Israel: Thursday, June 24th AM

Prior to the trip, Thursday was the day I was most looking forward to. Though the places I thought would be moving were not, those I did not consider were. God is faithful, even in a land that is so lost.

Thursday morning, we woke up and took a 45 minutes drive to Jerusalem. After parking at a nearby house, we walked into the city of Old Jerusalem from the Damascus Gate.

We walked along the Via Dolorosa to the Wailing Wall. The Via Dolorosa is said to be the path Jesus walked, carrying His cross, on the way to the crucifixion site. It was pretty amazing to walk where Jesus walked so that He could save people from their sin. As you walk, the narrow path is lined with shops and people trying to sell you items.

The Via Dolorosa is in the Muslim quarter of the Old City. It is sad to realize the people who walk Christ's path each day don't actually know Jesus as their Savior.

To get from the Via Dolorosa to the Wailing Wall, you had to go through security scanners. My husband had a teeny tiny pocket knife in his backpack which promptly got noticed. Israel's technology is incredible.

The Wailing Wall or Western Wall is the last standing wall that surrounded the Temple. Though part of it was destroyed, it has been rebuilt since the 7th century. Many Jewish people believe that Divine Presence still dwells in the wall, so many people come to pray, leave prayers, recieve blessings and have Bar Mitzvahs.

After our time at the Western Wall, we went up to the Temple Mount. Strange story, but on our way through, we had to go through security again. This was fine- Brian handed over the knife before they even asked for it- but through the handy-dandy scanner, they saw our Bibles and proceded to take them up. Because the Temple Mount is a holy site for Islam, they did not want proselytising. We were able to get our Bibles on the way out, but it was just another sign of how lost the people of Jerusalem are.

BTW- Don't you LOVE my modest outfit? Modest is hottest. :)

Next, we headed to the Davidson Center, which is an archeological dig of the Temple. We walked the steps that led to the entrance of the Temple gates. The most incredible part of this was thinking of how many times in scripture Jesus walked up to the Temple on these exact steps. Though many of the places we visited were speculated to have been where Jesus was, there is no denying that Jesus had been there. The knowledge of that was incredible.

The entrance into the Temple Courts

Our next stop was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This church is said to be the site of Jesus's crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. There were hundreds of people flowing through the church, making it much less of a place to worship and more of a tourist spot. This, of all the sites in Jerusalem, was the most disappointing to me. Standing in the place where Jesus was said to have died on the cross to ensure our salvation, people were worshiping the spot and the place, rather than worshiping the Savior.

Seeing people kiss the place of the cross while church officials were rushing others through was exhausting and heart breaking. Jesus's death and resurrection was not to leave a place to worship, but to offer freedom from this world. It's not about a church, it is about our God and Savior.