Hi everyone!
I have officially been in Israel for 2 and a half days. We have started in Jerusalem. The first full day we were here we took a walking tour of the Old City followed by a bus tour with the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolition. In the Old City we saw each quarter and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The church is located where Jesus was buried in the tomb, where his body was washed and where he was put on the cross. The ICAHD tour was also very exhausting. We took a bus and saw the 40 some odd foot wall that cuts through many Palestinian towns. It makes their lives so much harder. We also stopped at a place where we could see the East and West Jerusalem and the Old City. It was crazy to see how much more modern and clean West Jerusalem was compared to East Jerusalem. The Palestinian people pay about 33% of the taxes in Jerusalem but only 7% of that money returns to their cities. Thus the Palestinian cities were alot dirtier and poorer looking than the Jewish cities. It is so scary to see the Israeli soldiers in the streets protecting the illegal settlements in the cities with huge machine guns. By the way the "freeze" that was placed on the building of the settlements is actually not being followed. There are al least 2 new ILLEGAL settlements being built at this moment. Did you know that the US contributed 3 billion dollars in unconditional military aid to Israel every year? It was a very informative and emotionally exhausting morning...Then came the afternoon. After a lunch of falafel, we went to a Jewish synagogue and worshiped with them at their weekly Shabbat service. Then we were lucky enough to be invited to a few families homes to partake in the weekly Shabbat meal. It was fascinating to be able to observe the traditions and the customs of a Jewish family. We ate hummus, salad and curry. The food here has to be the best food in the entire world. Today we got up "late" around 8 (because some of us got back at 1 am from our dinner). Then we took a bus to the Mount of Olives and we visited Augusta Victoria Hospital. We cleaned up trash from the campus and then we toured the building. The Church of the Ascension has to be one of the most beautiful Lutheran Churches in the Holy Land. Then we ate pizza at Mark Brown's house who is the Lutheran World Federation representative for the Jerusalem ministries of the Lutheran World Federation. Then we took another walking tour down the Mount of Olives. It was so steep, I was so glad we didn't have to walk up it. We also saw the Garden Gethsemane where Judas betrayed Jesus to the Romans. From there we saw the Pater Nostrum church where Jesus first said the "Our Father" prayer. Then we went to a part of the way of the cross. We saw the stations where Jesus was condemned and flogged and where he was given the cross to carry. These past two days have been so exhausting and its been hard to process all the information that I have gotten. I am so excited because we get to watch the World Cup! Tomorrow we are going to church (obviously) and then we are going to the Holocaust Museum that is near where we are staying in East Jerusalem. And we are watching the World Cup but its all in Arabic. I have learned one word in Arabic....it means lets get going. Its funny that that is the only word that I know in Arabic. I hope to post again soon. God Bless!