Today we took a field trip to go see the Seperation wall. This is the wall that the Israel government put up around Israel to seperate the West Bank from Israel. They started building the wall back around 2001 when there was lots of terrorist bombings in an attempt to keep them out of Jerusalem. As you can see from the graffitti on the wall that many people have expressed their feelings toward this wall. Its sad to see the people divided like this.

The wall served its purpose in helping to stop terrorists attacks but it is also seperating family members from each other. I pray for a solution to be met that can compromise both the Isreali and Palestinian problems. I have learned to love both people and pray that they will be able to live together peaceably.

For one of our field trips we went to the Jerusalem Archeological Park. This is right next to the temple mount or where the Dome of the Rock sits. The ruins here date back to the 2nd temple period which is the period of the time of Christ. The stairs that Stephanie and I are sitting on are the original stairs that led up to the temple mount during the Christ's time. The temple mount had seperate gates for the entrance and exit. So where we are sitting is where the people of the time would have walked up to enter the temple. Way up in the top left hand corner if you look very closely you can see the filled in gate that was the entrance to the temple mount. It was filled in and part of it is covered because the Muslims have a mosque that sits right up from there. These are the stairs that the Savior would have used to enter the temple. It was on these stairs that Mary Joseph and the infant Jesus would of came when they came to offer sacrifice after the Savior's birth.

Where i am now is over to the right of the other gate. These gates are the exit to the temple mount. As you can see they have been filled in too. There are many events that happened on these stairs. One day when the Savior and his twelve apostles were leaving the temple and walking down these stairs they saw a beggar that was blind from birth. One of the apostles asked the Savior if the beggar had sinned or his parents had. Back then people believed that if you had an ailment of any sort you had sinned. The Savior told him that neither had sinned. The Savior then spit in the dirt and made mud and put it on the Beggars eyes and then told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. We know that the man did go wash and he was healed. What i thought was really interesting was that in one of the accounts of this story in the Gospels of the New Testament when the Savior is putting the mud on his eyes it says that he annointed his eyes and then told him to go wash. This eludes to the concept of washings and annointings.

This is a place that the director of the Jerusalem Center said was where he thought the pinnacle of the temple was. If it is this is where the Savior stood when Satan tempted him to jump down.

This is the road that is right below the previous picture. This is the actual ruins of the main road that existed during the time of Christ. This is another reason why the director thought that the pinnacle of the temple that is talked about in the temple was right above here. Satan wanted the Savior to jump down to prove to the people that he was the Messiah. This would be the best place to do it because of this main road. This was the busiest road during the times of Christ. This is where the majority of the people would have seen the Savior. Of course the Savior did not work that way and did not give into the temptation of the Satan. There are probably so many other stories that took place in these very places thousands of years ago. Its amazing to me to think of what went on at these places. My director told us a story of the 1st man on the moon. After he had already gone to the moon he came to Jerusalem and walked along the same stairs that we walked on which are the same stairs that the Savior walked on. He said that walking on stairs that the Savior walked on meant more to him than walking on the moon.