Israel - Part 2
I previously forgot to mention that we had gone hiking up Mt. Sodom. This is a huge mountain of salt that is basically the only hunk of salt in a range of limestone mountains. Our guide thinks this is about the area that the city of Sodom would have been located, so he thinks it is under this mountain somewhere. Who knows?? But it was really neat to climb up that big chalky mountain & stand on top & look all around at the other desert mountains & the Dead Sea. While we were driving through the desert areas, we saw many flocks of sheep & goats with their shepherds. It still looked today just like I would imagine David looking so many years ago. We also saw some wildlife - including several fox & a jackle.
Back to Jerusalem - -
Our first full day in Jerusalem started with a visit to what may have been the tomb of David. It is unsure if it was or not. Then we went up to Temple Mount. This is the location where the original Temple was that Jesus would have gone to. There was also a basilica building up there where the moneychangers & merchants were located. Now, of course, both buildings are gone & have been replaced to mosques. One of the mosques is called the Dome of the Rock & it has a huge gold covered dome & sits on the site of the original Temple. The Muslims believe this is the spot that Mohammed ascended to heaven from so it is a sacred spot to them. The Muslims control the whole Temple Mount area & are very strict in allowing visitation only a short time up there & not into the mosques at all. Security was very tight on entering this area.
We walked down into the city by the Western Wall - also known as the Wailing Wall. It was an interesting area - full of a lot of things going on. There were people standing at the wall praying & some people write out prayers & leave them in cracks in the wall. Here, the men & women are separated. There were also a lot of Bar Mitzvah’s going on & the women would stand on chairs & look over the barrier at the celebration of their friend or family member & would throw candy at the young man. This was on a Monday, so there were many Bar Mitzvahs going on. The Families would enter with singing & beating drums, & playing music. It is a very big deal!!
Next stop was at the Davidson Center where we saw a computer simulation of what the Temple area would have been like for a person visiting the city during Jesus’ time. We were able to see the steps where Jesus would have entered the temple area (that entrance is now closed) & saw where shops were attached to the city wall & Robinson’s arch. We visited the city of David where it is believed David’s palace would have been although it has not been excavated. There were remains of several homes here as well as a visit through a tunnel which was the ancient water system for the city. There are 2 different routes you can take. One requires you to walk through knee deep water for 45 minutes in the dark (or with flashlights) & the other is a dry route. Since it was really cold & windy this day, only 1 person opted for the wet route!!
Our last stop was at the tombs that line the Kidron Valley just outside of the city walls. This is the valley that runs between Jerusalem & the mount of Olives & there are several caves in the sides of the hills that served as tombs. It is believed Jesus may have stayed in these at times as that is where the poorer people visiting the city would often stay. There were also a couple of other nicer tombs that we visited, but they were locked up!! Since it was so cold, we opted to call it a day & head back to the hotel for a nice dinner.
After dinner, our tour guide, Yoni, had commented how much he enjoyed our singing, so we all met in the hall of our floor (we had most of the 6th floor) & sang & prayed for a couple of hours. It was so nice to have him join in the singing & praying with us!
Next day, Tuesday, we got up early as it was going to be a busy day! First we went into the old city & walked around to the area of the pools of Bethesda where the crippled man would lie all day waiting for someone to help him into the healing waters. Jesus healed him without even using the waters! There had been church buildings built on this site, but they had since been destroyed & never completely restored, so it was easier to see the actual site. Next, we followed the Via Dolorosa which is the path traditionally believed to be taken by Jesus on his way through the city to the cross. We walked the narrow streets of the city & there are plaques commemorating events that traditionally happened at each of the sites along the way. Of course, so much of this is just speculation, but some of it does have some basis in history. It ends at the church of the Holy Sepulcher in which is supposed to be the sites where Jesus’ clothes were taken off of him, where he was nailed to the cross, where the cross stood, & where Jesus was removed from the cross & buried - all in one building. There is also a large flat stone that is supposed to be where Jesus was laid to prepare him for burial. It is hard to know how much of this is actually where it happened, but archeologists do believe it was right in this area. It’ just so hard to see it as those sites since they had to build a building over it. We also visited an area outside of town called the Garden Tomb that some believe may have been Jesus’ tomb & there is an area in the garden that the side of the mountain resembles a skull - thus the idea that could be Golgotha (place of the skull). Who knows?? I’m just glad my faith doesn’t require me to know these things. I don’t need to see where it happened to believe it or to worship the one who did it!! We ended the garden visit with a short devotional. Many groups that go there arrange to have a communion service while there. We had some from another group comment to us that they were taking communion while we were singing & what an inspiration it was for them. I’m really proud of this group of students we have with us. They are a great group that have made a positive impression everywhere they’ve gone!! It sure makes being the faculty for them a more pleasant experience!!
