Israel: Day 6

And, Day 6 is upon us! The last full day in Israel.

Jerusalem proved to be FREEZING and rainy.

This is, of course, the time that we had to walk.

Most of the week we took the bus but,

in Jerusalem we had to walk pretty much everywhere.

This is overlooking Jerusalem.

This is the Wailing Wall.

It is some of the last remnants of the Temple Walls.

Many people believe they must go here to pray daily.

We got to go up close and watch these prayers.

I don't believe what these people believe, but

I think we could learn a LOT from how

dedicated they are.

Muslims pray at least 5 times daily, do you?

I know I generally don't!

This is part of a wall

that surrounded the Temple.

This picture is part of my "Aha" moment of the trip.

You see, Jesus looked at these walls.

Jesus walked on the sidewalk

 that is in the picture below.

Jesus.was.actually.here.

That was my "Aha" moment.

This is part of the remains of the Temple,

but closest to you, is an ancient sidewalk.

This sidewalk is an 11 on the Myers-Briggs scale

(of 10)

 that indicates how probable it was that Jesus

was actually here.

This Temple that I've been referring to is where Jesus

overturned the tables of the money changers.

It gave me goosebumps.

The entrance to the Southern Steps was closed

for unknown reasons, and this sign was in front of it.

Mr Ferguson (our chaperon)

 and Nadav (our tour guide)

told us to go as close as we could.

So, there we went, under the

"No Entrance" sign :)

We had to walk down this spiral staircase.

The steps were VERY narrow!

Then, we went down into Nehemiah's Tunnel.

It was very narrow.

Maggie was claustrophobic.

This was some of the wider spots.

Most of the way we had to side step. 

After Nehemiah's Tunnel,

we went to the Jewish Market!!

It was the day before Shabbat (Sabbath)

and everyone was going crazy shopping

before they couldn't anymore.

(Jews still don't work on the Sabbath)

We tried a lot of different pastries, but

these chocolate, cinnamon croissant things

were the BEST!

No one thought this looked appetizing...

Poor Emily fell asleep twice during dinner.

After dinner, we discussed the day with the chaperons,

as we did every night, then came back to

my and Emily's room for one final party.

It was the last night :(

John decided to write Bible Verses on our

complimentary fruit and leave it for the maids.

I didn't have the heart to tell him

that they probably couldn't read

English. Nice gesture, though!

John (mentioned above)

talked so much at dinner that he forgot to eat.

Seriously. You can't make this stuff up.

He brought the food back to the hotel to eat later.

Most of the girls crashed on the bed :)

L to R (Emily, Morgan, Maggie and Emily V)

The guys took the chairs and couch..

(Maggie, Dylan and John)

I think this was earlier that night...

Hannah kicked Matt in the face because

he pulled the blankets off of her.

She was laying in HIS bed.

Note: Don't mess with Hannah

when she's tired.

Emily crashed once again.

Poor girl....

The party was in our room and

she couldn't stay awake...

The noise didn't bother her, though!

This is how Morgan fell asleep and

stayed for over 15 minutes.

It did NOT look comfy, but apparently it was.

This is how Matt (the 275 pound football player)

ended up for a while.

He was wedged between the

sofa and coffee table.

-K

Israel: Day 7

This was the FINAL Day! :(

We left at about 4:30 that night.

Since it was Saturday (Shabbat),

Breakfast was not that great.

There were some potato filled croissants,

but I ended up eating a croissant and

hummus as you can see.

Awwww!!! Buddies. :)

They were matching!

This is the Garden of Gethsemane.

These olive trees were here when

Jesus prayed here and was arrested.

This hasn't changed.

The things that really hadn't changed in Israel

over 2,000 years really got me,

because it was a lot easier to  imagine Jesus being there.

The Garden really impacted me.

The words of Second Mile's song,

Lacrimosa (Weeping) were running through my head.

"Judas sold you for thirty, I've done worse for less.

I swung the hammer when the nails pierced innocent hands.

You breathed Your last, I turned my head.

You cried 'Forgive'."

We think Judas did such a horrible thing by selling

Jesus, but we've all denied Him,

we've all sold Him. Yet, He forgave us!

I'm not really sure exactly what church

this was at, but we sang here.

We were singing "The Stand" by Hillsong

(it was kind of our trip theme song)

and TONS of people joined around us

and started singing with us.

