Day Six in the Holy Land. Friday 20^th February 2009.

Mt Tabor.

This was the site of the transfiguration of Jesus, on this mountain top, Jesus lead Peter, James and John to meet Moses, Elijah and God of course!!, the mountain itself is amazing, it sticks out and it is not part

of any mountain range. On a clear day you can see for miles, sadly this day w visited wasn’t ours. It was very misty and rainy around the mountain, and it was our only rainy day in all the 7 days of being in the Holy Land. But it was ok. It really felt like the cloud of the lord was around the mountain (just like in its the reading), if someone was to walk up the mountain, as they did then and still do they would cover over 4000 steps, and that’s only one way!! But the system for us now, they have in place is little mini vans which take about 8 people each up to the mountain. When we arrived at the church, it is quite inspiring, the church is about light and it its sister church is the Church of All Nations in the Garden of Gethsemane, and it takes in all the light it gets from the sun over the course of each day. From the sunrise the whole altar front of the church lights up and light breams from the floor onto the transfiguration mosaic up in the ceiling this brings out Jesus in his white and then when sunset set on the church, the church glows a yellow from its stain glass windows at the back. In the height of Christian presence here on the mountain it had around six churches.

The Church of the Transfiguration being the only one left on the top.

Cana.

Cana is the place of course where that famous famous wedding fest (Miracle) that Jesus, Mary and the disciples attended for a local family known to them. In visiting the place of the wedding under church and wisdom from our guide Amir, I was able to picture the wedding and the desperation with having no wine for the guests!! As this is

a big no no to happen at a Wedding fest, hospitality is a big thing in the Holy Land culture and the wedding celebration takes over a whole week to celebrate!! It involves the whole family and community, so any set backs, come back on the family and there practices. So organization was greatly needed for something like a wedding. It’s funny enough that what Mary said to the servants in this miracle ‘do whatever he tells you...’ this saying is what actually mothers do even today in the Holy Land!! They ignore their sons over what they want, Jesus had to give in to his mums orders, even thou it was a dire situation for the family running the wedding, Jesus didn’t think this miracle would make a big enough impact around the area, as its only Cana he was in, just like Nazareth there is nothing special about this place, just small, impact low. But he did what his mum asked him to do and we now have the miracle in Cana to thanks him and countless others around the world throughout history wanting to do that same miracle. The church itself is a major attraction for Wedding and the Christian store across from it sells some amazing wine. Now I don’t like wine, but I did like this wine!! It was made of pomegranate, very sweet, very nice. I brought a bottle to share back with the team at home.

Nazareth.

Now Nazareth today is far different from what it used to be like when Jesus was born, everyone lived in caves underground, but the place today is quite a scene, it has one of the biggest populations of Christians in the Holy land and our own tour guide Amir, it is his home town and parish. So we where able to mass here at the Church of the Annunciation, where in Mary’s grotto the Angel Gabriel told her that she will bore the Son of God, the Messiah. The mass was amazing, to celebrate Christ birth, life, death and resurrection in the spot where it all started, the spot where Salvation was conceived. The amazing experience I had was when we said the

Apostles Creed, a Roman Catholic practice is that some people bow when they say ‘He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.’ I don’t do it all, but being there, at that very spot, I had to!! I couldn’t not. It was quite a moving moment. The Church is quite amazing with the grotto underneath and the parish church placed above it. This Church was funded from Catholics around the world and was built by the local Christians in Nazareth with local materials. Quite close to the Church of the Annunciation is the Church of St Joseph, Joseph’s cave and home of the Holy Family. The Church is built on top of the cave and you can see quite a lot of what it would have been like for them under the ground, but then while we where admiring all this history, Amir our tour guy dropped a bomb shell about this place (he did this quite a lot in the pilgrimage.) Joseph wasn’t a carpenter, ohh lord all those childhood memories wiped away in an instant!! What they have recently found is that all the man where stone masons for the village and helped build and town not far away, due to the discovery of a quarry near buy, but also there isn’t any tress in Nazareth? So why would he be a carpenter. Amazing ahe, sorry for breaking this news to you, but its just one of the many examples of just being in the Holy Land and being in the places, that give you a whole new perspective of the people who live there, how Jesus lived and why he did what he did.

