Travelreport of the trip to Jerusalem from November 23rd until November 28th 2008.
For this trip we get this Bible scripture.
Exodus 23:16…“Finally, celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest, or Festival of Ingathering, at the end of the harvest season, when you have harvested all the crops from your fields.
Earlier in our time of preparation we were pointed to the ‘Day of Thanksgiving’. This is mainly an American holiday, on the fourth Thursday of November, this year November 27th 2008.
Last time we visited Jerusalem we were not allowed to go in the old city. That time we took possession of the old city part of Jerusalem by walking around its walls and proclaim there.
This time we will go inside the old city and lay, as it were, a cross over it. We will also proclaim and pray inside.
The program is roughly as follows:
November 23: day of traveling
November 24: define the area, the old city, proclaim and pray on or around the walls of the old city.
November 25: dedicate the area to God’s kingdom by laying the cross over the old city of Jerusalem…by prayer, proclamation and breaking strongholds.
November 26: dedicating the area again, but by laying the cross now diagonally. At the ends of the cross we will proclaim the gospels, speaks blessings of God’s love, 1 Corinthians 13, proclaim God’s will, the Lord’s prayer and John 17, the High priestly prayer of Jesus.
November 27: this will be a day of thanksgiving for the finishing of laying the cross over the entire world. And this day we will have a meal with a Jewish, Muslim and Christian person. We will invite these people when we are there and ask them to have a meal with us.
November 28: day of traveling.
The preparations go smoothly. We arrange a room in the Mount Zion hotel. This is a Jewish hotel that is situated opposite mount Zion.
We buy a ticket with ELAL. A week before departure we find we need to examine the train travel to the Schiphol airport further. And indeed it turns out that there is work to be done on the railways that day, so we won’t be able to be at the airport on time to catch our plane. After consultation with other people who need to catch the same flight to Israel we decide to use the Schiphol airport taxi.
On our way to the airport we talk with the driver who is born in Istanbul. At the end Corrie shared some scriptures with him. He is very happy with this.
Sunday, November 23rd 2008
Scripture of the day: Joshua 1:9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
The flight is delayed with one hour because of snow falling. After a flight of four hours we arrive at the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. With the Shuttle taxi we drive to the hotel. It’s special to see all those Biblical names of the towns and villages again on the signs.
At the hotel we are warmly welcomed and after cleansing the room with prayer we go to bed being very tired.
Monday, November 24th 2008
Scripture of the day: Joshua 1:6 “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them.
The hotel has a stunning view on the old city and the valleys around it. We have the feeling of being totally in the old Biblical times. The dining room has this atmosphere too.
Today we go up and around the walls of the Old City. There we have a time of prayer and proclamation to define the area. We walk toward the Zion Gate.
We start proclaiming 1 Peter, Lamentations, Jude, 2 Peter and with arriving at the Zion Gate we finish with the Lord’s Prayer.
We recognize a lot of the places and signs while walking around the walls. The part from the Zion Gate to the Jaffa Gate we walk along the bottom through the Armenian quarter.
From the Jaffa Gate to the New Gate we walk on the wall. This part we proclaim 1 Peter and after this the book of Lamentations. Here we feel a lot of compassion with the playing kids.
From the New Gate we walk directly along the outside of the walls. Here we proclaim the books of Jude and 2 Peter. This is the quarter with a lot of Muslims.
When arriving at the west side God gives us a lot of scriptures to proclaim there. After the Lions Gate we have a view on the Mount of Olives. Spiritually, it’s a heavy walking-tour with proclaiming. We continu walking along the Golden Gate and we arrive at the Dung Gate. There are many policemen and soldiers at the Wailing Wall.
The last part we walk along the inside of the wall through the Jewish quarter to the Zion Gate. There we pray the Lord’s Prayer.
Today we started at 10.30am and we arrive back in the hotel being very tired at 2.30pm.
Today we start with giving content to our ministry of reconciliation by inviting some Jewish people to join our meal of reconciliation. Coming Thursday will be Thanksgiving.
The Jewish manager of the hotel tells us he doesn’t know any Arabic people and is therefore not able to organize such a dinner in his hotel.
This is pretty discouraging for us, but we let God lead us further. When we enter the Zion Gate we run into a Messianic Jewish guide that we met three years before too. We ask him if he can organize such a meal on the day of Thanksgiving. This scares him and tells us he doesn’t have the strength to have a meal together with Muslim people. He understands the principle of forgiveness and reconciliation but he cannot cooperate in it himself.
The coming days we will ask Christian and Muslim people to see how we can organize this meal. God shows us that only speaking these words already gives a lot of motion in the Heavenly realms. And the people we ask will start thinking about these issues of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Tuesday, November 25th 2008
Scripture of the day: Psalm 70:4 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, “Let God be exalted!”
