Sunday, February 10th

Woke up at 4:30 and wrote in my journal. After my quiet time, I walked to the very nice park across the street and prayed for Jerusalem, asking God to reveal His Son to His people and requesting that Generations have a part in that. The park is across a rather deep, narrow valley from the Old City. The walls of the Old City are lit at night, so it is very beautiful before the sunrise.

I took my shoes off and walked barefoot, praying as I walked on the cold, cold stone. It was a very meaningful time.

After breakfast, I walked to the Mount Zion section of Jerusalem. Saw signs for the Tomb of David, so I went. Very interesting. A beautiful, deep blue velvet cloth covers the entire tomb – or “casket.” On it are harps, torahs, and other items associated with King David. Found out later from on orthodox rabbi that they expect King David (or his son) to return to that very site on Mount Zion.

Also saw signs for a Holocaust museum. As I was outside the museum (it opened at 9 and I was an hour early) a rabbi came up on his way to the yeshiva above. I said hello to him and we began to talk. He teaches at the Diaspora Yeshiva Torah Yisrael on Mount Zion. He moved from New York City 28 years earlier. We started talked about the Holocaust and I mentioned what I was doing in Israel. He said the “religious Jews” had a spiritual reason why the Holocaust happened. I told him I was very interested in that. He said that he would prefer me to talk to the head rabbi about that. So I told him I would come back later. He told me to come back at noon. We shook hands as we departed.

I wanted to see the Garden Tomb and attend a worship service, but since I was so near the Temple Mount, I decided to go there and pray around it. The promise that every where I walked the Lord would give me was still foremost in my mind. I went through the security metal detector and found myself in the Temple courtyard gazing at the Dome of the Rock. Across the valley is the Mount of Olives with hundreds of thousands of Jewish graves blanketing the hillside. I began walking toward the wall surrounding the Old City. It provides the border on the west side of the Temple courtyard. I decided to take my life in my hands and climb up on the fortress wall. Now my prayers changed to prayers for safety. No handrails and it is very high on the other side of the wall going down to the valley floor. I walked the wall. No one else was up there. I prayed and took pictures of the Garden of Gethsemane in the distance. I walked to the northeast courner of the Temple Mount, then had to climb down – it was, to coin a phrase, “quite treacherous.” I then walked around the rest of the Temple Mount. The whole north boundary wall is a building filled with Arab schools for little children. Lots of police and soldiers around with automatic weapons.

Decided to get to the Garden Tomb. The Moslem quarter was interesting to get through. I finally got to the Damascus Gate and walked the two blocks to the Garden Tomb. Closed on Sundays. By now it was 9:45. I wanted to go to an a.m. church service! The Scottish Hospice had one at 10:00, but I was more than a couple of miles away. I walked very fast and made it to the service only 15 minutes late.

After the service, I went to meet the rabbis, but was told I would have to wait until 2 p.m. Went to David’s City south of the Temple Mount – very old and very steep area.  Grabbed lunch, then headed back to the yeshiva, where I met the two rabbis. Wish I had a picture of me talking to these two white-bearded old orthodox rabbis in their black suits and black hats. The senior rabbi was an intense fellow and asked me many abrupt questions which were probing and insightful. He has an earned PhD in psychology and has lived in Israel 40 years. He also had a very strong New York accent. Here are some highlights of the 20 minute conversation:

• The Holocaust was “punishment” for the Jews because of their impiety – sin;
• Israel was born because after punishment, the slate is clean and God starts afresh;
• They are raising money for David’s son, who will come to this very holy place, Mount Zion. They want to make a beautiful place for him to come to;
• This senior rabbi works in the past (the Holocaust museum built by Bergen-Benson survivors), the present (the yeshiva), and the future (a place for messiah to return to);
• The do not view Christians as any better than Moslems, but at least we have a belief system;
• The belief systems will never blend; the most we can do is work together as human beings;
• And, what was I trying to say with this show? (That God was with the Jews throughout every step of their difficult history.)

We finished, shook hands and the older rabbi left for other meetings. Very sincere in their beliefs, these orthodox.

I came home exhusted and slept for an hour. Got up, put my tennis shoes on very sore feet and walked all the way to King of Kings Church on Jaffa Street.

This is the first church I’ve ever attended where I had to go through a securty checkpoint. It is in a large shopping building. Nice auditorium, but would be challenging to stage Generations there, since there would be no place to put the orchestra. The service was 2 hours, 20 minutes long with three different speakers. The senior pastor did not speak. They made a big push for The Covenant, a pageant-type production that will be presented in March and October. Tickets are $30 each. They will be presenting their show (a separate entity from the church, by the way) when we will be in Jerusalem with Generations. Will be interesting to see what God has in mind!

Bought a falafel on the way home and ate while walking. Went to bed about 9:30 p.m.
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Monday, February 11

Today is Meagan’s birthday, so she’s been on my mind all day (along with her beautiful mother and sisters). Megs turns 23 today.

Got up early again and had my devotional at Bloomfield Garden across the street from the hospice. Very pleasant place to meet with the Lord and look upon His city.

I found the location of the Christian Embassy on the map and walked to it. Beautiful building. Met with Chuck and his assistant, Kay. They were very nice and supportive, but were unable to offer the Embassy as a partner for Generations. There were a variety of reasons for this: they have just finished six years of doing The Covenant and want a break; there is no good forum which they could host us (the stage they use has no place for a pit orchestra); the scrutiny they would receive being associated with an overtly messianic musical would be detrimental to their tentative standing in Israel at this time. Chuck was willing to be a resource in any way possible, so I was grateful for that.

