The Gifts We Bought

a ring that i bought.. "my beloved is mine, and i am his" :)



my name, Rachel :)



a beautiful colourful candle that we bought during the shopping trip



the holy communion set that i so love



the 1000USD minorah that we bought. nice



the shofar we got



a close up



oil lamp we got from the Narazeth Village, with 4 holy communion cups that we were given



tshirt of hebrew alphabets that i super like!



our Go Israel tour itenarary



my sister's ElAl flight ticket stud. think i lost mine =X

The Ride Back

At the airport, we tried to snap as many pictures as we possibly could. Snap Snap Snap!! coz it could have been our very last chance..


Moshe with us. love his hat.



us in the plane waiting for take off



the kids according to height, during our transit time at the Hong Kong airport



chong ern wasn't too happy, quite clearly.

Bus Musings

Some stuff we did on the bus.. who says bus rides have to be boring?! ;)



and they say my dad can sing.. listen to the last note!! =P



yes, they can definitely sing very high.. and you wonder why they didn't ask you to join their band..
uncle anil: i know not this man..




another cute one of my sister.. this is for always "entertaining" me during the bus rides..




and just where did my sister get her genes from?




the flock of sheep we met one day during our bus ride. we stopped just so that we could take videos and photos. quite funny actually. imagine a bus load of people just stopping to let you and your herd cross the road, with everyone on the bus videoing and taking photos of you like nobody's business!

Q: why did the sheep cross the road?
A: to let pesky tourists snap pictures of them




Moshe teaching us "Meshiya Meshiya Meshiya"..



just to prove how much we loved the song!!

Emmaus Road

sighhhhhhhh........... our last location. :'(

where Jesus appeared to his 2 disciples after his death and ressurection. and how they didn't realise that this man was Jesus all along. a good time for reflection of the trip, how Jesus was with us all this while, whether we noticed it or not.. :)

truly, His hand was upon us.. :)

thank You Lord for this blessed blessed trip that all of us so thoroughly enjoyed.. we are SO GREATLY BLESSED, HIGHLY FAVOURED and DEEPLY LOVED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Valley of Elah

Where David killed Goliath. AWESOME SITE!!!

unfortunately, the ground was still wet from the rain, so it was too muddy to walk down to the fields. but it's just cool enough BEING there. hahaha.. imagine that great battle taking place. awesome awesome.

once more, about Goliath bearing the mark of the devil.

6 weapons
6 feet tall
600 shekels in weight

yet, David won. because he is God's BELOVED. just like we are today, hallelujah!! =D



Valley of Elah


pan right


pan further right



Moshe showed us his very own produced (yes he owns a company) slingstone! hahaha.. almost bought it.. but where to sling in singapore lah..


moshe and his slingshot

Lunch @ Finnish Village

good lunch here. loved it. coz of the unique food. met this australian math professor. a very unique character. not your typical friendly PR guy. might come off as somewhat strange, but i enjoyed listening to him share about his mathematical findings. how the randomness of stuff can actually still form a pattern, and even help science studies! hahaha.. really interesting.. :)

one thing cool about this lunch place. it was apparently built because the Finnish people felt guilty and sorry about handing the Jews over to the German Police during the time of the holocaust. so they built this in commemoration of and apology to them. so sweet hor.. :)



tried to snap some picture of how "the mountains surround jerusalem", but the best i could do was this:




once again, the four of us! :) thank God so much for their wonderful company :)

Renewing of Marriage Vows

We wanted to carry out the renewal of marriage vows at golgotha, but because it was raining and also rather crowded, we decided to do it back at the hotel. so we drove back, and had a very nice cosy room to ourselves, which apparently is much better, coz no noise and no distractions, and no limitations of time! :)

the whole event was very.. hahaha.. heartwarming. started with holy communion, which was lovely. and then husbands and wives were then called out to renew their vows. uncle sidney had printed a paragraph for both husband and wife to declare over each other. very sweet, and very cute.. :)


not the best picture, but trust me, the videos more than make up for it




renewing of vows..




the kiss!!! =D



also, we played naughty and did daddy in. we made him sing a song to mommy!! hahaha.. teach him a thing or two about being romantic. and yeah, it was really quite romantic.. :)



only you..

Golgotha / Garden Tomb

Alas, it was our last day in Israel. SOOOOO SAD!!!!!!!!!!!!! and as if the amplify this sadness, it started to pour. our first day of rain. -.-



our last photo in our hotel room together



still packing..


we had a late morning coz we had much to pack, had our last breakfast (SO SAD!!!) and headed for golgotha and the garden tomb. (same place)


The Garden Tomb



the view from where we were standing. can you make out the face/skull?



if you can't, here's some help



me smiling beside the skull. yet another ironic picture.



It's amazing how you can really see the SKULL in the rocks. quite scarey. btw, that's where Goliath's head is said to be buried. that's why it's called the place of the skull, ie, Golgotha.

