Since being home for a couple days and actually having had time to reflect on my experienes i feel like now is a good time to post my final blog about Israel!
This trip is probably one of the best experiences of my life! I honestly had some of the most amazing experiences of my life and i couldn't of had a better trip! I will never forget the places, people, and the spiritual aspects of this trip. I have learned so much about myself and about God especially visiting a lot of Biblical sights. I have learned that I not only can do anything with God's help, i mean i went to Israel, the Holy Land, the place Jesus walked, if God can give me the funds and the transportation for something of that magnitude than anything with God is possible. I also learned that I can be my own person, and i can pretty much do anything i set my mind too! God gave me a gift to see the Holy Land and i will never take that for granted!
I learned so much about who God is and how awesome He is in the last month than i have almost my whole life! I was thinking the other day about the geographical aspect of the Bible and the actual land that Jesus and the patriarchs have gone through and lived in and it amazes me that God chose this type of terrain and area to have the setting of the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT). I think that God chose this place because if you look at it in the time of Jesus and the OT then you can see that it was very fertile and also very strategic in nature. Jerusalem is placed almost at the center of everything! That is what made me think about how God placed Jerusalem, His city, in the middle of everything, whether it was at the center of worship, military progress or just being in the middle of traffic for major traveling routes. That is just so interesting to me to think that God did that for a reason! God shows up in the most coolest places, especially in nature! Seriously the land of Israel is just beautiful! It is amazing, looking at pictures can give you the awe factor but actually being there and experiencing it gives you the Holy Crap factor, because it is just beyond words it is so beautiful! God made this beautiful land for His people, He is showing them how much He loves them by giving them this land! God shows love through nature! How awesome is that? Seriously if you don't agree just go look at the mountain someday or go to the woods, lake, plains, it is just beautiful what He has given to us! God also showed up in very unlikely situations, when i was taking communion, they were serving real wine, i didn't really want to take part in the actual wine but i was thinking that it is just a little bit and wont be too bad, but i still felt that I didn't want to do it, and as I was up there the priest took the cup and tried to give me some and it literally wouldn't go into my mouth, like i tried to drink some and it literally wouldn't go in. I am not saying that wine is bad at all, I personally just don't want to drink any and God knew that and He protected me from something I thought would be compromising to me. God is so awesome! JUST AWESOME!!! God showed up when i got hurt, I didn't get seriously injured, thank God, but to be honest i probably should of, God protected me and gave me some of the best care I have ever received from a stranger, the bus driver Khalid, that guy is pretty cool! I think God was working through Him, again God is AWESOME!!! God showed up at the sites we went to! Not a physical presence but you just knew that at those places God's presence was there, no doubt in my mind! Things that we saw and learned is truly a gift from God. So if you didn't get what i was trying to say in the last paragraph then i will say it again...GOD IS AWESOME!!! GOD IS LOVING!!! and GOD is willing to show Himself to all who are willing to open their eyes and see! If you truly want to see what God has for you, just open your eyes! Its that simple, look through the eyes of God and you will truly see what God has for you and for everyone!
Thank you everyone for being so great during this trip and praying for me and for the group, travels, professors, and so on. Thank you to everyone who read my blog, it has been so much fun to tell you about my experiences!
I am not going to get rid of my blog now that i am home i actually like being able to share stuff with all of you, this blog thing has grown on me. I will be posting at random times so check back every once in a while and there might be a new one!
God Bless and DO GOOD!!!!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Holocaust and Israel Museums!
So today was a pretty awesome day! It was our last real day in Israel, tomorrow we have our final exam, then we have a review of going home and then we have like a certificate thing at the end! So we now have to get ready to go but we have free days on Saturday and partially on Sunday. So I have no idea what i am going to do those two days, probably visit the house of Ciaphas (the priest that judged Jesus before he was sent to Pilate), and then who knows what, i don't two free days in Israel is hard to think about because there isnt a lot to do without spending a lot of money!
Today we went to the Museums and we first stopped at the Holocaust museum and it was so powerful and emotional. It was just heartbreaking to even think about going there because of everything that we already know about the Holocaust. I really think it was a good way to start the day but it was just so powerful, because we are in the Holy Land that is the Land of the Jews and walking around Israel you see so many people that are Jewish and then to think about them and the history of the Jewish people is very hard to comprehend. I have never been to the one in DC but i have heard that it is more of a personal experience with you and someone from the Holocaust and with the one in Israel it is so much information and if you really wanted to you could spend an entire day there just walking and listening to people tell their testimonies of what happened to them during the Holocaust. It was a very powerful way to start the day and brings you to a point of realizing that it was the worst act of humanity in history, it was terrible, and then when you hear some of the testimonies you hear about people that kept their faith, amazing. In the worst act of humanity there were people keeping their faith in a death camp like Auschwitz. That to me makes me think about how awesome God can be and that He is the ultimate, the Alpha and Omega!
