As of Thursday night, all members of the group made it home.  Meanwhile, I'm still working on loading pictures of the trip :-)  To those on the tour... I had such a great time with all of you.  Thank you for your constant smiles, support, pictures, and all-around great company.  This is a trip I'll remember always, even more because of the people.

 Anja Helmon

I've received a few inquiries, so I thought I should let everyone know that most of the group is now home.  There are still some (I think 6 people) who should be on their way home now, planning to arrive at SEA-TAC this afternoon, or maybe this evening.  Once everyone's home, I'll add another entry.

 Also, for those of you with Facebook access, I'm working on loading all the pictures.  So far, I have loaded:

Day 1 - leaving SEA-TAC and on plane:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156475&id=602287431&l=f4a056eca8

Day 2 - arriving at Tel-Aviv, touring Jaffa, and getting to hotel:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156478&id=602287431&l=42362e695f

Day 3, Mt. Carmel:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156759&id=602287431&l=bd11e04fde

If you don't have Facebook, please go ahead and try the links anyway, and let me know if it works.

Shalom,

Anja

<<NOTE: This blog was written to be posted on Sunday evening our time, but was delayed due to the flight fiasco.>> 

A wind is blowing from the east this morning, which means it will be another hot day in Jerusalem.

We set out early with Doudi and the bus; by the way, he estimates that by the time our trip ends tonight in Tel Aviv at the airport, we will have traveled 1000 km (600 miles) by bus; my feet & legs tell me that I have at least walked 100 km.

Entering Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate by foot, we learned from Tamar that the big – and only – gap in the wall was ordered by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Prussia in 1893, so he could enter the city “in style” – i.e. not on foot.

This is Tamar:     and Doudi: 

Our worship this Sunday morning, the 4^th Sunday in Lent, took place at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.  Although the church is a mere 100 years old, it has an unusual and long history.  In 1893, Kaiser Wilhelm ordered a large sanctuary built over the old ruins of the former 12^th century pilgrim hostel and convent.

This hostel/convent was built by the Crusaders, who at that time were administrators of Jerusalem.  The Kaiser attended the dedication of the church in 1898.

The worship leader this morning at the Lutheran church was Anna Runesson, a Swedish scholar who is writing her thesis here in Jerusalem.  She was a fill-in this Sunday for the resident Pastor Mark Holman.

Her sermon was built around the parable of the Prodigal Son and his brother.  It teaches us that lost people matter to God and he wants them found!  The sermon was a fitting ending for our pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  After communion we sang together with the congregation: “Yarabba ssalami amter alyna ssalam, Yarabba ssalami im la’qulubana ssalam,” which translates into: “God of peace, rain peace upon us, fill our hearts with peace.”

After the service, we met with Allison Schmitt, who is communication assistant of the church.

The church is now the headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan, and the Holy Land (ELCHJL) and houses  congregations: Arabic, English, German & Danish.

Last Shalom from Jerusalem

Inger 

Today started with church service at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.  Then, we had free time all day, knowing that we'd be leaving the hotel at 8pm to catch our 12:30am flight from Tel Aviv.  Thankfully, it had been arranged that we could keep our hotel rooms until 8pm when we'd leave the hotel.  At least, that was the plan.

As people were getting ready to leave, Pastor Mike gave us the news that our flight is canceled due to bad weather in New York.  Crossing Borders is working hard to get us new flights, but nothing is booked so far.  I'll try to keep this site updated with new arrangements as we get them.  For now, we get to sleep in a Jerusalem bed one more night before the long trip home.

Signing off,

Anja Helmon

It was another early morning for us – on the bus by 8:00am and off to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.  We had to bring our passports as we crossed the border and the separation wall between Israel and Palestine.  The separation wall is being built by Israel in an attempt to limit people from Palestine coming to Israel.  There are also limits on Israelis going to Palestine  so we had to board an Arab bus and meet a new Palestinian guide as our Jewish guide cannot cross the border.

Our first stop was a powerful one – Dheisheh Refugee Camp.  13,000 people live in an area one kilometer square and have built cinder block homes four stories high.  The refugees who live there were once farmers but were removed from their land after the 1948 war with Israel.  We were all touched to see these former farmers tending one lemon tree and a tiny garden surrounded by graffiti covered walls on all sides.  We wandered the narrow alleys with our guide, saw children playing soccer on a paved corner between two streets, and were shocked to hear the story of Israeli soldiers setting explosive charges in one block of houses.  It was a grim, depressing setting, and we were so surprised to hear that 95% of the children from the camp made it to college.  The only way out of their predicament is education and the young people know it.  We met with some impressive young men and women who are creating ways to teach the world about the situation of Palestinian refugees.

