July 2, 2010
Shalom!
Today is the Sabbath. Everything is shut down. We had the choice of taking a cab to the Muslim quarter of the old city or to take a cab to a small village near us, called Ein Karem, which is where tradition holds that John the Baptist was born and that Mary came to visit Elizabeth when they were both pregnant.
The village was charming, set in the hills with tons of neat plants and buildings. We walked up a steep "mountain" path to the Church of the Visitation. I loved the gardens around the church and the mosaic work in the church. I couldn't take pictures because there was a group of Japanese worshippers having a service. Our God moment was when Michelle twisted her ankle on the rough path and was in agony. We stopped to ask Jesus to heal her and within seconds her ankle felt fine. We were euphoric!
We then went to have some gelatto ice cream which was very authentic to the real thing from Italy, which is neat because this whole village and landscape reminded me of Italy. We then went to visit John the Baptist church but it was closed until 2:30 so we did what every red blooded woman would do, we went shopping and to lunch! I ended up buying a silver Jerusalem cross and we all bought scarves made in Israel. The lunch was in an Italian restaurant. The salads and foccacia were amazing! We had a mushroom salad and a fried goat cheese salad which were out of this world!
Dixie and Sheila headed back up to the apartment and Michelle, Diane and I decided to stay for awhile. I felt compelled to go to the park and there we found a poor old lady foraging for bottles or berries. We each gave her some shekels and Diane gave her a hug, then we knew why we were to stay. We made our way up the hill and found an art studio in a residential area. It was so amazing to walk up all these stone steps and see the upper patios with grape vines and other plants used for shade. We also made it to the church, then went to find a cab. We sat and sat and eventually said we should pray, which we had all been doing individually, but within minutes of praying together a cab came. We went back to the apartment, had a siesta and supper and at 8:30 pm when the buses started running again, we headed uptown to Ben Yehuda street. We wouldn't have found it but for a beautiful Philipino girl who offered to show us the way. We turned the corner of a seemingly abandoned, seedy, dark street and we were amazed to see a well lit area thronging with people. We could not believe how many people there was and how alive! We almost immediately came upon a Korean group of teenagers singing. We couldn't understand the words but we could certainly feel the Holy Spirit! Unfortunately they were almost done so we only heard 2 songs but it was amazing. A lady near us,who couldn't speak english, came up to hug us. She called us sisters and said Holy Spirit in a heavy accent. It was amazing, I had tears running down my face as I thought about the body of Christ around the world and the amazing connection we feel with other Christians , regardless of race or language, through the Holy Spirit. That was my treasure for the day!
Shalom!Today is the Sabbath. Everything is shut down. We had the choice of taking a cab to the Muslim quarter of the old city or to take a cab to a small village near us, called Ein Karem, which is where tradition holds that John the Baptist was born and that Mary came to visit Elizabeth when they were both pregnant.
The village was charming, set in the hills with tons of neat plants and buildings. We walked up a steep "mountain" path to the Church of the Visitation. I loved the gardens around the church and the mosaic work in the church. I couldn't take pictures because there was a group of Japanese worshippers having a service. Our God moment was when Michelle twisted her ankle on the rough path and was in agony. We stopped to ask Jesus to heal her and within seconds her ankle felt fine. We were euphoric!
We then went to have some gelatto ice cream which was very authentic to the real thing from Italy, which is neat because this whole village and landscape reminded me of Italy. We then went to visit John the Baptist church but it was closed until 2:30 so we did what every red blooded woman would do, we went shopping and to lunch! I ended up buying a silver Jerusalem cross and we all bought scarves made in Israel. The lunch was in an Italian restaurant. The salads and foccacia were amazing! We had a mushroom salad and a fried goat cheese salad which were out of this world!
Dixie and Sheila headed back up to the apartment and Michelle, Diane and I decided to stay for awhile. I felt compelled to go to the park and there we found a poor old lady foraging for bottles or berries. We each gave her some shekels and Diane gave her a hug, then we knew why we were to stay. We made our way up the hill and found an art studio in a residential area. It was so amazing to walk up all these stone steps and see the upper patios with grape vines and other plants used for shade. We also made it to the church, then went to find a cab. We sat and sat and eventually said we should pray, which we had all been doing individually, but within minutes of praying together a cab came. We went back to the apartment, had a siesta and supper and at 8:30 pm when the buses started running again, we headed uptown to Ben Yehuda street. We wouldn't have found it but for a beautiful Philipino girl who offered to show us the way. We turned the corner of a seemingly abandoned, seedy, dark street and we were amazed to see a well lit area thronging with people. We could not believe how many people there was and how alive! We almost immediately came upon a Korean group of teenagers singing. We couldn't understand the words but we could certainly feel the Holy Spirit! Unfortunately they were almost done so we only heard 2 songs but it was amazing. A lady near us,who couldn't speak english, came up to hug us. She called us sisters and said Holy Spirit in a heavy accent. It was amazing, I had tears running down my face as I thought about the body of Christ around the world and the amazing connection we feel with other Christians , regardless of race or language, through the Holy Spirit. That was my treasure for the day!
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