Final Days (Sunday, July 4th)

Happy Independence Day everyone! I just realized what day it is! I hope you all are well.


The last few days have been very nice. The night we got back from Galilee (Thursday) we went out to dinner as a group and treated our teachers to a meal. It was great time, sitting and talking and laughing together. The next afternoon was the final test. I'm only auditing the course so I didn't have to take it but most of my classmates spent the morning furiously studying. I spent the morning blogging and doing laundry. After the test we had a class meeting where certificates of completion were given out. Even I got one although I don't feel I've really earned it after watching everyone else study and stress. That night at dinner you could feel a collective sigh of relief. People were able to sit around after dinner and talk and enjoy themselves without feeling the need to rush off to study. Our class meeting that afternoon had also been to prepare us for going home and you could feel the atmosphere change in that way as well as people began to set their faces towards home in a sense; whether eagerly or grudgingly. Yesterday was a free day. I spent the morning with some friends shopping in the old city. We came back for lunch and I spent the afternoon just reading a novel and napping; things I really haven't done since I got here.

This morning a large group of us left the school at 8:30 to walk across town to the Albright Center. To get there we had to walk through parts of the city that I had not seen yet as we were told no to go there unless with a large group. Our path took us right through the Muslim Quarter of the city and through the Damascus gate. When we got to the school we got a special tour, including the store room where many artifacts from digs they have sponsored are kept. We saw shelves full of olive oil jars from the Philistine city of Ekron.

From there we headed up the street to St. Georges, an Anglican church, were we attended the English service. I have never been to an Anglican church before so I wasn't really sure what to expect but I found that I really liked it! It is very liturgical, meaning it follows a very set form. Certain things are said and done at certain times (always in the same order) and there are several places where the congregation is expected to respond with a phrase or bit of liturgy (like the Nicene Creed for example). I did not really expect to enjoy it very much to be honest as I am not really a fan of this kind of worship. I think it's because the little experience I have with liturgical services, it always seems as though they are doing it for the sake of the ritual itself, as if performing these rituals will somehow make them holier, and the meaning behind the ritual has been lost. But that was not the case this morning! Part of it may be that it being in English helped. The liturgy that was being recited to us, and that we were in turn reciting, was rich with deep truths of the faith and the spirit of the service seem much more a celebration of those truths than that of fulfilling a duty. The portion of the Gospel that was read was Luke 10 (the first part of the chapter). Verse 2 is the verse that says, "Then He said to them, 'The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'" I had never put together before that this remark was made in the context of Jesus sending out 70 of his disciples in twos to preach the coming of the Kingdom of God. In the message the preacher/pastor/priest (I'm not really sure what they are called in the Anglican church) pointed out that Jesus sent them out in groups of two and that this great task of taking the gospel to the nations is not meant to be a one man show, so to speak. He also talked about the joy there is in serving the Lord and spreading his Word. The scripture and the message really spoke to me partly because it is something the Lord had been pressing on my heart in the last few weeks. I took communion with them and left feeling excited and blessed beyond measure. I feel as though "my cup has been overflowing" all day long!


Tomorrow is our last day and we have a lot planned! We are going to the Rockefeller Museum and St. Ann's Cathedral where they are going to let us use one of their rooms to hold a small service to close out our time together. We'll get falafel for lunch up by the Damascus Gate and may come back to the school down the Via Dolorosa. We'll have just a little time to finish packing 9maybe even get a quick shower) before catching our bus to the airport to head home. So then I'll see most of you soon! I can't wait to tell you more face to face! You have no idea how much I've been holding back just because there is never enough time to write out everything.


God Bless and Happy Independence Day (again)!

From Yad Vashem to Shiloh (Thursday, July 1st)

This morning we went to a place called Yad Vashem. It is also known as the Holocaust museum and it is a powerful place. To enter it you start in a long thin building where you wander back and forth from one end to the other. At the beginning end there is a continuous reel of clips of life before the Holocaust, happy families waving at the camera, kids laughing and playing in the street. Then as you begin to wind your way thru the building each turn takes you chronologically through the days of the Holocaust, how it began, how it spread and intensified. There are artifacts, belonging of various victims showing who they were and parts of their lives. They were just ordinary people like you and me, falling in love, raising children, going to school, working to provide for their families. There are pictures and articles talking about different aspects of the Holocaust and videos showing news reels from the day and interviews with survivors reliving their experiences. All these things are presented in a dignified and honorable way as a memorial to the lives of those who lived and died in it, but there is nothing passed over or left out for fear of offending anyone. All of the horrors of the Holocaust are laid bare before you as you make your way through the building. It is a hard place to visit but if you ever get the chance, take it!