We had wanted to do some shopping while in the city market, but there just wasn’t time, so our guide let us spend about 30 minutes at a souvenir shop before heading to the Israel Museum. This is the location of the scrolls that were found at Qumran as well as a huge scale-model of the city of Jerusalem in Bible days. It really helped put perspective on what the city must have looked like. We had very limited time here, so those were the only two things we got to see. It just seems that there is never enough time to see it all!! We get up early & go late & hardly stop at all,, but there is just so much to see here.
We returned to the hotel at 8:30 for a late dinner. After dinner, most of us met in a downstairs room & invited our guide & bus driver, Ya ‘er to join us for a time of worship. Yoni had learned some of our songs, so he made some requests & even joined in a little. After singing for about an hour, we had them get in the middle of the room & surrounded them both & prayed for them. They were quite touched that we would do such a thing & with tears in his eyes, Ya ‘er told us that he had never in his life felt like this before. We just hope we were able to help them see Jesus a little in us. It was a very emotional time of goodbyes as we would be leaving out quite early the next morning.
Since we would be getting up at 2:15 to make it to the airport at 4:00 for our 7:00 flight, some of the students opted to stay up all night. Vann & I decided to try to get a little sleep, but it wasn’t easy with all the laughing & giggling going on down the hall! 2:15 came early & we made it to the airport, although it did take almost 3 hours to go through the security checks required. We landed safely in Athens at 10:30 & went straight back “home” to the Artemis to crash for a while. Traveling is fun, but it always feels good to get back!
This trip to Israel was grueling, but a lot of fun. I felt like I learned a lot about Judaism & got a much greater feel for what life was like in New Testament times. It was great to walk where Jesus walked & see some of the same things he would have seen 2,000 years ago!!
Some things I loved about Israel--
-Our guide & bus driver
-Friendly people
-Finding Root Beer & Reeces cups (not to be found in Greece!)
-Walking where Jesus walked
-The Bedowin camp
-Our informal devotional times
-Almost everyone speaks English!!
Thursday, March 29, 2007
We’re off to Israel!!
We left on an 11 pm flight on Monday night after a thorough grilling from the El Al (Israel’s airline) security. We had been warned that their security was very tight & we were grateful & understand why, but it was still a pain. They questioned every member of our group before taking our tickets for the flight. We had an uneventful flight & arrived in Tel Aviv at 1:00 am on Tues. We each proceeded through the passport checks until the next to last person in our group. The security pulled her aside (for no particular reason we could figure) & took her to question her about herself & her family, etc. Not what you want to put up with at 1:30 am!! Finally, after about 20 minutes, they released her & we were on our way to our hotel. Check in at 3:00 am & fall in bed!!
Wake up Tues. at 8:30 to a nice breakfast. First we headed to Cesarea Maritima which is on the Mediterranean Sea. This is an ancient seaport city that Paul visited & it has been partially reconstructed but most of it is now under water. We saw the remains of Herod’s palace which was built right on the sea (including his swimming pool & gardens) & the ancient theatre, hippodrome, the remains of the harbor that was used to house hundreds of war ships, & the remains of several homes w/ beautiful mosaic floors! There is an old cistern there which is believed to be what was used to imprison Paul while he was there for 2 years & a stone w/ Pontius Pilates name engraved in it. (which is the only evidence outside of the Bible of Pilates name).
Next we were off to Megiddo which was an ancient city that was constantly inhabited for several hundred years & as the city was destroyed several times by various groups, it would be buried & rebuilt on, leaving the remains in layers. It included city gates built by Solomon & multiple stables for all his horses. There was a very sophisticated water system which included a tunnel that you can usually walk through, but it was closed on this day. Megiddo is high up on a tel (hill) & looks down on the beautiful, fertile Jezreel valley.
