Easter Sunday

First of all just a couple of pictures of our street vendors. I've meant to send these earlier! There is no food safe practised here!

Easter Sunday at the Garden Tomb
We had 4 services with the first service starting at 630 am. We opened the door at 6am with approx 500 people waiting in the lane. The first 2 services were in English - total 2100 people, the third service was a Scandinavian service - approx 650 people, and the 4th was a French service for approx 150 people. It was an awesome day. The first service was recorded on www.cbn.com if you want to listen to it.

At the end of the day, Sammy (whose son got engaged and we attended his engagement party) brought dinner for all of us. It is called the upside down meal. They cook chicken or lamb at the bottom of the dish, then rice is cooked on top. When they go to serve it, they turn the dish upside down so the rice is at the bottom and the meat is on the top. It was so delicious.

This next picture is the reason we are here. It is the sign on the door leading in to the tomb.

This will be our last post before we get home. We need to wake up at 3am so we can catch our ride to the airport.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, and your words of encouragement while we have been here. It has been an awesome experience - we can't wait to share it with you.

God Bless,

Shalom,

Hugs and Blessings,

Don and Glenda in Jerusalem

Pesach time in Jerusalem !

On the first day of Passover we celebrated with a Sader meal. Henk and Cesar performed the duties for us following the Jewish law, but also reading some scripture to show that the messiah has already come. Normally the meal will take 4 hours to complete from beginning to end, but we did a shortened version so we could get to bed on time. Here are a few pictures.

The full moon over Damascus Gate.

Palm Sunday, Jericho, and our Good Friday service

On Palm Sunday we had the wonderful opportunity to walk the route that Jesus took when he rode in to Jerusalem. We climbed from Bethphage to the Mount of Olives and then down the other side towards the Garden of Gethsemane and in to Jerusalem. It was a very hot day........ 37 celsius but worth every moment. We were surrounded by hundreds of people from many different countries singing and worshiping. Some songs were in English that we could sing along with and others we recognized the tune but were being sung in a different language. Little boys were selling palm branches and olive tree branches for a dollar - it was a beautiful sight. Following are a few pictures.

On Wednesday we were able to travel to Jericho with the guide I had the first time I came to Israel 16 years ago. We were able to meet up with each other when he brought a group to the garden a few weeks ago. I wasn't sure if he was still guiding or if he would even remember us, but I guess we left a lasting impression. Wednesday was his first day off in over a month and he was willing to take us to Jericho. It was so good to see him again and catch up on the last 16 years.

Here is a banana tree!

Mount of Temptation where Jesus was tempted by Satan after He had been in the wilderness for 40 days

The walls of Jericho.

Aladin and me - 16 years later. Hope we can keep in touch and it won't be another 16 years before we visit again!

Wanted to show you this picture. These are some of the hats we still worn by the Russian Jews. They remind us of hockey pucks! How can you tell we are Canadians!!!

A turtle dove in the garden listening to the Good Friday service!

On Good Friday we had a service at 9:30 am and then the garden was not open for guided tours, but the public was welcome to come in for a time of personal meditation and prayer. We had over 500 people walk thru and we were available if anyone needed someone to talk to or pray with. During this time, this lady played her harp! We even had a thunderstorm and some rain showers!

Some lilies blooming in the Garden

The Garden Tomb

Happy Easter!

updates

Where does the time go? One week today we will be on our flight home! Do we have mixed feelings? Yes!! We can't believe that the 3 months has passed already. Our time here has been fantastic and when you ask us "How was it?" we will not be able to put in to words all that we have experienced. I only hope that one day everyone who is reading this, will have the opportunity to visit this special place.
In the mean time here is some of what we have done over the last couple of weeks. A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday we did another hike with 5 other members from the Garden. It was a 4 km hike thru the hills west of Jerusalem. A few times as we climbed up the fairly steep rocky hillside, I wondered if I should have been a mountain goat. It was quite a warm day, we packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed the scenery. There were still quite a few wild flowers around so I took a few more pictures. Again we walked across ruins dating back to early Bible times (can't remember the exact time.) We have come to realize that no matter how long you are here in Israel you will never see everything. Everyday the archeologists are discovering new finds, the locals walk the hills and find remnants of ancient pottery all the time.

Our group of hikers and some wild flowers. I decided not to bore you with all the nature pictures I took, plus it is so difficult to get a picture that really portrays the beauty of the land.

As we were waiting in a small village for the bus to take us back to Jerusalem, this parrot is flying around. Couldn't resist taking his picture!

Last Saturday we drove to the Sea of Galilee area. We stopped at Yardenit which is on the River Jordan and used as a site where people can be baptised. It is a beautiful site, but probably not where John the Baptist baptised Jesus.

There was a group of 20 that were having a baptism service.

