From Galilee to Jerusalem

We began 2014 with a celebration to welcome the new year, a night we will never forget.  In the morning, we left beautiful Galilee with its rolling green hills and serene lake where Jesus spent his boyhood and centered his ministry.  We have felt his humanity as we wandered this region, imagining him in the towns and on its roads as he preached and taught.  Our first stop today was at the Jordan River at a lovely site near where John the Baptist baptized Jesus.  Several of us donned white robes and joined Sean in the water to reaffirm our baptism with full immersion.  Others of us had a more traditional reaffirmation with Jordan water.  It is impossible to communicate how meaningful this experience was; we left this final spot in Galilee filled with the Holy Spirit.  Our next stop was at Qum’ran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947.  These famous parchments are the product of a monastic Jewish sect that lived there during the time of Jesus and probably was associated with John the Baptist.  The scrolls tell us that our Old Testament is virtually unchanged in the last 2,500 years.

In the afternoon, we captured our first sight of the golden dome in the Temple Mount that told us we had arrived in Jerusalem.  We went first to the Mount of Olives where Jesus stayed when he first came to Jerusalem.  We then walked down the Palm Sunday Road, a steep path leading to the Garden of Gethsemene, where we were given private time to explore and meditate in this special place.  Here, we experienced a different Jesus, somewhat despairing at what lay ahead yet ultimately accepting God’s will.  We left with a great feeling of sadness.  Tomorrow we go to the Temple.

                                                                        Diane Chapin and Marnel Williams