Story goes that there was this European man staying in a hotel across this place. one day he was looking out, and realised how much these rocks resembled a skull. he then thought of how the bible described Golgotha, and figured that this really could be the place. upon further investigation, they found bones around that cliff/area, dating back to the time of Jesus. also, this area is just outside the city gate, (damascus gate), and it's along a major road - a very likely place to have public cruxifiction, as the purpose of cruxifiction then was to warn the public to not carry out these wrongdoings, lest you too be hung on the cross. so logically speaking, this was the best place to conduct cruxifiction.

of course, no one can say for sure lah. like what everyone says, it's not the place that matters, but what it signifies for us today.



we also saw the tomb of Jesus. it's carved from a stone, fresh, which only rich people can do. couldn't quite hear the guy explaining this portion as it was raining, and i was standing quite far behind. and i was very very cold. but anyway, Joseph, the guy who buried Jesus, was freakking rich, so that's why put two and two, and you might guess that this was Jesus' tomb. it was big enough for about 7 people to mourn, which apparently is quite big a number. okaayyy..


on our way into the tomb.. was raining..



the small entrance to the tomb



into the tomb



turning right towards the area the body was laid



the empty tomb.. HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!! =D

Holocaust Museum / Yad Vashem

This was one of their most sacred places. the Holocaust Museum. and i guess i can understand why. how would you feel if one day, someone wants to wipe out your entire race!! quite scarey, and quite.. painful huh.

didn't quite stay in there for long. gave me the creeps, all the evil things done there. don't think i'll ever want to specialise in this area. at least not in the near future. so didn't quite see the need to explore very much. quickly walked through, and then exited for fellowship and rest.

but the visitors really respect the place. coz as we were walking out, a group of western toursists were walking with us, and along came a group of really noisy jewish teenagers, talking super loudly. the americans (i think) then turned to them and told them "quiet please! respect!" and immediately, the teenagers grew very quiet and apologised. even they knew the significance and importance of the place. respect! and i thought that was very.. amazing a moment.

yes, let's give due respect to those who have suffered the horrible persecution.

Nehemiah's Wall

Then we saw Nehemiah's wall.

apparently, chariots could conduct races on its width! that's how wide it was. and a group of people building the wall for 52 days straight. no sleep, no food also i think. interestingly, that was the period of esther too.. after she became queen. never realised how ezra, nehemiah and esther were written during the same period, but in reverse timeline. esther happened first, followed by nehemiah, followed my ezra. interesting hey.

Southern Steps

We are now on the Southern Steps, the other way into the temple. Why is this the most common entrance? because it's from LOW ground to HIGH ground. so they believe that it's more meaningful and significant, you know, when you walk UP.. it's like in humility, you come to meet with God. quite cool i thought. to physically remind us. but then again, we ARE new creations in Christ. the old HAS passed, and the new IS here!!

this is also one of the only areas of the temple that have been reserved. also the place where 3000 got saved by Peter's maiden sermon.

here, we sang "i will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, i will enter His courts with praise. i will say this is the day that the Lord has made, i will rejoice for He has made me glad". very meaningful a song for this occassion, and so as we climbed up, we sang! indeed, that was the day, when Jesus died, and therefore, THIS IS OUR DAY OF CELEBRATION!!!



we then proceeded to the Jewish quarter, which was more organised and less dense/crowded. and we had our lunch there. kebabs and other typical jewish dishes.

after that, we had shopping!!! =D bought more things, if it's even possible.

Wailing Wall

We then reached the famous Wailing Wall.








where people were REALLY wailing. quite a sight. once again, females were seperated from males. people would usually write their prayers on a small piece of paper, and try and slip them into the cracks of the wall. so that's what i did! hahaha.. just for fun and tradition. i know i don't need to write it down on paper etc, (like what uncle peter says, why use slow mail when we've got direct access?) but just for experience's sake. hahaha..



some pics of us being so pious. hahaha..



but i WAS genuinely praying lah. wah, it was so tough to just GET to the wall. had to wait for ages, and then squeeze my way through the crowd.. so of course had better get my "time's" worth! hahaha...



more pictures of us at the site










we also saw this mini-showcase area, and Moshe taught us about the timeline of Jewish history.. pretty interesting. who conquered Jerusalem when..









also, Jews would usually celebrate boys turning 13 years old. a "becoming a man" time. Bamitzvah. took a video of part of their celebration. very loud and jovial and affair. quite the opposite of the wailing wall.. and yet, both occurances are side by side.



one such celebration

Via Dolorosa

here, we went through very briefly the via dolorosa. for some reason, we didn't quite dwell on this part. don't know if it's because everyone was just in such a rush, or whether they purposely didn't want us to DWELL on this part. for some reason.

anyhow. the first 2 stations of the cross.



1st station - smooth stone. where Jesus was spit at, crown of thorns were placed on him. the place of judgement. remember, he bore our worries (at the brain) so that we could be stress free!

2nd station - grooved stone. so that animals won't sleep when they walk. uneven ground. no pictures unfortunately.

the rest of the stations were abit.. blurred. took some pictures of pictures. hahaha.. but that's about it.

oh, the only cool thing is, you know what the 5th station is? (5 being the number of grace). when Simon helped Jesus carry the cross. talk about grace huh. beautiful picture.. :)




the streets were so.. filled. imagine Jesus having to walk down these streets. what a sight it must have been!



people were trying to sell stuff to us all along the way



example of man carrying cross. but of course, fake one lah. for tourists haha



the Via Dolorosa



some streets were more quiet, so quick quick take photo!!



there was a nice mural which depicted the time of Jesus, and what must have been there along the streets. decided to sit on the "floor" and pretend to have been there hahaha



they had many bagel shops.. jewish bagels. interestingly shaped. quite nice a bite.



wanru and me enjoying the bagel YUM.. thanks Moshe for the treat! ;)



a minorah that we spotted



israelites playing their drums so cool lah



also, Jews would usually celebrate boys turning 13 years old. a "becoming a man" time. Bamitzvah. took a video of part of their celebration. very loud and jovial and affair. quite the opposite of the wailing wall.. and yet, both occurances are side by side.



watch it!



mom just had to barge between them haha