Easter Sunday in Jerusalem

We woke up early on Sunday morning and Mom had our Easter music going and had hid a few goodies wrapped in a plastic bag with each person's name on it for them to find. While this was the best we could do to resemble searching for an Easter basket, it was interesting how odd it was not knowing what your "basket" looked like or where something could be hidden in this new apartment. A big thanks to Uncle Ray for having sent some Easter candies, Beef Jerky, and gum so that the kids could have festively-shaped treats to celebrate!

Never too young to be excited when you find your Easter basket/plastic bag!

Dad returned the rental car (because here in Jerusalem, Shabbat is off limits but Easter is no problem) and we all met up and walked to the Garden Tomb for Easter service in English. When we arrived the line was already out the alleyway leading to the tomb! Thankfully there was a lot of space once in the garden area and we found some nice seats and got settled. We commented on how strange it was, even though we were in Israel, to be celebrating Easter and not know anyone at the service, we both somehow expected to run into someone we knew! We were thrilled to find that we were familiar with the worship songs as that is a big part of the Easter celebration for us. It was surreal for us when waves of the reality of the fact that we were worshipping in Jerusalem, possibly at the real tomb of Jesus, would hit us and we would struggle to keep ourselves contained as emotions flooded. The message was given by Michael Ramsden with Ravi Zacharius Ministry. The whole experience was very moving and humbling to know that, Lord willing, our children will talk about this Easter celebration with their grandchildren and it will be forever remembered. It was also interesting to contemplate in the Holy Land, where so many buildings were built on holy areas to be remembered or graves of prophets, that a reason that we don't know the specific location of Jesus' tomb is because no one visited His grave because it was empty, it was not a place of remembrance - He is Risen! As we were filing out of the service we saw friends of some friends who live in Jerusalem and who spent the night in the desert in Wadi Rum with us - so we were thrilled to see familiar faces after all!

Michael Ramadan with Ravi Zachary's Ministry gave the Easter sermon

Easter worship at the Garden Tomb

Happy Easter - He is Risen!

We then walked to the American Colony for brunch. This was a beautiful upscale hotel complex that was initially founded by Anna Spafford, wife of Horatio Spafford, who wrote the hymn It Is Well With My Soul. The kids remembered learning the story behind this hymn from our homeschool devotions and so that was a fun bonus of having brunch here. In the hotel guestbook we observed that famous guests such as Lawrence of Arabia, Jimmy Carter, Sting, Natalie Portman, Robert DiNero and others had also visited this hotel. As we walked into brunch the kids could barely contain themselves as the first table we passed had Easter chocolates galore along with a chocolate fountain! We were a bit overwhelmed with how nice this dining experience seemed to be and even the kids commented that they felt completely under-dressed! We did the best we could and wore the nicest clothes we had in our backpacks, but the weather was cooler and at the end of the day, we don't have much selection and the boys were all wearing tennis shoes as it was that or Keens! Ironically, towards the end of the meal, we realized that our oldest had hung his backpack on the back of his chair, which was along the main path guests walked to get their meal, and caribeanered to his pack were his two dirty flip-flops! All of the other guests, including children, were wearing ties, pearls, and bonnets! The food was amazing and it was a treat to feel celebrate like this. We read through emails from friends wishing us Happy Easter and felt a bit more connected to those we love back home and around the world as we celebrated in our own way. As we wrapped up our meal they announced that the kids had an Easter egg hunt to do before we left. They had arranged for each family to have its own section of the courtyard to hunt for eggs in - the kids had a great time and were so excited for this opportunity! We enjoyed this opportunity to celebrate as being that the majority of Jerusalem is Jewish or Muslim, the city carried on like normal and one never would've guessed this day commemorated the bodily resurrection of Jesus, having defeated death almost 2000 years ago in this city!

Look at those faces as they take in the dessert table at the Easter buffet!

We took a cab to the City of David and learned that the last tour had begun 20 minutes prior to our arrival. We quickly joined in with our energetic guide and learned about the archeological discoveries of this area that they believe might have been the City of David that the Bible refers to. Standing looking over the valley one can imagine the hills that David saw and wrote about in the Psalms when he mentions Jerusalem being surrounded by hills. In the time of David the original city of Jerusalem was roughly a 4 minute walk from one side to the other! It was also possible to visualize how David would've been able to stand and look out over Bathsheba bathing (2 Samuel 11:2).

View over the Kidron Valley with the Mount of Olives on the left and Zion on the right

The current 5 shekel coin has the same imprint as these 2 stones found broken and put back together

We changed into our swim shorts and water shoes and headed town into the tunnels built by Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:20). We weren't quite sure what to expect with this experience, but the water was a refreshingly cool temperature and ranged anywhere from a couple of inches to about 2 1/2 feet deep. Some of the tunnels we had to turn sideways to squeeze through and the entire walk took about 40 minutes in the dark, but it was a fun and unique experience, as well as amazing to better understand and see the effort people go through to have water!

Dad & SJ wading through knee-deep waters of the tunnels

The boys exploring Hezekiah's tunnels

The City of David is still being discovered today as some recent archaeological discoveries changed the whole belief about where it was. The city exists in the Kidron Valley and the recent discovery found ruins in great piles beneath other ruins. We learned that from a discovery perspective it's better for a city to be suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed because then all their belonging are buried and left for future diggers to find, as opposed to when people know destruction is coming and leave with their most important possessions. This is a bit of a backwards and perplexing way to think about calamity striking the present only to bless the future.

In 2 Samuel 5 we read that David was king of Judah for over 7 years, with his headquarters in Hebron, when he was asked to be king of all 12 tribes. He went to Jerusalem and the Jebusites, who lived in the land, told him that he couldn't come in and that even the blind and the lame would stop him. Hearing this, David came up with the idea that for a city to be as strong as the Jebusites boasted, it must have a large supply of water so as to withstand any long term siege. David then challenged his warriors to conquer Jerusalem by entering the city through Gihon Springs, Jerusalem's only water supply. and they discovered that the Jebusites had built watch towers and tunnels which were located outside the city. After he conquered the city he didn't want someone else to use his tactic so he redirected the water supply through the mountain when he built his new capital city on the outskirts (II Chronicles 32:30). They started in two different places 1700 feet apart and connected in the middle. Astounding to think this was done without GPS or any equipment to know where they were. Hence the tunnel winds and snakes it's way through as they tried to determine where they were in relation to the other end of the tunnel being dug towards them. It's estimated that with pick axes they could dig 3 feet a day, so the project likely took somewhere between 7 months and 2 years, depending on how many days a week they worked. Also, it's interesting that part of the tunnel has a very high ceiling because the digging started 12 feet higher and had to be dug lower to connect to the other end.

All in all we found this tour to be one of the best experiences in Jerusalem. Our guide was excellent and the visual displays showing how they believe the city looked with the most recent discoveries were highly engaging. Jeremiah had professed that the city would be built upon its ruins and that is exactly what they've recently discovered, a city beneath a city (Jeremiah 30:18). Considering that just 4 months ago they found a band containing Hezekiah's seal, one realizes just how much is yet to be discovered here. It was incredible to walk through this part of history and yet challenging to wrap one's mind around.

Boys in front of pool believed to be where Solomon was crowned King over Israel (I Kings 1:33-34)

We were all excited to get home and rest as we felt like we'd been on the go the last few days a bit too much. We put on the comfiest clothes we have with us - Dad is the only one who officially has pajamas as his flannel pants were his one luxury item, and we connected with family back in the States to share Easter blessings, and then hunkered down for some popcorn and a movie night.