastery that is about seven miles from Jerusalem in a village called Abu Gosh. Other places are further or in a different direction – one is in the West Bank. We celebrated the Eucharist in the chapel in the monastery. I had the privilege of reading the Gospel.

Shopping and Recreation
The rest of the day was free time. A few of us ate lunch at a small restaurant right inside the New Gate. Let me tell you, they had the best falafel I have ever had. It was moist and flavorful like nothing I have ever tasted.
Then we went shopping. I purchased a stole at the Melia Woman’s Co-operative. This place employs Palestinian women in the West Bank and Ramalla and the quality is outstanding. Actually, I purchased two stoles. One to take home and they will ship one to me.
Kelli Grace, Diane and I then went to the Armenian Quarter to pay for the Stations of the Cross that I purchased for Saint John’s at Vic’s Ceramic Arts. They will be shipped to us in time for Holy Week.





We then went back to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where I blessed the items that I had purchased before and I used my new stole in the ceremony. Along the way we picked up a few other items. I purchased some incense (5 shekels) and chalice and paten (54 shekels).

Where I really got into trouble is in Elia’s Photography shop. Elia’s son had taken his father’s beautiful photographs and reproduced them. They are exquisite. We all purchased a photograph of a flock of sheep on the Mount of Olives with the Dome of the Rock in the background. I purchased one of a women standing next to a water fountain in the Armenian Quarter. You would not believe the eyes of this person. All of the prints we purchased are printed on Kodak metal paper to give an antique metallic patina to the print. (200 shekels) Yes, I have no more shekels. Ok, I have 3. Really these prints took my breath away!

I have finished packing and am about to upload the blogs and have a glass of wine with my friends before dinner. We are getting up at 2:15 in the morning to go to Tel Aviv for a 7:00AM flight. It will take us 23 hours to get back to LA.

This has been an awesome and life changing experience. Thank you God…

Pilgrimage Day Seven

Pilgrimage Day Seven – February 5, 2009 Healing – Death – Settlements

Pools of Bethseda
We begun the day at the at the site of the Pools of Bethseda. There is a very deep hole in the ground where there is a medieval basilica that has been excavated. Nest to it is a more modern church that has the most incredible acoustics in the world. When we arrived out Nigerian friends were there. We went into the church as they were about to leave when one of the women started to sing Amazing Grace. We, of course, joined in.
Then we proceed to pray and sing our own song, Guide me o thou great Redeemer. Maybe we should have been a choir.

Stations of the Cross
We begun our walk of the Via Dolorosa with a mass in the chapel at the Ecce Homo Convent near the Lion’s Gate. This is near Antonio’s Fortress where Pilate is said to have pronounced sentence on Jesus. Ecce homo means this man in Latin. Pilate said, “This man has committed no crime crucify him yourselves.” Fr. Dom preached and he expertly wove the song of homeless man chanting about the love of God and how it had never failed with the Gospel (John 3:11-16) and George Herbert’s poem, The Agony into a beautiful and inspiring homily.
We then proceeded to walk the Vas Dolorosa. We ended up at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The church was pretty crowded – especially because there was construction around the place where it is believed Jesus’ cross was placed in the rock of Calvary. We all got to venerate this place and then we sat and prayed about what we came to leave at the foot of the cross. Fr. Dom prayed with me for my intention. We then prayed the 13th and 14th stations near the spot where Jesus was laid when he was taken down from the cross.
Before we left we had a group picture taken on the steps of the church.

Lunch was at a local restaurant. We dined on Falafel and Mediterranean chicken (shwerma (sp?)).

In the afternoon we listened to a lecture by Jimmy Johnson of Israeli Citizens Against Housing Demolition (ICHAD). He talked about the structural discrimination against Palestinians and particularly housing demolitions. We visited the Town of Selwan in the Palestinian section of East Jerusalem and a Israeli economic settlement. The contrast between the two was striking. There were many facts and figures given out much too many to repeat in this space. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.










In the evening we heard a presentation from a woman who works for Rev. Niam Atiq’s organization, The Sabeel Institute. The institute works for peace and justice for Palestinians with the overall goal to achieve a lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis. The US website is www.fosna.org. The Jerusalem website is www.sabeel.org.

