My trip to Jerusalem Part 1

Disclaimer: before you begin to look at my pictures and see some really cool things I want you to realize that a lot of these sites and artifacts are argued over. What I mean is that some Bible scholars believe that Jesus was crucified in one location and others think it was some where else. So when you look at these pictures take them with a grain of salt. Because the most important thing is not seeing the exact spot where Jesus was buried it is that Jesus was buried and rose again to conquer sin. Keep perspective as you view the pictures.

Jerusalem is about 1 hour from the host family I am staying with.
I get one day off a week so they drove me up to the city for my day off.
I saw this sign and started to get really excited.

Before we arrived in the city we stopped at Ain Karem right outside of Jerusalem.
Maggie, the mother of the host family, lived here for awhile, and it has some great history.
Unfortunately she said that it has become too commercialized and houses have been built everywhere.
She said it used to be so nice with trees and plants but now a lot of it has been tore down to build.

This is thought to be the spring that Mary visited to get her  water everyday.
The outside stone is new,  but the original well is behind it.

We stopped at this ice cream place to get a cone to walk around with.
I picked cookie monster. yummmyy!!!

According to tradition, this is where Mary met her cousin Elizabeth and sang a hymn of praise.
Found in Luke 1:39-56

I was not able to visit all of these places because of time, but
I hope to later on. I just thought you should see them. 

Statue of the meeting.

I 

A well inside the visitation. Nothing explained
it's significance.

This is a sunset from the city of Ain Karem. These are the Jericho
mountains. How cool?!?

This is the church on the location where John the Baptist was Baptized.
It was closed when I showed up but I took some pictures from the outside.

This is the church from the outside.

This was my room at the hostel called Abraham Hostel. I
stayed with a two guys. One from Ireland and the other from
Canada. They were great guys.
http://www.abraham-hostel-jerusalem.com/

Some of the signs in the hostel. I thought they were pretty
cool.

The tour begins and the best thing is it was free!!

The outer wall of the old city. There are bullet holes in the
top of the stone from the 1948 war.

This is the Tower of David. But it was actually built by King Herod.
But during the Crusades the soldiers saw the magnificence of the
tower and instead of asking a local who built the tower
 they assumed it was built by King David.

This is Mount Alirot St. the name comes from the mountain
that many believe Noah's ark stopped on. It is in present day Turkey.
But was at one time in Armenia.

The street sign.

The Syrian Orthodox Church. This church advertises that it has
the upper room where the last supper took place, but only
the Syrians believe this.

Amazing view from  the rooftops of Jerusalem. It is almost the
exact same picture on the back of the 50 shekel bill. The picture
on the 50 shekel bill is of an author named Oren neu dag.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:50_NIS_Bill_Obverse_%26_Reverse.jpg
He wrote a book in 1954 about his beloved city that won
him the Nobel Peace Prize.He begins the book, "Jerusalem, a
city connected by its rooftops but seperated by its inhabitants."
This is still true today.

These are the pillars from the Roman era of Jerusalem. The Romans
rebuilt this road after destroying it. This was part of the main road
and referred to as Cardo which means center in Latin. This might
have been the very road Jesus walked down when he came to the city.

A picture of what it might have looked like.

This is a replica of a map found in Jordan where the original still is.
It is part of the map of the world they found. Jerusalem was in the
center of the map. And as you can see the Cardo runs right down
the center of the street. There is also no temple because it was
destroyed during this time. Something also different was that the
maps back then were oriented to the east not the north because
you could tell where the sun rose from, but no one knew how to
find north. This can be seen by what we say when we get lost.
We say disoriented not disnorthatized. For some reason that is not
a word.

This synagogue was originally going to be built by a 99 year old rabbi.
He came with 400 students to Jerusalem. The day after he arrived he died.
The students decided to build it any way so they all took out really big
loans they could not pay back from the Turks. They had the synagogue
built, but after 40 years when they could not pay the money back, the Turkish
Salton stepped in. To teach the students a lesson he destroyed the synagogue.
It was built again by another group and then destroyed by an earthquake.
Then rebuilt again by the Israelis and destroyed in the 1948 war. It was just rebuilt
and was just finished a few months ago. The name of this synagogue is the
"Destroyed Synagogue." Talk about a name that you might want to change.

Please Pray with me

The sunset from last night.

I am currently reading a book called “Experiencing God” (youth edition) by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V.  King. It is a book that my entire home church is doing. I just finished Chapter 1 Day 5, and it has been amazing. This book is different because it is not a self-help book. It allows you to study and understand biblical principles in your life. Not be told what to believe but to figure it out by living with God day by day.