Our next stop was Nazareth, which was very exciting to our whole group. This was, of course, the childhood home of Jesus & it was so inspiring to be there. Nazareth was only a tiny village at the time of Jesus - probably less than 400 people - & very small in size. There is very little of the original left. We visited a tiny church building which was built by the Ottomans on top of the site of the original synagogue & also the very modern Church of the Annunciation which was built in the 40’s over the area believed to be where Mary received her visit from Gabriel. That is one interesting thing we’ve learned. In the 4th century, I believe, Helen, the mother of Constantine, Visited the holy lands & had visions of where, specifically, many of the important happenings in the Bible occurred. She decided to build a church building to commemorate that over the top of each area, so now there are very ornate church buildings (cathedrals) over or around each of the sites one would want to see when visiting here. I would prefer to see the site as it might have appeared at the time to be more realistic to me, rather than seeing it inside of an ornamental church building, but, unfortunately, that’s the way it is. She felt that many people would want to come worship at those sites, & therefore, would need the church buildings to do so. So - - there is a building over the place (a cave) where tradition says Mary received her visit from Gabriel, where Jesus is believed to be crucified, buried, etc. Just a little history lesson - hope I got it mostly right.
It was getting dark, but we wanted to visit Mt-. Precipice which is the only tall mountain around Nazareth with a sheer cliff. Because of this, it is assumed this is the mountain that the crowd dragged Jesus up to to throw him off of, but he ended up walking away right between them!! We got a couple of night photos of Nazareth from here. Also, from here - when it’s light - you can see Mt. Tabor (transfiguration site). This night we drove to stay at a Kibbutz (commune) on the Sea of Galilee!
After my first full day in Israel, I can tell it’s going to be an exciting & inspirational trip. While the sites really hold little meaning, it is very humbling to be able to actually walk in places that we know Jesus & the apostles walked. Our tour guide, Yoni, is relating it well to the Bible & bringing out things he knows will be important to us. It’s also exciting to see so many other people making the Pilgrimage here - we’ve met many people from all different countries - a lot of Americans - including a group of 24 from the churches of Christ in Nebraska!! There are several areas we would like to visit, like Bethlehem, but have been told that is just not safe right now for non-Muslims, so we won’t be going there. So far, we feel very safe here!!
Wednesday -
Didn’t sleep too great last night. Guess we were just too tired from lack of sleep the night before! Today will be an exciting day!!
First stop is at Capernaum, which was the home of Peter. Capernaum was a small fishing village that Jesus spent much of his ministry time in. Much of the ruins from the 1st - 4th centuries are still here as this city is no longer occupied. It is just an archeological site. It was one of 3 cities in the area that was cursed & never recovered!! Here we saw ruins from 1st century homes including one they believe may have been Peter’s home as well as the 4th century synagogue (built over the previous 1st century one). There are also old wheat millstones & olive presses. This is the city where Jesus healed Jairus’ daughter & the lame man who was lowered through the roof. Just a short way down the road, is the site believed to be where Jesus delivered the Beatitudes to the crowd of 5,000. We stopped & sat on the side of the mountain & Vann read Matthew 5 to us. Further down, we saw where the apostles cast their nets on the other side to catch their nets full of fish!! Also here on the Sea of Galilee, is where Jesus walked on water! It’s just unbelievable to be in this beautiful place & know that Jesus & the apostles walked where we are walking. It was a wonderful day spent reliving many of the steps of Jesus & reading scriptures that prove to us over & over how real Jesus is & that history really does back up everything the Bible says. Our day ended with a quick trip up to a lookout at Mt.Arbel that looks over all of the valley by the Sea of Galilee, including Migdol, the home village of Mary of Magdalene. We visited a small museum which houses a 1st century fishing boat discovered in the mud of the Sea in the 1960’s & preserved in the museum. It is just the type of fishing boat Peter, Andrew, James, or John or even Jesus might have used! Our group took a short boat ride on the Sea of Galilee before heading to our hotel for the night up in Northern Israel in the Golon Heights.
Thursday- We started the morning off at the ancient city of Dan. It is one of the sources of the Jordan river & is mentioned in 1 Kings 12 with Jeroboam & the rebellion against Solomon. Here, 2 rocks were found that have the inscriptions of the only mention outside of the Bible, of King David. This was an interesting city that has been largely unexcavated & still has the remains of an alter & the city gates. Next we were on to Cesarea Phillipi which was named to honor Caesar Augustus. This city was built around several streams & was just beautiful! This city is the site where Peter declared “You are the Christ” & Simon Peter was renamed - “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.”
