Today we began our walking tour by visiting the Western Wall Tunnels. These tunnels are far below current street level – at the street level during the time of Christ. There we saw the base of the Temple Mount and walked northwards along the Temple Mount Wall and emerged at the north end of the Temple Mount.
We turned right and headed toward the Loins Gate (or St. Stephen’s Gate) but stopped
just before to visit the Pools of Bethesda and St Anne’s Church. In the church I lined all of out group up like a choir and we sang How Great Thou Art in the marvelous acoustics of the sanctuary. A Doctor of Music who is on sabbatical from her university post in London happened to be in the church while we were there and captured us singing and we kind enough to send us a recording. She asked if we were a choral group! Not bad for an impromptu song. Singing at St. Annes Church
At the Pools of Bethesda Bishop James Dixon shared from the Bible. It was here Jesus healed the lame man.
We then walked the Via Dolorosa and discussed all 14 Stations of the Cross. We started at the Antonia Fortress with a devotion by Ralph Sigler. We ended at the Church of the Holy Seplucher. While we all recognize the historic significance of this structure, it did not resonate with our group of Evangelical leaders.
We walked through the Old City to the Jaffa Gate and boarded our bus which took us to Ben Yehuda Street for lunch and a short time of shopping. No trip to Israel would be complete without a little shopping time.
Then we drove to the Garden Tomb, located near the Damascus Gate to the Old City. Our guide told us the story of the Garden and the reasons why they believe this might be the place where Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose again.
After visiting the empty tomb, I led the group in a short devotional time pulling together all we had experienced together during the past 6 days and we shared communion.
Afterwards, I invited everyone just to spend some time in the Graden before we left. We had the opportunity to meet Christian people from other parts of the world. It was a very special time.
As we ended this very full day, we headed back to our hotel for our final dinner together. As we sat around the table we were all filled with mixed feelings – happy to be there, but sad it was coming to an end.
After dinner we headed to the airport. Even though we received VIP treatment, the security at Ben Gurion Airport is very high and very strict (probably why Israel is one of the safest places on earth). It took a little while to clear security (6 separate checkpoints), but we all made it through without incident and settled into our seats on the plane for our twelve hour flight home.
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