iN jErUsAlEm...

10th August

“I’m on a plain I can’t complain” (Kurt Cobain)…
we just started our trip and we have already a story to tell ☺
I’m with Maren, Judith and Pale, they are all from JF…I met them last year at the rainbow …
Simone (Berlin) took us to the airport and as we came to the check-in desk we face our first incident… we only had a one way ticket so they didn’t want to let us in… Ups !!!

We only had one chance to get on this flight…book our return ticket somehow…so we did it…Pfiu!!! The girl at the air company was a blessing from God (I told her that in German “Du bist ein segen” ☺ ) and she patiently booked our 4 flights back to Germany for 100 Euros each… not bad… but I had to think quickly when should I go back…28 of September sounded cool…so that’s it !!!
Now we don’t know what to do with the tickets… me and Maren wanted to go to Turkey after Israel, but we’ll see what God has in mind… we can also give our tickets to another person and they would only need to pay 30 euros to change the name…We’ll see…
We’ve put all things in God’s hands… even our lives ☺

12th August


Shabbat Shalom – resting day !!!
We’re in a nice hostel (The Petra) close to the Tower of David, in the “Christian quarter” of the old city (inside the Walls)…we’re still resting and trying to discern what should we do… but we’re not stressing about it…
We just got here yesterday around 10am… we arrived around 3.30am in Tel Aviv airport and waited more than one hour for a public bus that would take us to Jerusalem …
it was not hard to find this hostel as I had some tips from Emma… we’re paying 25 shekels (+/-5 Euros) a day to sleep on the roof ☺, which is cheap for Jerusalem … we all preferred that than paying 40 Shekels in a room ☺ … But we’re still looking for a cheaper way to stay here longer due to our low buggets ☺… maybe wild-camping or someone who would host us ☺
We didn’t really sleep much during the day coz we had to move constantly out of the hot sun… but it was good anyway!!! We just needed to lye down and rest…in the night was ok and the breeze felt really nice…


We had already nice introductions to the city from different people who are also in this hostel… Morgen and Ruben, both Canadians … Morgen took us on a walk to the “Wailing Wall” where the Jewish start their “Sabbat Shalom”…I don’t know yet what to say about that… we went for a pizza afterwards (all the Jewish food places were closed because of the Shabbat) and it was nice just to seat, talk and eat after all the travelling☺…we were ready for our sleep under the stars☺
Here we can hear everywhere a lot of different perspectives and opinions about this city, about the temple, about God, etc…There are many people who deeply study the different Scriptures and also simple followers of the different religions…
This is the main worship place for the 3 biggest religions in the world...Each of them trying to prove they are the ones holding the “truth”, or the ones who know the best “way” to worship[ God...
Today I was thinking how revolutionary and provocative Jesus was when He chose exactly this place to declare He is The Truth, The Way and The Life...Ouch!!!
We can follow The Truth, but I think we can never say we hold it...
The church many times falls into this as well…
And my opinion is that that is what leads many to war or divisions... I’ve seen enough of that to even think about pursuing it :-)

I came to this conclusion in my thoughts :
I Love God and I know God Loves me… that makes me Love God’s creation and all peoples, without exceptions (ok, that’s the supernatural part of it ☺ )
But that’s enough for me I guess ☺… I don’t want to lose this childlike simplicity ☺
I wander what would have happen if I would wear here my T-shirt with Brian Houston’s quote “We don’t need religion…just the Love of God” … I would probably get stoned :-/ …
But I’m not here to provoke anyone…specially in a time as this…
What we most need is peace…
SHALOM !!!