Day 7, Nov 1st - - Holocaust Survivors, The Garden Tomb, Old City at Night

Earlier than usual this morning we headed about an hour out of town, back toward the Mediterranean coast, to the town of Rishon Etzion, where we met with Miriam and Schlomo, Messianics who have an evangelistic outreach to local Jews.  Rishon Etzion is the first area to which settlers began to return, once aliyah (which means “to return”) began in the 1800s.  At the time, an American billionaire of Jewish descent (Rothschild, I believe?) tried to establish the area as  “wine country”, planting vineyards all over the region.  However, the wine did not end up tasting very good, and so, the project was abandoned.
Today, the town is beautiful, a resort town, but without all the huge skyscraper resort hotels.  The beaches (which we briefly stopped by) are unspoiled and sparsely populated.

The couple, whose last name I have decided to not give, for their protection, has been working with groups of Jewish people in the area for just a few years, building trust and relationships.  I don’t want to jeopardize that.  They took us to a center that provides services and programs for Holocaust survivors.
Now, you would think that these folks, all of whom were children during the Holocaust, would all be infirm or decrepit, right?  No!  A more joyful, fun-loving, enthusiastic bunch of 80-somethings you’d be hard-pressed to find.  They clapped to welcome us, sang with us, danced with us, hugged and kissed us....most could not speak English, but it was a terrific honor to be with them.  A humbling experience.  We gave them gifts - - bathrobes to enjoy.  They were absolutely delighted!
Below, is a picture of our Arab Christian bus driver helping one of the men try on his bathrobe.  I love this picture because, it is illustrative of how this Land can be healed, the only way, and that is through the love of Jesus Christ.

And, here are a few more, including a 20-sec vid of us singing and dancing the Hava Nagila with the folks!

From there, we stopped for a quick lunch at an Elvis-themed burger joint, run by Arabs.  I’m not kidding.  It was decent food and a whole lot of fun.  Mike (L) and Ronnie (R) are huge Elvis fans, and they loved the Israel-Elvis experience!

We also visited Shaare Zedek Medical Center, where we gave out more stuffed animals to children who were coming out of recovery from surgery as well as those in ICU, also giving handmade incubator covers to the NICU unit.
About mid-afternoon we arrived at The Garden Tomb.  I learned from the docent that it is possible to travel to Israel and “volunteer” there for a few weeks.  You get a small stipend, but not enough to live on.  The site was established by and is run by a board in England.  They provide apartments on site for the volunteers.  Some of you, my readers, might be interested!  The gospel message is presented to every group that comes through.  So, if you love sharing the gospel, visitors to The Garden Tomb are a guaranteed “congregation”!

The first stop on the tour was at Golgotha, where a justification for this being the “actual” Golgotha was presented.  (Catholics teach that it is inside The Church of the Holy Sepulchre - - actually, they teach that Jesus was buried inside that same huge church).  With the afternoon shadows and due to rock erosion, it is hard to see the two "eye sockets" of the skull.  If you could see a picture from the early 1900s, they were much more prominent. 
Next, we were taken to the center of the Garden, where various features of the garden were introduced.  It is a beautiful complex, and the picture below is of an ancient winepress there.  This garden is NOT in Gethsemane, by the way, but lies just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Third, we got in line to walk inside the tomb.  I wish I could have taken a picture in there, but it was forbidden.

Our last stop was at one of several courtyards for small groups to gather and have short worship services.  We sang a few songs, with our leader playing guitar, shared some scripture and participated in communion with matzo bread and the juice, held in tiny, wooden chalices.  So special!

After our contemplative time in the Garden, we split off into groups and went to various places.  I went with three other group members to walk around the Old City.  The first two pictures are from Azaret Israel Plaza, an area of ruins just behind the Western (Wailing) Wall.  The third is of beautiful Jerusalem from just outside the Old City Walls.  Jerusalem is extremely hilly.... And, the last one is of the Western Wall.  The men's section is on the left, and the women's is on the right.

After walking about 3 miles (or more!) we ate dinner at a Thai restaurant and called it a night.  Sore legs, full hearts, precious times!