Israel 2011 Praise Orchestra Trip

This was our second trip to Israel. All the orchestra members were new to us with half being students at the North Greenville University. Many of the sites we visited were different from our last trip so it was another exciting adventure. The blog on our first trip can be found here: Israel Praise Orchestra Trip. What we plan to do here is interweave HD video with the slides. However, either we haven't figured how to use it correctly or Picasa has a few bugs to fix, so it isn't as smooth as we would have liked. The caption from the slide previous to the video persists, so ignore it, and the slideshow must be advanced when the video is complete. We will go through the trip day-by-day.

Sunday

We actually arrived Saturday at 4 in the afternoon. We first checked in to Christ Church Guest House in the old city of Jerusalem, and after dinner and meeting most of the team we had our one and only rehearsal. Then on Sunday morning we had our first concert at Jerusalem Baptist Church. In the afternoon we went to the Prayer House, which we had seen on our first trip. Pictures of that are in the 2010 Israel trip blog. Prior to the Prayer House we did make a quick trip to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity. (It is in Palestine, and necessitates going through checkpoints, but it is very close to Jerusalem.) Again, there are many more pictures on our earlier Israel blog. While we were driving around we took some videos and a few more pictures. Remember, the videos are HD and, depending on your download speed, may not download in real time. These are shown here.

Monday

Monday we spent the day touring the area in and around Old Jerusalem. Our guide grew up in the old city, and was very familiar with the maze of little alleys. We saw the City of David outside the Southern Wall of the city, a house excavated that was burned during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the Western Wall and the Temple Institute. The City of David has ruins that are believed to be part of King David's Palace. The Burnt House is reasonably intact but has ashes all over the floor from the burned roof. We were not allowed to take pictures in the Temple Institute, which was one of the highlights of the whole tour. The Bible states that the temple is to be rebuilt before Jesus Christ returns. The Jewish people of the Temple Institute are constructing all the elements defined in the Book of Exodus. The clothing, musical instruments, the lampstand, the washing bowls, the showbread racks, to name a few items. Although we couldn't take photos of the elements they can be seen here. We actually saw all of these items, behind locked glass doors. Our lead trumpet player had the privilege of playing one of the actual silver trumpets. The Jews are getting ready for the return of their Messiah, still believing in a political Messiah, and have all these items waiting. When the time is right they plan to rebuild the temple, for the third time in history. But their Spiritual Messiah has already come, as believed by many Messianic Christians, Jews that have understood the coming of Jeshua, Who will be returning again shortly. The reason that this was so exciting it is just another Bible Prophecy relative to the second coming of Christ that is being fulfilled. We ended the day by giving a concert at the Yuval School of Music and the Arts. The photos and videos we took on Monday are shown here.

Tuesday

We began the day by going up the Mount of Olives and then drove down to the Garden of Gethsemane. These were sites that we saw last time and only took some additional photos and videos of Old Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. We then went to the Garden Tomb and again, had communion there. There are many more pictures here. Then we spent a good bit of time at the Davidson Center and the Ha'Ofel Archeological Gardens. These centers concentrate on the South and Western walls of the Temple Mount. These excavations were very interesting as they still clearly show the impact of the Roman siege of the Temple Mount. We ended the day by leaving Jerusalem and giving a concert at the Israel College of the Bible. We were running kind of late so weren't able to get any photos. Leaving Jerusalem may have been timely because they were predicting the potential of snow in Jerusalem on Wednesday due to a large storm coming in off the Mediterranean. The other photos and videos we took this day are shown here. On the last half of the Southwestern Corner of Temple Mount video you can hear the Muslim call to prayer emanating from the El Aqsa Mosque minaret.

Wednesday

Wednesday was highlighted by the fact that the big storm hit and it was extremely windy, cold and wet. But we braved the weather and went out and enjoyed ourselves. First was Caesarea. We were there last time but this time saw more new interesting features like the Roman Aqueduct supplying water to Caesarea. We had fun watching the large waves hit and go over the sea wall. After Caesarea we went Nazareth and spent time in Nazareth Village, an actual rebuild of Nazareth in Jesus' time with craftsmen demonstrating crafts with the tools of the time. Then we went to the Sea of Galilee and took a ride on a boat on the sea. The highlight was listening to the crew singing worship songs in Hebrew and English. The pictures for this day are shown here.

Thursday



The day began with a concert at the Museum of the "Jesus Boat", a boat excavated from the Sea of Galilee and determined to be 2,000 years old. Last time we gave a concert outside but because of the rain, this time we gave the concert in a room open to the lobby of the museum. We then went to the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter, where tradition states that Jesus reaffirms Peter as chief of the apostles. Then we went to the ruins of Capernaum, again, a place we visited before. We then visited the Church of the Beatitudes where tradition says Jesus taught the crowd the beatitudes. We ended the day with a concert at a messianic church. The photos and videos for this day are shown here.

Friday

This was our last day and very interesting. It began with several of our team wanting to be baptized in the Jordan River. So we went to where tradition states that Jesus was baptized and they were baptized there. We then went to Mt. Tabor, where tradition says that Jesus was transfigured and ascended to heaven. The top of the mountain was in the clouds so it was very damp up there and too foggy to see much. After that we went to the tell at Megiddo. This was a very interesting end to our trip. The tell is an archeological dig made up of something like 27 layers, where each layer represents another time in history when the city of Megiddo was destroyed. It was strategically located at the juncture of primary trade routes and so as the Northern Kingdoms invaded they destroyed Megiddo and as the Southern Kingdoms invaded it was destroyed again. Megiddo has an amazing view of the Jezreel Valley, which is believed to be where the Battle of Armegeddon will be fought - the final battle talked about in the Bible, at the end times when Jesus returns. The valley could be the place that Revelations 14:20 says the blood will be up to the horses bridles. Viewing the valley one sees how immense it is and realizes how much bloodshed that really amounts to. The photos and videos are given here. We ended the tour by going back to the Roman Aqueduct since after the rain washes away a layer of sand, small archeological finds are often revealed. We managed to find quite a few pieces of pottery, and a couple of pieces of Roman glass to bring home.