Day Five of Our Isreal Trip

Well we have completed day five and we are now in Israel, and in fact we are in the city of the great King, Jerusalem. It was a great day of travel and sight seeing.

Our morning began at 7:30 as we boarded the bus for Petra. This city is an ancient city that was built in the mountains of Petra. It was a bustling city and it literally was carved out of stone in the mountains. We walked into the ruins that were discovered in 1812. This city had been covered up after a massive earthquake destroyed the city. There was evidence of pagan god worship, a Treasury, burial sites and caves that people lived in. Jaida traveled into the city on horseback along with David Kress and Karen Butler. The rest of us, in desperate need of exercise, walked about 2km to the site.

It is hard to believe that man could build the things that he has build throughout history. These old buildings were carved out of the stone of the mountain with none of the modern equipment that we now possess, and the detail is awesome. We spent about 2-3 hours in the ruins looking at what used to be a bustling city and then made our way out of the mountains. We had a three hour bus ride in front of us so that we could be reunited with our guide Zvi and our driver Colby. We traveled about one and a half hours and stopped for a traditional Jordanian lunch. It was very good. We then re-boarded the bus for the Jordanian border. We said goodbye to Khaled our Jordanian guide and crossed over into Israel without any problems (namely me).

When we cleared customs and passport control we headed for Jerusalem. It took us about 45 minutes to drive. We passed by Jericho which is the oldest city, and traveled up through the West Bank to enter Jerusalem. Once in the city we made our way to Mt Scopus, which is where it is believed that Jesus would have looked over the city and wept when He made His way into Jerusalem. It was a great moment and we prayed a thanksgiving prayer for the trip and a blessing to the city of Jerusalem. We then made a toast to the city with some grape juice. After leaving this area we made our way to the Grand Plaza Hotel for the next three nights.

We will be visiting several sites while here in Jerusalem. It will be a great three days and I will post our visitations tomorrow. In the meantime be sure to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.