Miserablites

Horizontal rain, heavy rain, cold rain, light rain, drizzle, streets became rivers and parking lots became ponds. We were a bunch of soggy Christians today touring the Holy City. On a nice day today would have been great. With cold, wet, bodies in an unrelenting rain today was still...pretty good.

Unfortunately there was no leisurely stroll through the city of David, there was no trudging through the knee deep waters of Hezikiah's tunnel (totally bummed me out) and every stop was a brief look as we quickly hurried by each point of interest looking with great anticipation for anything that resembled shelter. Needless to say today was not ideal Israel. We were miserable. We were Miserablites.

After waiting in line for about an hour or so we started our day at the temple mount on Mt Moriah. This is the place where the first two temples were built and now there sits a large Moslem building. It's the giant golden dome that is a major landmark in the "skyline" of Jerusalem, though it has nothing to do with Jewish culture, it goes to show that this place has been a place of battle and a kingdom home to several religions and nations. It's also goes to show that God is not to take up residence in one structure made by man, He's to big for that.

After we passed by the temple mount we quickly hurried back through security to find the bus and headed for the City of David (1 minute bus ride). This is a place I wish I could have tarried a bit.

The city of David has so many significant bible stories that took place there. We learned a lot about its history and continually changing structure. We even walked through a tunnel today that is newly discovered. They are finding out new things all the time about this amazing city, even discovering that it's much larger than they had thought all these years. It was very powerful to know today that I had waked down a street Jesus would have most likely walked or maybe where David danced. It's kinda like the feeling I get when I walk on the field of an NFL stadium or an NBA court knowing what kind of celebrity athletes have played there...only walking where Jesus walked is like that, times a million.

At this point umbrellas are broken from the high winds, outer layers of jackets and clothes are soaked through, and a constant chill is evident by the faces of the group. We decide to retreat to our new hotel and change clothes and to warm up.

After that we left for lunch, shopping and one more visit to a museum where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept.

As we journey from place to place that's mentioned in the bible, seeing evidence of actual scripture being found, and seeing it all confirmed right in front of us it's hard for me to understand how people (especially those living here) don't believe in Jesus. It breaks my heart that people that live here, that practice other religions, are missing it. They walk by physical evidence of Christ and deny Him with blatant ignorance of the scripture. I don't get it.

If anything my faith has been strengthened and confirmed more in the past week and a half than I thought possible.

Now where can I get a cup of tea?