After our two hour tour of the refugee camp, we made our way to Christmas Lutheran Church led by the Reverend Mitri Rahab.  This congregation of 220 people has created a college, developed training programs in media production, elder programs and art, and become the third largest private employer in all Bethlehem.  At lunch, Reverend Rahab said Israel was now creating a new apartheid situation in Palestine.  The wall they are building is 25 feet high and often built on Palestinian land.  No one goes in or out without passing through Israeli checkpoints.

By the middle of the afternoon, we left the modern world of Palestinian politics and made our way to the oldest standing church in the world – the Church of the Nativity – built over the birthplace of Jesus we stood in line for an hour to kneel before a 14-sided star marking the place of the manger and then quietly gathered to sing, “O, Little Town of Bethlehem,” and “Silent Night.”  It was a holy moment that contrasted markedly from the next item on our agenda – shopping.  Throughout the manger square at the Church of the Nativity, street vendors aggressively sold their products.  At the Three Arches store, we gazed at amazing olive wood manger sets, Byzantine icons, and lovely jewelry.

Finally, it was time to board the bus for our journey back to the hotel.  Remember we were still in Bethlehem, a Palestinian city outside the separation wall.  We waited at the checkpoint for nearly an hour and finally made it to the front of the line.  Three young Israeli soldiers armed with assault rifles met us and came on the bus.  They slowly made their way down the aisle looking us over for any potential threat.  Once approved, it was only minutes until we were back in our hotel.

Looking back on the day, we will see it as the most significant of the trip.  Much of our journey has been to view the religious remnants of the past.  It has been wonderful, holy, and inspiring to sail on the Sea of Galilee, visit Capernaum, see the Jordan River, walk the way of the cross in Jerusalem and stand before the Dome of the Rock, visit the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and pray at the Wailing Wall.  Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum) left us speechless, and all the museums have been amazing.  This morning, in Palestinian Bethlehem, we were introduced to the spirit of God at work in the present tense.  We met young Palestinian men and women who, despite their situation, expressed such hope and confidence that we were all shocked.  Such a spirit is the spirit of God turning darkness into light, sorrow into joy, and despair into hope.  They taught us to think beyond the labels and stereotypes.  They helped us see that the solution to conflict is not one side prevailing over another, but the two sides together moving to another level of interaction.

We will all soon return home and we will introduce the congregation to some significant ways we can assist the peace process in Israel/Palestine.  You will learn about IBDAA, the International Center for Peace, the Pilgrims of Ibillin, and many other organizations working for peace.  This land is indeed holy.  It has a holy and inspiring past, but it also has a holy present.  God’s spirit is at work here in small numbers of Jews, Christians, and Muslims working quietly, persistently and inevitable for justice equality and peace.

Today was not as full as yesterday in sites to see, but just as full (if not more) in intensity.  Today was the day to visit the Holocaust museum.  I knew that it would be a difficult day for me. 

You see, my father is Jewish, and his father emigrated here from Poland as a child.  He came before the second World War and settled down in Baltimore.  I grew up among all the Jewish traditions.  We celebrated Passover, Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashanah.  I attended bar and bat mitzvahs and Jewish weddings, and I studied to have my own bat mitzvah.  My father would often talk about World War II and the atrocities that were committed.  I grew up around family and friends who spoke of this time intimately – some knew others in concentration camps, but all felt the attack as a personal attack against our people. 

My father, despite his agnostic beliefs, has always been proud of his Judaism roots, and this has flowed down to me (the roots, not the beliefs ;-).  I’ve been aware of this tie I feel, but I have not realized its strength until this trip.  Up until now, I’ve already been surprised by my emotional response to the talks about the political current issues, to the sight of Jerusalem on the horizon as we drove to the Mount of Olives, and to the biblical quotes I read in the garden of Gethsemane.  These are the times that my throat and chest suddenly tightened up and my eyes watered.  Each time, I couldn’t believe my own emotion, but today, I knew the emotion would return.  

