Boker tov,
The past two weeks have been full of variety and have been at a good pace. The week before last was spring break/free travel. I first went with four others up to the Golan Heights, to these cabins at a place called Nimrod. These beautiful cabins looked over the northernmost hills of Israel as well as the neighboring Syrian mountains. We were a short 10 minute drive from Mt. Hermon, which shares borders with Lebanon. Because of a small mixup, we were "upgraded" to the honeymoon suite, which had enough beds, but also the jacuzzi/shower was in the open main floor, along with the kitchen and living room...interesting living space. But we enjoyed our time, doing some hiking on the trails near by, reading out on the porch as the sun rose over Syria, going on a wine tour of the biggest winery in Golan Heights, roasting hotdogs over our wood stove and eating them in pita with hummus, and playing lots of cards.
This place was near a couple small Arab-Israeli towns, and we got a small fender bender from behind when I was driving through. It didn't really make a scratch, but since it was the first day with the rental car and I had a whopping deposit on my card, it was a stressful situation. We had heard stories about how Arabs generally deal with car accidents--getting out of their cars, yelling about whose fault it was (whether they were actually mad or not), having other witnesses around get involved, exchange a bit of money, and get on their way. Of course, this wasn't quite how I was apt to deal with it, but it was good to have in mind. A witness from across the street came to help translate since my Arabic didn't cut it here, and the teenager ended up going home to get his mom to help with the insurance since it's not usually used and I needed it to cover my butt with Budget. Fortunately, it all turned out fine and it didn't cause any issues with Budget, but it made for a crazy start and exciting experience in Arab culture.
Then we spent the second half of the week down in Eilat where we relaxed on the beach, got a little bit of a burn, and snorkeled in the Red Sea with corral and thousands of fish. It was so awesome to literally swim in the schools of fish and see such colorful fish in some of the clearest water I've seen.
This past week has been spent in Ecce Homo, a convent within the Old City of Jerusalem, right at the Nortwest corner of the Temple Mount. We look over the Dome of the Rock ever time we walk out on the balcony. Here, we had some Jewish and Hebrew studies, learning more about Judaism, their writings and beliefs, and rituals and festivals. We spent some time learning Hebrew as well, which I've found to be an incredible language, especially when you apply it to the Bible, finding such meaning in words and symbolism that is lost in translation. It has made me seriously consider taking it (or Greek) next year. We've also gone to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum), the Temple Mount, to the ancient streets and archways under the Western Wall and modern streets, and a service at a local synagogue. It has been such a cool experience to live within the Old City, although earlier this week was pretty tense with some skirmishes of stone throwing and resisting because of more houses being built in East Jerusalem and restrictions on entering the Al Aqsa Mosque (the one on the Temple Mount). We even were at the place where some stone throwing started, but everything was fine. And things are feeling much less tense now.
We're off to a Kibbutz near the Sea of Galilee for a week, and then on to Nazareth which will be our last area we'll be in Israel. Happy Spring!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Shalom everyone!
These past two weeks have been an intensive study with the Jerusalem University College. We have had a few lectures and many hours of field study throughout Israel. We have gone to many cities and tels (locations of old cities that build on top of each other making a larger mound), including Dan, Beersheba, Caesarea, Beth Shemesh, Capernaum, and about a dozen others. We have learned so much about the geography of this land, in the location of places, as well as in the geology and physical features of the land. I know the landscape of Jerusalem better than I do my home town. It is such an interesting experience to know a land--the earth--so intimately, something we don't do naturally in this day and age. Although I don't know many of the streets in the Old City of Jerusalem, I am able to navigate the city by valleys, distinct landmarks, gates, and directions.
As we've been near the old Temple, some of us went to the Western Wall to "experience" it. As a sacred place where God once dwelt, I went into it thinking I would experience something extraordinary. Although it was an interesting experience and I respect those who hold it as their holiest place, I couldn't help but keep coming back to how things are different since Jesus came--the Kingdom is within us. In some ways, going to that place made me realize the holiness of each other, of humans. I recognize that since I come from a culture and generation that is not nearly as tied to the land, it is harder for me to understand, but I am also learning to appreciate the land, the history, and the sacred.
It has been a nice change to be in an intensive field study sort of academics, with fairly long days climbing around tels, hiking cliffs around beautiful landscape, and attempting to imagine what these old cities were like. We've read a lot from Scipture while at these locations, as it's so incredible to read and understand stories in their locations. For example, our last 4 days were spent in the Galilee area doing our field study in the northern half of Israel. One awesome aspect of this area is connecting in a new way with the ministry and call of Jesus. When he talked about being a city on a hill, it's quite possible he was using the imagery they had of the decapolis city across the Sea of Galilee on a hill--Hippus. These past days, we've had similar comparison looking across to Tiberius, a city of lights with darkness around. And it's true, at night, that's where your eyes go. So when people saw Hippus, they recognized Jesus' call as one to be a people bright on top of a hill which draws the eyes of the people.
