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...