We began the day driving to the the Mount of Olives and to the Garden of Gethsemane. We spent some time just looking at the city again and seeing where everything is. Then we walked down the Mount of Olives to the Kidron valley along the approximate road that Jesus would have on Palm Sunday. Then we entered several of the olive groves located in the area where the garden was.   It was good to take some time there and just sit with Jill thinking of Jesus' surrender of his will to his Father. The Person of Jesus study has a lesson on the Garden seizure that is a favorite of our Trainers. Our gifted guide Tito poured into our hands 30 pieces of silver, actual silver coins from the 1st century. Jill and I were both struck how little money it was. On the bus ride to our next stop it struck me that a trip to Israel is "hardware trip", and what we do at seeJesus is "software". We can help the church with the software of what Gethsemane was like for Jesus in a way that makes it come alive, in fact, a way that prepares the church for loving in a chaotic world. We then traveled back to the west side of Jerusalem and walked through the old crusader fortress that has been converted into a museum that reviews the history of Israel. I learned a ton about the Muslim years in the city. We walked back to the Temple and waited in line to go through Jordanian security to go on the Temple Mount which is controlled by Jordan. It is the third holiest site in Islam. Jill had bought an Armenian Orthodox cross just before we went to the line and the Jordanians took it from her. ] They don't allow any crosses or Bibles on the Temple Mount. Jill was less than thrilled. As we walked up to the top of the Temple Mount the West Wall is on the side. It is the most sacred site in Judaism because it is the closest to the Holy of Holies. Orthodox Jews will not go on the Mount because they might accidentally walk where the Holy of  Holies is.   ]

The Dome of the Rock is seated right where most people think the Temple was. Inside across the dome it says, "There is one God Allah and he does not have a son." Only Muslims are allowed inside the Dome of the Rock. I had one of many ahha moments on the Mount. In Acts when Paul was accused by the Jews on the Temple mount of bringing Gentiles into the Temple a riot ensued and the Roman garrison intervened and grabbed Paul. Twice Jill and I have seen soldiers running to "problems". So in 2000 years the police are doing the same thing in Jerusalem. We walked from the Temple Mount down to the Via Dolorosa through the Arab quarter where we had some pizza. It was fun watching the incredible variety of people walking through the "cardo", the north-south road that ran through the ancient city. We walked over to the pool of Bethesda just north of Temple after singing in St Anne's church, a church with amazing acoustics. It was moving especially for Jill to see Bethesda thinking of Kim. The lame man in John 5 was healed by Jesus there. We walked through the Sheep Gate above the Temple where tradition tells us that Stephen had been dragged to his death by stoning. We got on our bus and traveled east to the Judean desert along the highway the parallels the old Jericho-Jerusalem road. It becomes desert almost immediately. We stopped at a Wadi with a great view of the desert and into Jordan. Some Bedouins were offering camel rides for 2 dollars, which I immediately took them up on. I was unable to convince Jill.

  After dinner we took a long walk to Yahuda street, did some shopping and then tried to find a toy shop inside the old city and returned about 9 a bit tired. Someone's pedometer showed that we'd walked 9 miles today.