Tues. July 29, Creche Society pickup and tour of Hezekiah's cave

Another pickup- This time The Creche for Abandoned Children Society from Ramallah.

That afternoon we went down to Hezekiah's cave that is just outside of Damascus Gate.  This is not to be confused with Hezekiah's tunnel outside the City of David.
 

It was used as a quarry.

 

The caves go way back 

Monday 28 July 2014 Visit Jerusalem Rape Crisis Center and St. Vincent for Handicapped

Monday we visited two of our organizations we help.  The Rape Crisis Center in downtown West Jerusalem got a new phone service that BYU funded.  Renut (rhymes with peanut) and Amy are very happy with the new phones.  Renut is moving to Australia to take a new job.

 



That afternoon we went out to St. Vincents in Ein Karem to meet with the sisters about a walk-in refrigerator.  Sister Paskell is on my left and Sister Susan on my right.  They are wonderful charitable women of God.

Sunday 27 July 2014 Cookies to Linda Roth and Wolf Blitzer at CNN

Sunday, July 27, we got an e-mail from Jill Chappel, one of Anne Marie's friends that works at CNN.  She said her co workers Linda Roth and Wolf Blitzer were in Jerusalem covering the Israel/Gaza conflict.  They had come for 1 week and were still here 3 weeks later.  She asked if we could make them some cookies to cheer them up.  It has been very emotionally draining on them.  We made snickerdoodles and took them to the CNN office.  They were very sweet and appreciative.  Wolf had us stand where he gives his news reports.

 

Saturday 26 July 2014 Visit from Annie and Shannon

Annie Pence, my teaching friend who taught in the room next to mine, and her friend Shannon Lacey came on a tour of Jerusalem.  They spent Saturday, July 26, with us.  We went to the Jerusalem Branch in the morning, to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Garden Tomb in the afternoon, and into Bethlehem after a quick lunch.  This is one of the Olive trees from the Garden of Gethsemane.

This is the Golden Gate of the Old City Wall.  We took this picture from the Church of All Nations, next door to the Garden of Gethsemane.



Shannon, Linda and Annie at Church of All Nations. 

 

Front Mural of Christ's atonement at Gethsemane.

Shannon, Odeh, and Annie went into Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity.  Odeh is the only branch member with a car so he graciously drove them in.

Friday 25 July 2014 Morning after demonstrations, Ein Karem with Claytons and Nickels

Thurs. night, July 24, there was a lot of commotion down below the lower gate. It went on until the early morning.  The next day there were explosions from the Wadi-Al-Joz  neighborhood. The war continues into the 17th day of conflict.

The road below the center is strewn with rocks and debris from the  night before.




Friday night we went with the Claytons and Nickles into Ein Karem for dinner.  Ein Karem is more secular Jewish so restaurants are open on Sabbath.  We have a favorite restaurant at the bottom of the hill on the left hand side.  I don't know the name of it even though we've been there before.
 

The flowers are gorgeous all summer long.  These were along the road of the town.

Friday 24 July 2014 Pick up hygiene kits for Arab Orthodox Society

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Thurs. July 24, the Arab Orthodox Society picked up hygiene kits from the center.  Each box hold 5 kits.  The kits consist of towels, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste,  and comb.  We went with the Arab Orthodox Society to St. Joseph's Hospital and Makassad Hospital on July 31, to hand deliver these kits to patients from the Gaza Strip.  The hardest part was seeing little children burned and wounded by shrapnel.  One little girl about 3 or 4 had been injured but her parents had been killed.  It brought the war home to us on a personal level. 

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Tuesday 22 July 2014 Goodbye to Scott, visit to Russian Church of Mary Magdalene, ship pillows and hygiene kits to Gaza

 

Tuesday morning Scott left to go home.  He had a noon flight so caught the transport van at 7:00 a.m.  He was detained with questions for over one hour, probably because he booked his flight so close to coming over.  His plane was the last to leave before they restricted American airlines from flying into or out of Ben Gurion Airport.  They had a missile warning while he was being interrogated and had to seek shelter in a part of the airport without windows.  We were sad to see him leave as we had a wonderful time with him.

 

Mom does look a little sad or tired

 



Blaine and Scott outside our apartment.



Tues July 22, after Scott left, we went to the lower entrance of the JC to see what had happened the night before. There was a lot of explosions, sirens, yelling, fires, and police chasing the kids. The lower gate has turned into a Palestinian hotspot at night.  The locals have set up shop with couches, tables, burned tires, and lots of rocks they throw at the local Israeli police.

They have moved the garbage dumpster into the middle of the road so cars had only 1 lane. We walked into the Old City and stopped at the Russian Church located just above the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.  It's called the Convent of Mary Magdalene. The visitor hours are limited (Tues. & Thurs. from 10:00-12:00 a.m.)

 

This is the stairway leading up to the church.

 



The gardens were beautiful



I think the outside of this church is one of the prettiest in Jerusalem



The nuns were busy working.

 

There was a wide variety of flowers and trees

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The Dome of the Rock is just across the Kidron Valley.

 

The mural was Mary Magdalene telling Tiberius that Jesus had been resurrected.  We asked for the scripture that told about it but the nuns said it was in the book of Mary Magdalene, which we don't have.



The panels reminded Blaine of the same design in some of our temples.



Mural of Mary and Christ.



That afternoon we took a load of pillows over to Hebrew University as part of a humanitarian delivery to the Gaza Strip.  We had already sent humanitarian kits as part of the delivery.
 I'm not sure if they will get through to the people that need them.  It was some Palestinian students from Hebrew University that organized the aid.



Two Palestinian boys met Inas, Namati, Blaine and me to pick up the supplies for Gaza.