Next we stopped at Nimrod’s fortress. Nimrod is a legendary character from the Bible. He bragged that he was so strong, he could beat God, so God beat him with one of the smallest animals - a mosquito. He sent it into his ear & the buzzing drove him insane, so he asked his doctor to cut off his head & replace it with a gold one to get rid of the buzzing. This fortress has mostly remains from the Crusaders period
Friday - We started this day off with a visit to Bet Shean which is the city in the Bible that Saul fled to & was killed. His body was pinned to the city walls after his death. This was a large city, & still has many of the ancient mosaic floors & columns, although many of those were toppled in an earthquake in 749. Here, we saw one of the first Roman Latrines, which were public restrooms used by men & women together. They consisted of a large room with stone slabs sticking out all around the edge of the wall with a 6 or 7” space between them. There was a stream of water running beneath. Not much privacy & not much santization!! There are also roman baths here which were used by everyone & included a hot steam room, warm room, & cool room. It was a pretty neat place, although it is getting tiring looking at ruins of cities.
Next stop was Qumran, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1947. This area had been inhabited by a large group of Essenes, a group of zealot Jews that lived in a commune setting in this area. They performed ritual cleansing multiple times each day & would have scribed the scrolls around 29 CE, around the time John the Baptist died. These scrolls were found in caves in the mountains around this area.
. This evening we stopped at the Jordan river for a swim!! It was very cold, so Vann & I just watched, but the girls & most of the students all braved the cold. Trent Yingling decided this night he wanted to be baptized, so that was really a special time. This evening we headed further south to the Northern Negev desert to our hotel for dinner. The wind is blowing it looks like the beautiful weather may be changing.
Saturday- Yep, the weather is changing!! It is really cold & windy out this morning. We were scheduled to do a sunrise hike up Masada, but changed it to 8:00 (thankfully!). After breakfast, we packed up & headed to Masada. This is a huge flat-top mountain in the middle of the desert & on the edge of the Dead Sea. On the top of this giant mountain is a fortress that Herod had built & included 2 palaces, huge storehouses for food, multiple water cisterns & a water collecting system, a swimming pool, roman baths, & a whole lot more! It would have really been a wonder to see in Herod’s time! The story is that he built it to have as a place for escape if someone came after him. (Herod was getting really paranoid at the time). He brought his wife & mother-in-law here for 3 years & then Herod died shortly after & it was basically uninhabited until Jerusalem was burned in 70 AD & then a group of Jews fled there for protection against the Romans. When the Romans were conquering all that land, they tried to force them off of Masada, but since it was such a great refuge, they could not. The Romans had no way they could ever get to the top of it as they would be shot if they tried climbing up to the top, so they built a steep ramp (or their slaves did, that is) & built a large tower with a battering ram on it. Anyway, if you want the rest of the story, which is quite interesting, you can research it or watch the movie, Masada, to find out the rest of the story!! It is a fascinating story. We walked down the 800 some steps to the base & went shopping in the shops at the base. One thing about this trip, we’re getting plenty of exercise walking up & down steps!!
Our next stops were at a Nature Reserve, Ein Gedi, where we hiked (again!) up to some water falls & the girls got in & swam (again, it was freezing!) Thankfully, the day was clearing up & the sun shining by now!! We saw a few wildlife creatures including a hyrex & an ibex. Next stop was at the Dead Sea where we all decided to take a dip! Yes, it was really cold too, although I’m sure not as bad as the river. The Dead Sea has so much salt in it, you can’t sink if you want to! There is salt crystallized on the rocks all along the shore & it is very dangerous to get any in your eyes, so we just floated a bit & then walked down to one shore where there is lots of black mud & you can put it all over your body & get a little free spa treatment!! It has an oily feel, so it felt great on my dry skin, but didn’t do much for my swim suit!!
After a quick shower off, we headed to our “hotel” for the night. It was a Bedowin (nomads) tent - just like you’d see in the movies!! It was in a small oasis in the desert & they served us a delicious dinner of beef skish-kabobs, pita bread, rice, grilled veggies, & various types of sauces & salads. We ate sitting on the floor on cushions & ate with our hands. Afterward, they entertained us with singing & stories of Bedowin life. That night after settling in & checking out the camel corral, we had a bon-fire & devotional. It is so neat to be able to sing praises, out here under the stars & in the middle of the desert!