At this point, I felt the prophesy that Allan’s wife, Annie, had given me was being fulfilled. With the Pavilion looking like it would only handle us with difficulty, and my other only hope for a hosting body now dashed, it did indeed look as though the project was dead. But she said the Lord would come and raise the dead, just like He did with the widow’s son from Nain. I eagerly await the resurrection!

From the Embassy, I checked out the Jerusalem Theatre, which seats 950 and is the main venue in Jerusalem for theater. Dropped in on the booking agent to see if the dates were available and they were not. September was wide open, however.

I then started walking the long trek to King of Kings and ate a falafel on my way there for lunch. Was directed to the 14th floor – the prayer tower. Very impressive place. Special aura about it, for sure. Met with Wayne. He made investigative phone calls for me to David in Natanya and Michaela in Jaffa. David had extensive experience bringing a Biblical musical to Israel and so was very realistic in articulating the challenges I am facing. Michaela is an intercessor and she really blessed me just by saying, “God bless you, Daniel Perrin.” It has such honest weightiness to the words.

Wayne’s wife, Ann, then came in and joined us. She was honest, yet hopeful of coming and presenting Generations in the Pavilion. It just could work. Would be very “tucky” setup, but could be possible. She was willing to take seats out – whatever – to accomodate us.

I was pretty tired by this time (late afternoon), so I headed back to the hospice and arrived around 5:00 p.m. Fell asleep on the bed for an half hour, then decided to celebrate Meagan by buying a steak dinner. It’s hard to celebrate alone. Got back to the hospice, went to bed and was awakened by a phone call from Melinda. Wonderful!!! She had not received my email, so it was good to catch her up on everything. Went back to sleep and then called Meggie in the morning (which was the night of her birthday the previous day.)

Tuesday, February 12

This morning I made connection with Bridges for Peace and will have an appointment with the director on Thursday morning. Having set up my trip tomorrow to Haifa and Tiberius, I made my way to the Old City one last time.

I went to the Wailing Wall where I was hit for donations by two different Jews. You would think in such a holy site they would leave people alone. I then found out how to get into the tunnel tour. It was interesting and I’m glad I did it. One very interesting fact is that they attribute the destruction of the second temple as judgment from God for their hatred. The tour does not go undernearth the Temple Mount, but follows the Western Wall underneath the Muslim quarter.

I then made my way to the Church of the Hagulation, which was across the street from where the tour let out. The tour offered a guarded escort back to the Western Wall from those who wanted it. In the Church of the Hagulation there is a stained glass window of Barabbas as well as Christ. Barabbas is depicted as an obviously crazy black man. In the Church of the Condemnation next door, one can see the game carved by the Roman soldiers on the stone.

I then walked over to Gethsemane, but it was closed for two and a half hours for lunch. I walked among the graves on the Mount of Olives – thousands of them. Went down to the floor of the Kidron Walley. Thought a lot about Christ and His arrest. It was peaceful down there. I then went to St. Anne’s Church and walked around the pools of Bethesda. Had to pay 7 shekels to get in. As I walked from there I found the prison where tradition says Jesus and Barabbas were held. It’s down in a carved out stone cavern – down two floors. I asked the attending priest if Barabbas would have been able to hear the riot going on up above, but he couldn’t understand the question. I could hear the Muslim call to prayer over the loudspeakers, however.

I also saw the original walls to the Fortress of Antonia. It was in an Armenian shop. I was invited to coffee and told it would be an insult if I refused. I drank the wild coffee, but did not by anything. I wondered how many cups of coffee this shop keeper drinks a day.

Finally, I returned to the Church of the Holy Spirit to get pictures of the two real graves at the back of the church. It had been raining on and off all day, but I was pretty wet by the time I made it inside the church.

Throughout the day I prayed often and was struck by the devotion of people to inanimate objects from Christ’s life, such as the stone (supposedly) where His body was prepared for burial. I did not sense the presence of God in all these historic places of His life anymore than at home in Seattle. I considered that I am His chosen temple, so His presence is with me wherever I am.

Wednesday, February 13

After a quick breakfast at 7:00 a.m., I took a taxi to the central bus station, then a bus to Haifa. Steve, a brother in the Lord, was there waiting for me. We had a great time of fellowship as we drove to Tiberius. I mentioned that there was interest in my tour of being baptized in the Jordan River, so he drove me to where that could be done. We then met David, another Christian brother, for lunch and had an amazing time of talking about Generations. They both felt that Tel Aviv was the place to present it – and through an arts connection, not through a ministry. Tel Aviv is the financial and arts center of Israel. Any Broadway show done there sparks great interest. Also, there is significant apathy regarding the opinions of the rabbis in Jerusalem. David mentioned the two kinds of Jews in Israel – those who survived eartern Europe, and the Sephardic Jews who were more from the Mediteranean area (i.e. Spain and Morocco). I then realized that Act 1 and Act 2, respectively, relate strongly to those two histories. David said that this muscial is going to relate so deeply on so many levels that we can’t even comprehend. It was an exciting and encouraging time. After we left David at the St. Andrew’s Scots Hotel, we headed back to Haifa. I think is was a very meaningful day for Steve as well. He dropped me off at the bus station and I walked down to the beach. Jumped on the 4:40 “direct” to Jerusalem, then walked from the central bus station all the way home.

Thursday, February 14

I met with Leandra at Bridges for Peace at 9:00 a.m. The director of the organization had jet lag and was not able so make the meeting. Leandra is the assistant and very very interested in the project. She will present it to the director for me.

At the airport, I met with another brother who had great insight into taking the show to Tel Aviv.

It’s been a very interesting trip. An approach to bringing Generations to Israel which I had not envisioned. God will fulfill His word and His purposes for this project.

My sense is that this journey of faith will now include all those at Cedar Park who are in the choir. We will follow the Lord together.