Greetings to all in the name of our Lord!It was another beautiful day for us here in the Holy Land. We began our day with a stop at the Jordan River. We read the story of Jesus' baptism and then remembered our own baptisms by sprinkling ourselves with water from the river. The Orthodox priest traveling with us sang a baptismal hymn. What a wonderful way to begin the day.
We traveled the route of ancient highways toward Jerusalem. We passed through the remarkable landscape of desert and mountains. On the outskirts of the city our bus had some engine trouble and we had to be rescued by another one. It didn't take more than 45 minutes for a replacement bus to arrive. We then walked the Via Dolorosa, toured the Old City and spent quite a bit of time in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We ended our time at the Western (Wailing) Wall just as the Sabbath observance was beginning.Tonight we passed through a checkpoint and the wall to enter Bethlehem. We are staying at the Lutheran Guest House here. It was a physically taxing day for our group, but we had a nice supper together and I would imagine many will get to bed early.
It is difficult to describe the kind of emotional impact a day like today has. I will have to let it soak in for a while. We are all well and have access to free Internet!
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