Pilgrimage Day Six – February 5, 2009 – Wednesday

Pilgrimage Day Six – February 5, 2009 – Wednesday

Temple – Upper Room(?) – Dormition Abbey – Notre Dame & Kids - St. George’s & Hatred – Museum

Temple, Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall
We started the day by driving a short distance from the hotel near the New Gate to the entrance to the Temple Mount. There are two Mosques on the site of the Second Temple, Al Asaq and the Dome of the Rock.

Al Asaq is a mosque commemorating the furthest Mohammed road his horse from Mecca. He road to Jerusalem to be at the place it is believed Abraham went to sacrifice his son to Allah. Muslims believe that Abraham went to there to sacrifice Ishmael not Isaac as we read in the Hebrew Scripture.

The Dome of the Rock was built on top of the site of the Second Temple to commemorate the place of Abraham’s sacrifice. It is the second holiest place in all of Islam. Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter either mosque because of the incident in 2000 when Ariel Sharron went with a company of IDF soldiers to the Temple Mount to make a point. This act stopped all peace talks and further divided the two religions.


To get to the Dome of the Rock it is necessary to go through metal detectors. We went through a second set of detectors making our way to the Western Wall of the Temple. This is probably the holiest place for all of Judaism. It is what is left of the Second Temple. A lot of Jews believe that this place is where the Holy of Holies stood.

You can see many Jews in prayer shawls, some with Phylacteries, praying at the wall. Most of them are Hassidim in their black suits and curls hanging down the sides of their face. All are praying swaying back and forth according to custom praying with all their heart, mind and body. The site is divided into two sections, one for men and one for women.



It is customary to write a prayer on a piece of paper and place it into the wall. The wall is literally stuffed with many small sheets of paper and other stuff. I say what looked like a padded manila bag in the crack where I stuffed my prayers. I prayed in the name of the three names of God – all the same God – represented in the Holy City – God, YHWH, and Allah – that there would be a fair and just peace in the Middle East and a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Mount Zion
We then went up to Mount Zion for two reasons. One the place reserved for the remembrance of the Upper Room where the Last Supper was held is there and the Dormition Abbey is there. The Dormition Abbey is a beautiful church dedicated to Mary who was at the foot of the cross when Jesus died.









Saint Peter in Gallicantu (Saint Peter and the Crowing Cock)
This site is located at the place where the palace of the High Priest Caiaphas was located. This is where they took Jesus after he was arrested and held him possibly in a cistern like cell. There is such a place on the site where we went and read Psalm 88.


This is the place where Saint Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed three times (Mark 14:53-4; 66-72). There is a beautiful chapel on the property where we celebrated the Eucharist.


Above the chapel is a beautiful church dedicated to Saint Peter denial and the gift of forgiveness that he was given by Jesus for his denial.






Notre Dame Center
The Notre Dame Center is a Vatican property in Jerusalem staffed by the Legionnaires of Christ a relatively new order of priest in the Roman Church. It is a magnificent property. While we were there they were conducting a Pontifical Institute course on clergy spiritual renewal. There were several tour groups from various countries including Germany and Portugal and ours form the US, Great Britain and Ireland. Lunch was served buffet style and they gave us complementary wine. Many said that this was the best meal yet. Maybe it was the delicious deserts.
After lunch we attended a presentation by the wife, Katiya, of the owner of Shepherd Tours, Habib. She told us of her work with Sister Davida at a school in Gaza. Fr. John presented her with some of the money the group collected to support her mission work.

The Anglican Cathedral of Saint George’s – Diocese of Jerusalem
We drove to Saint George’s Cathedral and met with the staff there. They told us of the work the Diocese of Jerusalem was doing in this country and the other countries they serve. (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine) They have 23 outreach organizations that they run and they are affiliated with several more.
They are preaching a gospel of tolerance midst a flood of fundamentalism. This is one reason they have a waiting list of Muslim students that are waiting to attend Saint George’s School for Boys. There are about 500 students in the school and only 60 are Christian. That stands to reason because Christians comprise only about 1.5% of the population.
While we were there Bishop Suheil Dawani, the Diocesan Bishop, returned from a trip to the Gaza where he and the Lutheran Bishop were refused entry into the country because they were the only two with Palestinian passports. They were with a group of religious leaders going the Gaza to present a unified front of support for the people of Gaza and visit their ministries there.
While we were there Fr. John presented the bishop with a donation from the money donated by our parishes and us.





