This is the hardest post to write, because it requires me to only choose a few photos. This is a task I find that I am incapable of doing. The trip was 11 days in length, from start to finish, with over 2000 photos and over 100 videos and clips. That being said, I will do my best to highlight where I can and update it as process through the trip.
To say it was easy, is the farthest from the truth. The trip was hard, with long days and exhausting amounts of walking in sun and heat. Yet, above everything else, it was worth it.
On the first day, we went from the Mount of Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane; stopping at the stone that Jesus prayed at.
From there we took a bus to the tomb of King David and went to the Pit that Jesus was hung in the night before He died. While he was bruised and beaten, harnessed in rope, they hung him by his chest in a pit. It was dark and there was just enough rope that the tips of his toes scraped against the floor below him.
After a brief rest and lunch, we left for a local museum, showing long hidden truths of scrolls and architecture that still lays hidden beneath the city. After dinner, we left for the Western Wall and the tunnels that run below them. Amidst the dark and damp tunnels, where pools lay hidden, parts of the wall were exposed. Many of us stopped to pray, some even laid their prayers in the hidden cracks and seams.
This is only day one of the trip. To uncover the ten days we were there, would take much longer and include so many fragments of the beauty of the country and those that I accompanied. I will say, the presence of the Lord rests upon that country, and I pray that a fraction of it will encompass the USA.
On the last day, when we left for Italy, my soul felt grieved to leave the comfort and peace of His presence.