We started light, though, with a quick trip back to the Mount of Olives for a group picture and more scenic shots of Jerusalem.  Then, we went to the Augusta Victoria Hospital, where we met the Reverend Mark Brown who is an ELCA pastor that works for the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).  He is the LWF representative for Jerusalem.  He talked about the history of Palestinians and, specifically, the history of the Hospital from its beginnings in the late 1800’s.  Now, one of the main focuses of the hospital is treating cancer, which is a blessing to the Palestinians who are not allowed into the Jewish hospitals, and some of whom don’t even have enough money to pay for transportation to Augusta Victoria Hospital.  The hospital is mostly funded through the ELCA and grants from a variety of sources, but it’s exciting to hear that a donation of $8 million from the US government was just announced about a week ago.

The next stop was the Holocaust museum. 

We started in the Garden of the Righteous, where Tamar (our guide) explained that each tree that’s been planted is dedicated to someone who helped a Jewish family during the Holocaust.  It was a nice start to the museum; a reminder that there were a few candles of inspiration during such a time of despair.  I made a mental note to keep these heroes in mind as we started walking through the museum.  Their displays are organized chronologically, zigzagging right to left to right again, meandering from one side of the building to the other.  First, they describe the history of the Third Reich, including Hitler coming to power, and how quickly the democratic society became totalitarian.  I viewed sections with historical displays including maps, statistics, pictures, and what I spent most of my time watching… movies.  The movies were mostly interviews of Holocaust survivors.  Each person told a gripping, heart-rending story that fit the time of that section of the museum.  Eventually, you wind your way through to the end of the war, and you see videos of the celebrations. That’s not the end, however, just as it was not the end of the tragedies for the Jews.  Yes, they were freed, but what of their families?  They did not know if their families were alive or dead, and if they were alive… where were they?  Due to strict immigration policies, the refugees were not allowed to travel freely.  Eventually, refugee camps were set up across Europe, and although most Jews wanted to travel either to Palestine (Israel was not yet a country) or America, most were not allowed. 

John and I were the last ones through the exhibits, and we met up with the rest of the group a few minutes after the designated meeting time.  I was still in a daze, and assumed the rest of the day would be meaningless for me as I wouldn’t be able to transition to the next sites.  However, I was surprised again.  The next stop was the Israel museum, where we saw an incredible model of what Jerusalem looked like right before the Roman invasion when the temple and city were destroyed.  It was amazing to recognize parts of the model that matched the ruins we saw yesterday during our Jerusalem tour.  The other main part of the Israel museum was the Dead Sea Scrolls, which reminded us of our previous visit to Qumran, where the scrolls were found.

After the museum, we headed to a Sunbula fair trade craft shop in East Jerusalem (the Palestinian area), at the St. Andrews Scottish Presbyterian church, where many of us made purchases knowing that the money would go towards the same Palestinians that Reverend Mark Brown spoke of this morning at the hospital.  Before we headed back to the hotel, we went by the Augusta Victoria hospital again in order to see the very impressive chapel.

Now, we’re back at the hotel, kicking back with a glass of wine or beer, talking about the day.  We talk about the beautiful sites we’ve seen, but also about the conflicts we see.  Like Pastor Mike’s blog stated, we’re seeing and hearing both Israeli and Palestinian points of view.  Sometimes, we see very one-sided arguments, and sometimes we are happy to see Israeli and Palestinians working together (and some even protesting together today).  This blog entry is long enough now, though, so details about those will have to wait another day.

Signing off,

Anja Helmon

Leaving the Temple, we walked through the old city of Jerusalem and visited the pools of Bethesda and Saint Anne’s Church.  Then, following the Via Dolorosa, we observed  the Stations of the Cross. Two of the most moving stations for us were the Fourth Station where Jesus met his mother and the Sixth station where Veronica comes to wipe the brow of Jesus. The culminations of the Stations of the Cross were the Stone of Anointment where the body of Jesus was washed and placed in the Tomb within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

It was interesting to see the juxtaposition of the four corners of the old city of Jerusalem and the commerce within the bazaar as we moved along to the Western Wall.  Here everyone had a personal experience with their hope, dreams and prayers.  

Margo Douglas and Evelyn Himple 

Today was Dudi's birthday, Dudi (a nickname for David) is our faithful and skilled bus driver who we applaude every day for keeping us alive in the crazy, skinny streets of Israel and getting us through the people who triple park barely scraping by the cars, but somehow making it every time.

