Eternal life with him

We began our morning by going to the Mt. Of Olives. Mr. Schenk showed us his ideal classroom setting looking out on the city of Jerusalem. We were in the book of Zachariah as we looked at the focus on the feast of Sukkoth, which is one of the Jewish feast days. We can also see that Zachariah is like a prophecy for Jesus as he descends down the Mt. Of Olives and for his second coming. We then saw a cemetery that was on Mt. Of Olives, and it is a popular spot for Jews to get buried and also very expensive as it costs $70,000 to have a spot.

Before we went to the Garden of Gethsemane, we stopped in a nearby field and were given the opportunity to read Psalms 22 and reflect and have time on our own to pray and read. Our next stop was the pool of Bethesda. Here we looked at the story of the man who was paralyzed and healed by Jesus by the pool of Bethesda. Mr. Schenk made a comparison between this story and the story of the blind man in John 9.

We were then led to where people think is where the trial with Jesus and Pontious Pilot was. We then walked along the via dolorosa, which is the road to the cross. On the way, we stopped by an Ethiopian church. We ended up at a church that was supposedly where Jesus was crucified. We continued our journey to the Garden Tomb. Between the church and the garden tomb, we walked through a market place. It was a bizarre eye opening experience as we saw the amount of people walking down narrow streets and how different it is from what us Americans are used to.

At the garden tomb, people think that Jesus was buried there. One thing that was said that was interesting is that it doesn't matter whether or not it is the actual place he was buried, all that matters is that Jesus died for our sins so we can have eternal life with him. We then went to Jerusalem University to see where Mr. Schenk took some classes while he was studying in Israel. We also got to experience shopping in the market place. This was a great way to end our trip here in Israel. I believe that we as students can all say that it was a fun time and that we are really happy that we could experience what we did.

—Yonathan T.