At 3am to drive to Manchester to meet the young people in our group and my colleague Leo from North Western Synod at the airport.
We arrived in Jerusalem early this evening to be met by good friends. It was so good to see them and doesn’t seem like a year since we last met.
Last year we came to help with a summer camp, this year is for a pilgrimage to see the Holy Sites and to meet with people to hear about life in this beautiful broken country.
Tomorrow we are starting our day at the top of the mount of olives and working our way down the hill. Ramadan and the Sabbath collide tomorrow night so we will be steering clear of what promises to be a tense afternoon in the old city.
I’m interested to see how our group experience this Holy Land. And I’m interested to see how I encounter it with more time and space to see and think and feel it.
I think most of the places we’re staying have wi-fi so I’ll try to blog as we go but no doubt the detail will come next week when we’re home.
Now, to sleep. It’s been a long day. And we’re sleeping in the Knight’s Palace hotel, where the knights of the crusades gathered centuries ago. I wonder what the people of those times would make of it now?
Perhaps the knoghts of old would see little actual change apart from the architecture. There are still the divisions and the tensions which hopefully may be eased by the talking in the States. It’s a long road to peace. Hearing you talk of the Mount of Olives walk brings back memories of my study leave trip in January. May you be blessed in your time there.