Autumn arrives, and with the change in season we have seen an extraordinary influx of visitors!

October was the busiest month in the history of the Garden Tomb [as far as we know], with over 43,000 people visiting the garden. In early October about 3650 people visited the garden in one day; 2,100 of them attended a worship service as part of the Tabernacles Celebrations.

To facilitate this 60% increase in visitor numbers, when compared with October 2016, we now open the garden at 8am in the morning and run tours all day, closing the garden between 5:30pm and 6pm.

The Olive Grove

A perfect venue for quiet reflection during the day, and music events in the evening! In October we held 2 evening concerts in The Olive Grove, opening the garden up to local people from both East and West Jerusalem. There will be another 2 concerts in November, on 5th and 19th, followed by a Carol Service on Sunday evening 17th December, to which local people and tourists will be invited. These events are sponsored by a department within the Jerusalem municipality who are seeking to bring the community together; and they see the Garden Tomb as an ideal venue for such an outreach. Our focus is to raise the visibility and message of the Garden Tomb within the local community.

The November Volunteer Team

The team includes: Brian and Lynette Nibbe, Paul + Dawn Doble, Boyd + Deb Huff, Dennis + Sharon Braner, Henk + Nelly Dik, Gene and Phyllis Ulrich, John + Anne Hooper, Graham + Ruth Hadfield, Anthony Keast and Alison Laing. They join Cesar and Joao who are with us all year, doing amazing work serving the Spanish and Portuguese speaking visitors.

Prayer Points

• Strength and Grace for our team: that we might be enabled to keep step with the remarkable blessing we are seeing,and may serve every visitor well.
• Pray that the Tangible Presence of the Living Saviour will be felt in the Garden – bringing glory to the Father, and Salvation to all who enter our gates. “[He] wants all people to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.”
• The Evening Events: pray that many local people will be attracted to the garden, and that those who attend the music events would return again to hear the Good News of the Risen Messiah
• Pray that the Impact of the Message of the Garden Tomb will not be diminished, but rather enhanced, by the great increase in visitor numbers. Pray that local people will be drawn to the sounds of worship and Praise.Revelation 7: 10-11: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honour and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”Blessings from Jerusalem!