Dear faithful,

Today we continued our work at Four Homes of Mercy by focusing on some long awaited cleaning of a food storage unit and giving the Home's chapel a quick facelift. Once again the team was up for doing any work they were asked to do. Although, it must be stated that the jet lag, cultural adjustment, and the physical labor is wearing on our young recruits but they almost stubbornly refuse to allow their pace miss a beat. At noon we had lunch and left our home base. We were off to the Holy Sites.

On the way to Jerusalem our bus broke down which stranded for an hour while the bus drive replaced the broken fan belts. Fortunately we were broken down right infront of Lazarus' tomb so the group took advantage of the opportunity and venerated the place where he was risen from the dead. Also our tremendously agile bishop took advantage of the time and went for a quick camel ride. After an hour of mechanic work we were off again. This time we made no stops until we made it to the garden of Gethsemane. We spent most of our time in veneration of the wonderworking icon of the Theotokos of Jerusalem which was housed in the same church as the tomb of Joseph the betrothed. We were blessed to have the abbot of the monastery of the birth of the Theotokos be our personal tour guide through the Holy sites. After leaving Gethsemane we entered the place of the birth of Mary. It was truly a heartfelt experience to stand in the room where God's mother came into the world. From there we walked to the church of holy sepulcher. It is an emense structure which houses the place where the cross was found, the place where the cross stood, the stone slab where Christ was anointed after being taken down from the cross, and ultimately the tomb of our Lord. The entire structure has many levels and sections which are divided between the Orthodox, the Catholics, Armenians and the Coptics but logically most of the worship space falls under the Orthodox jurisdiction since the historical Christian authority of the Holy Lands belongs to the Orthodox Church. By far the awesomeness of the church is the greatest thing I have experience in this world. I venerated, I prostrated in front of and I kissed as many holy things that I could. At one moment I caught myself kissing a random wall not able to contain the limitlessness of the reality that God has truly come into the world to bring us peace. Yes this day is one I will never forget.

That evening we road to Bethlehem where we joined a group of Palestinian Christians for dinner. It would have been a perfect ending to a perfect day if it was not for the 20 ft. wall that had been constructed by Israeli government to separate Bethlehem from Jerusalem. It is one of the most ere things I have seen. It reminds of the Berlin wall from the communist controlled part of East Berlin. When leaving the city I was required to deboard the bus and be corralled like a mouse through metal gates and check points while being watched by men with submachine guns. This experience made me very uneasy and concerned the road Israel is taking. We all need to educate ourselves of what is really happening here and most importantly pray that peace and justice will once again rein over Jerusalem.

Please keep praying for us.

In Christ,

Fr. Nick