Once you are on the other side of the building there are several memorials that you can visit. Unfortunately it took me so long to get through the first part that by the time I got out it was time to meet up with my group again to get to the next place. And then disaster struck. (Okay maybe that's a little dramatic.) What happened was that my friend Cassie and I got lost trying to get back to the entrance where we were meeting our group; really lost. By the time we finally found our way out our group had had to leave with the bus to make it to the next stop! Thankfully Lawson Stone (our hero!!) had stayed behind to find us and get us a taxi to catch up with the group. I realize that it is part of his job to make sure he doesn't lose any students in Israel, but he was very gracious about it that I was very, very grateful.

We caught up with our group at the Israel Museum (I think that's what it was called) where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept. There is also a very neat model of what Jerusalem would have looked like in ancient times. To be honest I was still a bit rattled from my time at Yad Vashem (both from the memorial itself and from getting lost) so I wasn't really in the mood for another museum. I wandered around for a while looking at things and then headed to the entrance to wait for the group.

By this time it was 12:30 or so but instead of having lunch right away we took a 45 minute drive to the north to see a sight we had had to miss earlier, Shiloh. Shiloh is where the Ark of the Lord and the Tabernacle were kept when Joshua and the Children of Israel first entered the land. It is also where Hannah prayed begging God to give her a child and where she brought Samuel when he was old enough, in keeping with her promise. And later it was where Samuel was serving the Lord when God spoke to him. There really isn't much to look at in Shiloh. There is no reconstruction, just broken down walls with weeds growing up in between them. The archeologists argue back and forth over where exactly the Tabernacle would have been. But just being there in that town was a moving experience to me. There was something very special about standing in a place where you know Yahweh's presence once lived. I know that's true of Jerusalem as well but it was different here. Jerusalem is busy and noisy and constantly being fought over. Here at Shiloh it was quiet except for the wind sweeping over the hills and deserted and there was a stillness about the land. Maybe it was just the way a remote place tucked away in the northern hills appeals to a girl from the mountains, but it was beautiful.

Jesus' Hometown (Wednesday, June 30th)

Well we left our little bungalows this morning. It was hard to leave behind. Last night, as a group we sat on the shore and had a time of worship and sharing to close out our time here. We sang the song from Psalm 84, "Better is One Day in Your Courts", and Dr. Stone shared something about that psalm that I had never realized before. He pointed out that it was written by the Sons of Korah who in Numbers 16 challenged Moses and Aaron's authority and because of this, the descendants of the ones that were not swallowed up by the ground were relegated to only keeping the gate of the temple but were not allowed inside to serve as the rest of the Levites were. He also pointed out that as time went on and the house of Korah grew, each man may only have ever had one day of opportunity to do this job and be this close to the temple. And yet this psalmist says that even just that one day, to just guard the gate of the temple and not even get to go inside, was better than a thousand days anywhere else! I challenge you to go back and read that psalm again in that light. Lawson's challenge to us was that even though most of us would love come back again someday and have the opportunity to continue exploring the land, (there is way to much to learn here than can be learned in three weeks!) just to have been here for this time has been an amazing experience that will last the rest of our lives.


This morning after a last long look at the Sea of Galilee and the chance to play with some tiny kittens (you have no idea how hard it was to not take them with me; they were crying pathetically as I walked away) we headed out to Sepphoris. Sepphoris does not enter into the Biblical text at all but it is about 3 or 4 miles from Nazareth and was destroyed sometime before Jesus was born because the Jews there rose up in revolt against Rome. We know that it was being rebuilt during Jesus young years (which we know almost nothing about) and some have wondered whether Joseph, being a builder, may have been involved in rebuilding it. There are some very interesting and beautiful mosaics on the floors of the houses there.

From there we drove on to Nazareth itself (although we only got to drive through the city of Nazareth itself) and took some time to look out over the area around it. From the ridge above the city (Nazareth is kind of down in a bowl) we could see all of the Jezreel Valley as well as Mt. Tabor, Mt. Moreh and Mt. Carmel. We heard the retelling of the story of Deborah and Barak with the scene spread out before us.


We had lunch at a park built around the spring where Gideon had his men drink from to see who he would take into battle. But the best part of lunch was that we got to meet a man named Nabil and his family. Nabil was the pastor of the church of the Nazarene in Nazareth until he left and turned his pastorate over to another pastor to come study at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. Now he is back in Nazareth, still involved in the Nazarene church and teaching at a Palestinian Bible School. He and his family are under a lot of persecution both for being Christian Palestinians and for being in rolls of leadership. Please pray for them!

