Day 1: Memoirs from Khanyisa & Tafadzwa Moyo
- 5 a.m. yesterday: A group of ambassadors from Celebration Ministries touched down in Israel, holding the hopes and prayers of many others who couldn’t make the epic journey to the Holy Land. There was no delay as the activities immediately began in Caesarea Philippi, and then Mt. Carmel; where Elijah slewed the prophets of Baal. The trip started on a high note as all of us were extremely excited to slay our own giants on this incredible journey.
Today (day 2), we look forward to the boat ride on the sea of Galilee, the baptism in the river Jordan, and eating St. Peter's fish by the sea side…
- The crew at Mt. Carmel
Day 3:
- Today was action packed; full of walking and hiking. It started with a visit to Dan, where we saw the oldest structure in Israel dating back from Abraham's time. This was a truly amazing site to see from both an architectural and spiritual side. From there, we went to Caesarea, where there were ancient pagan worship places and the group began to understand the meaning of the “high places.” But the day’s greatest highlight was going to the Golan Heights, where the group began to learn and understand where Israel has come from as a nation since its 1948 Independence. Everyone was touched, and even adopted a sense of patriotism.
- Caesarea, Phillipi
Tomorrow we go up to Jerusalem! We look forward to a whole new experience; learning more new things we can bring back home…
Regards
Day 4:
- Today was bittersweet as Pastor Tom left us; leaving us like orphans... However, the excitement rose again when we visited Gideon's spring, where Gideon chose his 300 men. We then visited Bet Shean, where we saw amazing structures from Jesus' days built by the Romans (steam baths, manicure areas, wholesale shops, etc.). The next stop was Qumran, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. The highlight on this day was entering Jerusalem for the very first time as the "Jerusalem Song" played in the background. This brought a lot excitement, and expectations as spiritual levels rose.
We look forward to all the activities in Jerusalem for the next 4 days. Today is the Sabbath, so from the team we say Sabbath Shalom…
- Where Dead Sea Scrolls were found
day 5:
Sabbath was definitely not a day of rest for the tour group as this was one of the busiest days we've had with the day beginning with a trip to the Mt of Olives overlooking the city of Jerusalem. What a magnificent sight!!We then went into detail and visited the garden of Gethsemane, which was very emotional, then Caiaphas' house where Jesus was held captive in the prison, then King David's tomb, then through the Sheep's gate to the pools of Bethesda where there is St Anne’s church which has the best acoustics in the world. From there we went to the Anatolia fortress where Jesus was flogged, then the way of the cross to the Damascus gate. Just walking this whole journey of Jesus' last 24hours left us tired (imagine how Jesus felt) and in a sense of awe of what Jesus had to go through just to save us. This left us reflecting.
The highlight of the day was the upper room experience, where we worshiped and got a glimpse of what the disciples experienced over 2000 years ago. ......and again another life changing experience.
Day 6:
The 6th day wasn’t as eventful as day 5, but was just as exciting. The day started with us visiting the Temple Mount, where the first and second temple used to be… Unfortunately, because of the Moslem Ramadan, we could only be on the mount for a few minutes, but it was still quite touching. We then went to the Wailing Wall / Western Wall, which is the last original remaining wall of the second Temple. We felt like we were making "local calls" to God - as the locals put it. The shear size of the walls were magnificent, and the intensity of the prayers that were made there are amazing. We look forward to many testimonies emanating from our time by the Wailing Walls.
We then went to the southern steps, which used to lead to the Temple and are still there. We ate lunch at the Jewish courter where streets from Jesus' time still remain. The trip to the Israel
- View of the Western Wall
museum was amazingly exciting. We saw the model Jerusalem as a whole during Jesus' time; with the Temple looking gigantic and magnificent. Now we understood why people in the bible where in awe of it, and why people traveled from all over the world to see it. We also saw original copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in Qumran. Today tied up all the loose ends, and we finally saw the BIG picture of what Jerusalem was like in Jesus' day.
Just another day in the steps of Jesus.......