Then we traveled to the Israel Museum where we saw some really cool things. To start we saw a huge replica of Jerusalem during the time of Jesus. I am not talking like a little one but it was huge! The whole thing itself had to be a couple hundred feet long and a hundred feet wide. I mean this thing was huge, i may be wrong on those numbers but it was just amazing! Then we went and saw some Dead Sea Scrolls. These were just awesome! I love seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls, i mean they are the first document we have from the Bible, that is so awesome!! Just amazing! It is so great to be able to see history like this, especially the archeological dig finds. We have talked about some of them and then saw them in person that was just awesome!
Today was a good day and this trip ended great! I am so glad i got to come here because it has been an experience of a lifetime! It is so great here! If you get a chance, come here and experience it for yourself! God can show you the most amazing things in life through nature and however He wants.
God Bless you and DO GOOD!!! I will post one more from Israel before i leave on Sunday! So stay tuned for one last blog from Israel on Sunday!!!
Today we went to the Museums and we first stopped at the Holocaust museum and it was so powerful and emotional. It was just heartbreaking to even think about going there because of everything that we already know about the Holocaust. I really think it was a good way to start the day but it was just so powerful, because we are in the Holy Land that is the Land of the Jews and walking around Israel you see so many people that are Jewish and then to think about them and the history of the Jewish people is very hard to comprehend. I have never been to the one in DC but i have heard that it is more of a personal experience with you and someone from the Holocaust and with the one in Israel it is so much information and if you really wanted to you could spend an entire day there just walking and listening to people tell their testimonies of what happened to them during the Holocaust. It was a very powerful way to start the day and brings you to a point of realizing that it was the worst act of humanity in history, it was terrible, and then when you hear some of the testimonies you hear about people that kept their faith, amazing. In the worst act of humanity there were people keeping their faith in a death camp like Auschwitz. That to me makes me think about how awesome God can be and that He is the ultimate, the Alpha and Omega!
Then we traveled to the Israel Museum where we saw some really cool things. To start we saw a huge replica of Jerusalem during the time of Jesus. I am not talking like a little one but it was huge! The whole thing itself had to be a couple hundred feet long and a hundred feet wide. I mean this thing was huge, i may be wrong on those numbers but it was just amazing! Then we went and saw some Dead Sea Scrolls. These were just awesome! I love seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls, i mean they are the first document we have from the Bible, that is so awesome!! Just amazing! It is so great to be able to see history like this, especially the archeological dig finds. We have talked about some of them and then saw them in person that was just awesome!
Today was a good day and this trip ended great! I am so glad i got to come here because it has been an experience of a lifetime! It is so great here! If you get a chance, come here and experience it for yourself! God can show you the most amazing things in life through nature and however He wants.
God Bless you and DO GOOD!!! I will post one more from Israel before i leave on Sunday! So stay tuned for one last blog from Israel on Sunday!!!
Trip to Ein Gev (Galilee area)
So for the past four days since sunday we have been in Ein Gev or Galilee however you want to see it! And when we were up there we did things such as a boat trip across the sea of Galilee, the beattitudes of Jesus (where he gave them), Caesarea, and so much more! Okay so here we go!
Jan. 16
Today we started our trip to Galilee and Ein Gev, it started out really great with the trip to Caesarea! I really liked this place because it was really fun to see the Hippordromes, those were the best. I think I liked them because of the historical things that came out of them, such as the Herod games, which was really interesting because of the mentioning of it being almost as big as the Olympics at the time! When we were in the palace that looked out over the Sea it was really cool to know that Paul was possibly in or very close to the rooms that we were in at the time! I think that really was my favorite part of the day because Paul is such a great man of God and looking up to him I see him as somebody that went through a lot for the ministry of Christ. I think that Caesarea, other than me falling in the Sea, was a really cool place. We traveled on to Megiddo and that was really cool to see because of the significance it has in the end times of being either the place where the armies of the world will meet against Jesus or where the actual battle will take place. I just think being in a place like that where it has the potential to change everything and where Jesus will gain victory over evil. I really liked this place. Then we went and visited the church in Nazareth that commemorates Mary and Jesus being there. It was cool to be in the place where Jesus grew up and where he learned how to be a kid and a person. That is really cool to me. Then we traveled to our humble abodes where we stayed in Ein Gev. The lodging was awesome to be right along side of the Galilee Sea where so many times Jesus had crossed and walked on the water and preached, it was just cool to finally get to see it and be there! At this point after seeing all of the sites of today I was getting exhausted from all the sites that we were seeing. We just go so fast through it all and then we move on, it is just hard to take it in and really soak in the moment of the facts that Jesus was there and that He preached or lived or was buried there, it is really hard to take that in fully without sitting down and just thinking about it instead of running around Israel.