One last surprise of the Pilgrimage.

On the evening before we left early the next morning I walked into the lobby to pay off a drink I had brought at the previously night dinner and I happen to hear a kiwi voice as I’m a kiwi too… of course. So I said Kai’ora! To this man and so he said Kai’ora back as well J and also said his name Fr Fred Bliss. We got more into a conversation and he said he started out living in Hawkes Bay, but then he moved down and taught at St Pats town in Wellington (my home city). So I told him, that my dad (Graham) went to St Pats Town. He asked what was my dad’s name? ‘Graham Andrewartha’ I said...

and he replied ' yep I taught him and his brother Barry.'

So a little Kiwi like me was gifted a Holy Land Trip, and bumps into his dads old teacher on his last night in the Sea of Galilee, what would be the chances, you tell me… I defiantly couldn’t be paid by a MasterCard!!

The Conclusion of my Holy Land experience…

First I can’t thank enough YMT for the support in placing me on this pilgrimage of a lifetime. To Father Lawrence Jones in organising this perfect experience, even with the US dollar going up and down along the way!! To Good Shepherd Tours for providing us with amazing places to stay and a perfect guide called Amir that told us the truth everywhere and the teams experience would not have been the same without his own experience, culture, theology and wisdom.

The Holy Land is a mix bag, it will make you angry, sad, happy and somehow more holy, but I still admire everyone who hasn’t been here you truly believe what you haven’t seen!! But somehow this place completes your faith, life and living when you come and walk in the footsteps that Jesus walked. It is true that we cannot have the fulfillment of the lasting reign of peace on this God gifted earth until the Holy Land and Jerusalem has peace. Pray for all the Christians in this land that are suffering and being pushed out, and even more pray and support those in the place where Joy was born, Bethlehem. I hope you can join me the next time I travel to the Holy Land, a warning thou I may just end up staying there…

Thanks for reading, enjoy more of my journey with the one who creates it for me all the step of the way.

Paul Andrewartha of Tawa

Day Five in the Holy Land. Thursday 19^th February 2009

Who would have thought, that on my 26^th birthday I will be celebrating it on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, in a pilgrimage trip that was gifted to me only by the grace of God through others. Today I went to some amazing places, but to be on my birthday made it that extra special. All thanks to be God!!

The Primacy of St. Peter.

The first visit of the day was to place where John chapter 21 Peter meets with Jesus and Jesus asks three times ‘do you love me’, and Peter responded ‘Yes lord, you know that I love you’. This site was where Jesus and Peter reconciled with each other and the Roman Catholic Church, with whom I am apart of, believes through faith and tradition that Peter was officially commissioned by Jesus to become the first leader (Pope) of the Church on earth after, he had left them. We had mass here and it was quite a beautiful morning. On the foreshore by the Church there is three amazing heart shapes cut from rock, which date back to the third centenary!! (Even back then they considered a heart shape to represent love!!). Sadly the water doesn’t come up to place where Jesus reconciled with Peter (where the church stands) and it about 30m away, so there has been a massive drop in the lake levels. But I cant leave this place without telling you about these little creatures that live on the lake foreshore called ‘Coneys’ they really look quite funny, like little rats crossed with stoats and maybe with a little guinea pig in there too?? For me the place was very peaceful and I was even invited to come back and volunteer by the Franciscan monk at the church, I think it’s because I liked his Spanish named cat, the name which I have forgotten. Ill be back thou.

The Town of Capernaum, St Peters house.

