Today we went to our first assembly service at Jerusalem Assembly (aka church--you don't usually call it church in Israel, because the term 'church' is association with the Catholic and Orthodox religions). It was in a kind of run down building that we had to take like a bajillion flight of stairs to get to, but it was such a blessing. It's great to know the work God is doing within His church in Jerusalem, as there aren't a lot of sound Protestant (if I may) Assemblies. He also provided this Assembly with a building after about 7 years of searching for one (it's very difficult to buy real estate in Israel, especially for churches), so that was very encouraging to hear and lessened our reaction to look of the actual building. The congregation was very welcoming though and the service was very....how can I describe it? Just wonderful. It felt more like a family worshipping together rather than just a church service. It truly was a time of fellowship and lifting one another up. I really felt right at home. :) I should have gotten some pictures, but I didn't (I'll have to next week). I sang the whole time in Hebrew, which was a struggle but I made sure to look at the English text underneath in order to know what I was singing, and our group, the IBEX group, got up and sang a song for the congregation --Across the Lands by the Getty’s (look it up and listen if you don't know it). The song fit our group well and the church well, as there was a great mix of America, Israeli, Russian, and German in the Assembly. I'm very excited to go back next week.
After Assembly we were able to go into the Old City by ourselves for the first time. It was nice not having to really rush or be on a ‘study tour’ (we did rush around, but it was for different reasons). It was just fun rushing through the crowds in the market and choosing wherever we wanted to go and of course breaking wherever to take tons of pictures.
We spent most of the day outside of the Old city near the Kidron Valley and then ended our day in the Jewish Quarter. I spent the day with my friends Lee, Michael, Marcy, Jordan, and Jay (pictured above) and Zach (who is behind the camera in this pic). We booked it to Damascus gate for lunch and then headed through the Moslem Quarter to see if it was possible for us to get into the Dome of the Rock. It wasn’t, so we mostly just wandered by the Kidron Valley and then settled at some tombs to explore. We went to Absalom’s tomb and then stopped further down at an unnamed tomb near an Arab neighborhood across from the City of David. Unfortunately, this Arab neighborhood isn’t the friendliest of neighborhoods, so there were some very young boys that thought it would be fun to mess with the Americans. So they were very kind to hit one of our friends on the behind as they rode by on their bikes and then even nicer to begin throwing rocks at the same girl they slapped on the butt as we were up in one of the tombs. Needless to say, we were very happy we had lots of boys with us to protect us, as they chased off the boys by sternly telling them to get out of here and also kindly chucked some rocks at them. Definitely not working towards peace in Israel….but an experience and story to remember. We also got stopped on our way through security to the Western Wall in the Jewish Quarter, as a couple of our friends were smart enough to have their knives with them…It wasn’t that bad of an experience and nobody was tackled or taken away or anything, but the Israeli guards just had to go through protocol and we were very honest with them about any weapons (these said knives) that we had. The guards kindly held their knives as we went to the Western Wall, and we were able observe the Sabbath prayer. I would have gotten some pictures of that as well, but it is against the laws of the Sabbath in the Jewish Quarter to take photos during the Sabbath (at least at the Western wall) so I obeyed in order to not cause trouble. I’ll just have to go back on a non-Sabbath day to get some shots ☺. All in all it was a really fun, hectic day and I have a feeling every Saturday in the city will be tread, tread, tread and story after story.
I can’t wait.
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| From Shabbat Shalom. |
Tonight calls for…well…no time for rest, it’s time to have more fun! We have our first “Saturday Night Live” –a night filled with games, food, and fellowship. As I always say…you can sleep when you’re dead. At this rate it may be very soon, but at least I’ll die happy ☺. May I rest in peace. Shalom.
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