Easter Sunday in the Holy Land

Sorry that I am late getting this onto my blog. I was really busy my last couple weeks in Jerusalem. I did however want to show you what i was able to do on Easter while in the Holy Land. First off the majority of the people in Jerusalem are Jewish and they have their Sabbath on Saturday. Because of this pretty much everything is closed down on Saturday so we have church on Saturday. This leaves sundays open for us to go and visit the local christian denominations services.

So early sunday morning some of us got up bright and early at 4 o'clock so that we could get good seats at a Lutheran sunrise service on the Mount of Olives.

It was really neat to be able to see how other good people who have faith in Christ worship. It was good to see all the things that we had in common. It was good to see the truths that we shared as believers in Christ.

The service was a really good service as the Father of the congregation reviewed for us the Resurrection of the the Savior Jesus Christ. It was really amazing to sit on the Mount of Olives where so many things happened during the Savior's life and watch the sun rise.

As i sat on the mount and watched the sunrise i reflected on my Savior Jesus Christ. Just as the sun rose that morning the Savior rose from the tomb so many years ago and because of that day we too are able to rise again after death to be judged and live with our Heavenly Father again. Because the Savior was raised to an immortal perfect body of flesh and bone we too will be raised from the dead to an immortal perfect body of flesh and bone. I am so thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ and for the perfect life that he lived and that He rose from the dead.

After going to the service on the Mount of Olives we headed to the Garden tomb for another service, As you can see there were lots of people lined up to go to this service.

Here i am in front of the garden tomb before the service started.

The service was evangelacal. So they had a band and singers for the service.

The service was really good. We sang almost the entire time. I really enjoyed this service as we all sang together in praise of the Savior.

People raised their hands in praise and they sang.

Galilee in a blink

Sorry I do not have time to give you a full account of everything that i did in Galilee the 11 days that i was there so you are going to get the brief account. You can get the rest when i come home if you want to know more. Galilee was amazing! This is where the Savior grew up and where He did most of his ministry. One of the first stops on our trip was to Nazareth. This is where as you know the Savior grew up. We went to the synogogue that is built on top of the foundation of the original synogogue that the Savior went to when He got up and read out of Isaiah and said today "these scriptures are fullfilled in your ear". This is when He announced his Messiahship to the people of His home town and they did not believe him.

Below are pictures at the Mount of Beatittudes. This is where they beleive that Christ gave His Sermon on the Mount. The Church belows dome is in the shape of an Octagon 1 side for each beatittude. It was green with lots of flowers and behind the church if you looked out you had a view of the Sea of Galilee. The Spirit was very strong here and we discussed the wonderful sermon that Christ gave. This is where Christ gave them the higher law, The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Below is St. Peters Church at Taghba. Taghba is the place where the Savior feed the 5,000. It is also the place where Jesus called some of the 12 apostles while they were fishing. Also where Jesus turns and asks Peter 3 times if he loves him. Peter says yes three times and the Savior says then feed my sheep. Peter is also told that he is going to be leading the church. The church is to commenorate that event. Like eveything this is by the Sea of Galilee as well. I am looking out at the sea.

View of the inside of the Church. We were able to sing here for a while. While we were singing this other tourist lady joined in singing with us. It was really neat!

Palm Sunday

So as you know today is Palm Sunday. In Jerusalem it is a big deal. Palm sunday is to celebrate and remember the Savior's Triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This morning we went to the Church of the Holy Seplechure to a service. It was really amazing! There were lots of people packed in the church surrounding the Holy Seplechure. There are 3 different christian faiths that are present in the Church so they each had their own service. Alot of times at the same time. The one that we watched was the Catholic procession. They came in dressed in their Catholic clothing and they did some kind of service in front of the Seplechure itself. I couldn't hear them plus they weren't speaking english. After that they (there was A LOT of them) walked around the Seplechure in a procession carrying palm fronds. The organ was playing while the procession was going around the seplechure. It was beautiful! It was amazing to see all the different faiths come together because of their faith in Jesus Christ. We all got some palm fronds as they walked around and we were supposed to wave them in the air as they went around. Below is me with my one frond leave. I didn't have any when i first came but one of the priests I think pulled one off of his big one and gave it to me. I throughly enjoyed it. The pictures don't do it justice and i wish you could hear the music that was played.

Later today we were in a big procession where we carried palm fronds as we walked the route that the Savior went when He made is triumphal entry.

There were SO many people there as you can see the streets are packed. It was really neat to see all the different Christian faiths come out to celebrate this glorious occasion. In Jerusalem the majority of the people are either Jewish or Mulsim and although i deeply respect and love all the people who live here it was nice to see a gathering of people that share my faith in the Savior Jesus Christ.

This is just a fun picture i took of the Franciscan monks. They were so nice. I asked them if i could take their picture and they smiled real big and were excited for me to just that. After the picture they thanked me for taking it. There are such wonderful people that live here in the Holy Land. I am thankful everyday that I have had the opportunity to be here and get to know them.