Israeli Museum
At the Israeli Museum we saw a scale model of the City of Jerusalem at the time of the Second Temple. It is very intricate and large. The person who built it did it in honor of his son who was killed in the service of the state of Israel.
We also went to the Shrine of the Book, the Israeli center for the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Quite frankly, aside from seeing the originals of the Isaiah and Temple Scrolls, the exhibition I saw in San Diego was much more complete and informative.

Dinner
This evening several of us elected to forego dinner at the hotel and sup in the Armenian Quarter at the Armenian Tavern. The food was excellent and the Armenian Brandy was the best.
On the way dinner we stopped at a ceramic shop owned by, Vic Lepejian, a renowned ceramic artist. I purchased a set of Stations of the Cross for Saint John’s that are similar to the ones at Saint George’s.
After Dinner several of us walked through the Armenian and Muslim Quarters to the Western Wall. We stopped on a path built on top of the suk (marketplace) to take in an incredible view of the city at night. A long arm could have reached out and touched the Dome of the Rock. A thing that we witnessed was the Israeli police frisking a Palestinian teenager. The Israeli police persons were not from Israel – probably Jews from Ethiopia – and the Palestinian was from his homeland. The security at the Wall was tight – an Ethiopian guard had her 1911A1 45Cal pistol at the ready.

Tomorrow we walk the Via Dolorosa. My soul in silence waits…

Day Five - Tuesday Feb 3, 2009 Monica's Birthday

Pilgrimage Day Five

Arriving, Mary and Martha, Padre Nuestro, Crying, Giving it up, Magnificat

Getting Started
This morning we left Bethlehem, sadly, and we drove to Jerusalem. On the way we saw the evidence of the Israeli Government’s attempt to create an apartide in Israel. The Palestinian sections were very poor because there is high unemployment. In addition, the Israeli Government has set up a wall of separation between the Palestinian cities like Bethlehem, Bethany and Bethpage. This wall makes it very hard for people who live on the other side to get to Jerusalem for work. In many cases it has literally split families in two. Where it may have used to take five minutes to walk to a relative’s house, it now takes 30 minutes to drive and then there are checkpoints. Bethany and Bethpage are right next to each other, but because of the wall, it takes 30 minutes to drive from one to another.

Israel says that it is doing all of this in defense. Some of that may be true. However, it appears that the plan that places settlements in the places where they are and the continual expansion of those settlements is a well thought out plan to split the country into three parts and make it impossible for the Palestinians to live prosperously and create a viable two state solution.










Bethpage
Bethpage is the place where the Bible tells us that Jesus asked his disciples to find him a colt to ride into Jerusalem on. (Mark 11:1-10). We spent some time in the church in Bethpage praying and singing.



The Mount of Olives








We then drove through a couple of check points to the Mount of Olives were stopped at the Church that commemorates the Our Father – The Pater Noster Church. There are two places that claim this honor. One is the Sermon on the Mount in Galilee and the other here on the Mount of Olives as told in Luke 11:1-4. When we prayed and sang in this church I said the Padre Nuestro in honor of my Spanish-speaking congregation. On the walls of the church and on the garden walls one will find the Our Father written in most every conceivable language including Cherokee and Nahuatl.

There are a lot of people hawking trinkets on the road to the bottom of the mount on the way to Gethsemane so we had to be careful not to accept anything from a vendor because it you did it was yours. The only thing left to negotiate was the price. I gave them a stern no thank you and kept my hands in my pockets. Most of the stuff here is of poorer quality than you can find elsewhere – except maybe the postcards.

On the way down the mountain we stopped at the Church of Dominus Flavit where it is said that Jesus wept for Jerusalem in Luke 18:41-44. A famous Italian architect has redesigned the church that is there. The striking part is that the altar faces west toward Jerusalem. The friars that have custody of the church did not want this to be so until the architect pointed out that the window behind the altar would face on Jerusalem looking both at the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. He said that is not east but it is Easter! The friars consented. The cross behind the altar splits the distance between the two landmarks.

The view from Dominus Flavit is spectacular. One can si the city there are a lot of graves on this side of the wall. The only gate of the city that is locked is the Heaven Gate or Jesus Gate because it is where the three religions of the book agree that the Messiah is going to come back and break the gate open and restore Jerusalem. The dead people want to be there when it happens. There is also a view of the golden top of a Russian Orthodox Church, The Church of Mary Magdalene.



At the bottom of the hill is the Church of All Nations; which is next to the Garden of Gethsemane. We were given 15 minutes to meditate in the garden before going in to pray around the rock where it is believed Jesus prayed the night before he died. Some of the trees in the garden have been verified to be over 2000 years old. Things are getting serious here.



