Old City and a Pub

St. Andrews Church

Today, was a beautiful cool-ish day with the sun out and bright blue sky. I with some classmates went to St. Andrew's Scots Memorial Presbyterian Church across the valley. The service was traditional with liturgy and hymns and the pastor was SCOTTISH! and his aide was a pastor from the Oklahoma UMC Conference. I did enjoy the service, and we had snacks with the congregation and also bought some small handmade items from the gift shop which helps un-employed Palestinian artists.

Western Wall and Dome of the Rock (Temple Mount)

Mount Zion (JUC Campus and Dormition Abby)

When we all got back the school broke into two groups to tour parts fo the old city. So we started on top of Mt. Zion (where JUC is located on) looking across the horizon and seeing the Hills of Moab in Jordan, the Mount of Olives on the Eastern Hills and the Kidron Valley. mt. Zion is known as a Christian Mount because of the Catholic Dormition Church and Greek Orthodox Church along with JUC being on top of it. But to add was the Church of the Upper Room where it is also the Tomb of King David and also a mosque. So there we discussed it being a Crusader rebuilt church after it being a mosque then before that a church then before that the Tomb.

Temple Mount at Dusk with Mount of Olives in background

From there we traveled up the hill to Zion Gate where we talked about the significance the gate had in the Israeli War of Independence or as the Arabs call it "The Catastrophe" with the gate dotted with bullet marks. Walking inside we went to an excavation site where an ancient road was called the Cardo Street which is still in use, well the same direction just 10-15 feet above because of rubble. Walking eastward we went to an overlook of the Temple Mount where we saw the Mosque of the Dome of the Rock and the less fancy functioning mosque on the east side of the Mount. Also we saw the famous Western Wall (Wailing Wall), it was just cool seeing the place and imagining the Jewish Temple on the Mount and thinking Jesus walked those steps to the east of the platform and where the thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors and other Jews went to but could pray, hence the Waling Wall name.
Then we walked on to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (again for me, which is fine) and we talked about it though we didn't have time to go inside. We walked more and climbed the stairs to the roofs where we got to see the whole Eastern Hills and overlooking the Temple Mount and it was just mind blowing at the same time the Muslim call to prayer happened an that really gave it a more feel of being in the East, and in Jerusalem with the church bells ringing, too. We walked back to the campus and had dinner.
After dinner, a group of us went out to the pub where we had drinks and free hookah, along with popcorn and American sports. This was a great experience with new friends and a good time to converse and laugh. Definitely a great way to start off the semester, here in Israel.