From there we drove to Yavneet to visit a special family. Peter Hatch (who grew up attending Emmanuel Baptist church in Vernon, his parents still live in Vernon and attend our church) now lives in Israel with his family. We had a wonderful visit with his wife and their 4 young children. The baby is only 6 weeks old. It was nice to see Peter again and meet his family. We only wish we could have stayed longer - maybe next time!

Here are some pictures of their family.

I will have another update showing pictures of our Palm Sunday walk and our Easter celebrations.

Shalom

More random thoughts from Don in Jerusalem

• I'm not sure if it's because we are approaching Easter, but as I stand by the entrance to the tomb directing traffic, more and more people become more and more emotional as they prepare to enter. Some take off their hats in reverence, some start to cry, and some don't have to say anything - you can tell by the expression on their face that the experience has moved them deeply.


• On a lighter side, I have had this question asked more than once at the entrance to the tomb - is there a way out on the other side, or do you come back out this way? Here is my answer. No ma'am, this is the only way out. You know on really busy days with long lineups, the guides have thought about perhaps having two tombs, but we felt it wouldn't go over very well.


• I have guided visitors from more than 53 countries over the past ten weeks with the latest additions from Slovenia, Bulgaria, Sri Lanka, and Uganda.


• We welcome people from all over the world, from all walks of life...like the young lady who came in with her daughter early this week, and every day since to spend time in the garden. She has waited 11 years to be able to come to Jerusalem and to the Garden. She is from the U.K., but has worked for the last 7 years in Cambodia. I asked her what she does - she said she rescues young girls from the sex trade.


• I enjoy sharing with each and every group, but particularly Canadians who visit the Garden. I find myself becoming more emotional when guiding Canadians when I share my faith, give the story of what the Garden represents, and take the people around this extraordinary garden.


• We never say anything negative in our presentation about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site for the crucifixion and resurrection. We tell people that we will give them the history of the garden and it is the Holy Spirit's job to convict them either way. It is truly amazing how many people come up to me unsolicited and talk about how dark and depressing the church is and how " it all comes together " at the Garden Tomb as to why this could be the place.


• Looking forward to Easter services - we have I think five or six services over the three days. Good Friday afternoon the tomb is not open for viewing, and the Garden area is open only for reflection and meditation. Sunday sunrise services alone should have about 2500 people attending.


• Looking forward as well to returning to Canada in less than two weeks, but we will be leaving a piece of us in Jerusalem, hoping to return some day to continue serving Him.


• One final thought - a definite answer to prayer and a real encouragement to the volunteers here at the Garden this past week. Nelly, the wife of one our Dutch guides, asked for prayer on Wednesday at 155pm as part of our staff devotions before opening the garden again for the afternoon. She told us of a Norwegian man who was sitting with his head in his hands on one of the benches the previous day. She approached him and asked if she could help. He told her that his marriage had fallen apart and his family, although here in Jerusalem, was back at the hotel. Nelly prayed with him and suggested that he humble himself and return to the hotel to try to mend the relationship. Our group of volunteers prayed for him, then opened the doors to the public to find him standing there with his family ready to visit the Garden. He had been on one my tours the day before and he approached me and introduced me to his family and said his prayers had been answered. I didn't realize this was the man we had been praying for until Nelly showed up at that moment and they both hugged each other. Needless to say, there was a lot of hugging between the family and the guides. We allowed them to take communion after they told us of their story of reconciliation and they left the garden, thanking Nelly again. It reassures us of why we came here in the first place - Mark 10:45. Thank you for praying. See you soon.

Random Thoughts from Jerusalem

No pictures - just some things that come to mind from Don as we serve in Jerusalem.

• A bomb went off recently in Jerusalem and rockets continue to be launched by Hamas in the Gaza strip and fall in the Negev - but we feel very safe here right now.


• We are used to most of the sounds around us - the call to prayer five times a day, lots of sirens, and the busyness of the city outside of the garden - but I do need to buy an alarm clock for the rooster that lives outside our bedroom window, so he can tell the time of day.


• We still feel the need to pinch ourselves often - and we say to each other - "can you believe we are in Jerusalem having a flafel" or "can you believe we are privileged and blessed to be serving at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem ".


• Sarah Palin from the U.S. visited recently. The Mayor of Jerusalem also came to visit the Garden and inspect the controversial "wall" the Muslims have been constructing without permission right next door and on top of the Garden Tomb wall. The wall has been shabbily built, not according to permit, and over our protestations. This week, part of it fell down onto one of the worship areas. Forunately it happened while we were closed - but it could have been disastrous if people were worshipping underneath. Ironic that Sarah Palin was standing in that exact spot a few days earlier. Our director took pictures and emailed them to the Mayor, informing him the wall fell down exactly where the Mayor had stood three days earlier.


