Things were calm and quiet today. But thousands of protestants are converging into Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkoth with the jews. It's organised annually by the International Christian Embassy and protestants from over 80 countries converge for the feast of Sukkoth in order to fulfil the prophecy of Zachariah 14:16
‘the nations...shall come up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles'. It culminates in the Jerusalem March where the protestants march through downtown Jerusalem in support of the Jewish People.
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The Singapore delegation
to Sukkot |
Singapore is represented by a small group of protestants. I met some of them along the Via Dolorosa. As expected they were misinformed about the sites and of Catholicism. So after visiting and explaining to them some sites and it's biblical textual and archeological proves, they came out wiser and more open minded. In fact they were very appreciative of the new information they learned. We chatted a lot and in the end they said they'd send up some Char Kway Teow and Chay Tao Kway when a group comes to Israel. What a nice thought.
However not everyone is happy. Rabbis have viewed this protestant enthusiasm with great suspicion. This year the 2 Chief Rabbis have actually issued a public statement condemning this protestant march and asked the police to stop the event. They claim it's a trick by the protestants to convert jews to christianity. Well let's see if the police will heed their call. After all the several thousand protestants bring in a lot of tourist money which the govt. needs in this dreadful time of low tourism. Let's see if money or faith is more powerful this week.
Meantime Muslims are winding down with their Eid al Aha celebrations. For the past few days the muezzins have been singing litanies of Allah Akbar ... which at 4am can be quiet a problem for those who are asleep. My problem however is a fever and diarrhoea and asthma. Don't know what to do about it.
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