Great Quotes for the New Year

"'Not called!' did you say?
'Not heard the call,' I think you should say.
Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.
— William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

"The concern for world evangelization is not something tacked on to a man's personal Christianity, which he may take or leave as he chooses. It is rooted in the character of the God who has come to us in Christ Jesus. Thus, it can never be the province of a few enthusiasts, a sideline or a specialty of those who happen to have a bent that way. It is the distinctive mark of being a Christian."
— James S. Stewart

"If you found a cure for cancer, wouldn't it be inconceivable to hide it from the rest of mankind? How much more inconceivable to keep silent the cure from the eternal wages of death."
— Dave Davidson

"Let us see that we keep God before our eyes; that we walk in His ways and seek to please and glorify Him in everything, great and small. Depend upon it, God's work, done in God's way, will never lack God's supplies."
-Hudson Taylor

The Dead Sea!

After visiting Jerusalem and the Old city we made our way to the Dead Sea. Something interesting about our drive was that after we left the main city, which had trees and was lush, we went through a tunnel....on the other side of the tunnel we were in the desert just like that! I mean real desert too....not the half desert we see in Moreno Valley. Might I also add that it was intensely hot! So Cal can get really hot....but this heat was just an oppressive heat. The heat/humidity in EA we experienced was on par with this heat.

       What is cool about the Dead Sea is that directly in the middle of the Dead Sea is where Israel borders Jordan. We got to see Jordan! That was pretty cool.

Below is a map of the Dead Sea. We left Jerusalem, drove near Jericho (which was totally neat!)....stopped at Qumran (I took pictures of the areas the Dead Sea Scrolls might have been found!) went to the restroom at the shops and Chad got some great aftershave from the Dead Sea. After the stop we continued on and I noticed what appeared to be a mirage but it was not! It was En Gedi full of palm trees....and Oasis in the desert which was also neat to see since it is mentioned in the scriptures! Finally we made our way to Masada. We took a trolley up there (it was a pretty steep ride...felt like sheep in a cattle car on the way up). We got a tour of Masada, which was very interesting. You can still see the Roman siege ramps they are still there!
        The Dead Sea is the lowest point in the world....unless you are underground :). It was cool to go to the Dead Sea. When we got in any part of your body that has even the smallest cut starts burning. That was awesome. I didn't even get to knee level when i was floating in the water. It is intensely salty and my body felt as if I had put hair conditioner all over it...it was pretty disgusting feeling. Visiting the Dead Sea is something I will never forget!

Our route...Jerusalem...by Jericho, stop at Qumran, drive through En Gedi and visit Masada. The green area is Jordan.

Masada view from the air so you can clearly see the Roman siege ramps!

The desert!

YAY!

Sonia on a Camel

En Gedi

Qumran....check out the cave I snapped a picture of!

Masada from afar

Chad in the Cable car ride up to Masada

The beautiful view from the cable car...note the Dead Sea in the background

Israel!

This just looks like a desert picture

some ruins

Im melting!!

The dead sea....the white you sea is SALT not waves....there are no waves here!

Look at all that salt! No waves at all!!

Yeah i have not  gotten in the water yet...but im drenched in sweat...it was SO hot

Chad floating....Jordan in the background

Im floating!

City on the way back to Jerusalem.....notice the minarets (2)

Next stop is Cyprus!!!

~N

Jerusalem, Israel

After visiting Bethlehem, which was amazing and you can read all about it here we went to the Old City to visit the church they claim Jesus was crucified at. We also visited the Western Wall. You can also read a story I found (relating to the Church of the Nativity) a bit funny here which is about the various clergymen fighting with broomsticks over which areas were theirs to clean at the Church of the Nativity. In this portion of my blog we visit the Old City, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Western Wall. Our tour guide was very brisk so we did not have much time to look at things which was very unfortunate. It does give us a great excuse to return someday though!
       In order to get to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Western Wall we had to walk into the city. We entered through the Jaffa gate and exited through the Dung gate.  This was exciting to me because I have read about these specific gates in the scriptures! The dung gate's name always made me chuckle. We walked through the Muslim quarter and Christian quarter. We walked around parts of the Via Dolorosa and also saw a man dressed as Jesus walking behind us!
       The Church of the Holy Sepulcher has several faiths sharing the same church: Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Anglican and Protestant Christians although the latter two do not have any permanent areas in the church. The church was very interesting to visit. It reminded me alot of the Vatican in that people were worshiping things and statues instead of the one true God. They were kissing and laying on the stone that Jesus was said to have been laid on after the crucifixion. I liked visiting the church and just realizing what Jesus did for me so that I could be saved from death in hell. It gave me a great sense of gratefulness. I know this is probably not the spot where he was crucified because the scriptures say it was outside the city and this was inside, but it was still neat to see even though it made me a bit sad. 
     Lastly we saw the Western Wall. I was looking forward to this most out of everything we saw on our trip. For years (and this is a super geeky admission) I have watched a web cam pointed at the Western Wall and seen people go and pray at the wall. We had to go through security to enter the Wall area and after we went through an orthodox Jewish man started yelling at the security guard for some unknown reason. We kept walking (not wanting to see anything scary!!) and after coming out of the tunnel we saw the Wall. It was amazing. Its huge! The wall has one area for men and a smaller area for women divided by a metal wall to separate them.It was neat to see these people earnestly praying for their messiah to return. It was sad too. They were very emotional. I was struck when I saw some young soldiers with large guns strapped to their sides walk up to the wall to pray. Sonia had a prayer she wanted to put in the wall so we found a spot (every spot was crammed with prayers) she stuck hers in and caused about 10 others to fall to the ground in the process :). I loved visiting the wall and wished I had more time just to sit, observe the people and pray. I loved Jerusalem and hope this was not my last visit there.  

This was where we exited and entered through the Jaffa gate

The entrance to the Old City

A street vendor....i totally wanted one of these!

We are in tour #4 can ya tell? :)

Entrance

The inside....our first view

Vendors inside the city

entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

This was the orthodox spot where they claim Jesus was buried, each faith has a "different" spot claimed.

Here is what it looks like from the top (the orthodox site where Jesus was buried).Called the Dome of the Rotunda

The other side....where the Catholic (I think) say he was buried

The stone Jesus was laid on in the tomb....again I saw many kissing this which was very sad

Via Dolorosa or "The way of the cross"

Shops on the Via Dolorosa

This made me laugh out loud....its a man dressed as Jesus!

Sonia and Jesus and Sandie just above his shoulder!  HA!

Some Muslim dresses for women

Security entrance to the Western Wall

Sandie, Sonia and I at the Western wall

Sonia putting a prayer in the wall

Sonia and Sandie looking over to the guys side of the wall

The dome right above the wall

Some orthodox Jewish men going to pray

Were here!

Soldiers....they were everywhere!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop....the DEAD SEA!!!


~N