Our last stop today was Beth Shan. Beth Shan is close to Mt. Gilboa where Saul and Johnathan were killed and the Philistines drug their bodies to Beth Shan and displayed them on the city walls until the people of Jabesh-Gilead (whom Saul had rescued years before) came and cut them down and carried them back to their town. Not much of that city has been excavated but there is an Egyptian governors palace from the days when Egypt controlled the area and just down the hill from it was built the Roman city of Scythoplis. It is impressive to say the least! I walked down Roman streets with their massive columns past the entrance to a temple and thru the open courtyard of the market place. Even after all these years I was impressed by the grandeur of the place. You could not have walked thru this place in it's heyday and not have been overwhelmed by the power and supremacy of Rome. From there we headed home.

Walking on Water and Other Fun Activities (Tuesday, June 29th)

This morning our first activity was to take a boat across the Sea of Galilee. We got a net casting demonstration and learned a bit about the ecosystem of the lake. It was so pretty and calm and flat that it was hard to imagine storms like the ones Jesus calmed here, but we were told that they can be quite fierce. One storm in the early 90's whipped up waves almost 30 ft. high and damaged parts of downtown Tiberius. Can you imagine Jesus walking out on the water to his terrified disciples in a storm like that and calling Peter out onto the waves with him? On the other side of the Sea of Galilee we saw a 2000 year old boat that was found a few years ago when the sea level was low because of droughts and over use.

After this we went to the church of the Beatitudes and had our own little service there. We got to spend some time alone in the quite of the gardens. It was quite beautiful and peaceful. But I did almost loose my camera!!

For lunch we went to Chorazim where there is a great Byzantine synagogue. It has been reconstructed as have several of the houses (though not quite as completely as Qasrin) so that you can see what it would have looked like when it was in use. This site is not however completely deserted. There are a lot of small furry little creatures there that were all over the site! As we started walking into the site they started fleeing like lemmings. I've forgotten what they are called but they looked a little bit like beavers to me only minus the buckteeth and tails.

From there we went on to Capernaum, the home town of Peter, where there is yet another synagogue. This is not the one that was standing in Peter's day when Jesus went there, it was built over the foundations of that synagogue. However they have dug down deep enough that you can see the old foundations made of basalt (dark volcanic rock) with the white limestone of the newer synagogue on top, and if you go inside they have pulled back the floor stones in one corner so that you can see what's underneath. As you walk around there is a ton of odds and ends from the crumbled remains of the city laid out for you to see including a very large olive grinder and oil press. There is also a site that is believed to be the house of Peter. It started as the site of a home church (possibly started by Peter) and later was leveled to build a church was built over it. That church is now in ruins too and the Franciscans have built a church there but I thought it was neat that they didn't build a church on top of the ruins of the old church but literally over it. It is supported around the outside so that it hangs over the site with the ruins preserved underneath. There is a window in the floor of the church so you can look down on it from above, as well as being able to see it from the outside, looking underneath the building.

Our last adventure today was at the cliffs of Arbel on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. For those of you who know how afraid of heights I am you will understand that this was quite a feat for me! It was straight up and down in places with metal handholds and footholds to use, and it was so much fun! I almost didn't go because of the description we were given of it (which it lived up to) but I was really glad I changed my mind in the end. The story behind the cliffs was that the enemies of Herod the Great hid in them with their wives and families and that Herod sent soldiers over the cliffs in baskets with hooks in their hands to drag the men and their families out to their deaths. The more I learn about these Herod and this period of history, the more I begin to get a feel for the tension that lies behind the stories of the Gospel.

The Northern Most Reaches of Israel (Monday, June 28th)

This morning we traveled to the great northern city of Hazor. Hazor was a huge city for its day that was fortified by both Solomon and Ahab because of it's strategic position. It served as a political center for the north and sat along major trade routes. Many areas of it have been excavated and it is currently under excavation so we got to see a bit of that process. This city dates back to at least the 18th century BC so there is a lot of building over builds and most of what had been unearthed is more recent than that. (You know, only from about the 8th or 9th century BC… "Old" takes on a whole new meaning here!) I did get to see what a destruction layer looks like (a layer of black in the dirt). It was very exciting!

