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

Sadly my last day, but we will be finishing where it all began!!

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 organisation 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 Christian 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 fulfilment 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.