It was SO cool.

Then we began the Via Dolorosa.

(The way of the cross)

As you can see, it was through crowded city streets.

This is how Jesus walked to His death.

If you look in the middle of the picture,

you can see a cross being carried

 on someone's shoulders.

We saw several people doing this,

I'm sure they wanted to experience

some of what Jesus went though.

There were numbers on buildings around the city

that showed what happened where.

I didn't get a picture of every sign,

since we were moving kind of quickly,

but I did get a picture of this sign that

told what each station represented.

Kelton got a little hungry during the walk.

He decided that it would be really cool to

eat a Snickers where Jesus walked to His

death....I don't even know...Haha..

This was inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

It was very dim, there was a lot of smoke

and incense and it just felt all wrong.

I couldn't imagine Jesus dying here,

I know He didn't die in the middle of a church,

but the gaudy-ness of this place

made it very hard to imagine Jesus being here.

There was an exposed rock that Jesus

supposedly was prepared for burial on.

People were kissing it. It just felt so wrong.

Wait until you see the Garden Tomb,

you will see what I mean.

We took about an hour break from sight seeing to

eat lunch and shop a bit!

This was Chicken Shwarma

(like we had a couple days ago...)

It wasn't that great here...ha...

I tried to stay away from meat most of the week.

Dylan and Kelton got matching

man scarves..

Some vendor talked Matt and some other

boys into buying these things...

Turbans? I don't know what they're

called.

Maggie and I got matching bracelets.

Mine broke right after I got home, though.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted :)

This was the mural on the door of the church

that the Last Supper was held at!

Of course, it wasn't a church then :)

This is Golgotha, The Place of the Skull.

It's quite hard to tell that it looks like a skull

from this angle. They had pictures of what it

looked like before the bus station was built.

I have a picture of that picture below.

Jesus' death is constantly portrayed

as happening on a hill.

We learned that it is highly improbable

that He was crucified on a hill.

The Romans would have wanted Him

along the road to Damascus

where the most people could see

what would happen if they messed

with the Romans.

He was most likely right in front of Golgotha,

which is where the buses are parked now.

This is what Golgotha looked like before the buses

resided there.

My FAVORITE part of the whole trip.

The Garden Tomb!

It was SO easy to picture Jesus rising

from the dead here.

This was in a garden, it was peaceful...

It just looked "right".

This is the entrance into the Garden Tomb.

The door used to be lower,

 "He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen

lying there, but did not go in." -John 20:5 (NIV)

It makes perfect sense!

This is the burial area straight into the tomb

and to the right.

This is another reason that this seems

like it really is Jesus' tomb.

It is straight in, the verse I quoted above

says he bent over and looked in.

Not that he had to walk in and look to

the side or anything.

You can see this from the entrance!

There is a groove in front of the tomb that

the rolling stone would have been laid in.

They haven't been able to locate

the original stone for this tomb,

but this is a smaller one that looks

similar to what the one covering the door

of Jesus' tomb would've looked like.

I'm SO thankful for this!

Easter had a whole new meaning after

seeing this!

This is the diagram of the Tomb,

Number 4 is where Jesus would have been

laid in this tomb.

This day was all about Jesus' last days.

 It was SO awesome to see where

He prayedin the Garden of Gethsemane,

asking God to take the cup from Him.

I LOVE that Jesus made sure to say

"Not My will but Yours be done".

It's a perfect example of what we need to pray,

but we are not getting ready to be crucified.

Jesus was!

He endured beatings until he was raw, mocking,

and pain that we can't imagine.

Then he carried the cross for MY sins.

I'm SO thankful for Him.

I'm SO thankful that He is no longer in this grave.

I'm thankful that He rose

to conquer death for me that I might live eternally.

Thank you, Jesus!

I'm so thankful that I had to opportunity to go on this trip.

I'm thankful for my wonderful chaperones

that funded the trip.

I'm also thankful for the chaperone that baptized

me in the Jordan River and

explained many things about the Bible

that I would have never thought about.

I will never read the Bible the same way again.

I will definitely NEVER forget this trip.

-K

Israel!!!!

Hey there!
So, if you read my blog, you know that I recently went to Israel!

My flight was scheduled for 3/9 at 10:55, so I got to the airport 2 hours early, my Dad helped me check in, and I got through security without any problems. I, of course was at my gate almost an hour early by myself, but it was all good, until.......

