Today was our last day in Israel, and we are writing you from the Istanbul Airport as we wait to board our flight from Turkey to New York.

We began this morning on the Mount of Olives. We started out at Bethpage where we had a clear view not only of Jerusalem, but also the town of Bethany where Jesus stayed when he came to Jerusalem. Bethany is the village of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Bethany is where Jesus has his feet anointed with ointment on holy week (Mark 14:1-11) and where He raises Lazarus from the dead (John 11) just to name a couple of events there. There are also some first century tombs in Bethpage that gave us a good example of what a tomb would look like in Jesus’ day.

From there we walked down around the Garden of Gethsemane. There, in the area we presume Jesus prayed with His disciples stands a modern church known as the Church of All Nations that commemorates Jesus evening in the garden. It is a beautiful structure. Across the Kidron Valley the Temple Mount dominates the view.

From the garden, we walked the path that Jesus would have walked (or as close as we can get in the present day) following His arrest. This took us up the Kidron valley right up towards the temple mount. We then walked to an excavation site in the modern day Jewish quarter of the city. This whole section of the old city was destroyed in the Six Days War, after which Israel took the opportunity to excavate many sites under the destroyed homes and businesses before building over them.

This excavation site is noteworthy because it is a very upscale home in the part of the city where the priests lived. This particular home is the largest one in the area, leading many to presume that it was the house of Caiaphas the high priest. His house is the place where Jesus is questioned before His trial (John 18:12-27). After exploring that archeological site, we went to one final lookout where we got one last view of Jerusalem.

Now we are all packed up, very tired, and awaiting a very long plane ride back to the United States. Please pray for our safe travels.

We want to thank all of you for your encouragement and support of our taking this course. It has been a wonderful learning experience for us, and we cannot wait to get home and share some of what we have learned with you.

In Him,
Pastor Matheny and Matt Brand

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