On day 3 the book focused on learning to be a servant of God. It asked some questions that really resonated with me.

1. What differences will there be between the quality of service and the quantity of lasting results when God is working and when you are working?
2.  What are you doing in your life personally and in your church that you know cannot be accomplished unless God intervenes?
3. When we finish a task and feel frustrated that lasting spiritual fruit is not visible, could the reason be we are attempting very little only God can do?

After answering these questions I went out to do my evening feed of the sheep. While I was out there I talked to Nissim, the father of the host family. He told me that soon it will start the green season here on the farm. The rain comes and the fields turn green instead of brown. But he said that the past 3 years it has not rained and there was no green season. It rained a little, but at most it was only 10 mm. The first year with no rain, a lot of the sheep died because they were not used to it. Nissim also had a second business of making hay, but with no rain he had to shut it down.

Who controls the rain? God. Is this something I can create? No. It can only be down if God intervenes. This is exactly what question 2 is asking. Well I guess I am about to do something/ask for something that I cannot personally do. I also invite you to help me. I am going to pray nonstop for rain until it comes and it will come. This has been too long for Nissim to go without rain.

“Lord in front of all the people that read my blog and in front of you I pray in Jesus name that you bring rain. Lord, there are many things that are out of my control and the weather is one of them. So, I pray for rain here in Israel, but specifically on Nissim’s farm. He needs this rain for his livelihood. The sheep need this rain to live. Lord apart from you I can do nothing (John 15:5). So I ask that you let it rain, but not for my glory or Nissim’s glory, but for yours Lord. So that all these people on this blog know that you O Lord, are God. Answer me O Lord. In Jesus name, amen.”

First Day Shepherding!!

This is my outfit, sorry no man dress.

Part of the pasture. A total of 1000 acres.

Sheep barn top of photo. Part of my house lower left.

The main house.

The slide

The tree house.

Coffee!!!

More of the Pasture.

Hebrew Writing

The rest of my house.

Sheep

Sheep laying down.

Tractor

This sheep just gave birth to one of those lambs.

Pompey, the dog

Dio, the horse

Nissim, host family, making us a barbecue of sheep.

Pomegranate, one of the fruits of the New Year

Fresh tomatoes and food. No supermarket.

More to come!!!

In Israel....and Mom I Landed Safe

As the title states, I have made it to Israel. It is currently 7:00 am and the sun is up outside. I also found out that today is New Year's Day. Happy New Year!! This is marked by Rosh Hashana.

So before I go meet up with my host family I want to thank those that helped me get to the airport and tell you about the trip so far. Thank you Mom, Mark, and Grandma for the ride to Chicago. They also helped me eat my last meal in the US which was none other than Giordanoes Stuffed Deep Dish. Yummmy in my Tummmy

Then it was bye to the family and hello security line. Before I knew it I was on the plane to London and fast asleep. It was an 8 hour flight, and I slept all 8 hours. As we landed, I woke up and was ready to go exploring on my 11 hour layover.

First stop was fish and chips at a local pub called The Mitre Youngs.
The fish and chips were really good and I got a spot of tea with my email.
Also for future reference do not try to use a London accent. I did and failed miserably.

Then it was time to "Experience God"                                                         at the park. The book I am reading                                                         through with my home church, Granger Community Church.   

Kessington Palace

                                         

Kessington Garden

Afternoon Tea is a must in London

I saw this when I was getting on my flight to come to Israel. How fitting is this?

And finally I arrive in Israel. This is a picture of a menorah outside of the airport  in Tel Aviv. So now I am here and ready to go.  Lord my prayer is that you will make me moldable, flexible, and available here in Israel.                                                                                                                           

My bags are packed...

I am ready to go! My flight leaves at 10:45 pm tonight from Chicago. I have packed light, but I have everything I need. For those of you who are interested in what I am reading while I am gone my reading list is: The Holy Bible (ESV Study), A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Moonwalking with Einstein, Disciplines of a Godly Man, and Experiencing God. It seems like the perfect list for me to grow and learn about God. There were other books I really wanted to bring, but I would rather spend time reading the Bible not reading a book about reading the Bible. That is the Bible will be my focus and get the most attention.

My ChipIn widget is something that I put on my blog a few months ago. It allows people to give online while I am in Israel. I have had a total of 6 contributors online through this program, and I want to thank all those that contributed. But yesterday I was showing a friend my blog when they told me that the ChipIn widget would not let them give. Somehow the widget said the event had ended. I am here to tell you that this event is not over. The Devil will try in every way to shut down this trip and distract me from God. I pray for God's protection and power over this trip. And since this was caught before I left I was able to restart the event. This is why there is a new Chipin widget and is says 0 contributors. I pray that this does not discourage those who have already given because I want to thank those 6 contributors. I do not need a machine to tell me how much you all matter to me. So thank you for everything the prayers, the support, and the love.

