Last Day of Touring

Today is our final day in the Holy Land. Our first stop today was Ein Kerem where Zachariah and Elizabeth lived. The area included a church with a small garden and in the garden was a plaque on a wall in the garden that describes the prophecy of Jesus.

From there we went to the Bible Lands Museum, which turned out to be my favorite that day. It is an archeological museum that explores the culture of the people's mentioned in the Bible including the Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, Arameans, Hittites, Elamites, Phoenicians and Persians. We only visited a small part of the museum. I wish we could have spent more time there.

Then it was on to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. It was very impressive, but it was hard to look at all the atrocities. But the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations was beautiful and impressive. The garden honors the thousands of non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Their names are engraved on plaques in the garden and arranged by country.

From the we headed for our final stop - the Garden Tomb. It is the other site that is said to be what the tomb of Jesus is located. The Garden that includes the tomb was beautiful. Before going to the Tomb, everyone on the tour came together for a service and Communion. Bishop Sharma Lewis lead the service and preached. Her sermon was very moving especially where we were. After the service we headed for the tomb. The line was very long and it took us more than 30 minutes to get in to see the inside of the tomb. It was well worth the wait. I still haven't figured out which site I think it's the actual one.

The entire group had an early dinner and then we headed to to our room to pack, put our luggage out and go to bed. We have to depart for the airport at 1:15 am. Ugh.

It has been a good trip. I am so glad I was able to go. Knowing what the land the scriptures took place in, will engage my understanding of what I read. The trip has been a blessing.Read more