We then visited the very old town of Capernaum, Jesus’ town of his ministry and where he based himself and Peter and most of the his disciples where discovered, the town it self was destroyed by a earth quake in the first centenary and had never been build upon ever since (it is actually a prophecy too) but yes this was where Jesus performed many miracles, preached in the amazing Jewish synagogue which still stands today. Peter’s house is still there, and the Catholic Church built a church on top of it which looks like a bit of a spaceship, but inside to get to look down into Peter’s home and were Jesus would have stayed. But I learnt a lot about this town when we visited, one key point is that this town was utterly crucial to Jesus’ ministry, as this town lived on the caravan trade road that lead to down through the Jordon valley (that road we travel up to Galilee on) to Jerusalem and then this road would also go to Egypt and then further down into the deep of the African continent. This trade route also lead up to Damascus the there you could go onto to Persia or on to Turkey and Europe. So if you would like people to know about you and the message you are preaching, for Jesus Capernaum became the place where this message could spread, and spread fast it did!! And this is why he wasn’t that keen on doing the miracle at the wedding in Cana, as Cana is very small. This was also a tax point for the Romans for all that are traveling to Jerusalem, which is why Jesus found Matthew here. The stone walls of most of the town are still present and they were very packed in with no one having housing space. Just from visiting this amazing place and having a great guide has helped a lot in my understanding of Jesus and his desire to bring the Kingdom of heaven upon earth, and why he had not much time to do the work his father wanted him to do, as it wouldn’t take long until the Jewish power players in Jerusalem heard about this Jesus of Nazareth.

The Golan Heights

Well this was the first time I have ever been in a war zone and hopefully the last… its not an active war zone but there is a huge stalemate between Israeli and Syria from the Six war where Israel took a lot of the heights and the area around the Sea of Galilee. This area does not have many people living here and it only really consists of farming, army bases and of course… land mines. I was a little bit freaked out about this place, but its ok as we where on the bus and as long as we didn’t go for a walk anywhere, I would still have my own legs. Syria really wants this area back and will only continue peace talks with Israel when this are is given back. Israel with its control over the Sea of Galilee (the only place for fresh water in the Holy Land) makes this process difficult.

Caesarea Philippi

So we come to the place of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus took his disciples on a little field trip up here, now its quite far away from Galilee but on the road to Damascus. When the geeks arrived here they found this massive cave in the wall and through it to be the gateway to the underworld, Hades itself. So a couple of temples where placed here and one at the entrance of this cave to people here worshiped the Greek god Pan, and this is where the tale of this place turns….well ‘evil’ is the word I would like to describe it. In this temple babies would be sacrificed here and then thrown into the cave, now water came out from this cave and if the blood runs out with the water, it was a bad omen, so if the blood stayed in, good omen. But sacrificing babies is anything but a pure evil, and so when we got there I was fine, but when I started to walk across the stone bridge and up to the temple and cave area, I started to feel quite heavy and sick, I couldn’t bring myself around to take any pictures in this place and upon this massive rock surface it felt like there was this massive wall, not physical but something spiritual here, so I got down from the area as soon as possible and praying a lot at the same time. But this is where it goes from darkness to LIGHT, Jesus was of course here and brought along his disciples along with him (and they would have been @&*% scared to say the least), to really truly say that what He was doing at that time and what they where to do in the future will over come this place. But for me today knowing that the Church is still fully alive and active in the world and these ‘gates of Hades’ have been broken down and destroy is a true testament to God’s promise that he wants his kingdom of Love upon this earth. What I experienced today I don’t think I will ever forget and it has strengthened my faith and the knowledge that Jesus has overcome evil for good!!

Church of the Loaves and fishes.

We head now back to the Church of the Loaves and Fishes, a church build on the spot here Jesus created a massive meal for over 10,000 people just from 5 loaves and two fish! This church is right next to the Primacy of St. Peter and is a lot older, and like many churches is build upon an even older church dating back to 300 AD and even earlier church was build below!! The mosaics on the floor are quite amazing with pictures of early symbols of the Christian faith, symbols I had not even through they would be even Christian symbols e.g. like peacock and pelican birds.

Fish and Chips for lunch.

With the day being centered upon the Sea of Galilee, we would not complete it without tasting that famous fish, St Peters fish of the Sea fro lunch. Famous as it was probably fished by the fisherman disciples themselves. It goes along nicely with chips salad and of course pita bread/hummus.

We are sailing!!

The next trip was awesome, we had a half an hour sailing upon the Sea of Galilee!! Yes we all go upon a boat but I wasn’t able to walk on the water, sadly folks I didn’t try. We read from Matthew 14.22 – 33 where Jesus walks on the water and I truly tried to think of what it would have been like, but we weren’t in a storm and it would have been a smaller boat, with fish inside (or massive fishy smell!) and there boat would not have been very commercialized unlike the one we where upon. Amir our guide gets sea sick so we where left alone, the Pilgrimage team actually crazy, including myself, I don’t know what it was but its like we had heard of this Jesus walking on water for the first time or maybe there was something placed into the St Peters fish we ate earlier. They placed up the England flag on the boat, on the day I forgot to bring the New Zealand flag along with me!! Next time…

Mount of the Beatitudes.