Our tour guide is named Yoni & he really likes to listen to us sing. He has come with us any time we have devotionals & joined in where he could. He is an Israeli Jew who considers himself secular - non religious- so this has been really different for him. Most people here have never experienced religion even similar to ours. He has been enlightening us about Judaism & many of the traditions & laws.
This night the kids all slept in a huge tent made of wool carpets & slept on padded cushions in sleeping bags. It got pretty cold, but there were heaters in the tent to keep them relatively warm. Vann & I & the rest of the faculty slept in cottages which were what I would say “simple” at best! Not much different than the tent except our mattresses were a little thicker!! It was a fun experience - the students loved it!
Sunday - The Lord’s Day. This morning we rose early to set out toward Jerusalem. Our first stop was at a place called Bet Guvrin or “the house of the Lord”. This is a really neat city built on land that is mostly a soft chalkstone land. The people hollowed out the stones from the land making very large cellars that served as water cisterns, storerooms, rooms for grinding grain or olive oil, or dove houses. Then they would use the stone to build their houses on top of the land! It was a really fascinating area!!
Next stop was for a very quick lunch at the mountain where the Israelites were camped out when David slew Goliath. We saw the beautiful valley where Goliath taunted the Israelites. We made it the rest of the way into Jerusalem around 1:30.
Our first stop was at the Garden of Gethsemane where we had arranged to have a communion service. It was a very touching time to be celebrating the death & resurrection of Jesus in the same place he had pleaded with God to spare him of this pain. The Garden is full of olive trees & you can sit in it & look up to see the walls of Jerusalem. I tried to imagine Jesus being in the city up there & the path he might have taken to come down to Gethsemane.
Our last stop was very briefly at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. We could have spent a whole day there & still not seen it all, but it was very interesting & nicely done. We headed out to check into our hotel, the Jerusalem Gold, which will be our home for the next 3 nights!! Whew! Stay tuned for more to come!
We left on an 11 pm flight on Monday night after a thorough grilling from the El Al (Israel’s airline) security. We had been warned that their security was very tight & we were grateful & understand why, but it was still a pain. They questioned every member of our group before taking our tickets for the flight. We had an uneventful flight & arrived in Tel Aviv at 1:00 am on Tues. We each proceeded through the passport checks until the next to last person in our group. The security pulled her aside (for no particular reason we could figure) & took her to question her about herself & her family, etc. Not what you want to put up with at 1:30 am!! Finally, after about 20 minutes, they released her & we were on our way to our hotel. Check in at 3:00 am & fall in bed!!
Wake up Tues. at 8:30 to a nice breakfast. First we headed to Cesarea Maritima which is on the Mediterranean Sea. This is an ancient seaport city that Paul visited & it has been partially reconstructed but most of it is now under water. We saw the remains of Herod’s palace which was built right on the sea (including his swimming pool & gardens) & the ancient theatre, hippodrome, the remains of the harbor that was used to house hundreds of war ships, & the remains of several homes w/ beautiful mosaic floors! There is an old cistern there which is believed to be what was used to imprison Paul while he was there for 2 years & a stone w/ Pontius Pilates name engraved in it. (which is the only evidence outside of the Bible of Pilates name).
Next we were off to Megiddo which was an ancient city that was constantly inhabited for several hundred years & as the city was destroyed several times by various groups, it would be buried & rebuilt on, leaving the remains in layers. It included city gates built by Solomon & multiple stables for all his horses. There was a very sophisticated water system which included a tunnel that you can usually walk through, but it was closed on this day. Megiddo is high up on a tel (hill) & looks down on the beautiful, fertile Jezreel valley.
Our next stop was Nazareth, which was very exciting to our whole group. This was, of course, the childhood home of Jesus & it was so inspiring to be there. Nazareth was only a tiny village at the time of Jesus - probably less than 400 people - & very small in size. There is very little of the original left. We visited a tiny church building which was built by the Ottomans on top of the site of the original synagogue & also the very modern Church of the Annunciation which was built in the 40’s over the area believed to be where Mary received her visit from Gabriel. That is one interesting thing we’ve learned. In the 4th century, I believe, Helen, the mother of Constantine, Visited the holy lands & had visions of where, specifically, many of the important happenings in the Bible occurred. She decided to build a church building to commemorate that over the top of each area, so now there are very ornate church buildings (cathedrals) over or around each of the sites one would want to see when visiting here. I would prefer to see the site as it might have appeared at the time to be more realistic to me, rather than seeing it inside of an ornamental church building, but, unfortunately, that’s the way it is. She felt that many people would want to come worship at those sites, & therefore, would need the church buildings to do so. So - - there is a building over the place (a cave) where tradition says Mary received her visit from Gabriel, where Jesus is believed to be crucified, buried, etc. Just a little history lesson - hope I got it mostly right.
