Journey to Gethsemane
Jerusalem. David and I were experiencing a dream trip come true. Someone had provided a way for us to join a small study group to Israel. All my life I had desired to see the places where Jesus walked and to have my eyes opened to the events of the Bible in an extraordinary manner. I was full of thinking thanks as we actually walked along the old Jerusalem walls, into the Kidron valley, and up the Mount of Olives into the Garden of Gethsemane. The olive trees were astounding!
As we entered I realized that it was a lot smaller than I had imagined. Probably one reason for that was the Church of All Nations that now occupies much of the area where the garden had originally been. The word Gethsemane means olive press. Since the Mount of Olives is covered with olive tress, that is a most fitting name. The garden seemed more cultivated than I expected, probably more than it was when Jesus and His disciples had gone there 2,000 years ago. 
A fence enclosed the garden, protecting the ancient olive trees, and beautiful flowers were growing in between the old trees. I could see walkways, but people were not allowed to enter.
Th(i)nkful for Freddie
Not sure if I was super-exhausted from travel and walking many miles a day, or because I was truly aware of the immensity of what happened on that piece of ground, but I began to cry. Tears were streaming down my face as I peered over the fence that surrounded the garden. I was so very th(i)nkful that Jesus “saw it through.” For my sake, he endured through the arrest and the illegal trial that night, and then the beatings, the mocking, and the agony of the cross the next day. The overwhelming agony was sadly juxtaposed with the underwhelmed cluelessness of his disciples who were not even able to stay awake and pray with Him. I don’t expect I would have done any better as I so often yield to the frailty of my flesh.
A man inside the garden walked up to me. He noticed my tears and was gentle and kind. He said that he had been the gardener there for 21 years, and his father for 40 years before him. His name was Freddie; his father was from Romania and his mother an American Jew. He asked me to wait a minute while he went to get something. He returned with some small sprigs clipped from the oldest olive tree in the garden! As we continued to chat with him, we found out that Freddie’s mother was very sick so David asked if he could pray for her, and he did.
Some of the olive trees there were so huge and gnarled. I had never seen such trees in all my life. I wondered if in fact some of them could actually have been there 2,000 years ago when Jesus was there?
Rosemary in Gethsemane
As an epilogue, I wanted to mention that someone once told me that there was a lot of the herb rosemary in the Garden of Gethsemane. That connected with me. I love rosemary, and to think that it may have been growing around the area where Jesus prayed brought me joy. Perhaps he stroked His fingers over the rosemary and smelled it like I love to do. So I was on the lookout for that as I walked around the garden.
Sure enough I found it on the north side. It was neatly planted in a row, but I am sure that when Jesus was there it grew more wildly.
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to His disciples. Sit here, while I go over there and pray. And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful , even to death; remain here, and watch with Me.
Matthew 26:36-38
The rainbow of God’s promise is clearly seen through the barbed wire. The wire was put there for a reason you can be sure, and most probably served its purpose.
He and his dear wife, Carol, have many years of pastoral experience and have chosen to minister in the twilight of their years to missionaries all over the world. They get on flights and fly to the uttermost parts to serve and encourage.
David and I are moving back to South Africa in a few months. We will go alone to this land; we will leave family behind. We plan to study the Zulu language diligently, and then teach the Bible, theology and counseling to emerging Zulu leaders, and help them begin a church-planting movement.
My friend bought a leaf cutter from Hobby Lobby craft store (using the 40% coupon) :). She then went to Walmart and asked if she could have paint-color samples. She took the paint-color sample papers and cut out ‘leaves.’
It displayed the leaves. 
She brought the tree and the leaves to show me one evening when we were speaking at a missions conference at her church.
Th(i)nkful: a determined choice to download grace/strength from the Lord to think thanks about every circumstance in my life and to express that thanks orally or in a written form.
No one knows how Pharaoh Khufu built his Great Pyramid back in 2560 BC, 500 years before Abraham. It included 2.3 million blocks weighing 20+ tons each. If they finished it in 20 years, that would mean laying a block every 4 minutes, day and night so tightly that you can’t fit a piece of paper between them! It was 480 feet tall, the tallest building in the world for 3800 years.
Difference Between In and For
In other words they are not good bedfellows. One has to leave.
The ‘D’ verse was “Do all things without murmuring and disputings.” (Phil. 2:14).
You refuse to think the grumpy thoughts of complaining and instead exercise your will to think thanks about whatever is in front of you.
Have you ever thought about what someone would find among your things after you died?
th(i)nkful 