Tuesday 1-12-10

On to Tuesday and another full day!

We first went to the Mount Beatitudes Church (another Catholic Church). This was where the Catholics believed the beatitudes were given to the crowds from Jesus. There are a ton of mountains surrounding the region though, and of course there are other shrines on other mountains dedicating those to be the site...

But this was very pretty- surrounded by a wonderful rose garden. The roses here are so big and smell so fragrant! The church was an octagon- it was very simple on the inside with the beatitudes around the dome surrounding the altar.

We then left and went to St. Peter's Primacy- where Jesus 'gave' the church to Peter. We had a wonderful Eucharist in this circle grove overlooking the Sea of Galilee, and then we had some time to look over the sea and reflect.

Next, we were off to Capernaum. Jesus did A LOT here according to scripture and they have the house of Peter's mother-in-law preserved. Now, they put a church on top of this house. HOWEVER, they made it so the church 'levitated' above it and did not disturb the site. They wanted to make it look like a boat (Capernaum was a tiny fishing town) but it looks more like a space ship :)

Then we were off again to eat lunch. Starving, we had the typical 9 mini plates of various 'salad' and hummus plus pita and then our main meal came! A fish!!! A whole fish!! So that was a lot of fun diving into that :0

Then, we got on a boat and ventured out in the Sea of Galilee. It was just beautiful. We were out there for probably an hour and the waves and the wind were so peaceful. It was great being on the same lake that Jesus was on!!!

And finally, we went to the Jordan River to renew our baptismal vowels. Now, we thought this would be a magical experience, and it was, but in a different way. This had to be the Disneyland of the Jordan River! They had a huge gift store (of course) and then they had 'stalls' for groups to go to. The water was freezing! And very swampy, but it was still pretty cool. And, the kinda creepy thing was that everyone was walking around in these white baptismal robes with a screen-printed Jesus getting baptized on the front. Little did they know, those suckers are SEE-THROUGH after the dip in that water. And they record these on Video and they have them playing at the end of the 'ride' just like roller coasters. hahaha. It was still neat, and although that wasn't the real site of the baptism (it is closer to Jordan and that is serving as an international border so we can't go in those waters) it was still neat.

We went back for din and had a lecture on our Spiritual Geographies and what would be the center of our maps...

Catch up time :) Monday-Wednesday, 1-11-10, this will be a long blog :)

Alright, my apologies for the lack of posts, the past couple of days have been so packed and full, by the time we came back from Galilee Wednesday night, we just wanted to collapse!

But what an amazing AMAZING last couple of days it has been!!

Early Monday morning, we loaded up the buses and headed north to Galilee! We went to Caesarea Maritima (not to be confused with Philipi or all the other Caesarea's haha). Built by Herod the Great in the early 1st century. This was a MAJOR port city, and the port city that Paul came to and was accused and said he wanted to be tried by the Romans. So, they shipped Paul off from this city to be executed. Besides that, the actual city is in good condition (for being a 1st century city...). It was also very beautiful looking at the sea from the land of the ruins.

After a quick stop, we headed up to Nazareth where we went to 2 churches of the Annunciation. As I mentioned before, there are often multiple sites of the 'place where this event happened' as the Catholics think it is one place, the Orthodox in another, and the Protestants in yet another.

So, we first went to the Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation. Around the outer walls were maybe 20 large mosaics of Mary. They were just stunning. They went sent in from countries around the world. The church itself was beautiful. It was a large an open space and then it opened up even further and then into the ground. The altar was about 20 feet down and behind the altar was the cave-house where Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be having a son.

Then, when you went upstairs, there was ANOTHER church! (The bottom is earthly Jesus/Jerusalem; the top is heavenly Jesus/Jerusalem.) There were more mosaics lining the walls.

Then, outside of that was the rest of the street from the time of Jesus.

We then went to a Greek Orthodox Church. Much much much different from the Catholic church, it was a teeny church down the road from the Catholic church. They believed that Gabriel came to Mary at this well. So, they had that toward the end of the sanctuary and the well still works to this day.

We then went to our 'hostel.' Ok, this was not a typical hostel, and frankly it was probably a hotel. This place probably cost more than all the hostels Alan and I stayed in while traveling Europe two summers ago hahahaha. It was gorgeous! Right on the Sea of Galilee, this place was newly remodeled and had a patio area overlooking the sea. Just lovely. It was called Pilgerhaus. They have a website if you're interested.

But, after a long day of traveling, it was nice to come and relax and have a great German dinner buffet :)

Wed. 1-13-10

Hi everyone! We made it back safely to Jerusalem.

Will post on the many many many things we did while in the north.