Jan. 17
Today we started out in Hazor and this place was actually pretty cool. It was really big and contained a lot of people, 200 acres with roughly 20,000 people at the time that it was inhabited in the Iron age and then again during Solomon’s reign and was eventually destroyed in 732 by Tiglath Pileasar III. I really liked this place because of how big it was and because of how preserved the ruins were from this point. The lower city ruins were not really there at all because it would take almost 2000 years to complete all of it, but the ones in the upper city were just amazing! I really like that kind of stuff! Then we traveled up to Dan where we saw a really cool 6-chamber gate. Even after seeing so many of them and knowing what they look like it is still really cool to see them and just know that during jeroboam’s time these were actually in use. It was interesting to see a gate outside of the actual gate; I thought that was really interesting. It must have been from a later time period. I really liked Dan because of all the cool ruins and because of the chamber gates, I thought that was a really fun place to visit. Today was a really fun day, I love seeing all of the ruins and it made the time go so fast though. It is always hard to keep track of which day is which because of how many things like this we see. I think that if we all wanted to go into archeology it would actually work out because we now know a lot about what we are looking for, and we are usually able to tell what things are by now.
Jan. 18
On the third day we took a boat across the Sea of Galilee! That was so stinking awesome! I loved every second of it! The best part was being on the Sea where Jesus calmed the sea, walked on water, called peter on the sea and told a lot parables to His disciples while on the sea! I think that the boat ride really gave some insight to how things were back then and how the culture is now on the Sea of Galilee. We actually got a demonstration of what fishing was like on the Sea of Galilee! That was pretty cool and a couple of our guys went and pulled up the net as well. We docked at Gennasar and went in and saw and awesome ship that was recovered from the time of Jesus. This was a first century ship!! That is so amazing how they were able to preserve it. I think it was a really cool thing to see because it gave us more and more insight into what first century travel on the Sea was like. Then we traveled along the Sea shore and stopped at several sights where people believe that Jesus had either preached or taught! There was a church we stopped at that was built to commemorate the feeding of the 4 and 5 thousand. It is pretty cool to just sit back and think that we were in the place where Jesus actually performed miracles. That is just awesome to think about. Then we traveled to Capernaum, this place was just awesome! I really liked the idea that there were so many ruins there that we could see and below the synagogue there was another structure that many believe that Jesus actually taught in and there was a place where you could see the old temple! So if it is true Jesus actually was in the place that I just saw! So awesome and exciting! I just love that kind of stuff and the fact that there could be a possibility that Jesus was there. Again, it is not important though where the place Jesus actually but what He actually did!
Jan. 19
Today we were on our last day of our Ein Gev trip. It was kind of sad because the lodgings were so amazing, the food was great and everything we had seen up to this point was awesome! Today was no exception! We started out by going to Sepphoris, this place was actually really really cool! I really liked the painting things on the floor that show events or people. I think those are really cool and it helps us understand what was happening with those people at the time. They were worshipping Dionysus, the god of wine, was all over the place. The people here inhabited during the 2nd temple period so also during Jesus’ time. Sepphoris was also known as the capital of Galilee in the time it was a city. There were a lot of rich people here that Jesus did not preach too only a couple miles from His hometown. Jesus missed this place on purpose, when Dr Long was talking about the beatitudes he mentioned that Jesus was so heavy on the poor and weak and the people at Sepphoris were neither of these. The next place we traveled was back to Nazareth where we got to see a really cool view of the Jezreel Valley. It was just amazing to see the sites that Jesus was also seeing at his time!! I love that stuff He is just so revealing in everyway. Then we traveled to our last place Beth Shean. This place was awesome! There were so many ruins here that were so preserved it was amazing! There were theatres, pillars, baths, and a lot more! I was walking down to the place and started taking some pictures of this awesome site. I do my normal climbing on things and as I am getting down from one my ankle completely turns sideways and I hear something like pop but I have no idea if it is my ankle, which is killing at this point, or the rocks so I start checking to see if it is broken but I didn’t think it was so I walked about 200 yards and almost fainted from the pain. I knew it wasn’t broken but I knew it was hurt a lot! I then had to go miss out on the rest of the stuff that I could of seen but at least I am not sitting here with a broken ankle! I loved the day today, even with the bad stuff, but it was still awesome! I love all of this stuff! It is awesome!
Talk about an awesome trip!!! Everyday was something awesome! I love this place so many cool places to see and travel to!! To bad i got hurt but that is what happens when you climb on everything possible, it was almost like i am surprised i am not broken to pieces! It has been a blast and only one more day of actual stuff to blog about! I will post that later tonight!
God Bless and do GOOD!!!
Friday, January 14, 2011
Field trip to Arad!
We had a three day, two night field trip to Arad this past week and being there we saw some really cool sights!!
