Jerusalem!

Holy Land Trip, Day Three, January 23, 2011

Up in the Lobby of the hotel for morning prayer at 5:30 a.m.  Breakfast then off to the days sites which would culminate with our arrival in the Holy City - Jerusalem.  Our first stop was at the Church of the Nativity in Nazareth.  The Church of the Nativity is perhaps the most impressive Church in the Holy Land from a contemporary aesthetic.  It is one of the most recently constructed and is built over the top of previous churches and over the traditional site of the Annunciation.

 Julie did the devotional for the group and was great helping us not only to think about Mary, but also to think about what we can learn from Mary's "pondering" God's plans in her heart.

From Nazereth we drove to Har Megiddo (Armeggedon).  This is an archaeological Tel which has excavated down to the time of the Canaanite, to King Solomon, to the time of King Ahab, one society building over the top of another.  I have been reading James Michener's The Source to get ready for the trip and that helped immensely in understanding what I was looking at here.  One of the chief eye openers at Har Meggido is the tunnel that goes down to the water source which allowed the people who lived there to hold on to the town longer when invaders were laying siege to their city.
From there we drove to Caeserea Maritima (Caeserea Maritima) and visited Herod's impressive excavated Harbor City.  Also drove a bit north to see the Roman aqueducts.  Amazingly impressive work.

Arrived in Jerusalem as the sun was setting and checked into the Olive Tree - had a wonderful dinner and then took a walk down to the Damascus Gate of the Old City.  Stopped at a Bakery near the Damascus Gate and picked up a treat to end the day.