Early Monday Morning

Hi!!

We are off to Galilee today!

We will be staying Mon, Tues, and coming back Wednesday night. So, there will be no posts until Wednesday.

Hope all is well!

xxoo

PS. Yesterday afternoon we headed to Yod Vashem- the Jewish Holocaust Museum- Very powerful. We also had prayer and reflection time about the trip so far, and then we had a lecture at 8 about Palestine/Israeli conflicts from an Israeli Jew.

Sunday 1-10-10

Hi! It is only 10 am here, but I decided to do a morning blog.

We got up at 530 am and went to the Holy Sepulcher! I'll talk about this more later when we 'officially' go with the college and do the Via Dolorosa and finish there.

But, as said before, this is where the Catholics think Jesus was whipped, crucified, body prepared, and then the tomb of Jesus. Pretty neat stuff. In it, it is broken down into areas- it's huge! There is a Latin Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and the Armenians. And then the Muslims own it. Interesting, right?

So, we stayed and had some great prayer and reflection time from about 6 until 730.

We walked back, ate breakfast, did laundry, and now I just finished blogging! :)

Today is a free day. (We have free time until 6- prayer and reflection on the trip so far; 7- dinner; 8- lecture).

Then, we'll probably be offline for the next three days. We're heading to Galilee!

Love to all!

Saturday 1-09-10

Well, after last night's adventures, we were up bright an early for a trip to Bethlehem!!

We had breakfast at 7. Same old same old. I now currently eat egg and cheese in pita every breakfast hahaha.

We had a lecture at 8: was Jesus really born in Bethlehem? Interesting stuff. I mean, it begs to answer a question, here we are, worshipping and praying at all these sites- where Jesus was born, where the crucifixion happened, and so on, and it does make you wonder, did this really happen here? Or were these just the attempts of someone in the 2nd/3rd century to create a memorial to the events? Needless to say, wherever these events truly happened, we need to return to our text, the scriptures and study and prayerfully consider it. Either way, the places that we go to are powerful and sacred places, and places that people have been visiting and pilgrimaging to for thousands of years. (For instance: there is the Holy Sepulcher (the site the Catholics believed where Jesus was crucified, buried, etc and there is the Garden Tomb, the place where Protestants believed it happened...)

So, back to the schedule....we were off on our way to Bethlehem at 9. On our way, we stopped in En Kerem. This is the birthplace of John the Baptist. We went to the church of the Visitation. This is where Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visited Elizabeth, pregnant with John. We also saw John's birthplace, at a nearby church. At the C.o.V., they had the Magnificat (Mary's song to the Lord in Luke) in maybe 25 different languages on the wall. Then, at the Birthplace church, they had Zechariah's canticle in the same form. Pretty neat stuff.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Alan.Adzima/ChurchOfTheVisitation01_09EOS#

http://picasaweb.google.com/Alan.Adzima/StJohnTheBaptistChurch01_09#

http://picasaweb.google.com/Alan.Adzima/StJohnTheBaptistChurch01_09EOS#

After that, we went to Bethlehem! Yay! Turns out, Bethlehem is in the West Bank, which politically, was closed off and is being still closed off by a wall separating Jerusalem from the West Bank. Bethlehem is in Palestine. So, we had to go through a very long wait at a checkpoint to get through (on the way in and out). This is a terrible situation for these people. If your family is separated, chances are, you won't see them. Or, if the dad is Palestinian and the Mom and Children live in Jerusalem, you might only be able to visit your loved ones (and go to West Bank, not have the loved one get through to Jerusalem) on the weekends. If you work in Jerusalem, and you're from the West Bank, you have to get a permit EVERY day. We also heard that you can often only get a job/permit if you are over 30, married, and have kids. Then, once in Jerusalem with your permit, you can only stay from certain hours and must be back through the checkpoint by 10/1030. And to think, here we were in our tour bus, traipsing through, and we could just leave by the end of the day. What a sad situation politically.

Once we were in there, we went to Shepherd's Fields. This was the field (used to be) where the shepherd's saw the star and went and met Jesus then.

So, there's the problem, it's not really a field any more. Some church group got a hold of it and put a church (which was beautiful, don't get me wrong), and built up cement and concrete and everything around it, and it doesn't even feel authentic. Eh. So, we went in a cave that the shepherd's would have been living in. Pretty neat.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Alan.Adzima/ShepherdSField01_09#

http://picasaweb.google.com/Alan.Adzima/ShepherdSField01_09EOS#

(these are two different folders, one is Alan's Camera (EOS), one is my Camera)

Then we went to a Christian store where they sold hand made goods from Christian families in Bethlehem. Since they are trapped in there, and they can't do import/exports, they do not really receive money for their products like they used to. (They are olive wood stuff). So, they tell us that tourism is their only income. So, ya, we bought some stuff hahaha.

