Last 2 days...
Shalom from Jerusalem!
We have been very busy the last 2 days. First of all, early yesterday we went to the Davidson Center on the southern side of the Temple Mount. It is in this exhibit that you can see the actual steps from the 2nd Temple period that Jesus would have walked on! The Davidson Center also allows you to see multi media presentations of what Jerusalem and the temple mount would have looked like during the time of the 2nd temple (Jesus' time).
Next we went to our favorite shop, Shorashim in the Old City. Moshe Kempinski gave a fantastic talk on what it means to come to Israel and what God is doing in the world. After we dropped a wad of cash in his store we grabbed a quick falafel and headed to Yad Veshem.
Yad Veshem is the memorial in Israel to the Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. It is very extensive so that those who go through it and see what happened will never forget what happened in Europe 65 years ago. It is impossible to see and take in everything that is there in one visit, even multiple visits are not enough to grasp the information that is there. After going through you feel almost physically heavy because of how tragic it was. Tragic is not enough of a word to describe it. The word used for the Holocaust in Hebrew is "Shoah" and means tragedy in the greatest magnitude which it was. One of the greatest lessons we can learn from seeing Yad Veshem is that peoples actions, or lack thereof, have very serious consequences. In side the buildings of Yad Veshem can be seen the results of the actions taken by the Nazi's against the Jews. On the outside there is a walk way that is laid out around the building and there are trees planted all around it. It is called the Avenue of the Righteous and each tree has a name next to it and represents a righteous gentile who saved Jews from extermination during World War 2. Unfortunately there were far more people who hated the Jews than those who would stand up for them, and 6 million Jews were murdered. In our modern time anti semitism is again rearing its head, and we as Christians MUST take a stand against those who would try to eliminate Israel and the Jewish people from the face of the earth lest we be remembered in history as those who stood by indifferently as another Shoah took place. May our ACTIONS speak of the convictions that we hold in our hearts, and may we never forget what can happen when people don't speak up for what is right, and against what is wrong.
Because of Shabbat there was not much else we were able to see yesterday afternoon so we went back to our hotel to rest and pack. Our next stop was a place we all love and look forward to every year! Amnon's house! Amnon's wife makes amazing Kurdish style food because they immigrated to Israel from the Iraqi Jewish community in the last 100 years. The saying "Good ol Home Cookin" absolutely applies in Israel also! We ate so much food! It was incredible!
We had another busy day today starting with the Mt. of Olives. Seeing the incredible view of Jerusalem from the Mt of Olives is always breathtaking, no matter how many times you have been to Israel. We had the new people ride a camel and then we headed to a small church near the middle of the mountain called dominus flavit. This is the traditional site of where Jesus prayed and wept over Jerusalem. We spent some time in prayer over the city and then headed to the Garden of Gethsemane which was over run it seemed with other tour groups. But praise the Lord that Israel's tourism industry is flourishing. We were able to see Olive trees in the garden that have root systems that are 2000 years old! Living relics of time gone by!
Next we went to Bethlehem which is an interesting experience these days. We have to go the the security fence and change guides and bus drivers as Israelis are not allowed into Bethlehem by the Palestinian Authority so Amnon and Shimon cannot go with us. We were able to visit the church of the Nativity and see what could be the place where Jesus was born but for sure the actual place would look very similar to the cave that we saw today.
Following our exit out of Bethlehem and back into Jerusalem we ate lunch at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel and now we are at the hotel getting our suitcases packed and ready to head out. We are going to stop at the Garden Tomb and the Western Wall and then on to dinner in a city called Abu Gosh and then to the airport.
This is the end of the 2010 blog and has been a most amazing trip for all of us. Thanks again for all of your prayers and support and we can't wait to share our stories with all of you in person. Be sure to come to church Wednesday evening as we will have an opportunity to share with all of you about our trip. Thanks again and to all of our friends and families....WE ARE COMIN HOME!
Justin Friedman and Rod Ginn
2010 Tour Bloggers
Pictures from Hebron and text from today!
"I was glad when they said to me, 'come, let us go to the house of the Lord!'"
