Hello All ~                                                                               

I hope you are doing well!  Here is a run down of recent activity.

1/14 Friday – Pool of Bethesda and Eastern Gate (above) of the Old City plus more.  Awesome day with team.  Many pictures posted on Facebook (soon to come) if you are interested.  Takes very long to post px to this blog.  You can find me by looking up Valerie Harvey.

1/16 Saturday – Shabbat.  Had the morning free.  About mid-day went to Garden Tomb to spend some quiet time there, but it was closed so went to tour Old City myself.  Am getting better acquainted with the area, so felt comfortable with that.  Was a lovely, warm day.  Watched a man making fresh orange / pomegranate juice for customers and later that night had a dream I was swimming in it. 

As a group, we walked to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre later that afternoon and walked throughout.  We spent time praying quietly in various rooms.  Spiritually, I found it to be a very “heavy” place to be.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is a Christian church in the Old City of Jerusalem.  It stands on a site that encompasses both Golgotha, or Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, and the tomb (sepulchre) where he was buried.  The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been an important pilgrimage destination since the 4th century, and it remains the holiest Christian site in the world.

Spent time that eve talking with Dave Fritch, the leader of the Burn Team, getting to know a bit more about what they do and who they are as an organization.   Their vision is similar to IHOP in many ways,  but has more of a missionary emphasis.  http://burn24-7.com/

This is such a great group of young ppl!  I have come to begin to just love them, and have so enjoyed our time together.  They are so much fun to be with.

This week we had a 2 day teaching time with Pastor Paul Teske from U.S.A.  On Friday night, we had a service where we prayed for many Christian and non Christian Arabs which was a powerful time. It was hard to get testimonies from ppl b/c many did not speak English.

1/17 Sunday – This was an amazing day.  One of the best so far.  We left on a big bus in the morning for a few destinations South of Jerusalem.  We visited Kfar Rafael, a community for those with pretty severe disabilities.  It is a beautiful little “village.”  Karen often buys the anointing oil that they produce from olive trees right there.  They have a tremendous garden and the community is very self sufficient, with all of the handicapped villagers playing a part in making it all work.  They make candles, rugs, anointing all – all sorts of things

From there we went to Be’er Sheva – Machpela (above), where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are buried in Hebron, and then to Abraham’s Spring for more baptisms.    I did not participate in this one, but it was a great place to to pray and worship. A couple of Israeli soldiers looked on while we did so.  They gave us a thumbs up and were very interested in what we were doing.  We talked to them a bit before leaving.

We had packed bags of rice and forgiveness books to hand out at one of the refugee camps that afternoon, but our day ran late and it was dark by the time we made it to that area.   I would have liked to spend more time in Hebron, but perhaps another time.

It seems my heart is very drawn to the Palestinian refugee areas of Israel.  When we left Hebron, in the dark, I just sat in my seat and wept over what I saw while we were there.  Much about the landscape was lovely, so different than U.S., but my heart broke for the people in the area.

So tired now.  Will hope to write again soon and post more px.

With love to all,

Val