It was getting dark, but we wanted to visit Mt-. Precipice which is the only tall mountain around Nazareth with a sheer cliff. Because of this, it is assumed this is the mountain that the crowd dragged Jesus up to to throw him off of, but he ended up walking away right between them!! We got a couple of night photos of Nazareth from here. Also, from here - when it’s light - you can see Mt. Tabor (transfiguration site). This night we drove to stay at a Kibbutz (commune) on the Sea of Galilee!
After my first full day in Israel, I can tell it’s going to be an exciting & inspirational trip. While the sites really hold little meaning, it is very humbling to be able to actually walk in places that we know Jesus & the apostles walked. Our tour guide, Yoni, is relating it well to the Bible & bringing out things he knows will be important to us. It’s also exciting to see so many other people making the Pilgrimage here - we’ve met many people from all different countries - a lot of Americans - including a group of 24 from the churches of Christ in Nebraska!! There are several areas we would like to visit, like Bethlehem, but have been told that is just not safe right now for non-Muslims, so we won’t be going there. So far, we feel very safe here!!
Wednesday -
Didn’t sleep too great last night. Guess we were just too tired from lack of sleep the night before! Today will be an exciting day!!
First stop is at Capernaum, which was the home of Peter. Capernaum was a small fishing village that Jesus spent much of his ministry time in. Much of the ruins from the 1st - 4th centuries are still here as this city is no longer occupied. It is just an archeological site. It was one of 3 cities in the area that was cursed & never recovered!! Here we saw ruins from 1st century homes including one they believe may have been Peter’s home as well as the 4th century synagogue (built over the previous 1st century one). There are also old wheat millstones & olive presses. This is the city where Jesus healed Jairus’ daughter & the lame man who was lowered through the roof. Just a short way down the road, is the site believed to be where Jesus delivered the Beatitudes to the crowd of 5,000. We stopped & sat on the side of the mountain & Vann read Matthew 5 to us. Further down, we saw where the apostles cast their nets on the other side to catch their nets full of fish!! Also here on the Sea of Galilee, is where Jesus walked on water! It’s just unbelievable to be in this beautiful place & know that Jesus & the apostles walked where we are walking. It was a wonderful day spent reliving many of the steps of Jesus & reading scriptures that prove to us over & over how real Jesus is & that history really does back up everything the Bible says. Our day ended with a quick trip up to a lookout at Mt.Arbel that looks over all of the valley by the Sea of Galilee, including Migdol, the home village of Mary of Magdalene. We visited a small museum which houses a 1st century fishing boat discovered in the mud of the Sea in the 1960’s & preserved in the museum. It is just the type of fishing boat Peter, Andrew, James, or John or even Jesus might have used! Our group took a short boat ride on the Sea of Galilee before heading to our hotel for the night up in Northern Israel in the Golon Heights.
Thursday- We started the morning off at the ancient city of Dan. It is one of the sources of the Jordan river & is mentioned in 1 Kings 12 with Jeroboam & the rebellion against Solomon. Here, 2 rocks were found that have the inscriptions of the only mention outside of the Bible, of King David. This was an interesting city that has been largely unexcavated & still has the remains of an alter & the city gates. Next we were on to Cesarea Phillipi which was named to honor Caesar Augustus. This city was built around several streams & was just beautiful! This city is the site where Peter declared “You are the Christ” & Simon Peter was renamed - “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.”
Next we stopped at Nimrod’s fortress. Nimrod is a legendary character from the Bible. He bragged that he was so strong, he could beat God, so God beat him with one of the smallest animals - a mosquito. He sent it into his ear & the buzzing drove him insane, so he asked his doctor to cut off his head & replace it with a gold one to get rid of the buzzing. This fortress has mostly remains from the Crusaders period
Friday - We started this day off with a visit to Bet Shean which is the city in the Bible that Saul fled to & was killed. His body was pinned to the city walls after his death. This was a large city, & still has many of the ancient mosaic floors & columns, although many of those were toppled in an earthquake in 749. Here, we saw one of the first Roman Latrines, which were public restrooms used by men & women together. They consisted of a large room with stone slabs sticking out all around the edge of the wall with a 6 or 7” space between them. There was a stream of water running beneath. Not much privacy & not much santization!! There are also roman baths here which were used by everyone & included a hot steam room, warm room, & cool room. It was a pretty neat place, although it is getting tiring looking at ruins of cities.