For those who are keeping a tally of the length of my hair/beard this is how far I am. The sideburns are growing very slowly, but I am sure they will catch up. I mean they do have 8 months. But the beard is one of many changes I am making. The second and very important change is I am taking myself out of this global network: AKA twitter, facebook, cell phones, facetime, etc. Yes I will be keeping a blog, because I will be keeping a journal anyway. But this is only done once a week. The focus is on God not electronics or any thing else. I do not want any distractions. Yesterday when I took my phone into Verizon to have it shut off for 8 months it felt so weird, but at the same time I felt a sense of freedom. The freedom came from the fact that I will not have a cell phone tying up my time or taking my intention. My Pastor and great friend DC Curry said it best when he said, "A belief in God does not bind you or imprison you. It frees you from the things of this world." I live for God in freedom not bondage!! Thank you Lord!

Whelp see you later, United States. Bye my friends and family. Thank you for loving me just as I am and running along side of me as I run with Christ. I will see you in eight months.

Your Friend,

Patrick

The Subway Guy

God has been reaffirming my trip to Israel. The pieces of the trip are falling in to place, things that should not workout are, and I keep meeting random people. I met a guy at Subway when I was filling out my paperwork to take the year off of West Point. A recent graduate and I were having lunch when a guy sitting in a booth across from us said, “So which one of you guys is going to Israel?” What?!?! How did this guy know? He might have overheard us talking about it, but that is beside the point because he knew so much about Israel.

This random guy has lived in Israel, Egypt, Morocco, and some other Middle Eastern countries. He spent 90 days consecutively in Israel, but goes back often for 2-3 weeks at a time. Some of his time spent in Israel has been taking people from Youth for Christ to Israel on mission trips. This man was a God send, and he gave me tons of advice.

First, he told me to deamericanize myself.  I actually do not think this is a word, but I knew what it meant and he explained it. He said that Americans get a bad rap in Middle Eastern countries because they are often lumped into categories of rich, ungrateful, and lazy. They know Americans by the ones who talk all the time, but do very little. The best way to prove them wrong is not by saying, “I am an American and will prove you wrong…” The best way is by not speaking, but doing. By working hard and attempting to learn their language and customs, they will respect you so much more and they will be friends with you for life.

Second, friends made in these countries are friends that will die for you. Sometimes in America, especially with Facebook friends, we have shallow relationships. A friend of a friend’s cousin that we probably never met, but has 2 mutual friends with us often gets accepted as a friend on Facebook. This person you probably will never see, let alone die for. But relationships in Israel are not made on a computer. They are made by working next to, being genuine, and talking about life. Because of this you experience a deep and meaningful relationship that will last for a lifetime.

Last, he told me about a sacrifice a young Rabbi made to become a follower of Jesus. Something that we take for granted.  This Rabbi was from the lineage of David and had been learning and teaching for 17 years. He was set to be in charge of a Temple when he began to believe in Jesus Christ. He believed that Jesus came down from Heaven as fully man and fully God to give His life for our sins. He believed that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah! This immediately ruined his social and family status. In fact, he has a gravestone in Israel from where his family buried him. His family had killed him (in their minds) and done away with everything that could identify him. They threw away his passport, identifying papers, and clothes. This man, to this day, cannot travel outside of Israel, because he does not have a passport. He also cannot own land because to his family and the Israelite government he does not exist. He travels around Israel sharing the Gospel and the knowledge that he has from being a Rabbi to anyone that will listen. He seeks shelter wherever he can find it, but he never regrets his decision to believe in Jesus.

That’s crazy!! One random guy at Subway provided me with so much insight. Thank you, Lord, for putting this man in my life.

I REFUSE

I heard this song on the radio the other day, and it really describes why I am going to Israel. "I refuse to sit around and wait for someone else to do what God has called me to do myself." In an earlier post, I discussed that God has called me to Israel and that it was so strong I felt like God would send a whale down the Hudson river to swallow me up and take me there if I did not listen. It is crazy, because I sort of have a plan for what I am doing in Israel....shepherding (which is going to be awesome). But every mission trip I have been on plan A rarely ever happened, because God would call us to plan b or c or even z. Pastor Mark Beeson heard a voice from God in which He said, "I have provision you know not of, more than you can ask or imagine." I know for a fact that there are things that will happen in Israel that I cannot even imagine right now. And that is fine with me, because God has everything under control!! He always does.