I should start with Christmas Eve. Remember that in Israel there is not a holiday at this time of the year. So we worked with tour groups the full day of the 24th. In the few minutes we had at the end of the day we worked to get all the benches in the Garden turned around to face a platform that would be used for the Christmas service. It was a bit late for supper and when we were finished , Donna and I headed to the Old City. In at the Jaffa Gate and to Christ Church. I asked someone about David Richardson. I had heard he ushered there on occasion. For those of you that know Don Richardson ( missionary that wrote the book Peace Child), David is a brother. The second lady I asked was an usher. She said she was housesitting for David. As we talked, I found out she is from Qualicum and had attended Bethlehem Walk. The world is small.!
Christ Church is a beautiful small Anglican church. From 6:30 to 10:30 they had different music groups playing carols for an hour each. We stayed for over an hour. Donna enjoyed the singing so much that at one point I think she lost her voice. It was a beautilful way to spend Christmas Eve. After, we walked through the Old City in the Christian Quarter. Lots of action even though later in the evening.
Christmas Day we opened the one present that had managed to get here from home. We were out to work by 7am. It was really cloudy but the rains held off. All the benches were covered in a heavy dew so lots of drying them off. The people started coming. Ended up with 805 for the service. Over 600 of them would be Nigerians. Wish you could have heard the singing. Here is the Garden Tomb worship team.
They are all Jewish believers that are part of the staff. The service was in the Anglican traditon. Reading of Scripture with carols in between and then a message. One of the highlights for me was after the service as the music team kept playing. Many of the Nigerians moved to where the music was played. Then the very lively carols started, as well as some of the wonderful Jewish praise songs. The Nigerians were right into it including trying to get the mikes and sing along.
It took a while to clear the place out. Then the men had the job of trying to get everything back to where it belonged for the next morning.
At one-thirty it was time for dinner. There were 14 of us that sat down to turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Of course we had some Canadian things and the Brits had their traditional parts to the meal. Christmas pudding was served. We had the old fashion crackers and the hats to wear. Even a little gift exchange.
We had to walk off the big meal so from 4 to 6 we went into the Old City with Weglos and explored some areas that we had not yet seen. We managed to use chat with Caleb and had to use the telephone to call Dad Perkins. It was a full day.
Boxing Day was very busy here. It seemed like a number of groups arrived that had not made bookings. In the morning I had 7 groups. We had to do them faster and every time I finished one there was another one waiting. I did not have a stop from 8:30 until after 12. I am not complaining.
Today (Thursday) the Garden set a record for the most people attending in one year. I think it is something over 276,000 people. So folks are still coming to Israel. Tomorrow we have our day off. I think we are both ready for it.
I should comment on the sounds we hear every day. The Garden is usually a quiet place compared to other parts of the city. The first sound is at 6:10am and is our alarm clock. I think I will enjoy waking to the soft sound of the clock radio when I get home. Then there are all the daily calls to prayer. The minurets are within 300 feet of the property. Makes it really hard when guiding as they are in direct line to the area of Golgotha. I almost have to stop talking for the minute. We are surrounded with Catholic churches. I still have not figured out when their bells ring. It is definitely not on the hour or half hour. Friday before Shabbot begins, the ultra Orthadox in a nearby area start up their large speakers playing music to welcome the Sabbath. I mean it is really loud. Donna cannot get over the number of sirens that are also part of the neighbourhood. At night we often hear very large fireworks going off. Palestinians seem to fire them off for birthdays and other occasions when they must think life is too quiet. There is also a buzzer/bell that rings in the garden whenever a new group comes and no guides are available. That means finish as fast as you can and get back to start again. There are good sounds. In the garden are the sounds of many people singing praises.
One more picture to introduce one of our guides. His name is Ceasar and he is such a happy young man.
Today the director asked me to take an interesting group. Israeli tour guides make a very good income. The training is very long. In the course of 3 years they visit as a training class at least 200 sites. One of them is the Garden Tomb. I had the privilege of giving 45 of them the tour today. It was a really good group to take. They had lots of good questions. Ones that gave me clear oportunity to share the Gospel.
Yesterday I had a small group of English speaking people. It works out that if individuals come in on their own, the reception will tell them one of the guides is ahead and they can join for the tour. Four young men of Chinese background joined the group. They were all graduates of Simon Fraser University. I find the easiest thing to do is ask people if they have a Christian background. Otherwise I don't know how much of the Biblical information they may know. Three of the men said they did not go to church but one did. He made a point of walking along side me so we could talk. He told me he had called his wife that morning and she had asked if there were any spiritual moments that had happened that were special for him. He had told her no. Just before, I had shared with the larger group how I had come to faith through John 3:16. He thanked me. I finished the tour and was headed for my next group but realized he wanted to talk. I think I really missed out on what had just happened. It was only at lunch that I started to put it together. He shared how much he had appreciated my sharing my conversion. He was fairly emotional. He said he was to be baptised last September in an Alliance church. He was to write out his story but could never seem to get it done. What I think I missed was that he most likely could not get it done because he had no story to tell. He then shared how he had spent the last number of moments writing like crazy about what had happened. What I now believe I missed was his round about way of telling me as a result of my sharing how I came to Christ and his experience in the Garden, he had just been born into the Kingdom. The staff here would have allowed me all the time in the world had I picked up in that moment what was most likely going on. We do covet your prayers that in the business of hundreds of people every day, we would be sensitive to the special opportunities. That as I guide non believers, I would know the entry point to share the right things from the Scriptures. All for now. gord and donna
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