Today we will lay the cross over the Old City and will take possession of the total area symbolically. There we will proclaim the following Bible books: Colossians and James. Additionally we will break down strongholds.
Corrie adjusts her clothing. A blouse with long sleeves and a pair of jeans. The weather is sunny again, more than 20 degrees celsius.
We lay the cross on the streets that divide the four quarters. The Jewish quarter, the Muslim quarter, the Christian quarter and the Armenian quarter.
Again we start at the Zion Gate and proclaim and pray on the street that is the border between the Jewish and Armenian quarter. This part is relatively easy. At a certain point the small streets make place for a lot of different booths. It takes a lot of searching to find our way to the border between the Jewish and the Muslim quarter. But we find it after searching for a while.
Praying and speaking to strongholds, especially for the attitude of unforgiveness is very tough spiritually. After a little time the streets become more and more Muslim like. A little boy shouts in English: ‘It is forbidden this is only for Muslimpeople.’ We bless him and walk on. We approach the Temple Square. We doubt if we should go on the Square and ask God for an answer. He answers us with a police officer that is there: ‘No, you are not allowed to move on here.’
While praying and proclaiming we walk back to the point where the four quarters meet. We want to pray the Lord’s Prayer at that point. The words we want to speak are sort of resisted and we are not coming further than praying the first few lines. We start again and take authority over our own thoughts and voices. Then we speak out loud the Lord’s Prayer!
After searching again we find the way to the Jaffa Gate between all those booths.
Now we walk on the borderline between the Armenian and the Christian quarter. At the Jaffa Gate we talk to a Christian guide that we met three years ago too. We ask him how he thinks about a meal of reconciliation. He is enthousiastic and takes us to a store where we can have the meal. We stay alert and don’t buy anything. We agree to come back that afternoon.
While praying we walk back to the point where the four quarters meet. From there we walk to the Damascus Gate. The borderline between the Muslim and the Christian quarter. We proclaim and pray the whole time.
When we arrive at the Damascus Gate we are already busy for two hours. It’s quite hard to walk through the small streets with so many people. It’s physically heavy, but spiritually it’s even heavier.
From on the Damascus Gate we go back to the center point and from there back to the Jaffa Gate. We pray for the meal of reconciliation. It’s making a step of faith.
Or like someone told us: Faith is stepping into an old elevator not knowing if its working at all.
At the Jaffa Gate we negotiate with the guide and the shop owner about how we can give content to the meal of reconciliation. Do they really have a Muslim and a Jewish friend? And what does it all cost?
Eventually we make an appoinment for coming Thursday, November 27th. For security reasons it needs to take place in a space at the back of the store. We need to trust them.
But they also need to trust us, because we only could pay a part of the total amount of money up front with our credit card.
Wednesday, November 26th 2008
Scripture of the day: Song of Solomon 8: 5-7 Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover?
Under the apple tree I roused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who was in labor gave you birth. Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.
It’s beautiful weather again today. Even warmer the days before. Today we are going to lay the cross over the Old City again. We are following the borderstreets of the four quarters: the Armenian quarter, the Jewish quarter, the Muslim quarter and the Christian quarter.
At the edges we will proclaim 1 Corinthians 13, God’s Love. And while walking to those points we will continually speak God’s love as a blessing.
Today we meet some people we know, like the Messianic Jewish guide, a couple from our own church in the Netherlands and the Christian guide. But we don’t let this loose our focus on our mission, to bless the quarters with God’s love.
We start at the Zion Gate with 1 Corinthians 13 and walk to the centerpoint while proclaiming and blessing. From the first merchant with a booth we got the encouragement to pray a lot for Jerusalem. The people seem to recognize us and are much more friendly then before. In the centerpoint we proclaim John 17, high priestly prayer.
Afterwards we follow the borderline between the Jewish and the Muslim quarter. Again we are not allowed to enter the Temple square. So its probably not the will of God for us to enter it. At the entrance to the Temple square we speak 1 Corinthians 13 twice. It’s good that we memorized a lot of the scriptures. So we don’t have to offend people by reading from the Bible, while at the same time we speak the words of the Bible. Back at the centerpoint we proclaim John 17 again.
The next step is going to the Damascus Gate and back, all the while blessing and proclaiming God’s love. This is the borderline street between the Christian and the Muslim quarter. At the Damascus Gate we proclaimed 1 Corinthians 13 again.
At the centerpoint we proclaim again John 17 and then we walk via King Davidsroad, the borderstreet between the Christian and Armenian quarter, to the Jaffa Gate. And we proclaimed 1 Corinthians 13 also at the Jaffa Gate.