After Hazor we headed north to Dan. Dan felt more like home to be honest. There were no redwood trees but it was in forested mountain area. We hiked up the mountain, having to bend over to get through the trees in places, along the sides of little streams from the springs in the area. There is the remains of a temple in the area that was part of Jeroboam's plan to move the focus of worship from Jerusalem to places in Israel so that his people didn't start defecting to Judah. This is also the site where an inscription was found that refers to "the house of David" which was monumental because until that point some archeologist were trying to argue that King David was a myth, kind of like King Arthur. (I got a bit of an education on King Arthur from a friend here as well. Turns out he may not have been as much of a myth as I had been taught to believe…)


Our next stop was Caesarea Philippi where we had lunch. This is the place identified in Matthew 16:13ff and Mark 8:27ff where Jesus asks his disciples "Who do men say I am?" and then "Who do you say I am?" and Peter makes his confession of faith. It was at this time, according to the scriptures, that Jesus began preparing his disciples for what was to come. Today all that is really left of this place are broken down pagan temples to Pan and Zeus.

After that we went to Qasrin. Qasrin is not a biblical site but the buildings in Qasrin reflect what towns and houses from the New Testament biblical era would have looked like. The cool thing about Qasrin is that the archeologists there have decided to rebuild it as kind of an experimental study of how they would have built things in that day using the resources and technology and knowledge that they had. So at Qasrin you could walk through houses that were complete with mud roofs and mud brick ovens and water jars in the corner and what little furniture would have been in a typical house of that day. Unfortunately my camera battery ran out before we got there so I don't have any pictures of it! I'll see if I can get some pictures from someone else.

We ended our day swimming in the Sea of Galilee. That is something that is going to be hard to give up!

Caesarea and The Jezreel Valley (Sunday, June 27th)

So you'll never guess where I am now. I am sitting outside of a little cabin that I'm sharing with two friends, right of the edge of Sea of Galilee, looking out at the city lights on the hill tops across the sea from me. And I'm thinking how on earth could God be this good to me!

This morning we left the school for another out of town trip, this time to the north. On the way we had a kind of a church service on the bus as it was Sunday. Dr. Lawson Stone led us in some worship songs and I got to be a part of a dramatic reading of scripture. The passage was 1 Kings 18 and I was Obadiah. It tells the story of Elijah and the 400 prophets of Baal and the showdown they had at the top of Mt. Carmel. It's a great story, you should read it for yourselves. Dr. Sandy Richter gave a devotional on it pointing how lost the people were and how desperately they needed a good strong leader to lead them in the worship of the True and Living God. Appropriate as she was talking to a bus full of practicing or aspiring pastors and Bible teachers for the most part.

Our first stop was at Caesarea by the sea. It's crazy how much it looks like Monterey!! There were even smoke stacks from some factory as we drove in! At Caesarea there is yet another pleasure palace built by Herod the Great. (This guy had more palaces than anyone should have!) The palace itself was built right out on a bit of rock that

protrudes out into the in waves. All that's left of it is a bit of the foundation and flat square area where there used to be a pool. Very close to the palace was large theater and coming almost up to the palace was a hippodrome, an arena where they would have chariot races. Around that were the remains of the city although most of it had been built over in the Byzantine and then in the Crusader days. The whole time we were there, there was a warm, pleasant breeze blowing and the Mediterranean was BEAUTIFUL!

From there we traveled up to a monastery on Mt. Carmel that was built to commemorate the

event we had read from 1 Kings this morning. From the top of the monastery we could see the whole Jezreel Valley laid out below us. Mt. Tabor (think of Deborah and Barak), Mt. Moreh (where Gideon fought the Midianies with only 300 men and God gave them victory), and Mt. Gilboa (where Saul and Johnathan died fighting the Philistines) were all visible on the eastern end of the valley as well as the hills of upper and lower Galilee to the north. This is also the valley where Megiddo is located and eschatologist (end times scholars) debate whether it will be where the actual battle of Armageddon will take place or if it will be a mustering point for the armies of the world as they gather to attack Jerusalem.

We moved on from there to the actual city of Megiddo. Where archeologist have uncovered a grain silo and a palace or governors house as well as a building that some think was a stable for horses (apparently chariots were kept at Megiddo as it was a key city militarily) and some think was store houses. There is also a water system somewhat like Hezekiah's Tunnel in that it was dug to make the city's spring accessible from inside the walls incase of a siege. Unlike Hezekiah's Tunnel however it is dug in a straight line which raises the question; why is Hezekiah's Tunnel (built sometime later) so crooked as they obviously knew how to dig in a straight line?

Our plan at the end of the day was to visit the cliffs of Arbel, but things had changed since last year (the last time our teacher had been here) and the park had closed. So we got to come to our little kibbutz/bungalows early and spend some time splashing in the sea of Galilee. The best part is that unlike our trip to the south we will be staying at this location all three nights! I plan to swim every night!!