Jerusalem House Of Prayer

We stayed at JHOP for our first two weeks in Israel (that was back may 26-June 10). Its located right on the top of the Mount Of Olives! how cool! Down the one side of the mountain was the Garden of Gethsemane and there are beautiful old olive trees everywhere. We enjoyed delicious pita and cucumbers and hummus for breakfast everyday! :) I loved how their prayer room was set up, they had the room on the roof in a glassed-in circle. The view was incredible looking over Jerusalem. It was always so windy at night, I loved it :) :) A constant cool breeze up on the mountain :) One of my favorite thing about Israel, especially being up on the mount of olives, was the wind… there is always this beautiful refreshing wind cascading over your skin, bringing a coolness to the night, dancing around you as you pray out over the city lights. mmhmm [Ruach].. BREATH. WIND. SPIRIT. This place is filled with beautiful hearts who are passionate about Jerusalem and seeing restoration between jews and arabs and seeing the Lord return to restore a New Jerusalem. It was so great to be able to participate in their 24/7 watches. I was so blessed and encouraged by some of the staff I got to know really well, they were so helpful and sweet to us, the Old City was a short bus ride away and we tried to get down there every other day between classes and homework. I helped to lead the 8-10pm prayer/worship set :) its was so fun, I had my lovely Chinese lily rocking out on the djembe and sarah on the keys then I played guitar and sang, though we may not be the most talented I had so much fun just worshipping out to the Lord not worrying how we sounded, the Lord puts songs in our hearts and I believe he delights so much in when we sing them out. A couple times while there our group was hit with some conflicting beliefs touching on the edge of extreme christian zionism.. it provided for good discussion and a time of learning for our team and talking through what exactly the bible says about Jerusalem and Israel and the end times, its something that still confuses me but I'm not sure we'll ever really know all that stuff, I don't think thats the point. As stated by one Israeli in regards to end time theology.. "when that becomes your focus, you lose your focus." The prayer house was filled with people of many nations and generations.. people from france to china, to korea, and Kirghizistan, it was so awesome to fellowship in the same house with so many believers of such different backgrounds. Every friday night then, for Sabbath, or Shabbat, we would have a big feast together :)

Garbage City and the Cave Churches

Back in May when we were in Egypt we toured some old churches started by the coptic christians up in the mountain sides. The churches are built right into the cave and are so beautifully structured with bible verses and pictures carved into the walls. The largest church holds 10,000 people, the other 2,000 and then a smaller one holding 200. On thursday nights they have prayer and healing nights where miraculous healing have taken place, blind seeing and people standing up and walking out of their wheelchairs. According to stories, back in the day the mountain surrounding the churches moved  after the prayer of a very faith filled man Simon the tanner. The people could see the light shine through as the mountain lifted. You can read more about the story of the miracle here. These beautiful cave churches are surrounded by what is called garbage city. The city is made up of walls and walls of trash, a giant slum it looks like from the outside but a business none the less from the inside. All of Cairo's trash gets brought and dumped here and people work all day long sorting through the trash in the bottom of run down buildings. They sort through things that can be recycled and reused. We were told that above in the tops of these buildings the business owners live in luxury. The city is mostly christians and muslims do not work here because of the many pigs roaming around. Many people are born into the life of a garbage collector and few are able to have the money and chance to get out of this lifestyle. We were only able to drive through but I would have loved to meet some people, the city was packed full of trash as well as numerous people out and about, lots of men sitting around smoking hookah as well, a common pastime here. The priests of the churches up on the hill have helped out Garbage city in many ways with building hospitals and school and teaching sanitation.

along the nile

During our time in Egypt we had the chance to take a nice boat ride down the Nile. It was so refreshing from the hot day. We cruised, took photos and just reflected. It so crazy to think of little Moses floated in a basket in that same river. Our contact told us how 70% percent of Egypt revolves around the Nile. Its their life source. Thinking about that, and thinking of the first plague of turning water to blood, it makes sense now the gravity of what that meant. Everything they drank, every form of water, comes first from the Nile. It was a huge show of the Lords power to take away their sole life source. Sitting on the boat looking out on the water I couldn't images it to be completely crimson. Such a crazy thing that would have been to witness. My visions of the Nile were of a gigantic river of water with desert all around it and tall grass reeds. Of course it looked quite different with all the skyscrapers and buildings that are now lining the banks.

We also got to walk through Tahir Square on the way to the Nile. It was crazy to think large protests had recently gone on. Everything seemed mostly back to normal, we passed by one building that had been burned and many of the windows had been broken out. As we drove to these locations I noticed what looked like a deserted city, truth be told it was what they call the "city of the dead" Our contact told us, "as Egyptians, we are ashamed of this." A once giant graveyard that has now become a place for impoverished people, a refugee camp of sorts. The families of the deceased let people live there for really cheap, and they in return help keep guard over the dead. Ideally they should move it out into the desert to make more room in Cairo for homes but in this culture that would never happen. The Arab people have very high respect for the dead.

The Great Pyramids of Giza

In a city where 18 million people dwell, 17 millions cars, and an average of 7 million tourist a year, one would expect a crowed ticket line, bustling markets and an abundance of people fighting for a pictures in front of the pyramids. What we faced was quite the opposite. Since the recent uprisings and tension in Cairo tourism this year is significantly low. The sad thing is its something that brings a significant amount of income and families are now going into poverty from the lack of customers at their shops and market stands. We saw the effects of this went we went to the pyramids. It was so empty and only a few tourist roamed the area. Of course being a team of photographers, this was great, open shots with no annoying people walking through the frame :) :) The day we saw the pyramids started the trend of EPIC-ness that was to follow with all our sightseeing. We were able to get so close and touch and even climb on the huge blocks. I was amazed at the size of each individual square, marveling at the creation of such things and how much work and strength and creativity it must have taken to construct them. To view something that pre-dated Moses' time was super cool :) :) The pyramids are OLD haha. It was a fun time filled with lots of picture-taking and a kiss with a sphinx ;)