We then ate lunch in the Tent Restaurant. It was delicious. They brought out about 9 plates of different middle eastern foods and a giant thing of pita. We had falafel then. And then a baklava type desert and then some coffee. I was stuffed.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Alan.Adzima/TentLunch01_09EOS#

Then, onto the Basilica of the Nativity. This was where Christ was born. So we checked out everything and then got in this huge line to see the place of the birth.

Sadly this was disappointing. There was no reverence for the spot from the group in front of us. And the rock was this little piece with a star around it. It didn't even feel like a cave or stalls or whatever. Oh well. We've been. Trying not to be bitter. Haha. These churches, I think it's great and the churches are beautiful on site, but there's not much authenticity then. There's more liturgical garb than actual real spot...

http://picasaweb.google.com/Alan.Adzima/BasilicaOfTheNativity01_09#

http://picasaweb.google.com/Alan.Adzima/BasilicaOfTheNativity01_09EOS#

After returning to the college and eating dinner, we went to Ben Yahuda street. This is in West Jerusalem (we're in East Jerusalem) and this is where a lot of the Jewish people live, especially the Hasidic Jews. It was the end of Sabot, the sun had gone down. So, this was crazy! There were hundreds of people out in the street- mostly young- enjoying the night. We got some delicious gelato. :). But, the funny thing is, most of them were speaking English! Crazy.

After that, we returned to the College and went to bed.

What a day.

Friday 1-8-10

Sorry this took so long to write, it's been a busy and crazy past couple of days. It has been a day full of a spectrum of emotions...some that definitely surprised me.

Friday morning we had a lecture on pilgrims and what it means taking pilgrimages. We have a woman in her thirties doing a thesis on pilgrimages, so I think we're part of her research. She gave us the run down of 2,000 years of pilgrimages.

Then, we hoped on our tour bus (and how this giant vehicles get through the city amazes me...) and we went to a HUGE model of the city of Jerusalem (2nd temple period). What would have set it over the top would have been a train running around it, but alas hahahaha.

Then, on the same grounds, in a building shaped like the top of a jar that held the Dead Sea Scrolls (the Israeli Museum) are some of the real Dead Sea Scrolls. So, the whole time that we were in there, I thought we were in a sacred place with all these great old documents and then on the way out Alan broke the news that most of them were just replicas....bummer. Oh well, it was still neat to see what they look like, real or not.

We then had lunch back at the college and we had free time the rest of the afternoon.

So, we headed into the old city. We climbed a church tower (The Lutheran Church) and took pics overlooking the city. After that, we went to an Armenian Church for Vespers. That was incredible! The church was absolutely beautiful with tons of candles, icons, and lights hanging from the ceiling. All in Armenian of course, but wonderful to be a part of that sacred space.

We then left there and climbed up the Austrian Hospice for another birds eye of the city. We then walked past the Ecce Homo Arch. And into the prison of Jesus. That was closed down, but surely it is a must see hahaha. Supposedly this is where Jesus was imprisoned before the events of Good Friday.

We then walked out of Lions Gate (the gate where Stephen was stoned) and into Herod's gate. Outside of Lions Gate was a Muslim cemetery. Very interesting as they bury their dead on top of the ground and seem to just paint the words on the tombstone in black paint. In Herod's gate we walked through the back streets and saw lots of little kiddos playing. After that, we waited outside of Damascus Gate and waited for the group to meet us.

When the group met us at 545, we headed to the Wailing Wall.

We didn't think we were going to go up to the wall, since as the sun was down, it was the beginning of the Jewish Holy Day. However, we did approach this space.

The men and women had to go to different sides. The men had to cover their heads. It can be anything (Alan wore a baseball hat) but their heads must be covered. The women could never turn their backs to the wall (Alan said the men could). So, when we were done, you have to walk out backwards turning only your head until you are at a respectful distance from the wall (basically out of the portioned section.

There were an amazing amount of people- singing in circles, standing, praying with families. The men's side was definitely more rambunctious than the women's side.

I can't explain what happened at that wall, it is so hard to even put it to words. I don't know why the wall is that powerful- maybe because of the history of the Jewish people- the struggles, the pain and sorrow, and the hurt, but the immense amount of hope and trust in the future. As soon as I touched the wall I simply started weeping. Their is just this energy, this presence of God that I was not expecting...

What a wondrous day...I'm so glad to get to the wall because until then, I didn't feel like I was in Jerusalem or really have these spiritual, pilgramatic moments.