Skip to main content

israel: day 6


for those of you who are wondering, we are home safe.  we got up at 1:45 am on saturday morning in jerusalem, and were home by 9pm on saturday night in new jersey.  of course we were traveling west, so it was actually more than 24 hours.  needless to say, it was a long day, and we're happy to be safe at home, even if it is covered in snow. 

i never got a chance to write about our last day in the holy land, so i thought i'd give you a quick recap.  we had friday morning free, so shannon and i (along with several others) decided to head back within the old jerusalem wall into what is called "the old city" for some shopping.  there are "streets" there that are really just paved sidewalks lined with tiny little shops, full of vendors trying to sell you their goods.  many of the shops were just clothes or shoes or religious trinkets, but we found some cool shops, including one that sold all kinds of interesting spices, at really good prices.  this picture shows how beautiful the spices look.


there was also a fish store that we walked by in the morning, when it had some fresh fish lying out.  when we walked by later, they had added their most recent catches, including this guy:



after the old city, we went to the holocaust museum in jerusalem, which was a very difficult expeience.  it is an amazing museum that thoroughly tells the history of the whole terrible ordeal, complete with videos and personal stories and pictures and items.  it was emotionally straining to say the least. 

from there we headed to ein karem, the traditional birthplace of john the baptist.  once again it is a site of ancient christian worship (there are christian markings there from some 1500 years ago), that has now been covered and marked by an extremely ornate church.  here is a painting from inside the church:



the weather on friday in jerusalem was awful - rainy and cold.  but we all really wanted to go to the garden tomb, which is another possible location for the crucifxion and resurrection of Jesus.   there is much dispute among scholars about the actual site, but this location is often focused on because of a rock formation there which resembles a skull. 


there was a tomb found there that looks exactly like what a tomb from that era would have looked like.  who knows if it was really the site or not, but we were able to celebrate communion as a group there, which was very moving. 

an ancient roman entrace to the wall around jerusalem, near the damascus gate

i want to bring some closure to this trip, by writing one more post about the whole experience, but i think i'm going to need a couple of days to sort of process everything and let it all sink in.  i looked through so many windows this week: windows into the past; into scripture; into the social situation there, and the need for peace with justice.  windows into myself, and my own spiritual journey, too.  so give me a few days to continue to make peace with what i've seen and heard this last week, and i will try to sum it up.  for those of you who have been following along and reading, thank you.  i hope you enjoyed your participation in my trip.  may God - the God of us all - bless you. 

grace|peace,
greg.

Comments

NJ Grandma said…
Welcome Home Greg and Shannon - followed your blog and sounded like you had an incredible time. Glad you got home safe and I am sure the boys were so glad to see you. Take care. ~Gail~
Cindy M. said…
Glad you are home safe. What a beautiful tribute to your pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Emoly said…
I love the use of windows. What a great way to "look" at your trip and the experiences you had. It is also a wonderful way to let us see it all through our own windows. (in case you didn't know this about me, I love themes)

Popular posts from this blog

bad haircuts (for a laugh)

everybody needs to laugh.  one good way i have found to make that happen is to do a simple google image search for 'bad haircut.'  when you do so, some of the following gems show up.  thankfully, my 9th grade school picture does NOT show up.  otherwise, it would certianly make this list!  please laugh freely and without inhibition.  thank you and have a nice day. 

happiness is dry underwear

we started potty training jack on thursday. we followed a program called POTTY TRAIN IN ONE DAY, which, by the way, i think is kind of crazy. i mean, if someone were to offer you a book called, "ACHIEVE WORLD PEACE IN ONE DAY" i don't think you would take it seriously. and yet here we are, trying to accomplish an equally daunting task in one 24-hour period. it is intense. the day is shrouded in a lie because as soon as your happily diapered child wakes up you tell him that it is a big party. we had balloons and streamers and noisemakers and silly string - all the trappings of a legitimate party. but it is most certainly not a party. it is a hellishly exhausting day. as soon as jack got out of bed, we gave him a present: an anatomically correct doll that wets himself. jack named him quincy. several times quincy successfully peed in the potty and even had an accident or two in his "big boy underwear." he also dropped a deuce that looked and smelled sus

the crucifixion of Robert Lewis

  "the crucifixion of Robert Lewis" mixed media collage with leaves, acrylic paint, and found objects by gregory a milinovich october 2023 this october i was invited to participate in a three day trip which was called a "pilgrimage of pain and hope."  while that may not sound super exciting to many of you, it actually really intrigued me.  i am the kind of person that wants to feel big feelings, and i am drawn to the deep places, so  i was interested in traveling to the scranton area, where the trip was planned, to see what it might look like to be a pilgrim that was wide-eyed and listening to the pain and the hope in the stories of others.   this trip included hearing the stories of immigrants to the northeastern pennsylvania area, and the work in the coal mines that many of them did.  it included hearing from folks who are working for housing justice and equity in downtown scranton.  it included hearing from those indigenous people who first inhabited that land.