On Thursday morning, Chuck Swindoll arrived in the garden with his group of over 600. He spoke and they had communion together. We stayed in the garden in the morning to listen to him speak. Amazing. One thing he said that has stuck with me (maybe because I teach) was that we need to be teaching our children Bible verses and hymns ... because some day if we are the ones in the camps it will be all we have. Foretelling? Perhaps. True? Oh, yes.
In the afternoon we had a reservation to go to the Western Wall tunnels, but we thought we would have time to go to the Temple Institute to view the items they have prepared for the new temple. Not enough time ... which is another reason we have to go back!
As we walked up the stairs to the Temple Institute, Dean was stopped by this jewish gentleman who asked if he could pray a blessing over him. We will never say no to a blessing!
As soon as he was finished praying over Dean he asked him for some money to help the rebuilding of the temple. Dean gave him some shekels that were coins ... he said paper money would be better!
While we were waiting for our time to go on the tunnel tour, we went to the wailing wall. Torrey and I went to the women's side.
Inside the cracks in the stone, people put prayers. Twenty years ago I pulled one out ... I put it back. Torrey took one as well ... hers was in Russian or some other strange language. She did not put hers back!
We then headed under the buildings beside the Western Wall to follow the wall that would have been part of the Temple before it was destroyed in AD 70. Fortunately the Romans pushed the wall down from the top, thus preserving much of the bottom wall for future generations.
At this point we were under the Muslim quarter. There were points of the tour that our guide would tell us we were in the basements of the houses above.
Our guide is showing us one of the keystones of the temple wall. It is tremendously long and tall. Which leads to the question ... how did they get it there? With no crane. With no big equipment. How? Looking at it was one of those goose bump moments ... we had many of them on this trip!
Here you can see Dean and Torrey walking beside the stone.
This is the spot where they believe the Holy of Holies was in the temple .... behind the wall. You are allowed to come to the wall to pray and there were a few people praying at this spot. You can see prayers in the wall at this spot as well.
In some parts of the tour you felt like there was a lot of room. Others were more like here ... close quarters.
There is one in every crowd!
Well, in this case there are two! Guess who she takes after?!
These aren't just any stone. They were part of the road from the Roman times. This was part of the marketplace outside the temple area.
We enjoyed our times in the tunnel very much. We will do this again when we return!
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