• There is a wide spectrum of people that visit the Garden. One day last week I walked by one of the worship areas, only to hear a pastor praying, " Thank you God for bringing us to the holiest site on earth". Not more than five minutes later I overheard someone at the front entrance ask, "So this is Jesus tomb? What did he do?"


• I read the book "Burkas and Beards" by Martin Goldsmith, on witnessing to Muslims and Jews. He said you have to understand the Muslim thought process before you can witness to them. One of several interesting examples - he talked to a group of high school students and afterwards was confronted by a group of Muslim students who aked how he could believe in a Bible where people would delete all the references to Mohammed from the book.


• From the Palestinian neighbourhood with women wearing long coats and scarves to MeaSharim with Orthodox Jews wearing black suits, white shirts, and sporting long wringlets and beards...just blocks away from each other...to Eilat by the Red Sea, a close resemblance to Cancun, Mexico....sometimes we feel we are on a different planet.


• Still I continue to learn from other guides who are genuine servants and examples of Christ's love on a daily basis.


• I have had opportunity to grow in Christ, share my faith, and give testimony to over 5000 visitors I have guided over the past 9 weeks - God continues to teach me that I can do better when I get home with my friends, relatives, and co workers.


• The day we left for Israel Glenda showed me the verse from her daily devotion. It was Mark 10:45 - "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many." It meant a lot to us as we departed for Israel - it means even more now that we can see first hand. We have no excuse for not serving when we have seen His example. God bless you and thank you for your prayers.

Shalom from Jerusalem

Shalom from Jerusalem! We have had a few emails from friends asking if everything is okay as the blog hasn't been updated in a while. YES everything is fine. I guess we have been busy and didn't realize that it has been so long. 3 weeks today we leave to come home to Canada. Sometimes it feels like we have been here for months and other times it feels like we have just arrived! There are still so manys things to do and so many places still to see. We have heard that British Airways may be going on strike right around the time we will be returning. We won't know for another couple of weeks if our flights will be affected, but it could mean that we may have to return earlier, stay longer, or return with a different airline. My coworkers at Menno Travel have assured me that they will monitor our flights; so I'm not concerned. We had a day off today so decided that we would go through our clothes and pack a suitcase with the clothes that we know we won't be needing for the next 3 weeks. Between the clothes and souvenirs we were able to fill one suitcase! We also need to do a thorough cleaning - wash out the cupboards, wash the windows, defrost the fridge and freezer, etc before we leave and since we will be busy with Easter we don't want to leave everything until the last week. Today we went 'exploring.' We walked to Mea Sharim street which is about a 10 -15 minute walk from here. It is an ultra orthodox Jewish neighborhood - a totally different world. We leave our Arab neighborhood where all the women have their heads covered with scarfs to this area that is exactly the opposite with the men with the long beards, long curly side burn ringlets, wearing the long black coats and black hats. We walked by an outside store where they were selling mens shirts - they were all white shirts as that is the only color you see men wearing. That is one of the things that I love about this place; that you can walk a few blocks in a different direction and see a totally different culture! I know all the historical, archeological sites are important and interesting to see, it's just too bad that the tours don't get an opportunity to see and walk around these neighborhoods as well. We then walked to Ben Yehuda street, got a coke, and sat at one of the tables and watched the people go by. When we got back to the Garden, we listened to the different groups worshipping and singing praises to God. Who could ask for anything more!!! Below you will see some pictures of Merv and Merla Watson who are from Abbotsford but spend most of their time here in Israel. We were introduced to each other via email from a couple of friends and last Friday they invited us to their home for Shabbat. What a privilege! There were 12 of us enjoying a traditional Shabbat dinner. It was a wonderful. After dinner, they put on a concert for us. Merv and Merla have been very influential in Israel - organizing and starting the Feast of the Tabernacles, International Christian Embassy, plus many other events in Israel. They were also the ones to introduce the Hebraic style of music and choreographed spiritual dance into worhsip. Merla composed the song "Jehovah Jireh" plus over 500 other worship songs. Their porfolio is long - I would never remember to tell you everything they have been involved in. Anyway, they performed for us, then their daughter who is also an accomplished musician and performer sang for us.

A few more pictures taken from our living room window!

We will send another update as we share our plans for Easter.

Shalom,

Don and Glenda

More news from Jerusalem

First of all, sorry for the delay in not updating this for the last few days. We have been busy with friends visiting from Canada.

I'm sure you have all heard of the bombing on Wednesday in Jerusalem. Don was on his way to the Tel Aviv ariport (dropping off some volunteers returning to England) and I was working in the gift shop when it happened. I heard the sirens but never thought anything of it as we hear sirens around here all the time. Don saw emergency vehicles driving in to Jerusalem as he was driving to Tel Aviv but only thought that there must be a bad accident behind him. We soon heard what had happened. The locals who work at the garden were very upset because it brought back memories of the infatada days of the 1990's, with all the bombings and unrest.

