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!