Day one:
We traveled a little ways down to Judah where we studied in Lachish and Beth Guvrin valleys, then we went down to the shephelah. The shephelah is also called the lowland because of how low it is in the spot that it is placed. We first stopped at Moresha, where we saw some really really awesome sights. There we saw like really old wine presses that still had wood in them, super cool. Then we stopped at this tomb in Moresha where there were at least 20 graves. It was really cool to step down into a tomb area with a bunch of animal carvings on the wall and know that people had been buried there, kind of creepy actually. In Lachish we saw a really cool mountain city/fortress. But in 586 BCE it was destroyed by Sennacharib, we didnt go up to this sight but we were able to take some pictures of it from below. This spot was pretty cool because from our view you could see the place where Sennacharib had built a ramp to get to the city of Lachish. He then attacked via the ramp and eventually overwhelmed and destroyed Lachish. It is also really interesting that in the palace of Sennacharib there were drawings or paintings of him laying siege to these people, so you can see how prideful he was when he destroyed the Israelites. We then traveled down to Ashkelon, and there we saw an archway that was probably in use the time of Abraham and Sarah, that is like 2000BCE, that is so awesome. I probably walked through an archway that Abraham and Sarah also did! That is just cool. At Ashkelon we got to swim in the Mediterranean Sea, that was really cool but it was so cold so i didn't stay in very long at all, but we also, as a group, built sand castle city of basically every major thing we had seen so far, it was so awesome!!! Our professors marveled in it! It was a good day. We then traveled to Arad where we spent the night. We went out on the tow that night and we visited the mall but seriously the mall was literally a seven minute walk through and then nothing was there it was so boring!!! All the sights that we saw were very cool and i learned a lot!! SO interesting!
Day two:
On the second day of our field trip we went to a place just outside of Arad and there we got to see the remains of this really cool fortress and a town below it!It just amazes me how people are able to keep these places from such a long time ago and then we are able to go and see how things were back in the day! I just love seeing the ruins! The best part of the Arad Iron age fortress and the early bronze age town was just the fact that at some point people lived here and then seeing their structures and how life was to them is just amazing to me!!! It was really cool to see the fortress especially because i really like the fortresses we have been to because of the idea that there were soldiers here. There was probably someone really important that might of stayed there once or twice. Also because a fortress was not only built for war but it was built to protect trade routes, goods and water. We then traveled down to Beer-sheba! This was the name of the town back in the day of the Bible and i can not remember the name of it now. At this place we actually got to walk through a city that had been there. It was really cool because the city streets had their original outline so you could see where things would lead to. We found out that in Beer-sheba people were actually using a four-room style house, with a main room, bedrooms, and store room. That was really interesting! My favorite part of Beer-sheba though had to be the water tunnels, they were actually preserved and we got to walk through them. The things that these people built that long ago were so sophisticated and seems ahead of their time. These water systems and cisterns were 20 feet belong ground and probably further, so imagine trying to chizel away with a tiny pick ax, it just blows my mind what these people were able to accomplish. The last place we went to that day was called Avdat! Avdat was a military base for the Romans and also had a lot of byzantine stuff as well. Most of the stuff on the surface was Byzantine, like the churches and wine presses, and then there was a military camp just south of the main area. At the military camp you could see that they built that to protect the valley below and also their water source, just very interesting stuff! I said that was the last place but our professor surprised us with another place and just before the sun went down we traveled to this place called the Super Bowl! The Super Bowl is basically a huge hole in the ground caused by erosion of the ridges. This place was so awesome to see and take pics of! It was just amazing of how big it was! We got back to the hotel and played about two hours worth of charades! IT was a blast! Best charades i have ever played.
Day three:
This was the last day of trip we went to the Dead Sea! We made our first stop in Masada which was really cool! Herod had built another palace on top of this huge mountain and you can actually see where his troops built a ramp to get up to Masada from the ground because it was a legit mountain. If you don't know anything about Masada what happened there was a city for jews and when Herod took over he built a ramp up to Masada and was going to storm the city and kill everyone and rape the women, so the Jews there decided to rather kill themselves than let Herod have the pleasure. So each man took his family and killed them and himself and it was a mass suicide as Josephus puts it. Herod then built one of his amazing palaces on top of this place and you can actually still see were a lot of his stuff was it was pretty extravagant. The next place we went was to En-gedi, and while at en-gedi we got to swim in the Dead Sea! It was one of the coolest things i have ever done! You literally float in the dead sea, it is so cool! It is like you are sitting in a lounge chair, coolest thing! But when it is all done you feel slimy and gross! But then we trekked up another valley close to the dead sea and got to swim in some fresh water under a waterfall! It was absolutely beautiful! So awesome!!!! The last stop of the day that we made was to Qumran, for those who do not know, Qumran is the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found! I thought this was going to be the best part of the entire trip, i had gone to see the Dead Sea Scrolls in Minnesota at the museum and i was super excited to be able to explore some caves and look around a bit, but that wasn't the case. We were there maybe 25 mins. before they announced that we had to leave. It was kind of a bummer because i will probably never get to go back and i wanted that time to go and explore some caves or just look around for stuff! I just expected a different experience than the one that i had! But it was a really good day! If not for the ending it would of been the best day by far! The Dead Sea was amazing and the waterfall was beautiful! Even though we didnt have a lot of time to go and explore at Qumran i still think it was a highlight of the trip because of the history of the place of Qumran. I really liked this day! It was awesome!!
