Colourful Dreamer

What a day. I went back to the City of David, and bought a ticket this time. That came with a wee booklet informing me about of what I was looking at. Made much more sense this time. Then I went into Warren's shaft, (that's what I needed the ticket for), one of the first archeological digs from the 1800's, then down into the shaft dug maybe even before David for people to collect water out of the Gishon spring. I hadn't intended walking Hezekiah's tunnel (dug about 2,700 - 2,800 years ago) but three others came as I was leaving, so I just jumped on in there, shoes, socks and all. About 1/2 hour later we popped out at the pool of Shiloam (I make no promises for the spelling here) Amazing stuff to wlk through this windy shaft dug so long ago. This German group behind us just stripped off when they got out. Is there no shame?? Then dripping wet I headed off to my real aim for the day, to walk with Jesus on his last journey. I headed up Mt Zion, pausing at the Basilica ...

So much of how we see and treat each other is determined by how we describe each other. For example, I have been asked how are those "damned Palestinians" described by my Jewish Israeli tour guides. The short answer is, not. The word Palestinian was never used. Only Arab! (Which of course means they could just go live somewhere else cause all Arabs are the same. Soem of the tour group I was with, Americans, actually said this!!!) And historically they are described badly. Firstly, the Muslims (Arabs) closed the Golden Gate onto Temple Mount specifically to prevent the Jewish Messiah entering. They then built a cemetery in front of the Golden Gate as a second lien of prevention, as no priest (which the Messiah will be) can enter a graveyard, except their own. Well, that may well have been part of it, but I am sure that the desire to not have a large gate opening out from the enclosure around the Mosques to outside the walls was also a big part in closing the Gates. And Muslim...

Lent is about repentance. Often that is described as being sorry and aligning our lives with God, which I am sure it is. But I suspect it is more, and being in this place of division has helped me see that. There is a line in scripture that says that the sins of the fathers are visited on their children, and on their children's children. To put it another way, the consequences of our sins don't stop just because we confess our sins. The consequences continue. The relationships are still fractured. Injustice is still imbedded. The other is still suffering the pain. That is certainly true here. Israel and Palestine suffers from the sins of the past. The centuries of abuse, humiliation and murder of the Jewish people by Europeans in particular, that culminated in the Holocaust. All of Europe is accountable, and it is not enough to say that we will not forget. Arab and Palestinian refused to agree to the formation of a Jewish State and through violent means tried very hard to p...

The log of a hot hot day in Jerusalem! Today was the day of old and ancient. I began with a saunter through the Christian and Armenian quarters of the Old City. Then went up onto the Ottoman wall at Jaffa gate (it led to the road to Jaffa, or Joppa, or Tel Aviv now). Fantastic views! You walk along fortifications used by the Jordanians in 1947 - 1967. Snipers used the holes I peered through. I went over Zion gate, which still ahs the bullet marks from the Jewish fighters in 1947 trying to get into the city, and failing! I came off the wall just before Dung Gate, and then went into the Archeological Site at the southern end of the Temple Mount. It has been uncovered since 1967. I walked the Herod the Great's main street along the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. I climbed the Crusader (Templar) fortification at the southern end of the Mount. I walked through Early Muslim palaces built on top of Byzantine houses, and then walked through them as well. I walked up to the Hulgah Gates,...

One of the more moving things I have done was to go to the Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem. More than anything it helped me understand the imperative for the state of Israel, and the history of what we see happening today. I also grieved that so little has been learnt, and politicians and using the same lines to day as they did in the 1930's to wash their hands of the Jewish problem. What I hadn't known was that when Hitler first moved to push all Jews out of Germany, the rest of the world closed their borders. At an international meeting to discuss solutions, lines like, "It is an internal problem, we can do nothing", and (from Australia) "We have no racial problems here, so will not allow any Jews in" (Sound familiar?) Britian, under pressure from the Arabs, closed off Palestine, arrested the illegal immigrants they caught, and send any ships they caught back (to the death camps) What is also clear is that the Allied Command knew what was happening in the ca...

Well, I survived going to the Druze village. (I had to wear a dog collar again, with black cassock!!) The scene and the story from the village is really sad stuff. The Druze are a off-shoot of Islam, who follow Jethro, Moses father in law. They live in Israel, Syria and Lebanon. They only marry within their own people, and their religion is fully known only by their sheikhs, so is a secret. Anyway, a Christian boy and a Druze boy had a fight it seems, and the Christian boy cursed the Druze. To get him back, the Druze boy made up a story about there being pictures of naked Druze girls on the internet. This incited shocking violence, shops, houses and cars burned, the church attacked, and 3,000 Christians (I think) fleeing to safety. Even though the Druze boy has been caught, the violence continues. So so sad. Monday night Samuel and Susan invited me to go out with their family and another family to celebrate Valentines day. Midday is the main meal, so at 10pm we went to a very nice plac...

It didn't snow to day, but it was close while we were in Bethlehem. Today we have been to Bethlehem, which meant leaving our guide and bus in Israel,(as no Israeli is allowed into the West Bank cities) and getting a Palestinian guide and vans. It was very different with this group than being with the group last week. Some of them are struggling with the whole scene really. I am however grateful that it is quiet, and that I have had time to stop and pray there. After serious shopping in Bethlehem, we went on to the scale model of the Roman Jerusalem, which was very helpful. Then on to the via delarosa, lunch (at 2pm) and then on to Holy Sepulchre, again for me. I am begining to get into that place now, and am finding it much more helpful and deepening. After going to the Western wall, and praying again for peace, the rest went back to the bus, and I walked back through the old city. Most of our group were amazed I had even been to the old city on my own, and couldn't imagine wal...