Next stop was Qumran, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1947. This area had been inhabited by a large group of Essenes, a group of zealot Jews that lived in a commune setting in this area. They performed ritual cleansing multiple times each day & would have scribed the scrolls around 29 CE, around the time John the Baptist died. These scrolls were found in caves in the mountains around this area.
. This evening we stopped at the Jordan river for a swim!! It was very cold, so Vann & I just watched, but the girls & most of the students all braved the cold. Trent Yingling decided this night he wanted to be baptized, so that was really a special time. This evening we headed further south to the Northern Negev desert to our hotel for dinner. The wind is blowing it looks like the beautiful weather may be changing.
Saturday- Yep, the weather is changing!! It is really cold & windy out this morning. We were scheduled to do a sunrise hike up Masada, but changed it to 8:00 (thankfully!). After breakfast, we packed up & headed to Masada. This is a huge flat-top mountain in the middle of the desert & on the edge of the Dead Sea. On the top of this giant mountain is a fortress that Herod had built & included 2 palaces, huge storehouses for food, multiple water cisterns & a water collecting system, a swimming pool, roman baths, & a whole lot more! It would have really been a wonder to see in Herod’s time! The story is that he built it to have as a place for escape if someone came after him. (Herod was getting really paranoid at the time). He brought his wife & mother-in-law here for 3 years & then Herod died shortly after & it was basically uninhabited until Jerusalem was burned in 70 AD & then a group of Jews fled there for protection against the Romans. When the Romans were conquering all that land, they tried to force them off of Masada, but since it was such a great refuge, they could not. The Romans had no way they could ever get to the top of it as they would be shot if they tried climbing up to the top, so they built a steep ramp (or their slaves did, that is) & built a large tower with a battering ram on it. Anyway, if you want the rest of the story, which is quite interesting, you can research it or watch the movie, Masada, to find out the rest of the story!! It is a fascinating story. We walked down the 800 some steps to the base & went shopping in the shops at the base. One thing about this trip, we’re getting plenty of exercise walking up & down steps!!
Our next stops were at a Nature Reserve, Ein Gedi, where we hiked (again!) up to some water falls & the girls got in & swam (again, it was freezing!) Thankfully, the day was clearing up & the sun shining by now!! We saw a few wildlife creatures including a hyrex & an ibex. Next stop was at the Dead Sea where we all decided to take a dip! Yes, it was really cold too, although I’m sure not as bad as the river. The Dead Sea has so much salt in it, you can’t sink if you want to! There is salt crystallized on the rocks all along the shore & it is very dangerous to get any in your eyes, so we just floated a bit & then walked down to one shore where there is lots of black mud & you can put it all over your body & get a little free spa treatment!! It has an oily feel, so it felt great on my dry skin, but didn’t do much for my swim suit!!
After a quick shower off, we headed to our “hotel” for the night. It was a Bedowin (nomads) tent - just like you’d see in the movies!! It was in a small oasis in the desert & they served us a delicious dinner of beef skish-kabobs, pita bread, rice, grilled veggies, & various types of sauces & salads. We ate sitting on the floor on cushions & ate with our hands. Afterward, they entertained us with singing & stories of Bedowin life. That night after settling in & checking out the camel corral, we had a bon-fire & devotional. It is so neat to be able to sing praises, out here under the stars & in the middle of the desert!
Our tour guide is named Yoni & he really likes to listen to us sing. He has come with us any time we have devotionals & joined in where he could. He is an Israeli Jew who considers himself secular - non religious- so this has been really different for him. Most people here have never experienced religion even similar to ours. He has been enlightening us about Judaism & many of the traditions & laws.
This night the kids all slept in a huge tent made of wool carpets & slept on padded cushions in sleeping bags. It got pretty cold, but there were heaters in the tent to keep them relatively warm. Vann & I & the rest of the faculty slept in cottages which were what I would say “simple” at best! Not much different than the tent except our mattresses were a little thicker!! It was a fun experience - the students loved it!