Now this is the most beautiful, stunning, peaceful, awesome and holy place around the Sea of Galilee, there is an octave church placed on the higher part of the place where by tradition Jesus proclaimed the Beatitudes, his guidelines for living for his followers. It was at the end of the day and I could not just go back on the bus and go on the quick bus drive back down to the hotel. So myself and a small group of us walked down the mount, and yes the sun was setting and the Sea, mount and the area was still and perfect, I’m still getting goose bumps now just writing about, and that were I will stop as I cant really write about it as its perfect and that isn’t even a word that can describe this area… I really truly invited you to experience what I experienced here on the mount.

Mount of the Beatitudes Cave.

On our walk down we found a cave, could this be the place where it was preached and/or Jesus slipped away to have some quite time, the small group of us pondered on the possibilities …

The End of the Day of all my Days alive.

To end this day, one that was on my birthday, and one that I had never experienced before I just sat next to the Sea of Galilee reflected on the life that Jesus has given me up to now and what he really has in store for me for the future, will I walk on the water with him? I thank God for all that has been given to me and what is yet to come…may the next 26 years complete me more in Christ.

‘Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine’.

Ephesians 3.20

Day Four in the Holy Land. Wednesday 18th February 2009

Now we are in the middle of this amazing journey in the Holy Land and what better place to celebrate is in Bethlehem, at the Church of Nativity, where the birth of a King and Messiah was born into a world that already didn’t want him. But he took it all for us. Hope you enjoy the rest of Bethlehem with me.

The Catholic Cathedral of St Catherine of Alexandra

This Cathedral is the main church for the Catholics in Bethlehem, as the Church of the Nativity was given to the Armenian Church and Greek Orthodox, the Catholic Church needed a place to celebrate our saviors birth (you would wish they would all share the church, but no…) So the Catholic Church built a Cathedral right next the Nativity and also looked after St Jerome’s grotto (more about him soon). The Cathedral is massive with the whole theme of the church being solely based on the birth of our Lord and this is were the Catholic midnight mass is also celebrated each year, when this is celebrated most of the whole church is filled with priests, bishops and dignitaries and so most of everyone else is placed in the Nativity Square to see the mass on the big screen.

St Jerome’s Grotto

Today’s mass was celebrated in the grotto of St Jerome. St Jerome spent most of his life in this cave and is also buried here. This cave thought to be the place where the Holy Family lived after the birth (but was I not told the milk grotto was where they lived?? Anyway…) and why was he down here, he is the writer that changed the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible into Latin, but it has said he became quite heavy headed about the work he was doing and to stop himself thinking he was like God, a lion was brought into the grotto in on his orders to claim himself down and to be brought back to earth and focus on God’s task that he had for him. It’s quite strange really; I guess it allowed him to have more rrroarrr into his work…

The Church of the Nativity.

And so we arrive at the Church of the Nativity, built by St Helen (along with the Holy Sepulchre) it is very old, although covered buy a crusader church the small church is still there and looks very old and in great need of a fix up for the future. But this is part of the problem with this site, which will say what needs to be done and will actually do it!! Ahh we Christians we really need to work together on these things…But I got to go down underneath in to the cave, where he was born. Which was also the Inn, this place is very small and there is star which is his place of birth, it looks a bit like a fireplace with everything surrounding it. Here I had a massive feeling of thankfulness for my messiah coming into this world as a fragile baby in which us humans, humans that constantly turned against him and his love he has for us, were given his Son, his most precious thing created, to look after… now that’s grace. Also in the cave there is the place were he was placed into the manger, now from being a shepherd constantly in Christmas Eve nativity plays (thanks mum for the tea towel head peace) I knew that he was always placed into a manger, but why? It wasn’t until actually being there that I got it!! It not because there was nothing else to place him in, but Jesus right from his birth became food for the world… cool ahe!!

