Jerusalem (The Holy city)

Good Morning!! It's 9:23 am here in Isreal. We have been spending the last couple of days in Eilat, which is the main city on the border of Sinai. It has been REALLY hot!! We will eventually tell you more about our stay here, but for now we have some pictures to share of our journey in and around Jerusalem. We will be doing two entries on Jerusalem because of the huge amount of pictures we have! It is such a beautiful city and we really enjoyed our stay there.

Amoung the landscapes there is a sunrise picture which was taken from the roof top of the first hostel we stayed in called the Citadel( we will have pictures of this AMAZING hostel in the next blog). You will notice in a couple of the pictures a building with a round golden dome, this is "the dome of the rock" where in the Muslim faith Mahommad ascended to heaven.
During our stay we went on a tour to the Mount of Olives seen in the second picture. While on the tour we visited the Jewish gravyard which is one of the oldest in the world. (pic 4)













While we were on our tour through the mount of Olives we visited many different "churches". The one alot of us would be familiar with was the Holy Sepelachure, where Christ was assumed to be crucified and buried. You will see the beggining of the"amusment park" line up of people waiting to step inside the elaborately decorated Alter, where christ was crucified.










Following that picture is four pictures of the french church "Pate Nosta" which is latin for "the lords prayer". scattered throughout the building are various translations of this prayer in many languages. We believe the last one is Korean (Diana this ones for you).




We have displayed next the "church of all nations" which was something of a large community project where several nations stationed locally and abroad had partnered to build. The architecture and mural on the face are stunning displays famous for both greek orthodox and catholic church buildings.
















This is Johanna standing in part of the Garden of Gethsemane, where it is recorded that Jesus was found praying the night they arrested him. Nic is seen in a picture with a random church in order for him to not feel left out...lol. You have the Western wall aswell The only remaining portion of the Jewish Temple during the second temple period. It is still believed by jews, to have retained the shikina glory (Glory of Gods presence). Aswell it is used as a wonderful open air synagogue where they come on a regular, almost religous(lol) basis to pray.I(Johanna) found it interesting that the men and women are not allowed to participate together in worship, and the womens quarter was literally one quarter of the wall, leaving three quarters to the men.








This is our gate/old city wall collection. First we have the Jaffa gate (one gate of about 8 different gates in total) which was our main entrance into the old city portion of Jerusalem. Next is a pic of Johanna walking along the top of the wall, These walls and gates by the way were all built during the 15th century making them almost 500 years old although the foundations in various places are actually millenia older. Johanna is also seen standing in the cavern stairwell, with a zombie like expression, leading to what seemed like a tomb(it had no light and was very eriee....).





The Stadium looking picture is a top view of the damascus gate (leading toward The biblically recorded city of damascus, Syria. The home of Paul the apostle.)beside that pic is a face view of the same gate.












Hope you enjoyed our picture show. Stay tuned for part 2 of Jersalem, and the continuation of our journey through Isreal. We have been enjoying it so much so far being able to see new sights and learn about another culture. Nic and I have had many opportunities to grow together as friends and as husband and wife. Quite appropriately Gods Grace has been carring us through some difficult learning/growing and not killing opportunities, understanding what it means to really "love" someone, apart from emotional sentiment and passionate pursuits. We look forward to what the remainder of the Kelly quest will include....

Thank you all for your love and prayers