Lately....(A picture narrative)

I walked on the wall that goes around the Old City. It was absolutely incredible. I could spend an hour in one spot looking at every angle and still be fascinated.

I went on an awesome field trip. We went to a bunch of different overlooks and saw the city from different views. We also saw many other places mentioned in the Old Testament including Bethlehem, Bethel and the Judean Wilderness. This picture shows a beautiful Jewish cemetary. There are so many cemetaries here, because the Jewish people want to be here when Christ comes.

I walked around Jerusalem. Okay I do that everyday. How lucky am I? Anyways, on this particular walk I saw the old steps to the temple. Aren't they beautiful?

I saw Dome of the Rock. I've loved going to places that other people find sacred. Sure it's not like going to the temple, but there is a nice spirit in these special places.
Speaking of places that other people find sacred...This is the Western Wall. It is one of my favorite places I've been to so far. People believe this wall was a wall of the temple. When I went I was so amazed at what I saw. Some people held on to the wall crying, others stood there rocking back and forth while reciting scripture, and others wrote prayers and stuck them in the wall. It was so beautiful to see everyone doing their own kind of worship. Friday night we came to this wall to join in the Jewish festivity of welcoming in the Sabbath and it was packed! The girl's side sang songs, but the boy's side was awesome! People over there were in a big circle jumping up and down and kicking their legs. It was so funny to see our white boys wearing kippahs intermixed with all of these Jewish soldiers in their circle. I sure wish we had a party every Saturday night like that to welcome in Sunday. But at our party I'd make sure the girls side had dancing!

On Saturday, which is Sunday out here, we went to the Garden Tomb. There were a lot of people there so we didn't have much time at the actual tomb. After we had all gone in we went to a pavilion in the gardens and sang Hymns. It was just incredible. The easiest way for me to bear my testimony is through song so I felt so lucky to be singing "He is Risen" to people walking around the gardens. I'm pretty sure that's the closest I'll get to bearing my testimony out here since we're not allowed to discuss the gospel at all.

Yesterday was a free day so I went to Tel Aviv and hung out at the beach all day. It felt so good. School out here has definitely been stressful so it was fun to go out and have a nice relaxing day. Also it was nice to be in the sun and not dripping sweat.

Today we went on a field trip to Jericho. I saw the oldest building ever made. (It's a tower that's now in the ground.) Then we hiked up to a beautiful monastery. This monastery was somehow built right in the middle of the mountain. How in earth did they do that without modern technology? After we looked around at the monastery we went to an overlook of the Judean Wilderness.
I leave for Egypt on Thursday. I'm way excited! Just know that I won't have access to a phone or computer but I'll try to post as soon as I get back in two weeks.