My Day Off

For the next two days we will be going on our field study of Shephelah, Negev, and the Judean Wilderness and the Dead Sea so I thought I should update this before I go. Yesterday (Sunday) was our day off, and I decided to go check out a church service in Jerusalem. I ended up going to a Lutheran church here with some people from JUC and it was in a small chapel. The pastor was a women from somewhere in the southeast in America, and she was very energetic to say the least. The service was in the form of liturgy reading and the whole congregation was pretty much American, hehe, so much for a new experience...although going to a Lutheran service was a new experience. One of my friends, after the service said: "I could tell she was feminist and pro-palestinian." The service lasted for about an hour, and they had communion as well. After the church service my group went on the Rampart walk, which is when you can walk along the top of the Old city walls, and that was really fun. I got to know my fellow colleagues a bit more, and it was a great time! We then headed back to the school, and I took a nap first of all because I was locked out of my room, and secondly, I didn't feel too well. As I am typing I am feeling congested and my throat burns...sad! But anywho, I took a nap and then realized that I had to study because we had a test today (Monday), so I studied with the girls, even though I had no idea what to study first and where to even begin to look, we have covered so much! The test went well... I think.. :) At least now I know the format of the test and what to expect. Since we had a test this morning followed by two hours of lecture, they allowed us the afternoon off, so me and some of the girls went into the old city to walk the other half of the Rampart walk. We got off at Dung gate and went into a shop that was called "Temple Treasures" where a Jewish man from England told us we should drink since we are old enough to drink here in Israel. Then he gave us the directions to a wine shop and told us to tell the guy there that he sent us, and that we should taste the wine. We were all laughing as he said "I'm serious." Don't worry guys, we didn't go there. After that, we came upon the Church of the Sepulcer, where they say Jesus tomb is (ummm he's not in the tomb, He defeated death and rose again!), and where they also say to have a piece of the rock in which the cross was mounted on Golgotha. It was really crowded, and people were rubbing the rock and kissing it...these things here, these places are being worshipped by people. Noooo! It's really hard to try and reflect upon all of these places because there are so many tourists and people. From there we went down to the Christian Quarter and visited Zac's and Shabaan's shops again...I think those are the only places I've really shopped. They are both really nice and its cool to hear their stories. As we made our way back to JUC in the cool of the evening, we heard the sound of singing and acoustic guitar as we came into the gate, and so we headed over to it. The people from Western Seminary were having a time of worship and prayer, and it was great, I am so grateful to God for these people. By that time though, I was so congested, I couldn't sing one note. I was okay with that, and understood that maybe God just wanted me to listen this time. I haven't known how to take in everything that I am learning here, and everything that I am seeing around me...all I know is that my heart breaks. I am here, somewhere near the place where Christ bought me with a price...His precious blood.