Bethlehem University

The last stop on out Bethlehem visit, was to a beacon of hope to a city where hope is dying. This beacon of Hope is the Da La Salle Brothers Catholic University, this place was truly inspiring. An even cooler thing about this University is that the new vice chancellor Brother Peter Bray comes from New Zealand and had been a part of my home parish in Tawa, Wellington!! Before he was given the job at the university. We had been in contact before I arrived in the Holy Land so he knew that I was going to be arriving for lunch. Anyway we where given a full campus tour, it has an amazing chapel which is dedicated to the child innocents with amazing pictures of known child martyrs and paintings of heavenly children. We where then given the change to meet and greet four students from the university and to find out a bit about their struggles living in Bethlehem, the security wall, the conflicts, being a Christian, being a Muslim. But what was amazing that in the University that there is no problem between each of the faiths, they are living and working together, heaven on earth I say!!We then went onto have lunch with those students and a couple of the brothers including having lunch with my Brother friend Peter, it was awesome catching up with him and congratulating him and encouraging him as his task ahead is massive, Bethlehem is in a very hard situation at the moment and his students need a lot of support, as a lot of them need to go through the Israeli check points in and out of the city, so wait up to three hours each way!!!

[ I found this report of a check point wait, have a look: www.eappi.org/en/news-events/ea-reports/r/article/4566/checkpoint-watch-at-bethl.html]

So as a Christian I feel compelled to support all who are stuck in this town and the ones that have to travel in and out everyday. The freedom that I so easily have in my life is taken away from the people that live and work in a town where freedom was born.

www.bethlehem.edu is their website, support the

people within the walls and especially this beacon of Hope Bethlehem University and if you ever get to come to Bethlehem please visit them!!

.

St Peter in Gallicantu.

Yes at last we where back to this amazing church with no police stopping the road entrances and I am very pleased that we didn’t miss this spot as it became the most amazing churches in my whole of the Holy Land pilgrimage. Gallicantu means ‘cock crow’ as this is the place where St Peter denied Jesus three times and Jesus himself was tormented, questioned and imprisoned before going to Pontus Pilate in the morning. Now if you are going to the Holy Land this is certainly a place not to be missed. The church it self is awesome, built by the Assumptionist Fathers it is covered in one massive colorful mosaic, represent most of the colors represent things within the church towards e.g. forgiveness, the Holy Spirit. I just stood mesmerized at this ceiling, the stories it had on its walls and with this visit I had a great since of forgiveness, and even thou it’s where Jesus persecuted and imprisoned below, and all I had to say is ‘thank you’. The next level brings you to the place where St Peter Denied Jesus three times and here you can see the prison chambers below. Then you walk down again into the chambers, this place brought me back to the garden in Gethsemane, a lot of us went down into the prison, and nobody could speak, even my self. Just the know that my lord was down was… no words could really be said, some just read some scripture to help up reflect, we then went out onto the gardens of the church, in this area they found steps dating back to Jesus’ and this stair way is where Jesus took his down the valley and up to the mount of olives before he was arrested, and these same steps he was taken up to the High Priests house to trailed and imprisoned (now where St Peter in Gallicantu is built on top of).

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And this is where I leave the eternal city, the city of God, the city that is History, but it’s a City where if peace was to truly reign on this God given earth, it must reign in these city walls first… I wait until that day happens.

Paradise (I mean Galilee) here I come. You will find out soon why….

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The traveling to the Sea of Galilee.

We traveled up through the Jordon Valley from near the Dead Sea, going through a lot of Israeli check points, and dissolved tanks by the road aiming at Jordon. But also a lot of Holy Land produces e.g. Dates, Almonds and the river in the distance of course.

Baptismal Vows: Renewed!!

We made a visit at this most famous river, the river Jordon. The place where Jesus was baptized is not really known, but the Baptist Church in America and the Israeli government have created a baptismal area for Christian pilgrims to renew their vows or to be first baptized!! The place was quite when we where there, but there where people dressing up in these white clothes and being fully immersed. For me I was just down to blessing myself with the water, as with most of the pilgrimage group. But my good friend Jeff striped off (that’s down to his jeans I mean) and had a dive!! I think I might off if I was prepared, but seeing these four massive rats swimming across the river defiantly put me off. The place it self was just like visiting a mall with a river on the side of it, as it felt very commercially run.