Today was also a lucky day because we got to sleep in an extra hour, then the normal breakfast buffet, and a bunch of us got spa treatments including body scrub, mud wraps and classic massages.  Alyssa and Sara took a last float in the Dead Sea pool and Ryan and his mom went on a walk to the end of the Dead Sea solid salt trail.  Next, we got on the bus at 11 headed towards Masada where we took a gondola up to the top to see the ancient fortress. 

 Once at the top we looked out at the beautiful view which unfortunately was somewhat blurred by a dust haze that had apparently blown in from Africa.  It was very hot and we all drank lots of water. Masada was a fortress at the top of a mountain built by King Herod and was destroyed by the Romans, however when the Romans finally broke down the walls they found that those insides had all committed suicide because they chose death over slavery.  Tamar abbreviated the tour of Masada in order to get out of the hot sun.  We had lunch at the visitors center, which consisted of pita bread with chicken or falafel and we all got delicious smoothies that tasted very refreshing after walking around outside.

Then we took the bus all the way to Jerusalem where we took a picture with a camel before walking along the Palm Sunday road which was quite a steep hill. 

We went to the church by the garden of gethsemane where mass was going on. It was really interesting to see.  The church had 12 domes which represented the 12 countries that had donated money to build the beautiful church, the U.S. being one of them.

 Our hotel for the duration of our stay is the legacy hotel and is the nicest to date.

Blogged by Alyssa Helmon, Ryan Mallory & Sara Anderson 

the teenagers of the trip

In planning this trip to the Holy Land, my purpose was to balance ancient and modern, religious and secular, and Israel and Palestine.  We are seeing the balance and the tension each day.  We visit holy sites of the past existing beside modern developments.  We observe observant Jews and Muslims every day, and also see the majority of people are secular.  Our tour guide is an Israeli Jew, and she teaches the history of ancient and modern Judaism from her personal perspective.  We have also visited with an Israeli Arab Christian who runs a school here.  He too describes this land from his own perspective and it is angry and frustrated.  There is such a long history of tension here that it would be a miracle if peace ever prevails.

I am writing this entry at the midpoint of our trip and we are experiencing a brief interlude in our busy pace.  For one day, we are relaxing at a resort by the Dead Sea.  People are enjoying mud baths, swimming in the Dead Sea and spa treatments.  When our interlude concludes, our fast pace continues as we now travel to Jerusalem.  From the Dead Sea, we rise in elevator almost 4,000 feet until we reach one of the holiest places on earth.

Pastor Mike Anderson

Today we leave Galilee and head south to the Dead Sea following the Jordan River. The morning was warm but hazy. According to our wonderful guide, the haze is from sand storms in Africa.

 Since the Jordan River is the border between Jordan and Israel, it is currently not open to anyone other than the military. There are discussions currently on-going to open access in the future.

On our way down, we crossed the border from Israel to the West Bank and back again. Since we were in a tour bus, we were not stopped at the border check points.

Our first stop is Bet She’an National Park, a major excavation site that revealed over 20 cities over a span of 5,000 years. We saw impressive large blocks of limestone and marble and columns in the ruins reflecting architecture of the Byzantine, Egyptian and Roman rule. The defeat of King Saul and his sons during their battle with the Philistines at nearby Mount Gilboa resulted in their death and their bodies were hung on the walls of Bet She’an ( 1 Samuel 31:10). The city was later taken by King David from the Philistines. There was a 15-20 minute climb to get a spectacular view of the ruins. Our spry 81 year old Jean made it up without batting an eye and we were all trying to keep up with her.

Our second stop was at Qumran National Park. It was a toasty 87 degrees as we walk around the park. Qumran is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Qumran is on the shore of the north end of the Dead Sea and was thought to be the home of the Essenes that date back to the end of the second century BCE. The Essenes lived here for over 200 years. In the caves of Qumran, they found over 800 manuscripts making up about 10 complete scrolls in 11 of the caves that were discovered in 1947. The scrolls were in Hebrew and our guide said she can read the scrolls perfectly. That was a surprise to many of us because we thought the writing would be more ancient and difficult to read.

Our final stop of the day was at a resort on the southern Dead Sea. Since we arrived in mid-afternoon, many of us took the opportunity to take in a massage, a float in the pools or go float in the Dead Sea. Some of us got to experience floating and sitting in warm Dead Sea water pumped into the hotel. The nice part about that was that the water is warm instead of cold outside.

Ron and Velda Schei