And one funny story, speaking of Hippus. Our hotel was quite near to Hippus, and we heard it is a great place to watch the sunrise. So Larisa, Lucas, and I decided to try it. So we got up at 4am and started our hike. Unfortunately, when we started the trail, the trail markers didn't continue and there were 3 options ahead. After an hour of exploring, we found that two of the options were gated shut, and the third had us trapesing through someone's field. We backtracked and saw a road that went around, and it finally took us to the base of the mountain. Then we began scaling up the mountain, over a barbed wire fence into a cow pasture, etc. We got nearly 3/4 the way up, but knew that if we got to the top, we'd have to turn right around and jog the whole way back because we had to get breakfast and make the bus. So we stopped at a high rock, looked over the beautiful Galilee, laughed at our crazy adventure, and went back down avoiding the bulls and barbed wire. We got back in enough time for breakfast, safe and sound, and had a fun story.
Thanks for your continued thoughts, prayers, and emails. Next week is free travel, and I along with 3 others will be spending half the time in the picturesque Golan Heights doing some day hiking and other stuff up north, and the other half in the Red Sea beach city of Eilat. Hope all you EMU students have a great spring break!
These past two weeks have been an intensive study with the Jerusalem University College. We have had a few lectures and many hours of field study throughout Israel. We have gone to many cities and tels (locations of old cities that build on top of each other making a larger mound), including Dan, Beersheba, Caesarea, Beth Shemesh, Capernaum, and about a dozen others. We have learned so much about the geography of this land, in the location of places, as well as in the geology and physical features of the land. I know the landscape of Jerusalem better than I do my home town. It is such an interesting experience to know a land--the earth--so intimately, something we don't do naturally in this day and age. Although I don't know many of the streets in the Old City of Jerusalem, I am able to navigate the city by valleys, distinct landmarks, gates, and directions.
As we've been near the old Temple, some of us went to the Western Wall to "experience" it. As a sacred place where God once dwelt, I went into it thinking I would experience something extraordinary. Although it was an interesting experience and I respect those who hold it as their holiest place, I couldn't help but keep coming back to how things are different since Jesus came--the Kingdom is within us. In some ways, going to that place made me realize the holiness of each other, of humans. I recognize that since I come from a culture and generation that is not nearly as tied to the land, it is harder for me to understand, but I am also learning to appreciate the land, the history, and the sacred.
It has been a nice change to be in an intensive field study sort of academics, with fairly long days climbing around tels, hiking cliffs around beautiful landscape, and attempting to imagine what these old cities were like. We've read a lot from Scipture while at these locations, as it's so incredible to read and understand stories in their locations. For example, our last 4 days were spent in the Galilee area doing our field study in the northern half of Israel. One awesome aspect of this area is connecting in a new way with the ministry and call of Jesus. When he talked about being a city on a hill, it's quite possible he was using the imagery they had of the decapolis city across the Sea of Galilee on a hill--Hippus. These past days, we've had similar comparison looking across to Tiberius, a city of lights with darkness around. And it's true, at night, that's where your eyes go. So when people saw Hippus, they recognized Jesus' call as one to be a people bright on top of a hill which draws the eyes of the people.
And one funny story, speaking of Hippus. Our hotel was quite near to Hippus, and we heard it is a great place to watch the sunrise. So Larisa, Lucas, and I decided to try it. So we got up at 4am and started our hike. Unfortunately, when we started the trail, the trail markers didn't continue and there were 3 options ahead. After an hour of exploring, we found that two of the options were gated shut, and the third had us trapesing through someone's field. We backtracked and saw a road that went around, and it finally took us to the base of the mountain. Then we began scaling up the mountain, over a barbed wire fence into a cow pasture, etc. We got nearly 3/4 the way up, but knew that if we got to the top, we'd have to turn right around and jog the whole way back because we had to get breakfast and make the bus. So we stopped at a high rock, looked over the beautiful Galilee, laughed at our crazy adventure, and went back down avoiding the bulls and barbed wire. We got back in enough time for breakfast, safe and sound, and had a fun story.
Thanks for your continued thoughts, prayers, and emails. Next week is free travel, and I along with 3 others will be spending half the time in the picturesque Golan Heights doing some day hiking and other stuff up north, and the other half in the Red Sea beach city of Eilat. Hope all you EMU students have a great spring break!
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