Israel Tour Day 5 Part 4 Jerusalem, The Mount of Olives and The Garden of Gethsemane

After leaving Jericho, fully satisfied with a great lunch, we drove through another checkpoint, and up Road 1 through the Judaean Hills, passing the Bedouin Tribes, tending their flocks, and into Jerusalem. We went via Mount Scopus , and through a Tunnel. When we came out the Temple Mount was on our left and we clambered over to the left side of the bus, to get our first glimpse.

Jerusalem was laid out before us, old city in the foreground and the High Rises and more modern buildings in the background. Bero, our amazing Bus driver, negotiated the bus through narrow and busy streets to the top of the Mount of Olives. Here we disembarked, with the city across the Kidron Valley from us. What a sight to behold and we all just marveled at what we were seeing and what it meant to be where we were.

This is the city God has put His Great Name. Here is were King David and King Solomon ruled. It was over Jerusalem that Jesus wept, and it was here His Great Passion played out. I was truly overwhelmed with much joy and gratitude to be in this place.

After pictures, we walked down the very steep street that Jesus rode down on Palm Sunday. Walking pass graves of all those who had been “gathered to their fathers”

At the bottom is The Garden of Gethsemane, and it was here we took some moments pondering Jesus’s anguish as He felt the betrayal and abandonment of what was coming.

Insights given by Pastor Shay Spencer of Community Church of Union Missouri.

We then went through the Basilica of Gethsemane also called The Church of the Agony of Jesus Christ. There was a service in progress, I believe it was spoken in Latin.

Soon we were back on the Bus headed to our Hotel, home for the remainder of our stay in Israel.

Called the Ambassador, it used to house the British Embassy before 1967, and the area still was Jordan. Beautiful Hotel with great food!

Excited but exhausted after a very full day, we kicked it there, and most of us went to bed early getting rested up for the next day’s adventures!

April 7, 2024