I've never flown by myself! I was freaking out, but, I eventually made it!

Poor Matt's (above) plane got in an hour early, at 10AM and we didn't fly out until almost 11PM! He was quite sick of the airport once I got there, at about 5.

The airport closes off the gate about an hour before we have to board and we have to go through security again!

This is 4 of the 6 boys (left to right): Dylan, Matt, Reed and John.

We were SO ready to just go!

(left to right)

Meet Hannah, Maggie and Kelton :)

Kelton and Hannah were plane buddies!!

Maggie and I were buddies too :)

So, we survived the 11 hour flight from Newark!

I will be blogging my daily journals soon!

-K

Suffering......

Little known fact about me: I currently am not studying any certain part of the Bible....When this happens, I like to go to BibleGateway.com and study their Verse of the Day.  Today's verse is:

"For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,”      
Phillipians 1:29 (ESV)

We humans don't like to suffer. You see, we like comfort, we like things to be easy and painless.  We forget that being a Christian comes with a price. It is not a question, we WILL be persecuted eventually.("If they persecuted me, they will persecuted you" -John 15:20)

We should rejoice in suffering because it develops perseverance and it's a small price to pay compared to what Jesus did for us.

Believe in Him AND be willing to suffer!

-K

Search and ruin me

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139:23-24 NASB

This is the Bible Gateway VOD.  I randomly went to BibleGateway.com a few minutes ago and came across it after I'd been listening to "Ruin Me" by Jeff Johnson all morning.


"Ruin my life and the plans that I've made. Ruin desires for my own selfish gain. Destroy the idols that have taken Your place until it's You alone I live for."

That's pretty cool, hm?

-K

I'm going out of the country

Si, you read that right...
I'm going on an all expense paid trip to Israel.  We leave next Friday...as in like 8 days. Crazy!!!
I have my passport, which has a really ugly picture so we will not be sharing that...and I've started to pack my suitcase, but I have a long ways to go!

I'm looking forward to this new adventure with 11 other kids my age and 4 chaperones.
I've never met any of the kids, so it will be interesting, most of us don't know any of the others.

I'll blog when I get back!

-K

I was tagged!

I was tagged by Ashlin, a follower of mine, a week ago and am just now answering it...:)

1. When and how did you become a Christian? (Story time)

I became a Christian when I was 11.  I had grown up in church, and said I was a Christian because my friends did.  My faith didn't become real to me until I was 11.

2. How many siblings do you have and what is your "place"? i.e. Oldest, Second born, Middle, ect.

I have an older sister...We are besties :)

3. Do you prefer skirts/dresses or pants/shorts?

Um...I like dressing up for church, but love me some comfy jeans :)

4. If you could choose from any occupation, which would you like best?

I really want to get my degree in MIS (Management Information Systems) and I think it would be really cool to be a nanny that travels with a band....yeah, I'm weird.

5. What Book(s) of the Bible are you currently reading in your devotions?

I'm currently doing a 90 day Beth Moore study on John

6. Which movie genre is your favorite?

I'm a chic flick girl :)

7. Which of your birthdays is most memorable? (Again, a story is meant to be in the answer.)

Hmmm...Probably my 16th, because I got my car. 
A couple weeks before my birthday, my parents made my sister take me shopping and they went to pick up my car and surprised me with it in a ChickFilA parking lot :)

8. If you could live anywhere in the world [or galaxy] where would you live and why there?

Wisconsin on a lake for the summer, Texas in the winter! I LOVE Wisconsin summers but I don't think I could drive in the snow!

9. How many pets have you had in your lifetime?

Hmmm...Let's see

Courtney was our Mini Schnauzer that my parents had before I was born and until I was about 9

Then, I had about 12 fish before I was 8...haha, they kept dying :)

Then Whistle, the blue Parakeet, my dog gave him a heart attack, I think..haha

Then Fluffy the Hamster

Beauti the cat (I thought he was a girl for the first 2 years of his life...poor thing)

Fudge the Hamster

Patches the cat

  And Gracie, our current Mini Schnauzer

10. Would you consider yourself an avid reader?

Eh, if I have time I like a good Nicolas Sparks or Karen Kingsbury book

11. Why did you orginally decide to blog?

I started my blog to share my random thoughts about different parts of the Bible :)