This morning was our first morning in Jerusalem. We had an early show so we had to leave our hotel around 9 to get to our base on time. Sorry no details about this base...however the performance was just amazing and G-d moved in a very powerful way, and in many different people, some of them unexpected. Day time performances for the Internationals have a little bit of a different feel than our usual night time shows. The soldiers are not usually as enthusiastic, on the other hand every base and every soldier is different. The soldiers today were not as energetic throughout the whole program as some of our other performances have been on this tour but at the end of the show and after talking with them for a long time it was incredible to see how God touched them. We were also honored to have at our show today the mother of three sons. Two of her sons have been killed in battle, and the third is going into the army very shortly and will be serving in the same unit as his older brothers. After the first son was killed in battle, the father of this family suffered a heart attack and died due to grief. One of our shows in the north was for the unit that the middle son served in. One of our shows in the south was at the base he was operating out of when he was killed, so during this tour we were able to perform for many of the soldiers and people connected to this story. Shimon knew the mother and arranged for her to come to our show, it was remarkable! She was very thankful and spoke a few words at the end of our show hopefully if we can pull it off the video we can get the text of what she said on to one of our last posts. When we danced with the soldiers at the end of our show to "Machiac", she joyfully joined us and danced for the duration of the song! What an incredible woman!
There were other ways that G-d moved today through our show. This was our last performance here, and for the last couple of shows our wonderful sound guys, Yoav, Shai, and Samuel had been making comments like they were kind of sad that it was going to be over. Today when the show was over they shared their hearts with us and with the soldiers who were watching and it was really incredible. They explained how they had loved this 2 weeks, and enjoyed being around us so much, how they realized again how important it was to be an Israeli in their own land and that the Lord was with them. One of them told us how he was bitter at the country for what he had to go through in his military experience, how it was frustrating to live here because of political corruption and world pressure, but after spending the 2 weeks doing shows with us he was having a change of heart and looking at being an Israeli in a different perspective. Many times during this tour before going on the stage for a certain song or dance you could see Samuel, eyes glued to who ever was on stage with a peaceful smile on his face enjoying every second of it. They made several comments like "This is the best show that we have ever worked for, we don't need Elvis Costello or the Pixie's, you guys are the best, and we got to see your whole tour for free and loved all it..." Its very humbling to hear people say that, and we can only stand in awe of what G-d does with clean and willing vessels, after hearing them speak their hearts today, all of us left the base feeling extremely honored to be called to this ministry and that we could be given this opportunity here, in Israel!
After leaving the base we went to Beit El, which in Hebrew translates to the House of God. Beit El is where Abraham stopped after being in Be're Sheva, and probably more commonly known as the place where Jacob had the dream of the angels climbing and descending the stair case up and down from heaven and where he wrestled with the angel and made him bless him before leaving. We learned after Jacob was blessed concerning his descendants and the land, he took the rock that he had been using as a pillow and stood it up right and poured oil on it as an offering to the Lord and as a reminder of G-d's promise to Abraham concerning the covenant. In an act of faith we all built our own alters to the Lord concerning the promises of G-d in our own lives, and we believed that He put them in our hearts, and that those promises will come to pass!
Our final stop of the day after a long time in traffic was a place called Nebe Samuel. It is the highest point in the region and has spectacular views of the northwest side and the eastern hilltops of Jerusalem. This is also the place where the prophet Samuel is buried. Recent excavation of the area indicates a substantial settlement from the first temple period.
As I'm writing this my friends are shopping it up on Ben Yehuda st because our show was this morning...this tour has been incredible, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and our good friends here in Israel the song selection of our show this year was right on, the show itself really built to the end and everyone who saw it seemed to really love it and enjoy it. G-d really gave Cheryl great words of encouragement and hope when she spoke and people were deeply moved. I hope that we have conveyed that in this blog. Be sure to talk with people who were here on this trip and listen to the stories they have and that they experienced in person.
We are working on getting more pictures up as fast as we can, it has been a bit of a challenge the last few days mostly because of technical difficulties.
Blessings from the city of the Great King, Jerusalem!