Sunday - The Lord’s Day. This morning we rose early to set out toward Jerusalem. Our first stop was at a place called Bet Guvrin or “the house of the Lord”. This is a really neat city built on land that is mostly a soft chalkstone land. The people hollowed out the stones from the land making very large cellars that served as water cisterns, storerooms, rooms for grinding grain or olive oil, or dove houses. Then they would use the stone to build their houses on top of the land! It was a really fascinating area!!
Next stop was for a very quick lunch at the mountain where the Israelites were camped out when David slew Goliath. We saw the beautiful valley where Goliath taunted the Israelites. We made it the rest of the way into Jerusalem around 1:30.
Our first stop was at the Garden of Gethsemane where we had arranged to have a communion service. It was a very touching time to be celebrating the death & resurrection of Jesus in the same place he had pleaded with God to spare him of this pain. The Garden is full of olive trees & you can sit in it & look up to see the walls of Jerusalem. I tried to imagine Jesus being in the city up there & the path he might have taken to come down to Gethsemane.
Our last stop was very briefly at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. We could have spent a whole day there & still not seen it all, but it was very interesting & nicely done. We headed out to check into our hotel, the Jerusalem Gold, which will be our home for the next 3 nights!! Whew! Stay tuned for more to come!
Puttin on the GREEN
March 17~Happy St. Patrick's Day
Despite the fact that Greeks have no reason to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, we did here at the Artemis!! We had a party down on the Beach that included a fun video scavenger hunt that led us down to the beach area & then had Pizza, Coke, & a great bonfire. We ended the evening with singing & devotional time. Great way to celebrate!!
Monday, March 12, 2007
Northern Greece
We just returned from a 4 day trip to northern Greece. It was a little more relaxing trip, so it was nice to be able to enjoy seeing things without being out from sunrise to sunset every day. We left Monday, March 5th by bus & drove through the plain of Boeotia, through Thebes (remember King Oedipus??) & into Delphi. We toured the archiological ruins of Delphi, including the naval rock & the famous bronze Charioteer statue. The next day, we were in Kalambaka which has huge, mountainous boulders all around the city which rise straight up from the ground. On the top of many of these, there are monasteries built in the 14th century by monks who were seeking isolation. They found it!! Most of those places were accessible only by ropes thrown from above for many years. Thankfully, now there is a nice, albeit windy, road all the way up! We were only able to tour certain portions of 1 monastery, but it included a beautifully painted Byzantine chapel with paintings of christian martyrs all around it. We even spotted a couple of monks there!! One of these were used at the beginning of the latest James Bond movie - I think "Die Another Day". We also saw some caves in these huge boulders where Hermits live & they have a bucket that they lower everyday & the monks or other people put food in it for them. They say they will never know when the hermit dies, until they don't take the food any more!
Next, it was on for a short stop in Berea, where the apostle Paul visited in the synagogue & we visited the very small Jewish quarters of that city & saw their present day synagogue. On this night, we went to Thessaloniki where we stayed in a beautiful 5 star hotel, the Grand Hotel Palace.
We left out for a day trip on Wed, driving to Philippi, again where Paul visited & worked. There is quite a lot of ruins left here including some beautiful 4th century mosaics that were the floor of a church building. We saw the river where Lydia was baptized & the ruins of a prison that would be similar to the one Paul & Silas were kept. We stood on part of the Via Egnatia, which was the ancient Roman road that ran from Rome by Byzantium.
Thursday, we left early for Pella, the ancient capital of Macedona & birthplace of Alexander the Great. On to Vergina, which was the first capital of Macedonia & visited the one of the most important tombs ever discovered - that of Phillip II - the father of Alexander the Great. We had lunch at a small restaurant before heading on our 7 hour drive back to Athens. On the way, we stopped in Thermopylae which was where the battle of the 300 spartans against the persian army of Xerxes took place in 480 BC. This is portrayed in the older movie, 300 Spartans & a new movie just out "300".
The last couple of days have been spent on classes. This weekend, we are hosting a conference here for the directors of the International Programs sponsored by our sister colleges, ACU, OCU, Cascades University, & Harding.
The girls are getting a little homesick for their friends, but are also having a great time interacting with the college students here! They have been so good to include our kids in everything they do!! We're so grateful - We've just had a great group of students!!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)