So to wrap it up! It was a good three days, sorry i wasn't able to keep up with the blogs i was just so exhausted after each day! But they are all done now! Today is a free day so just going to bum around and study a bit for my test tomorrow!
I have learned that God can make Himself known is some of the best ways. We climbed this valley that was very steep and when we reached the top it was so amazing! The scenery was just spectacular! WE were all just in awe of what God has created! At that moment our whole team gathered around in a circle and we prayed! We just thanked God for this awesome trip and the place that we were! We knew that He was watching over us and just smiling at that moment! God is GOOD!!!!!! We thanked Him for all of the people back home praying for us and thinking about us because that means so much to all of us that we have people who care enough to send blessings upon us from the US! So thank you all of you for thinking and praying for our trip so far! It has been amazing and God is definitely opening our eyes and answering the prayers of us and you guys! Thank you so much!
God Bless and DO GOOD!!!
Day one:
We traveled a little ways down to Judah where we studied in Lachish and Beth Guvrin valleys, then we went down to the shephelah. The shephelah is also called the lowland because of how low it is in the spot that it is placed. We first stopped at Moresha, where we saw some really really awesome sights. There we saw like really old wine presses that still had wood in them, super cool. Then we stopped at this tomb in Moresha where there were at least 20 graves. It was really cool to step down into a tomb area with a bunch of animal carvings on the wall and know that people had been buried there, kind of creepy actually. In Lachish we saw a really cool mountain city/fortress. But in 586 BCE it was destroyed by Sennacharib, we didnt go up to this sight but we were able to take some pictures of it from below. This spot was pretty cool because from our view you could see the place where Sennacharib had built a ramp to get to the city of Lachish. He then attacked via the ramp and eventually overwhelmed and destroyed Lachish. It is also really interesting that in the palace of Sennacharib there were drawings or paintings of him laying siege to these people, so you can see how prideful he was when he destroyed the Israelites. We then traveled down to Ashkelon, and there we saw an archway that was probably in use the time of Abraham and Sarah, that is like 2000BCE, that is so awesome. I probably walked through an archway that Abraham and Sarah also did! That is just cool. At Ashkelon we got to swim in the Mediterranean Sea, that was really cool but it was so cold so i didn't stay in very long at all, but we also, as a group, built sand castle city of basically every major thing we had seen so far, it was so awesome!!! Our professors marveled in it! It was a good day. We then traveled to Arad where we spent the night. We went out on the tow that night and we visited the mall but seriously the mall was literally a seven minute walk through and then nothing was there it was so boring!!! All the sights that we saw were very cool and i learned a lot!! SO interesting!
Day two:
On the second day of our field trip we went to a place just outside of Arad and there we got to see the remains of this really cool fortress and a town below it!It just amazes me how people are able to keep these places from such a long time ago and then we are able to go and see how things were back in the day! I just love seeing the ruins! The best part of the Arad Iron age fortress and the early bronze age town was just the fact that at some point people lived here and then seeing their structures and how life was to them is just amazing to me!!! It was really cool to see the fortress especially because i really like the fortresses we have been to because of the idea that there were soldiers here. There was probably someone really important that might of stayed there once or twice. Also because a fortress was not only built for war but it was built to protect trade routes, goods and water. We then traveled down to Beer-sheba! This was the name of the town back in the day of the Bible and i can not remember the name of it now. At this place we actually got to walk through a city that had been there. It was really cool because the city streets had their original outline so you could see where things would lead to. We found out that in Beer-sheba people were actually using a four-room style house, with a main room, bedrooms, and store room. That was really interesting! My favorite part of Beer-sheba though had to be the water tunnels, they were actually preserved and we got to walk through them. The things that these people built that long ago were so sophisticated and seems ahead of their time. These water systems and cisterns were 20 feet belong ground and probably further, so imagine trying to chizel away with a tiny pick ax, it just blows my mind what these people were able to accomplish. The last place we went to that day was called Avdat! Avdat was a military base for the Romans and also had a lot of byzantine stuff as well. Most of the stuff on the surface was Byzantine, like the churches and wine presses, and then there was a military camp just south of the main area. At the military camp you could see that they built that to protect the valley below and also their water source, just very interesting stuff! I said that was the last place but our professor surprised us with another place and just before the sun went down we traveled to this place called the Super Bowl! The Super Bowl is basically a huge hole in the ground caused by erosion of the ridges. This place was so awesome to see and take pics of! It was just amazing of how big it was! We got back to the hotel and played about two hours worth of charades! IT was a blast! Best charades i have ever played.