Gethsemane is a special place for me, at least the virtual Gethsemane is. It is where I completely give myself to God following the example of Jesus when he said, “Not my will but yours be done.”

The domes of the church are dedicated to the nations that contributed to the construction of the church. The US dome is on the right as one enters the church. In the church there was a priest saying a mass in Spanish. This was powerful for me as this is what I do every week and it was very meaningful for me to join in the service.

When the mass was finally over ( the priest got started a half-hour late and his sermon was long winded) we gathered around the altar which is built over the rock and we read the scripture (Mark 14:32-42), prayed and sang. Afterwards we had the opportunity to touch the rock and pray beside it. Then it was off to lunch.

Lunch today was different, mostly because we ate in a real Muslim restaurant. Not one where tourist eat, but one where the locals eat. The food was the best yet. We dined on the usual salads, but they tasted better and there was a greater verity. The main course was a superbly barbecued chicken. Yum! Yum!

Bethany
In Luke 10:38-42, we read that Jesus visited the house of Martha and her sister Mary and their brother Lazareth, whom he raised from the dead. In Bethany they have some evidence that the place on where the church now stands is where Martha and Mary lived. There is also a tomb/cave nearby that is supposedly where Lazareth is buried. However there is not evidence that that is the place and it probably isn’t. We did our usual, pray– sing–pray routine. It is amazing to hear the group sing in four part harmony in all. One woman walking by asked if we were a choir. I told a member of the group that no one ever accused me of being in a choir before.



Ein Karem
From Bethany we went to Ein Karem where it is thought that Elizabeth and Zachariah lives when Mary came to visit them after she found out she was pregnant with Jesus. This would also be the birthplace of John the Baptist. There ware two churches. The one at the bottom of the hill is dedicated to John the Baptist and the one at the top of the hill to The Visitation. It was a ling steep walk up the hill to the Church of the Visitation, but it was worth it. The path overlooks a beautiful valley of almond trees and other vegetation. The almond trees were in bloom.
We said evening prayer, which the Magnifcat is a part of. The service was very moving. When Kelli Grace read Luke’s account of the visitation she almost cried. It was quite a special place.

Now we are in the Knight’s Palace hotel in the Old City. Having had a great dinner we are preparing to rise early in the morning to begin another day of adventure.

Pilgrimage Day Four

Pilgrimage Day Four
Shepherds, Service, Shopping and Incarnation

A Real WOW Day
Some days are just ordinary and some are really WOW days. This day was a WOW day. Since we ended up in the church of the Nativity one might think that it was that that gave me the chills. However, it was not the original Incarnation that was the kicker it was the Incarnation that is going on today in two very special places we visited. Read on…

The Shepherds Field
In the town of Beitshour near Bethlehem there is an archeological dig that shows there were in the time of Christ shepherds living in the area. There is a cave and a compound where they lived and used as abase of operations for their herding enterprise. Over the cave there is a church dedicated to those humble people that trembled with fear at the sight of the host of angels that sung Gloria in Exchelsis Deo announcing the birth of Our Savior.
We began in the cave where we read the story form Luke (2:8-20) of the shepherds and the angels. We sang the song “While Shepherds Watch”. Then, after s period of exploration, we gathered in a beautiful church with incredible acoustics and sang “Silent Night” in four part harmony. Wow what a beautiful sound.








Shopping
We spent some time shopping at a great store.