I'm sure you have heard that the lady that was killed was an evangelical Christian woman in her 50's who was studying ancient and modern Hebrew for 6 months in Jerusalem before she returned as a missionary to Togo, West Africa where she was working with Wycliffe Bible Translators. She had already worked on translating the new testament into the local language and would be returning to start translating the old testament. She had lived in Togo for the past 20 years, learning the language, translating the Bible and teaching literacy and maths.

We have not felt unsafe since this has happened. We still go out and about and carry on as we did before.
On Monday, some friends - Gordon Reeve and Sharon Poon, from Canada arrived in Jerusalem so we walked to their hotel to see them and pick up a care package that they had brought with them. Groceries from Canada - things that we can't get here or are too expensive to buy here. It was so good to see them and join them as we walked thru the old city. There were 27 in their group. We joined them for dinner on Tues evening and caught up on some of the news from home. On Friday they came to the garden for a tour (Don was their guide), and a communion and worship time. When we were accepted to come to the Garden Tomb and started to arrange the dates when we would be here, we wanted to make sure we were here when they would be here. So to be a part of their worship and communion was a very special blessing. Okay.....I had tears of emotion. It was sad to say goodbye as they left very early this morning.

Pastor Gordon Reeve at our communion service

Gordon Reeve, Sharon Poon, Don and myself in our apartment

I've been trying to get some pictures of the bees with the blossoms outside our living room window. I think when I get home I'm going to take a photography class so I know what I'm doing.

We realize that in a month we will be back in Canada. The time has gone so fast. There are still so many things we want to see and do. We are excited for Easter that is fast approaching.

We hope you will all have a great week-end.

Shalom!

Don and Glenda

On our 3 days off we decided to drive down to Eilat, Israel located on the Red Sea. On the way to Eilat we took one route and came back a different way. The first route was a little longer but had much nicer scenery. We drove thru Beersheva which is the beginning of the Negev Desert -Abraham lived in Beersheva, Isaac built an altar and dug a well here, and there are other mentions from the Bible. We noticed there were a lot more soldiers around; then realized how close we were to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Just after leaving Beersheva we saw this road sign to Sarah - and since we named our daughter after Sarah in the Bible we thought we should take this picture. Not too much further was the gravesite for Ben Gurion - he was an important leader in Israel's history in the mid 1940's playing a very important part in Israel becoming a nation.
From his grave site memorial there is a magnificient view of the mountains and wilderness of Zin. It is hard to get a picture to show how impressive it was - it reminded us of the Grand Canyon.

This is the view from our hotel balcony. We stayed at the Rimonium Eilat. It is a resort area and is on the border of Israel, Egypt and Jordan. As well you can see the mountains of Saudi Arabia. We felt like we were in a different world - it didn't feel like Israel at all. It was nice and warm - high 20's Celsius - although in the summer the temperature is in the 40's Celsius. We enjoyed our free time here, walking along the promenade, sitting around the pool, and visiting the Coral World Underwater Observatory and Marine Park.

The border to Egypt.

The next few pictures are from the underwater observatory and Marine Park. We spent over 3 hours here walking thru the different underwater observatories, watching a simulated "dive" in a theatre that feels and sounds like you are going underwater. We watched them feed the sharks and turtles, and took pictures of the different fish. So the next few pictures are for our grandsons who love watching the movie "Nemo."

It looks like it is smiling at us!

Don standing in the sharks mouth!

The coral reef from the observation tower.

A land turtle!

When we left Eilat we travelled to Timna Valley Park. Again it is hard to get pictures to show the beauty of this area. There are ancient Egyptian copper mines, cliff walls carved with figures of chariots believed to be from Egyptian times, and very different rock formations. The following rock formation is called "the mushroom," the result of erosion. There are hiking trails everywhere.

Some carvings in the rock believed to be from the Egyptian times.

It was a great time, but nice to get back 'home."

We continue to have groups by the bus loads visit the garden. As I sit in our apartment writing this blog, I hear worship singing all around me. Just today I had a lady approach me and tell me how priviledged I was to be able to work here. Of course tears immediately appeared and I could only nod with my agreement. The time has gone so quickly as we realize that we are half way through our time here. A man shared with me this morning, that his wife gave her life to the Lord here in the garden many years ago. During our prayer time at 1:45 pm we pray that those that come to the garden will be touched by the Holy Spirit and feels God's presence here. We have testimonies from so many as they are leaving that they did indeed feel God's presence. They thank us and yet we feel it is more a blessing for us than them.

We are looking forward to some friends arriving on Monday - it will be good to see some familiar faces from Canada. As Sabbath is starting here - we say Shabbat Shalom - This is the standard greeting between Jews on shabbat, from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday. It means peaceful Sabbath in Hebrew.
In Canada we say "Have a great weekend."

Blessings and hugs from Jerusalem!

Don and Glenda