Day three:
This was the last day of trip we went to the Dead Sea! We made our first stop in Masada which was really cool! Herod had built another palace on top of this huge mountain and you can actually see where his troops built a ramp to get up to Masada from the ground because it was a legit mountain. If you don't know anything about Masada what happened there was a city for jews and when Herod took over he built a ramp up to Masada and was going to storm the city and kill everyone and rape the women, so the Jews there decided to rather kill themselves than let Herod have the pleasure. So each man took his family and killed them and himself and it was a mass suicide as Josephus puts it. Herod then built one of his amazing palaces on top of this place and you can actually still see were a lot of his stuff was it was pretty extravagant. The next place we went was to En-gedi, and while at en-gedi we got to swim in the Dead Sea! It was one of the coolest things i have ever done! You literally float in the dead sea, it is so cool! It is like you are sitting in a lounge chair, coolest thing! But when it is all done you feel slimy and gross! But then we trekked up another valley close to the dead sea and got to swim in some fresh water under a waterfall! It was absolutely beautiful! So awesome!!!! The last stop of the day that we made was to Qumran, for those who do not know, Qumran is the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found! I thought this was going to be the best part of the entire trip, i had gone to see the Dead Sea Scrolls in Minnesota at the museum and i was super excited to be able to explore some caves and look around a bit, but that wasn't the case. We were there maybe 25 mins. before they announced that we had to leave. It was kind of a bummer because i will probably never get to go back and i wanted that time to go and explore some caves or just look around for stuff! I just expected a different experience than the one that i had! But it was a really good day! If not for the ending it would of been the best day by far! The Dead Sea was amazing and the waterfall was beautiful! Even though we didnt have a lot of time to go and explore at Qumran i still think it was a highlight of the trip because of the history of the place of Qumran. I really liked this day! It was awesome!!
So to wrap it up! It was a good three days, sorry i wasn't able to keep up with the blogs i was just so exhausted after each day! But they are all done now! Today is a free day so just going to bum around and study a bit for my test tomorrow!
I have learned that God can make Himself known is some of the best ways. We climbed this valley that was very steep and when we reached the top it was so amazing! The scenery was just spectacular! WE were all just in awe of what God has created! At that moment our whole team gathered around in a circle and we prayed! We just thanked God for this awesome trip and the place that we were! We knew that He was watching over us and just smiling at that moment! God is GOOD!!!!!! We thanked Him for all of the people back home praying for us and thinking about us because that means so much to all of us that we have people who care enough to send blessings upon us from the US! So thank you all of you for thinking and praying for our trip so far! It has been amazing and God is definitely opening our eyes and answering the prayers of us and you guys! Thank you so much!
God Bless and DO GOOD!!!
Monday, January 10, 2011
First exam and Free afternoon!
It is Monday Jan. 10 already, that is just insane, i have been here a week already! WOW!!!
So today we had our first exam, going into it i was a little worried to be honest, but i found out that this test was not that bad and i think i did pretty good on it!!! So that was a good, and early, start to the day. Then we had a two hour lecture on what we will be going into this coming couple of days.
Tomorrow we will be traveling to Arad, this is in southern part of Israel and we will be staying over there for two nights and then returning to lovely Jerusalem! I am pretty excited for this trip especially on the last day because we are going to Qumran. For those of you who don't know the significance of this then you were obviously living in solitude for the last 70 years or something because in the 1940s at the Qumran sight the Dead Sea scrolls were found! This is possibly one of the greatest discoveries of all time, because of the fact that it gave us a lot of text from the Bible! It is the most important textual find in the history of findings in my book! Then we will be able to actually swim in the Dead Sea, that is going to be awesome!!! I cant wait for that, should be very...interesting to say the least!
After lecture today we had a free day all day so seven of us set out on a journey to see the other sight that claims Jesus was crucified and buried there instead of at the Holy Sepulcher. This place is called the Garden Tomb. In the 1800s some time late, this guy named Gordon looked out his hotel window and saw a face on the side of the rock! From that point on scholars have argued that below that spot Jesus was crucified there, and just 200 feet from there is a tomb inside of a garden, hence Garden Tomb, and that is said to be the tomb of Jesus. They say this because the man, Joseph of Aramathea, the one who asked Pilate to bury Jesus, was a very rich man and they found that at the spot of the tomb there was a garden owned by a very rich man around the time of Jesus! Now whether or not this is the real tomb of Jesus or the Holy sepulcher, which has its historical roots from the mid 100s AD, it doesn't really matter. Like the guy that was guiding us today, whether or not we believe where the tomb is it shouldn't make us feel any different about Jesus! We should love Him no matter what. Just because one place has a whole bunch of shriney things, the Holy Sepulcher, or the Garden tomb, doesn't mean that we can have more closeness to Jesus if we know where He was crucified. We shouldn't worship the places Jesus was but the man that Jesus was! We need to follow the one who saved every single one of us from sin because that is all that matters!
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength! Love Him for who He is and not where He has been!
God Bless! DO GOOD!!!
So today we had our first exam, going into it i was a little worried to be honest, but i found out that this test was not that bad and i think i did pretty good on it!!! So that was a good, and early, start to the day. Then we had a two hour lecture on what we will be going into this coming couple of days.
