Another Shabbat, Gathsemane

2/2
Shabbat Shalom.
Went again to Jerusalem Assembly, where Meno is talking about end times, and then headed to the old city. Tae, Jen, Lexi and I headed to the Muslim quarter to go exchange money at Shabon's shop. Shabon is so helpful. He has such a neat little store with good prices and He is so good to us IBEXers. He had stools for us to sit on and had a boy go fetch us some mint tea that i'm pretty sure he had to buy and it was oh so good! Every time we go there is something to drink or food. It really challenged me. This man, whose eyes are blinded from the truth, could be so sweet and thoughtful with no reason! We didn't do anything to Shabon to make him be this nice to us yet he treats us with respect and generosity. As Christians we are told to love and we make it so hard and here is Shabon, generous and good to us. Ponder your life for a minute. Shabon a Muslim. I am a Christian. Why is it so hard for us to act out in generosity and love? How are we going to stand out, are we going to let others do our job?

Then we were on our way to buy food and Lexi wanted something other than Falafel so the place we stopped, it is common for the owners to stand outside their store to get you to come in, and the owner started asking us where we were from and why we were in Israel. He asked us our majors and Lexi said Bible and he started asking questions about if it was both the New and Old Testament or what exactly we believed. We clearly stated how we did not agree with Catholicism (Jews do NOT like Catholics or Christians even for that matter so you really have to explain who you are and what you believe rather than associate yourself with a word). He warned us not to get too involved with the Bible because there is a lot of weighty stuff. Man, he knew some of the Bible but instead ran away from it! It was really sad. Our sin is weighty but look at what was done for us! There is joy in this Book! Yet this guy was scared of the Bible. I couldn't get over the fact that he could not believe there was such a thing as a bible major let alone someone who would do it.

Anyway, my group walked to the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane. We went to a church, that had more to do with Mary, then a cave like one the disciples would have stayed in while Jesus prayed. Then we went into another cathedral which was beautiful.

the sanctuary where the example cave was for the disciples

outside the Cathedral

outside the cathedral

ceiling in the cathedral

group who went to the garden

Garden of Gethsemane

Our time was quickly gone and we headed back in the rain where the bus brought us back to Yad Hashmona.

Then we had Saturday Night live and I had the privilege of going to Natalie and Wendy's, our secretaries, to have yummy food and play games. It was fun getting to know people in my group more