Afterwards facing the corners of the Old City. We start at the New Gate. There we proclaim the gospels of Matthew, chapter 27 and 28.
While blessing we walk alongside the wall in the direction of the mount of Olives. At the next corner we proclaim the gospel of Mark, chapter 15 and 16. Then we walk on and keep on blessing and speak the blood of Jesus over the Muslim area. We notice that we hardly hear the mosques now. But we did hear the sounds of church bells when we entered the Christian quarter this morning. With a view on the valley of Kidron and the mount of Olives we take a break.
Then at the quarter of the Temple mount at the outside we proclaim Luke 23 and 24.
The last part there is a guide who we met three years ago at the garden of Gethsemane tried to get us with him to Bethlehem. But we blessed him and told him that we are praying.
The part from the Dung Gate to the Zion Gate is heavy and we need to climb quite a bit. A little past the Zion Gate at the corner of the Armenian quarter, we proclaim John 19 and 20. After this we go back to the hotel. We have been busy with this for about four hours.
We are praying for tomorrow to see how God will guide us how make further preparations for the meal of reconciliation.
He gives us the scripture of the day for tomorrow.
Thursday, November 27th 2008.
Scripture of the day. Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
So that’s what we are going to do; trusting for the 100 percent on God’s plan.
Today the weather is even warmer than yesterday. It looks like God’s fire is present for His city Jerusalem.
Again it will become an act of faith. How will the meal go? Can we show these people a part of our heart?
The first thing we do is to give our heart to God so we can accomplish this mission. We need to surrender our own thoughts, expectations and prejudices.
God shows us that this specific mission causes a heavy battle in the Heavenly realms, a battle with the powers of Mammon; money and selfish thinking.
God gives us the words: “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Acts 3:6.
We pray for and bless the people that we will meet. We pray that we may speak from heart to heart. That the meal may be a memorial stone in their lives, like the moment the people of Israel crossed the Jordan river. Joshua 4:1 till 7.
That those persons will tell it to their children and grandchildren.
Again we go the the Zion Gate. Corrie is really touched. She cries God’s tears of sadness for Jerusalem. The huge unwillingness to forgive, strongholds of unbelief and superstition.
At the outside of the wall we walk from the Zion Gate to the Jaffa Gate. And indeed the Christian guide is waiting on us. He takes us with him to the back room in the store.
He took a music instrument, a lute with him. In the room there are five chairs.
The cups of reconciliation are on the table. A little later three people arive: a Muslim professor, a young Jewish man and a Catholic person. A conversation about the peace of Jerusalem is developing. They all have a heart of peace.
The Muslim prays all his life already for the peace of Jerusalem and the peace between the Jews, Christians and Muslims. We are all children of the God of Abraham.
The Jewish guy comes from the town of Jaffa. His grandparents came from Jemen to Israel. He has a daughter that is three months old. The Catholic man plays the drums/ percussion. He speaks poor English.
Before the meal we pray together. Afterwards Corrie prays out loud. The Muslim translates it into Hebrew. He didn’t translate the part about the cross and the blood. After this we drink the cup of reconciliation and break the bread. Hans speaks a blessing over the bread of life.
There is an animated conversation about God’s heart of love for the people. The Muslim man tells us that God has 99 names and the first name is Love.
We sing a song together, a proclamation for the peace of Jerusalem, with the lute and percussion assistance from the Christian guide and Catholic man.
After about 45 minutes our guests leave again one by one because of security issues.
Afterwards it turns out that the shop owner cannot cash the cheques we gave him, because he doesn’t have a bank account. We promise him to go and get cash money. He says: ‘I trust you’. This is a new way of thinking for him.
At the hotel they don’t want to give cash based on a credit card. They point us to the King David hotel. There they point us to an ATM. It’s the same ATM that we used three years ago to get our money. We can’t get US Dollars there, so we end up getting Israelic Shekels. A young and friendly monk shows us the way to the Jaffa Gate.
The shop owner is happily surprised that we are back. Yes, he can trust people now.
After paying we are back to the hotel and on our way we visit the Scottish church.
We praise and thank and love God that he has guided us again today in a total surprising way. We proclaim from the English Bible that is there; Psalm 122: the peace of Jerusalem. Peace for Jerusalem, a song of ascents of David.
I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.” Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together.
That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, to praise the name of the LORD according to the statute given to Israel. There the thrones for judgment stand, the thrones of the house of David.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.”
For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you.” For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your prosperity.
This night we will travel back home.
Back home we will place this travel report on our weblog: www.sameninthenaamvanjezus.nl (from now on also on www.togetherinthenameofJesus.com)