Tomorrow we will be traveling to Arad, this is in southern part of Israel and we will be staying over there for two nights and then returning to lovely Jerusalem! I am pretty excited for this trip especially on the last day because we are going to Qumran. For those of you who don't know the significance of this then you were obviously living in solitude for the last 70 years or something because in the 1940s at the Qumran sight the Dead Sea scrolls were found! This is possibly one of the greatest discoveries of all time, because of the fact that it gave us a lot of text from the Bible! It is the most important textual find in the history of findings in my book! Then we will be able to actually swim in the Dead Sea, that is going to be awesome!!! I cant wait for that, should be very...interesting to say the least!
After lecture today we had a free day all day so seven of us set out on a journey to see the other sight that claims Jesus was crucified and buried there instead of at the Holy Sepulcher. This place is called the Garden Tomb. In the 1800s some time late, this guy named Gordon looked out his hotel window and saw a face on the side of the rock! From that point on scholars have argued that below that spot Jesus was crucified there, and just 200 feet from there is a tomb inside of a garden, hence Garden Tomb, and that is said to be the tomb of Jesus. They say this because the man, Joseph of Aramathea, the one who asked Pilate to bury Jesus, was a very rich man and they found that at the spot of the tomb there was a garden owned by a very rich man around the time of Jesus! Now whether or not this is the real tomb of Jesus or the Holy sepulcher, which has its historical roots from the mid 100s AD, it doesn't really matter. Like the guy that was guiding us today, whether or not we believe where the tomb is it shouldn't make us feel any different about Jesus! We should love Him no matter what. Just because one place has a whole bunch of shriney things, the Holy Sepulcher, or the Garden tomb, doesn't mean that we can have more closeness to Jesus if we know where He was crucified. We shouldn't worship the places Jesus was but the man that Jesus was! We need to follow the one who saved every single one of us from sin because that is all that matters!
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength! Love Him for who He is and not where He has been!
God Bless! DO GOOD!!!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Church and stuff!!
SO today being Jan. 9, 2011, it was a sunday!
So i really really missed Bridgewood today, I missed seeing everyone and talking to my friends and what not. I really missed Mark's speaking today, i bet it was amazing. Instead of being able to go to Bridgewood today, because of that 10 hour flight in between us, I attended a church in Jerusalem. It was a great experience to be honest with you I really liked going to a church inside the Old City that was just an awesome thing to do. I really didn't know what to expect because it was called Christ Church, and there was no information given to us other than that. Of course we leave early and everyone is like why and I say because we need to find this place and they were like it is right up there it will be okay, but good thing we left early because we couldn't find this place for a while, it was actually in a courtyard behind a store and just was a random place for a church. Anyways, this church really seems like a good one to me, it had english speaking, which was a great thing for all of us, it was small, about 50-60 people, and it was pretty upbeat which was great! But the thing that was interesting to me was that it was an anglican church, now i have never attended one of these before and to be honest i was super interested but as things went on it was more not my style. I am not saying that they are wrong or anything, they worship Jesus and preach the name of God, I love that and that is what matters but just not the same way as me, and that is totally fine, if we all had to worship the same that would be kind of boring, so the variety part of it was really good. The one thing that stood out to me most of anything was that they preached a lot about the salvation for Israel and for the nation, it makes sense because they are in Israel, but it was just more like we need to be Christians to help Israel instead of being a Christian to Love Jesus. I thought that was interesting to me! I just want to point out that we should all be grateful that we have Mark Spencer as our pastor because after this experience i respect him so much more! Thank you Mark!
So after that different experience! we decided to walk on the wall of the Old City, basically what you can do is buy a ticket to walk on top of the wall, called the Rampart's walk, and you get to see some amazing sights! It was so awesome! Had some fun times and good fellowship time with the guys! Had a fun day today but man that stuff wears you out!
So today was an interestingly great day! Lots of fun, lots of different things, btw thank you Sarah, and lots of good times!
So God bless and Peace to yall! DO GOOD and LOVE JESUS
So i really really missed Bridgewood today, I missed seeing everyone and talking to my friends and what not. I really missed Mark's speaking today, i bet it was amazing. Instead of being able to go to Bridgewood today, because of that 10 hour flight in between us, I attended a church in Jerusalem. It was a great experience to be honest with you I really liked going to a church inside the Old City that was just an awesome thing to do. I really didn't know what to expect because it was called Christ Church, and there was no information given to us other than that. Of course we leave early and everyone is like why and I say because we need to find this place and they were like it is right up there it will be okay, but good thing we left early because we couldn't find this place for a while, it was actually in a courtyard behind a store and just was a random place for a church. Anyways, this church really seems like a good one to me, it had english speaking, which was a great thing for all of us, it was small, about 50-60 people, and it was pretty upbeat which was great! But the thing that was interesting to me was that it was an anglican church, now i have never attended one of these before and to be honest i was super interested but as things went on it was more not my style. I am not saying that they are wrong or anything, they worship Jesus and preach the name of God, I love that and that is what matters but just not the same way as me, and that is totally fine, if we all had to worship the same that would be kind of boring, so the variety part of it was really good. The one thing that stood out to me most of anything was that they preached a lot about the salvation for Israel and for the nation, it makes sense because they are in Israel, but it was just more like we need to be Christians to help Israel instead of being a Christian to Love Jesus. I thought that was interesting to me! I just want to point out that we should all be grateful that we have Mark Spencer as our pastor because after this experience i respect him so much more! Thank you Mark!
