A Birthday to Remember!! Check these pics out...

To have a birthday in Jerusalem is...well, a Birthday to Remember - for sure!! Here I'm wearing my JUC T-shirt cuz it says the school was established in 1957 - do you see that on the shirt?? As it turns out - so was I!! Yup, born in 1957, too.  Such a blessing that Edith is in Jerusalem now, too - best buds...

 

So, today on my birthday I so happened to have a required field trip for my "Christian Communities in the East" class, a course about all the different churches in the Middle East.  Wow, we went to so many places, saw lots of churches,  met lots of people. Here's a pic of the "St. John in the Desert" monastery...is in the Judean Hills outside Jerusalem. Beautiful, serene...

Below is an icon of St. John the Baptist...the really interesting thing is that the scroll he holds is written in Hebrew....very unusual - and it says "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world..." This place has a history of many Hebrew speaking Jews coming here who believe in Yeshua as Messiah.

 

Below is an olive tree overlooking the Judean wilderness

Here's a Russian Orthodox church also in the Judean Hills...I had to climb LOTs of steps to get up here.

View from the Russian church, overlooking the  homes of the Russians who live there...Judean Hills

 

Me and my professor, Dr. Petra Heldt, who led our field trip today...awesome woman of God...she bought me some ice cream for my birthday!!!

 

Every one in the group indulged....ooh my, what a sweet treat. Mine is in the cup with the blue spoon - I had Halva (dairy free:) gelato... Halva is a sweet dessert sort of like fudge that's made from sesame seeds...it is so delicious and so was this ice cream!!!

Enjoying our treats at the gelato shop...

 

Another monastery...the Holy Cross Church...here's a pic of Abraham planting/watering 3 trees that grew into one, from which the beam of the cross was taken (so tradition says...)

Inside the Holy Cross church...lots of it was built in Crusader times

 

Courtyard at the Monastery

 

Back to the Old City, we attended a Syrian Orthodox service at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher...sort of inside a cave in a side room.  Here's 3 Syrian ladies waiting for the service to start....

 

A sight I'd never seen before...Here's the tomb of Jesus, from where He rose from the grave...All lit up!! See the big lights?? It's usually quite dark in there. But today there was a big celebration (feast)about the cross, involving the 3 main churches in there.,.and they had it lit up so brightly, lots of people, lots of joy in there...

Outside in the Old City, saw a big banner of the martyrs killed in Libya by Isis, remember this?...back in April. They are all now remembered as martyrs by the Coptic (Egyptian) church. 

Now we are going into the headquarters of the Coptic Church in Jerusalem...

 

We were ushered into this somewhat opulent reception hall....

To meet this man...the ARCHBISHOP of the Coptic Church. He's the spiritual leader of them all. This is a church that has been and is going through much persecution in Egypt. 

We were told to address him as "Your Eminence". Here's he's checking out a JUC T-shirt we brought him.  Seems like a silly gift, but what do you bring a highly respected/prominent/wise and aging spiritual leader? He loved it! Said he'd go jogging with it:) It was wonderful to meet with him. He said he wants the church in America to remember the Coptic church, to understand the suffering and persecution they have gone and are going through, and especially to pray for them. 

Ended my amazing birthday with dinner at Roladin in the Mamilla Mall with Peggy, Jane, Edith, me, Deborah and Vic.  WOW, thank you Lord and thank you everyone!!!!!

An "Appeal to Heaven" from the Western Wall...

Today was our regular day (those at the house of prayer) to go up on the Temple Mount, however it was closed because of Muslim holidays. So instead, we gathered at part of the Western Wall to pray and worship...but it wasn't exactly where you think...

Photo taken walking down the hill toward the western wall, you see the ancient walls of the Old City, built in the 1400's by the Muslim ruler Suleiman the Magnificent.

 

Here we are at the Western Wall - not the portion you usually see in photos, but the same western wall extends toward the south. See the pile of rubble?? And the street to the right of it...

The street is a 1st century street along what once was a marketplace with separate booths next to the temple...i.e., Jesus would have walked on this street:)

These large boulders (the rubble) is from when the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70AD, they pushed these large (huge, mammoth) stones down from the top of the Western wall. They are in the same spot they landed still today.



Looking up at the massive western wall...

Looking down into this hole in the ground, you can see that the huge building stones of the Western wall are buried a couple stories beneath the ground we are standing on.

Sitting on some steps at the this part of the Western wall, praying, singing, worshipping, Korean young woman in the foreground.  This southern extension of the western wall is more for reform or conservative Jews in that men and women can pray together, and they can sing with guitars, have Bar and Bat Mitzvahs as a family, etc. (they can't do these things at the traditional - Orthodox -Western wall).

Una is holding a small globe as we pray for the nations of the world...

John is holding a unique flag/banner...this evergreen tree was the original flag that George Washington ordered flown i.e. from Wikipedia: The Tree Flag (or Appeal to Heaven Flag) was one of the flags used during the American Revolution. The flag, featuring a pine tree flag with the motto "An Appeal to God," or, more usually, "An Appeal to Heaven", was used originally by a squadron of six cruisers commissioned under George Washington's authority as commander in chief of the Continental Army in October 1775.

