And Then..........Ashdod, Israel

Our next port was Ashdod, Israel. We booked a tour and were ready to go at 7:00am. It was a 1 1/2 hour bus ride from the port to Jerusalem. During the ride, our tour guide gave us a crash course history lesson on Israel from about 500 b.c. to the present.

Our first stop was the Mt. of Olives where we could see the entire city.....what a view! It made me think of the painting "Oh! Jerusalem" by Greg Olsen. Then to Gethsemane, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. There was so much to see and so little time. We would have loved to spend a few more days there.

Unfortunately, many of the sites in Jerusalem are more like "shrines". Various religions have decorated them with gold, silver, candles, paintings, etc. and have seemed to take the simple, sacredness out of it. I didn't include many of those pictures in the slide show because they look too "commercial" like. Corey and I decided we needed to draw from within ourselves and our own testimonies and imagine what it must have been like when Jesus was here.

The most spiritual moment for me was walking up the hill from Gethsemane to Calvary. I kept thinking of Jesus taking this same steep walk after he was physically, mentally, and spiritually hurt and exhausted.

We feel blessed to have had the opportunity to spend the day here.

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