Holy Family Hospital – Bethlehem
I spoke of Incarnational work this is one place it is being done, Holy Family Hospital. This is a maternal hospital equal to any in the United States. Run by the Sovereign Order of Malta this63 bed maternity hospital has seen the births of over 40,000 babies since February 1990. That is over three thousand births a year. No one is turned away because of lack of funds. Their mission is to provide a state of the art maternity hospital because the poorest deserve the best.
This is not easy in an occupied land where unemployment runs 70%. Patients only pay for about 45% of hospital costs. The remaining 55% must be raised to continue the mission.
I said this was incarnational work. Think about it. Located some 800 meters from the birth of Christ, this hospital not only helps women to give birth to healthy babies it provides top notch care to the poorest of the poor, those people Christ called the least of us and said w3hat ever we do unto them we do to Him.
Fr. John presented the Director of the hospital Dr. Tabash with a donation collected from the attendees and their parishes. Dr. Tabash gave us a tour of the hospital and told us stories of the siege of Bethlehem by the Israelis and the problems with the check points and the wall.
During the siege Israeli tanks attacked hospital twice. The first time a tank pulled up and strafed the hospital with a machine gun. The second time, a tank fired a rocket at the statue of Mary atop the chapel trying un successfully to knock it down.
Once a pregnant woman was trying to cross at a checkpoint that closed at 10pm. She and her husband arrived at 10:15pm and the guards would net let her through. She was about 28 weeks pregnant. She gave birth to both babies at the checkpoint anf finally the guards let them through. The babies, however, died.
We held Eucharist in the chapel of that hospital. Celebrating the Word made Flesh according to the Gospel of John (1:1-14). Fr. Dominic gave a great sermon relating the birth of his son to a God taking the risk of allowing us to hold the baby in this place now and 2000 years ago.
Find out more about Holy Family Hospital at http://www.HolyFamilyHospital-bethlehem.org.


Diyar Consortium
Diyar Consortium is a group of outreach ministries run by Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem under Pastor Mitri Raheb whose family has lived in Bethlehem since the time of Christ. Fourteen years ago with $300 and an old desk and a few old chairs he founded the consortium to reach out and meet the needs of his neighborhood. Now the consortium is one of the largest employers in the West Bank. 40% of his clients are Christian and 60% are Muslim.
He strongly believes that Jesus Christ came and brought us salvation and that it is our job as Christians to extend the Good News of that salvation to others. He sees other religions as so busy trying to earn their salvation through following laws, etc. that they do not have time to help others.
He sees that the situation in the West Bank can only get worse. He believes that the Israeli attack on Gaza was a contrived attempt to strengthen Hamas and thereby make a two state solution impossible. He sees the establishment of Israeli settlements a thinly veiled attempt to split the West bank into three sections where the Israelis have all the resources of the land and the Palestinians live in the holes in the poorer parts of the West Bank. His hope is that he can do things today to bring the feeling that someone cares to the hurting and broken people of Palestine. One of the pictures I took at the hospital shows an Israeli settlement on the other side of Bethlehem from Jerusalem. Israelis claim that they are not building in the West Bank but in an extension of Jerusalem.
Fr. John made another donation from the money we collected to Pastor Raheb.
For more about the Consortium see: www.diyar-consortium.org and www.BrightStarsBethlehem.org.
We ate lunch at the center and shopped in the gift shop.







Church of the Nativity
We were quite fortunate at the Church of he Nativity. There was hardly any one there. We actually got to spend quite a bit of time in the grotto where Christ was born and laid in a manger.
Historians say this is the place where Christ was born because when Constantine’s queen Helen came here in 330CE she found people worshiping here claiming this to be the birthplace. She ordered a church to be built over the grotto and we can still see the original mosaics under the floor of the existing church.
It was quite special to kneel and touch the place where Christ was born!!

Pilgrimage Day Three

Pilgrimage Day Three
Jesus – Mary – Joseph and the Episcopal Church in Palestine

Getting Started
Today is Sunday and if you think we took the day off you have something else coming to you. It is nor 9:00pm and I am sitting in my room in Bethlehem. We left Tabga this morning at 8:30am and travelled for about an hour south to Nazareth where we attended mass at Christ Church in the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. The mass was bi-lingual in Arabic and English. (mostly Arabic) One might think that this would be hard for a non-Arabic speaker, however, the mass is the mass and Arabic has a certain rhythmic quality to it making the words of the rite quite rhythmic and prayerful.
After mass we attended the coffee hour and met many of the parishioners. Many of them had relatives in the states. This is a small church and I even had met one of the relatives who was a priest in the Diocese of LA at one time, Fr. Atiq.

The Church of the Annunciation
From Christ Church we drove a short distance to the Church of the Ascension a basilica dedicated to Mary for saying yes to God and becoming the mother of Jesus – the Messiah. It is a very new church erected in about the 2000. All around the church are images of Mary given to the church by several countries. The one from the United States pictures Mary the Immaculate Conception in a flowing dress ascending into heaven – all pieces of art were quite impressive.
The church sits over the historical ancient City of Nazareth and what is believed to be the home of Mary where the Annunciation took place.











