On Monday morning, we checked out of our hotel, Dan Jerusalem at Mount Scopus, and proceeded on our tour. The first stop of the day was the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. This center provides a thematic and chronological narrative of the Holocaust. The museum is the largest repository of information in the world. Adjacent to the building is a special memorial to the 1.5 million children who were killed.
We then traveled to the Jerusalem Prayer Center, a ministry of the IMB. This facility is located on the dividing line between Arab East Jerusalem and Jewish West Jerusalem. We were privileged to meet the staff, spend some time in prayer, hear about the ministry of this center, and also enjoy some refreshments.
From there, we went to "Gordon's Calvary." Here is the story:
General Charles Gordon was a well-known British leader when he came to live near Jerusalem in 1882, often visiting the home of Horatio and Anna Spafford, founders of the American Colony. From their quarters atop the northern wall of the Old City, Gordon had a view of a rocky escarpment in which he identified the features of a skull. He identified this location as the “Place of the Skull” (Aramaic: Golgotha; Latin: Calvary). Around the corner was an ancient tomb which he believed was the empty tomb of Christ. A decade later, the property was purchased by a concerned group of Christians in England and the Garden Tomb Association was formed.
I cannot really type any words that could actually describe my experience there! To look on that hill - to visualize 3 crosses, with the Son of GOD in the middle - dying for my sins! Then we saw the empty tomb! To think - to visualize - 2,000 years ago, JESUS' body lay in the very tomb that I viewed. The entire experience was so surreal! At the end of our tour, we gathered as Dr. Frank Page read Scripture and also led us in partaking of the LORD's Supper. So wished we could have stayed longer!!
We then got on our bus for the drive through the Judean wilderness to our hotel destination on the Dead Sea. On the way, we saw desert bedouins, an Arabic desert-dwelling ethnic group. Reminded me so much of those verses that I have read, "JESUS departed Judea and came into ..."
We arrived at the Royal Hotel early evening. Before dinner, some of the group went to the hotel swimming pool to float on the water. As you know, with the composition of the water from the Dead Sea, a person cannot sink. He/she merely floats, regardless of the depth of the water! Kathy and I decided to walk down to the sea. We took our shoes off, and walked barefoot in the water. We both noticed the water had an oily feel to it. Afterwards, we met the other members of our team for dinner at the hotel. After dinner, it was "lights out!"
P.S. I forgot to mention yesterday that Kathy and I stayed in the vicinity of Dr. Jerry Nostrand's childhood home while we were in New York City. During his early years, he was raised in the Queens/Jamaica area of New York City. We thought about him as we walked thorough that area of town!
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