St. Anne's and the Pools of Bethesda

This us, eating our (my) first falafal in Jerusalem!! We were exchanging money at Aladdin’s (pronounced Ala-deen), and he was so hospitable that he went and got a giant bag of falafal balls for us to much!! It’s pretty good stuff…I’ll be honest, I didn’t lik it at first, but I have been eating it often to convicne myself that I like it, and guess what. I like it. Beautiful day J

The girls in my picture are: me, Emily, Michell, Lexie, Sierra, and Bethany! All the girls here are incredibly sweet, and I really love them!

This was my first purchase in the old city—a pair of earrings for 5 shekels!! The excange rate is 3.74 shekels for a dollar, so these were basically dollar store earrings plus tax. Shopkeepers line the streets and call at you to come in and look at their shops. Paying more than 5 shekels for earrings is a rip off, unless they’re real metal or have stones in them. A word for the wise. 

This is me eating my first schwarma!!! I have no idea how to spell that. But it’s delicious. Oh my stars, are they good.

What’s in my schwarma, you ask? Well. A freshly baked, thick and chewy pita is filled with roasted lamb or some other kind of meat, grilled and seasoned to perfections, and then the pita is filled with lettuce and cucumbers and tomatoes and hummus and sauce. It’s incredibly delicious.

Freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, this is. They chop a couple of pomegranates right in half and put them in this huge machine that squishes them to a pulp, and all the juice comes into a little glass. It’s warm and frothy and tart. It’s SO yummy!

They have outdoor candy shops (well, everything is outdoor in a sense…like street vendors) that let you get TONS of candy for super cheap!! The Israeli gummies must be magic—they’re so delicious. And the chocolate here isn’t bad, either :)

Pools of Bethesda

My little Pool of Bethesda group--top row: Sierra, Bethany, KC, Lindsey, Skyler, Jen

Middle row: Lizzy, Hannah, Tyson, Linsdey. Bottom: Meg

The city is white chipped limestone, so there isn’t a lot of color in the walls. Color comes from people painting their doors. I’ve seen this pretty mint color, some bright yellows, deep reds and greens…it’s really pretty, and gives the city some interesting character.

This is the interior of the Church of St. Anne's. It was such a difference from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Like, I loved that place because of it's history and ornate-ness and gothic style and bedazzled-ness, but there was a cathedral at the pools that really resonated with my soul. It was the church of Saint Anne's. It was made out of the chipped white limestone, and it was almost completely without decoration. The ceilings were so so high, and there were only simple wooden benches. But it really was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The acoustics were INCREDIBLE!!! We sang a few hymns in there, and it echoed for literally three seconds before it started to die away. We sang "i know my redeemer lives," "Be Still my Soul," and "The Spirit of God." This is what's beautiful about MUSIC!! We aren't allowed to proselytize, but we are allowed to sing hymns wherever we go. And if there's anything that I know about music, it's that it brings the spirit to corners of the heart that the spoken word cannot reach. The church was so beautiful. It was spacious, full of light and clean air, quiet, surrounded by green gardens, and very very simple.

We went and took a look into the basement, and there was a little shrine to Mary and St. Anne, with a book beside it in which people could write their prayers. The book touched my heart so much. There were prayers written in it of every language, and they were all pleas to these women and to Christ to heal. I was going to write a prayer in the book, but I stopped and thought about what I would say. I read some of the prayers, and they were stories of gratitude to the Lord for healing loved one, desperate pleas to heal loved ones, and so so many others. The spirit spoke to me that this book was sacred because it was completely unselfish--all these people were praying on behalf of others, people that they loved, and they put all their trust and faith in the Lord to either heal or take them. It was such a beautiful concept. My favorite line from Les Mis came into my head: "To love another person is to see the face of God." The Savior's ministry was completely about other people. He never did a thing for himself, if only to preserve His health so he could continue to serve others. The prayer that I was going to write was selfish, all about me. How could I be selfish enough to think of myself in such a beautiful and sacred place? I should have thought of Ben, or of Grandma, or mom or Dan or any of my family, or of my roommates, or of missionaries, or of anyone else!! I was very very humbled by the sincere and beautiful prayers of these people, and more so by the example of our Savior. He spent his time healing and caring for others, body and soul.

You can see how much lower the city used to be. The architecture is beautiful, even in it’s ruin.

Just a look at the ruins of the pools of Bethesda.

The pools were incredibly beautiful. First of all, they were unbelievably epic, these white limestone ruins going high above my head and deep into the earth, these white cracked pillars, all covered with soft green grass and moss. There was still water in the bottom of one, green as a forest, with gentle ripples. Christ is our living water. In the account concerning the pools of Bethesda in John 5, it said an angel rippled the water and that's when the sick could go in and become whole. A man with an infirmity of thirty eight years--THIRTY EIGHT YEARS--had been waiting there for a physical angel to come and place him in the water. I can't imagine the hope that sprung every time he saw the water ripple, only to feel despair when the crowd surged around him, leaving him behind. Maybe next time, he must have thought. Maybe next time an angel will come and place me in the water so that I may be healed. And then one day, the Savior came. The Son of God himself healed this man, not an angel. Christ is the living water, a totally reliable source from which we can be healed. I saw that place where it happened, and it was still green and alive because of His miracle there. Christ can heal us of our infirmities: every single one. It doesn't matter how long we've been carrying the sin, how long we've been crippled. In less than the blink of an eye, the Savior's power can make us whole, body and soul.

I love the way the light fell on this place. It was so open to the air, unlike the rest of the city. It was so beautiful and peaceful. God’s spirit and memory were in this place.

I’m not supposed to climb on things…but I always forget. How do you like my matching socks? :)

Heavenly Father still sheds his light on this city. It is ancient and beautiful, it is the city of our Savior. I love this picture because it reminds me that God’s touch is far-reaching, and that he can very easily be found wherever we look

A panorama of the view from my balcony. You can see how the city is dirty and smoggy, but our neighbors up here on Mt Scopus take good care of the air. It’s beautiful, but I rather miss my Utah mountains.