well, the trip is almost over. we're leaving our hotel at 1:30am in order to make sure we don't miss our 5:30am flight. why are we departing jerusalem so early? first, the airport is a one hour drive away in tel aviv. second, israeli security will be tight and so we need to leave adequate time for our international flight. third, since our group is over 25 people we have to adjust for that as well. all told, i will be pulling an all-nighter until we fly to frankfurt, germany for our layover. from deutchland it's an 11 hour flight back to dallas. hopefully, my body won't suffer too much from the traveling as i was absolutely fatigued throughout today's activities.

our first stop this morning was a building that was first built by the crusaders as a church at a location in which they believed the prophet samuel was buried. that is highly unlikely, but the history of the building is one of intrigue. after the muslim reconquest, the church was converted into a mosque and the muslims even claimed that they had the tomb of samuel. fat chance at that. following the 1967 war in which israel acquired massive amounts of land, jews turned part of the mosque into a synagogue as they claimed to have the original tomb. so we presently have an original crusader church/fortress that is now a dual mosque and synagogue holding two different tombs of samuel. how weird is that. goes to show the uniqueness of this place. the most likely reason that the crusaders built the church was to give them an expansive view of the whole area. our tour guide told us that you can see half of israel on a clear day. wowzers.

we also visited a fortress that was constructed by herod the great and his minions. the fortress was taken over by the zealots during the jewish revolt that began in AD 67 and later was used by the byzantines as a church/fort. it is amazing to consider how such structures were built on topographical nightmares with the rudimentary tools of that era. although not as imposing as masada, this fort has one very important facet: it was the tomb of herod the great. newly discovered this past march, the tomb is missing the sarcophagus and thus the body is gone as well. we weren't able to go inside the tomb due to current excavations, but the public will be able to see once all the work is done.

we also were able to drive through bethlehem today on our way back to jerusalem. since bethlehem is a palestinian autonomous area, we had to go through an israeli checkpoint in order to get back into israel proper. i had hoped that we would have visited the church of the nativity as president bush had done two days ago, but time and logistics circumstances prevented this from happening. when bush visited the city, the palestinians initiated a lock-down by confining all residents to their homes while banning all vehicles from the roads. thus, bush's motorcade drove through a virtual ghost town that was filled with security that included sharpshooters and helicopters.

after dinner today, i did some retrospective thinking about my time here and my interactions with the people in my group. it is odd to think that i'm going back to america after spending over two weeks in the holy land. i doubt that i will be able to fully comprehend all that i've seen and experienced until i arrive back home and continue my life as a seminary student. the blessings that God has allowed me to enjoy have been numerous, and i'm so grateful to have been able to be a part of this study tour. one of the married guys here made a very important point that this trip to israel does not make us more spiritual and a higher class of christians than those who have never visited here. rather, we all should have the reaffirmation that Christ is Lord no matter where we are in God's created world and no one is better than the other in His eyes. although i would like to visit israel again, it would be awesome if my parents could have the opportunity to travel here and just take in all that is israel...past, present, and future. it is odd that i've made these long notes about some aspects about my trip so now i'm wondering if i will do the same when i go to russia in july. we shall see. for now, adios from israel and may God bless you for His glory.

the weather today was wet and fairly cold with the temperature below 50 fahrenheit the whole time. nevertheless, we were able to visit the old city amidst all the heightened security of president bush being here. our group had the chance to walk around the temple mount and view the dome of the rock from a very close distance. although non-muslims are not allowed to enter this muslim shrine, we were able to get a good view of the architecture and beauty of the building. the sad thing is that the dome is a testament to a false belief system that will one day fall by the wayside when Christ returns. there are arabic inscriptions located all around the dome that chastises christianity and judaism, but God will reveal His truth in due time.

on the way to the dome, we were able to see the western wall that all jews revere as the last part remaining from the second temple period before the romans ransacked jerusalem in AD 70. we might get to visit the wall tomorrow depending on time and weather constraints. due to the stringency of orthodox judaism, men and women are separated at the wall. so it goes. we also visited the church of st. anne, believed by catholics as the sight of mary's birth since anne was mary's mother. the acoustics of the church were awesome to sing hymns in and our group spent a good 30 minutes inside the church singing and praising God. it was cool.

our study group also traced the route of the via delarosa, known as the traditional roman catholic belief of the path Jesus took during the crucifixion. the via ends at the church of holy sepulchre as the location of golgotha and Jesus' burial. the building is divided up in ownership between various orthodox christian groups and even muslims. these christian groups (roman catholic, greek orthodox, russian orthodox, armenian, coptic) have elaborate decorations, murals, and relics that are crammed into the church. add to this the large groups of tourists and pilgrims that visit everyday and you get the feeling of being squished and pushed all around. the sad part about everything that i saw at the church was the veneration that these orthodox groups have for various objects that Jesus supposedly touched before He died on the cross. these people have totally lost the true meaning of the christian faith in building for themselves a jacked-up ideal of imputing salvific significance to mundane objects that aren't even authentic. the funny part about the church is that the muslims own the key to the main gate/door and thus they control the hours of operation. such is life here in jerusalem.

after eating lunch in the armenian christian quarter of the old city, we were led to a shop owned by orthodox jews. the owner of the shop proceeded to give a defense of judaism and comment how christianity fails to account for Jesus as the true Messiah and that christians misunderstand the truths of judaism. the man made what some would claim to be compelling arguments, but his words hold no water when held to the truth of Scripture in the old and new testaments. basically, this man is blind to the truth as fully revealed in Christ and he is destined for hades unless he believes in the Savior. sounds harsh but sometimes truth hurts.

to end our day of touring, our group went to the supposed burial place of king david and also visited the church of the agony where Jesus prayed in the garden of gethsemane. while at king david's tomb, the guys and ladies were again separated and us males even had to have our heads covered in respect for the orthodox jews there. at the church of the agony, we witnessed a catholic mass that was taking place and due to the latin being spoken in the liturgy i couldn't understand anything. oh well. before heading back to the hotel, we stopped for an overview look at the jerusalem skyline from the mount of olives as the sun was setting. it was a sight to behold and ponder as to how much history has occurred in the city of david. even through all the wars and conflicts from the past that continue through today, God has kept the city vibrant for His purposes.

we are supposed to visit hezekiah's tunnel and also walk in it tomorrow, but i'll pass since the mixture of tunnel water plus frigid weather would really mess me over healthwise. i guess i'll have to walk the tunnel upon my next visit to israel, haha. it's weird to think that the trip is almost over, but reality must set in sooner or later as i must start thinking about school matters. eh...

this rough summary of the day is long and i feel like some crazed blogger now. since i'm in another country i'll give myself a pass. laters from zion.