Paradise: Arrived

The Sea of Galilee is speech less!! This place were we are staying in was built by the Benediction order and is right close to the sea front and only a couple minutes walk from the mount of beatitudes, the loves and fishes miracle and the primacy of St Peter. I can’t wait to see everything; Day 5 is our biggest day and also my Birthday.

How could I not ask for more…

Day Three of the Holy Land, Tuesday 17th February 2009

The Mount of Olives.

The first port of call in the third day of being in the Holy Land was the majestic Mount of Olives, time and time again I had heard so so much about this place through the faith that I have in Christ Jesus, and now I was actually physically going to be there!! The Mount of Olives church recognizes two events of Jesus’ ministry, the Teaching of the Lords prayer, and his ascension into heaven after his resurrection. The church is quite beautify done up with the Lord ’s Prayer in every language around the area and I even found the Maori (New Zealand’s language) so it became a great picture moment also there is a small cave where it is believed . Afterward but still on the mount, we drove down to the main lookout point on the mount quite near all the Israeli graves (waiting for the messiah) to see an amazing view of the Old Jerusalem city, I had seen this before through media and pics, but truly seeing it with my own kiwi eyes 100% confirmed that people really need to see this great old city in it full view.

St Peter in Gallicantu.

Our next planned journey was to see the church of St Peter in Gallicantu. But I have been quick to find that out in this old city the Israeli authorities’ do what they please, and they blocked of the road on both sides to gaining access to the church as there was something Jewish meeting going on nearly the Western Wall. We will be back the next day…

Bethlehem.

With that change of plans, we gained more time in Bethlehem, which was the next stop. But before I write about all these wonderful things that are is this amazing city, I cannot start with that, I have to and as a must write about this ugly, stupid and sad story of the people (God’s people) trapped behind the walls that surround this Holy city, the state of Israel have a massive hold and grip on this city, a city that is suppose to have such a joy to it, is a city that has massive unemployment and poverty, and you can see this struggle in reality as you walk thou is streets. The wall creates this prison for the people that live inside and for the people that need to get into the city each day, but I have to say there is some stunning art work done on it, but this city will be forever in my heart; especially the Christians that are slowly being pushed out. Please pray and support them with me.

The Shepherd Fields

This first stop in this town was the Shepherds fields; this is where the Shepherds themselves were given the first news about Jesus’ birth in the town, the cave is still there and our mass for that day was said inside. An amazing sense of reality sunk in for me as I experienced a fraction of what life must have been like for them, and why God choose them to be those special people who were last in everything, to be first in the public in meeting the messiah.

Afternoon Walk around Bethlehem.

We had most of the afternoon off to adventure around Bethlehem, we went and visited a place called Mary’s Milk grotto, this was an interesting place to visit, they say this was one of the caves where the Holy Family stayed in Bethlehem and Mary’s breast milk is said to have dropped into the ground and created the walls of the cave to be a pure white. With some of the group walked around some of the market streets where I brought a large Palestinian flag, funny enough it was the shop keepers own flag as he didn’t have any of his own, I had a good time debating the price and got to know him a but and what the city is like at the moment, even more weirder is that he had two American Palestinian friends that where visiting outside the shop and they knew everything about cricket even the names of all the New Zealand cricketers and what they are like!! Very random. Then a couple of us went out and adventured to find the place called King David’s Wells, this place is noted in 2 Sam 23: 15 -17, now it wasn’t easy to find it and we had to ask the locals a couple of time, as not many knew as well, but after some effort in searching, mission accomplished! It was within a Catholic funded community sports center.

The Day's Last Thought.

The most scary thing to happen to me so far in this trip, was not being anywhere new or being with new people in this land or even any security fears being here, but it was a boy I met in Bethlehem today, now when us guys are boys, we like to have toy guns and we like to act out shooting, I did (and so did Peter Kay – British comedian) and this boy too had a toy gun in his hand and as we came around a street corner, he noted us and looked at us and you would think he would act out shooting at us, but he didn’t, he put the toy gun to his own head and acted out shooting himself … now that’s scary.

Now could that boy being telling us something I don’t know, I thought I might like to share this with you.