Day 6 of Our Holy Land Tour

We have come to Jerusalem and will be here for the next three days...

Our day began with a journey back to a place where a blind man was sent to wash the mud off his eyes in the Pool of Siloam. This was only unearthed in 2004.

The Pool of Siloam

Then we went to the place where Jesus gathered with his disciples for teaching. It’s located along the southern wall and it’s called the teaching steps. 

Just around the corner is the western wall and the place where they come together is the pinnacle of the temple where Satan tempted Jesus to throw himself down.

This outcropping along the Western Wall is called Robinson’s arch. In the 1800’s Robinson was sitting on this stone (which was at ground level) and he decided to dig down here to find out what this stone was attached to and discovered the Western Wall.

The Western Wall section where people gather to pray and place slips of paper with written prayers in the cracks.

The traditional site of the Upper Room on Mount Zion

The top of one of the pillars had Pelicans – we were told that if their baby birds didn’t have enough food the mother birds would cut their own flesh with their beaks and feed their babies from their own flesh – symbolic of Christ giving us his flesh.

The Church of St. Peter of Galicantu is built over the site of Caiaphas’ house. In the dungeon below we read Psalm 88 and thought about our Lord who was held captive here before his trial.

As Bus Captain of this adventurous group I’m in charge of counting everyone and making sure we are all together before we leave a site. This church door shows us that perhaps Jesus was also a “Bus Captain,” it looks as though he’s counting and has three people missing!!

These 1^st century steps were uncovered just outside of Caiaphas’ house. Jesus would have definitely been led up these steps after his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.

In this shop, our guide Wisam showed us a beautiful piece of art work that his father carved from olive wood. It is the entire old city of Jerusalem. Amazing!!

George led devotions today from the Mount of Olives. We stopped at Dominus Flevit (Our Lord Wept) where Jesus stopped on Palm Sunday and wept over the city of Jerusalem. 

George spoke to us about the struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane and the humility of Christ.

This is a view across the Kidron Valley from the Mount of Olives toward the Temple Mount.

Ancient olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Inside the Church of All Nations at the Garden of Gethsemane.

This stone is where the ancient olive press was located... where Jesus knelt and prayed.

Two Palestinians, one is our guide, the other… well, guess!

Each night we get together and sing a couple songs and then we share what was most meaningful for each of us that day. We talk about what we have learned. It's very difficult to absorb everything, but listening to each other helps to bring it all into focus.