Legend: The word Nazareth has two meanings. One is a gift from God. And the other is an upside down flower rooted in heaven. Both are related to the Incarnation, which is both a gift from God and a blessing on earth that is rooted in heaven.
Factoid: Israeli citizens are required to serve in the military for men 36 months immediately after high school and for women 24 months. For Palestinians living here, the service is optional. The difference is that the pay for Palestinians is about $250 per month and for Israelis, $900/mo.

Factoid: Jihad is a word that means spiritual warfare against the temptations to stray from teachings of Islam – a struggle against the evils of the world and keeping one’s faith. A Muslim explained this to our guide, Gashan, when he asked how a Muslim kept the faith in the light of the Crusades and the persecution by the Israelis. However, after the Iraqi war (or probable sometime before it) Jihad became a physical war. Although there is justification for reacting to the persecution, changing the meaning of Jihad is a way that the Islamic faith is manipulated for political reasons.

Church of the Holy Family
Just behind the Church of the Annunciation sits the Church of the Holy Family. It is a shrine honoring Saint Joseph. Being right next to each other they both sit over ruins of the ancient city. The Church of the Holy Family also sits over the ruins of a Byzantine church.
While we were at the Church of the Holy Family, the priest from the Church of Ireland, Sharon, led us in a celebration of the Feast Day of one of the three Patron Saints of Ireland, Brigid. The other patrons are Saint Patrick, a contemporary of Brigid, and Saint Columbia. Her presentation was personal and inspiring. She presented each one of us with a Saint Brigid’s Cross.

Church of the Miracle at Cana
After lunch at the St. George’s Restaurant in Nazareth, we went back to Cana to visit the Church of the Marriage Feast at Cana. Why did we go back? On tours, it is all a matter of timing. In this area, all masses are at 10am on Sunday. This goes for the Romans, Orthodox and Protes≈tants. So, we had to be at Christ Church at 10am and to make it we had to pass up Cana.
The church at Cana is built over an ancient site that is believed to be where the miracle of Cana took place. There is a large jar under the church that was used for purification that may have been the type Jesus used for his miracle.
While we were in the church, John Conrad blessed the marriage of 39 years of Barbara and Jeff Wilhelm. Their Anniversary was on January 31. He presented them with some Cana Wine. It was a moving ceremony and it was quite unexpected. When we were leaving the church, there was a group of Roman Catholics on tour that were renewing their marriage vows.

On to Jericho
Using the road on the West Bank of the Jordan River we drove south on our way to Jericho. We passed through the Jezereel Valley where we saw lush Israeli farms and not so lush Palestinian farms. The reason for this is that, even though this land is part of Palestine (behind the Green Line of demarcation after the ’67 war, the Israelis still control the land and the wealth of the area.
This is evident when we see Palestinian villages looking dilapidated and dry with water storage tanks on their roofs. Then we compare this with the settlements of the Jews in the Palestinian land that are lush and green with no worry about when and where they get their water.
The irony of the situation is that both the Palestinians and the Jews living in the West Bank are in a sort of a prison. The Israeli checkpoints and fences confine the Palestinians there. The Israeli’s are only on the land for ideological reasons. There are no stores or business nearby, so they have to travel to Jerusalem to work or shop. They compounds are heavily fenced and guarded by Israeli soldiers. Sounds like a prison to me.



We stopped at a store in Jericho that sold articles made by Palestinians on their land. The prices were reasonable. Most of us purchased several items as gifts for our loved ones at home.





Bethlehem
To get to Bethlehem we had to skirt Jerusalem using a forbidden road. A forbidden road is one on which only vehicles with Israeli tags may pass even though the roads are built on Palestinian land. Israelis do these things in the name of security. In my opinion it is a planned and well-executed way for the Zionist government to slowly encroach on the Palestinian lands ignoring the UN Mandates. For more information on this see the liberal Israeli website www.btselem.org.
Our guide, Ghassan, an the people he knows are very much praying for peace and a two state solution where Israelis and Palestinians can live side-by-side in peace. He told us of a story about taking his kids to play in a park. In the park his kids encountered some Israeli kids and they began to play together having a great time unaware of the conflict that raged around them. Gashan looked over at the mother to make sure she was not bothered with the kids playing. She was crying. Ghassan went over to her and she expressed her happiness that the kids were able to play in peace and her hope for the same thing that Ghassan is praying for,
After passing thorough at least three checkpoints and encountering the separation wall for the first time we arrived at our hotel on Manger Square right next to the Church of the Nativity. After dinner I collapsed and I woke again at 2:45am. My insomnia is letting me finish this blog entry.