Here we hold this replica of the original "Appeal to Heaven" flag - half of us from America, and half from Korea...making an appeal to Heaven for Israel and for our nations.

Ten hands, American and Korean, young and old, joined in prayer...

A new view of the more well known Western Wall - we found an upper balcony in the Jewish Quarter from which to take this photo.

And per usual - went to a coffee shop after...here's John next to a Chinese couple who just arrived from Japan (yes they are Chinese, but they live in work in Japan, they love Israel, and have come for Sukkot (feast of Tabernacles).

Una holding the globe in her hands at the coffee shop...we sang "He's got the whole world in His hands..." - may seem 'corny' to you, but it's the TRUTH. Another awesome day in Jerusalem...

 

The Temple Mount - Place of great contention...Place I love to be...

If you read the news (put Jerusalem Post app on your phone if you want to know what really goes on in Israel) you'll know there's been a lot of rabble rousers up on the Temple Mount lately. Remember this is the most contested piece of real estate on the planet.  I went up there again today with a fairly large group from the house of prayer. The Palestinians were quite picky about our dress, whether we stood in one place too long, and they didn't want us sitting anywhere. A few of us were asked to leave. They seemed quite contrary and agitated. In spite of all that, it felt wonderful to be up there.  What a beautiful day it was!!! Let me share a few photos with you (you can click on them to enlarge), and imagine being there at the seat of His throne and the place of His footstool...

Close up of the Dome of the Rock

Three Muslim women walking from the Dome of the Rock toward Al-Aksa Mosque

 

The main entrance to the Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock as seen from inside the Dome of the Tablets (look at my profile pic on facebook, I'm standing in this)

Dome of the Tablets as seen from ascending stairs. It covers the only exposed rock of Mount Moriah outside the Dome of the Rock.

 

Corinthian Columns

Holes in the stone tiles - catch the rain water and collect it into multiple cisterns beneath the Temple Mount

Lady with an umbrella gazes out onto the Mount of Olives from the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock is to her back.

A precious friend, Ruthie, from Korea. Here on a student visa, she's a regular at the house of prayer. She attends a local University, and is fluent in Hebrew (jealous:)

Another dear sister, Seryong from Korea...loves to worship...

Time to leave for today...but we'll be back...

Stopped by the 2 million dollar golden menorah, enclosed and displayed in the Jewish quarter, that awaits a home in the third temple - yet to be built.

Have you ever been to the ARMENIAN QUARTER of the Old City??

Most people have heard of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem.  But what about the Armenian Quarter? Who are these people? Since I am taking a class on "Christian Communities in the East" I had to find out...so I walked there today to go to their Armenian Library to do some research. 

Here's the entrance to St. James Cathedral (an Armenian Orthodox church), but also the entrance to the courtyards, school, residences, the whole community. The Armenians are a tight-knit group of strong Christian people who survived their own holocaust - a horrific genocide by the Ottoman Turks in 1915-1923, approx. 1 1/2 million (out of 2 million) Armenians were brutally murdered by the Muslim Turks who wanted to annihilate them all, and their Armenian communities were literally wiped off the map in Turkey. Many fled here to Jerusalem, so most of the residents here are refugees or descendants of refugees of that genocide.

I had to get permission to enter the courtyards and find my way to the library. Most of the Armenians in Jerusalem live in this compound.  (There were about 16K Armenians living here in 1948, but now its down to less than 1000)

Here I am in the Armenian Library...here are housed all the books and records of their history, and all the names and communities that were lost in the genocide. The librarian was very helpful and got some books down for me to use for a research paper.

Walking from the library deeper down into the community (had to ask the librarian where to go) - looking to visit a little church that's only open from 3 -3:30 pm daily when they have a service.

The small entrance to another courtyard - where the Church of the Holy Archangels is. This is a church built over where it is believed Caiaphas and his father-in-law Annas lived - where Jesus was brought the first night of his torture- and where he was held in prison overnight.

Ceramic tile portrait of the holy angels - who were said to hide their faces when Jesus was struck by the High Priest.

 Inside the small ancient church (from 11th century) - I could hear the service going on when I got there

The Armenian priests were chanting and singing their liturgy in their native tongue (Armenian). I didn't go in but just listened awhile to their prayers and deep loud singing of all the men in there. I wanted to in and see the place they call the 'prison of Jesus', but there was no way to go inside :(  I had to just peek through the doorway. Wanna know what they sounded like??   LISTEN HERE:

Outside of the church of Holy Archangels

Walking back to the library

Passed by their health clinic...the nice lady there told me they are open in the afternoons for residents only, and/or for students at their Armenian seminary.

Walking through the Armenian Quarter back to school

Walking toward the southern walls of the Old City. You can see the bell tower of Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion, which is right next to my school, JUC

Passing by the walls

Perfect place to poke a gun or bow and arrow through...or toss out a water balloon:)

This is what it looks like when you first come through Zion Gate, and there are some Armenian shops on the left.

So I leave through Zion Gate for the short walk back to JUC.  I've decided I like the Armenian quarter, and the Armenians, and will definitely go back...