a surprising, God-ordained meeting...!

a few days after arriving in israel, i took the bus from where i am living outside of tel aviv, to jerusalem to spend a few days...

just shortly after getting off the bus in jerusalem, i unexpectedly met up with Pastor Vlad Sharikov from Minnesota, and his son, Thad!  Wow!  my family has visited pastor sharikov's church several times before, and have become good friends with his whole family.  so it was really fun to meet up in Israel!

pastor sharikov and some other believers from his church and a few other churches had just finished hosting a youth camp here in israel.  and now they were spending their last day touring some of the sites of Old City, Jerusalem.

i was happy to join them for the afternoon, enjoy the sights of jerusalem together, and catch up on what all had been going on with them since we had seen each other last...

today's view of the top of Golgotha (mount calvary)...

it is topped by a few antenna's and muslim holy graves

we are standing in front of Golgotha/Mount Calvary.

in the upper, right-hand part of the picture you can see the

eyes and nose of the skull which gave the mountain it's name...

"Golgotha - place of the skull"

with susanna sharikov

in the gardens that surround the tomb thought to be

the one where Christ was buried...

inside the garden tomb...

outside the garden tomb...

i made friends with benny, one of the little boys of a

russian/israeli family who had also helped with the youth camp.

benny and i on a 2,000 year old road that

ran next to the temple in jesus' time...

benny peaks through a stone hall in

a byzyntine era home...

ancient staircase...

with mrs dena sharikov in front of a solid gold

menora that has been specifically made to go in the 3rd temple...

the jewish people are preparing many things such as priest's garments,

menorah's, golden cups and bowls, etc in hopes of one day building

a third temple on the temple mount (where currently stands the

dome of the rock mosque...)

as an exciting touch to the end of our day,

just as my friends were about to load into the van to go to the airport,

police came and closed the road along which the van was parked...

we had to wait about 45 minutes while a robot-type device checked out

a bag that had been left at the entrance to the old city

and make sure there were no explosives hidden inside.

here the police joke with the many pedestrians waiting

to be allowed to continue once the bag had been cleared...

all the buses and cars stopped on the road, waiting...

three young brothers who had been walking down the road,

hand in hand, sit along the sidewalk in front of a mural of

the Western Wall as they wait for the road to be opened ...

after saying goodbye to my friends (as they rushed off the the airport

once the road was finally opened up again..)

i walked back through jerusalem's old city to the hostel where

i was planning to spend the night...

the narrow streets are lined with 2,000 year old buildings

and are used by vehicles and pedestrians together...

a night view of Jaffa Gate, leading into the

Jewish Quarter of the Old City...

just behind the wall seen on the right of this picture

is King David's Citadel...amazing!!!!