Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you.“ Psalm 122:6

For our final day we heard from Pastor Bill at the Mount of Olives, Pastor Rob in the Garden of Gethsemane, Yehuda gave us a fabulous tour of Jerusalem including the biblical portion of the Via Dolorosa, and we had another great message from Pastor Rob at the Garden Tomb. We sang “In the Garden” in Gethsemane and sang again together before taking communion later at the Garden Tomb. We ended our tour with a generous farewell dinner. Time and again we’ve been blessed by such wonderful hospitality and our last dinner was no exception. There was plenty of food for everyone. We prayed for and thanked our guide and bus driver. And we ended the night sharing testimonies about the trip’s highlights. Among those were the Bible studies (in particular En Gedi and the Southern Steps), singing in St. Anne’s Cathedral, and growing in our relationships with each other.

Ten days really flew by! What started as a long adventure ahead of us too quickly became past tense. Each day began around 6am for breakfast and most nights we didn’t get back to the hotel until 6pm. We averaged over 10,000 steps a day and 15 flights of stairs. We walked up hills, through tunnels, and all over the streets of Jerusalem. We rode camels, floated on water, learned the many ways to incorporate pita into lunch, and sang “Yom Yom Huledet” (the Israeli version of Happy Birthday) most days of the trip. Though we may be asking for new joints after this, we couldn’t have asked to have a better tour of Israel!

We leave Friday morning, Israeli time, and land at LAX Friday evening. Thank you for following along this journey with us! Thank you for praying for us! Please pray for us to travel well tomorrow, please pray for the four of our church who are staying on for one more tour, and please pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Shalom ve lehitra’ot!