Last Day in Israel


We are home!  We arrived in Charlotte this afternoon (Monday 2pm) after a lengthy flight that left from Tel Aviv at midnight Sunday night.  Our suitcases have been unpacked and our dirty clothes have been excavated from the depths of our suitcase and are in the wash.  Before I switch gears, I thought I would give a quick update on how we spent our last day in Israel.

Most of our group walked to Christ Church to attend the morning service.  We had planned to join them but in the end felt that it would be good to walk to an area where we could view the city and spend time reading Scripture and praying together over the city.  The Old City is fascinating to walk around as it is all stone walkways, walls and houses built on top of one another.  It took us a bit to find a place where we could sit and pray.  That ended up being right outside the entrance to the Temple Mount by the Western Wall.  We read Scripture from our phone out loud to one another and made sure not to bow our heads or close our eyes as we prayed as we didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves or give a reason for someone monitoring the area to be offended and make us leave that area.  Eventually we left there to find another bench in the square to pray as it was hard to concentrate at our original location.  It was nice to have some time to quiet ourselves and to reflect as husband and wife.  

We enjoyed one last Shawarma Laffa from one of the street vendors there…so yummy!  It was then on to Christ Church (Brent took a couple of pictures of the outside in the daylight) to meet up with our group.  There was an optional outing for the group to the Holocaust History Museum called Yad Vashem, located in downtown Jerusalem.  David pointed out several areas of interest along the way that included the YMCA, U.S. Consulate, the Prime Minister’s home and the Botanical Gardens.  

“Yad” means “hand or memorial” and Vashem means “name”.  It took several hours to go through and that was just skimming the surface of what was there.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside the main building so I must confess to screenshotting a few pictures from the internet that were impactful to me.  I cannot begin to capture what this meant to me, but my heart broke as I took it all in.  6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust…1.5 million of those children.  I hope to share a bit more in a later post.

We got back to the hotel in time for a last supper with our group and as I looked around the large table where we sat, I realized how much I have grown to love these special people.  I do hope that we will be able to stay in touch in the days ahead.  Our bags were already packed and so after a few final pictures (hoping to do a post about our group once I gather pictures from everyone), we dashed off to catch a taxi to the train station and on to the airport.  All went smoothly though Brent was not feeling well on our return trip.  I am hoping a good rest tonight will help.

Though our suitcases are unpacked and our laundry is about finished, we recognize that it is going to take some time to unpack, process and preserve what we have seen, heard and experienced during our time in the Holy Land.  There may be some additional “inklings” to add in the preserving process.  Thank you for joining us on this journey!

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