So after that different experience! we decided to walk on the wall of the Old City, basically what you can do is buy a ticket to walk on top of the wall, called the Rampart's walk, and you get to see some amazing sights! It was so awesome! Had some fun times and good fellowship time with the guys! Had a fun day today but man that stuff wears you out!
So today was an interestingly great day! Lots of fun, lots of different things, btw thank you Sarah, and lots of good times!
So God bless and Peace to yall! DO GOOD and LOVE JESUS
Mt. of Olives, Bethlehem, and the Herodium
Jan. 8, 2011
So today we traveled to the Mt. of Olives and being there was really amazing, except for the fact that it was really cold! The Mt. of Olives, for those who do not know is the place where is Jesus is said to be returning to lead His followers to the Holy City. This was an amazing sight as we could see everything from this view in Jerusalem. We saw the Kidron valley right below us, the City of David, the Dome of the Rock, the Sepulcher, and much more, all were glistening in the sunlight. The best part of this was going down and just knowing that some day Jesus would return to this spot and raise up His followers and we would march on to Jerusalem! So awesome! As we made our way down the Mount of Olives where we stopped and saw the Dominus Flavit that was put up by the Catholics. It is a cool sight because in the front they have two trees that were thorn trees from the crown of thorns. These thorns were HUGE they were like at least 3 inches in length, just imagine getting stabbed by one or just imagine Jesus wearing a whole crown of thorns just for you and me and having these things stabbing into his head. It was crazy! Then we traveled down to the church of all nations! At this place, right next to it was....Gethsemane, the place where Jesus was betrayed by Judas with a kiss and then arrested! It was so powerful to sit in that church and just thank Him for doing that for us! He could of just ran out into the Wilderness of the Judaean Hills and no one would of found Him, but He choose to stay and die for Each and every one of us. After that we traveled down to Bethlehem, which is only 5 miles away amazingly and just going from the place Jesus will return, the place he was betrayed and arrested, to the place of His birth was such a powerful moment. It was so modernized in Bethlehem and it makes it seem like nothing ever happened here and there was no little town or stable where Jesus was born, the Savior and Lord of our lives. But just being in the place, close to where He was born is just so amazing to me to think about and to try and comprehend because Jesus could of been born in the spot i was standing so Awesome!!!!
Then we went to the Herodium, the Herodium to those who do not know is the place where Herod kept his summer palace and as you approach this place it looks like you are going to a volcano but once you get up the mountain you see that on the top is this whole with a whole bunch of ruins. You can actually see the outlines of the first floor of the Herodian palace. It was amazing! I just love that stuff when you can see the outlines of what it actually used to look like! I really liked this place, and it was really interesting to note that the town of Bethlehem was in viewing distance and if you remember correctly Herod ordered to have all the children killed that were born around Jesus' time because of the fact of Jesus being born. It was also interesting to figure out that the Herodian palace casts a shadow over Bethlehem, so if you think about it then you think that the Savior of all men was born under the shadow of the man who tried to kill him, the man that everyone feared, and Jesus was able to be born and escape the grasp of him.
Ahhhh! I love seeing Biblical places in real life, just reading them and looking at pictures is great but when you actually see it you can't imagine how awesome it actually is to feel the emotion and power of what Jesus went through and how the Bible actually works! So amazing!!!!
Peace and Love! God Bless and DO GOOD!!!
So today we traveled to the Mt. of Olives and being there was really amazing, except for the fact that it was really cold! The Mt. of Olives, for those who do not know is the place where is Jesus is said to be returning to lead His followers to the Holy City. This was an amazing sight as we could see everything from this view in Jerusalem. We saw the Kidron valley right below us, the City of David, the Dome of the Rock, the Sepulcher, and much more, all were glistening in the sunlight. The best part of this was going down and just knowing that some day Jesus would return to this spot and raise up His followers and we would march on to Jerusalem! So awesome! As we made our way down the Mount of Olives where we stopped and saw the Dominus Flavit that was put up by the Catholics. It is a cool sight because in the front they have two trees that were thorn trees from the crown of thorns. These thorns were HUGE they were like at least 3 inches in length, just imagine getting stabbed by one or just imagine Jesus wearing a whole crown of thorns just for you and me and having these things stabbing into his head. It was crazy! Then we traveled down to the church of all nations! At this place, right next to it was....Gethsemane, the place where Jesus was betrayed by Judas with a kiss and then arrested! It was so powerful to sit in that church and just thank Him for doing that for us! He could of just ran out into the Wilderness of the Judaean Hills and no one would of found Him, but He choose to stay and die for Each and every one of us. After that we traveled down to Bethlehem, which is only 5 miles away amazingly and just going from the place Jesus will return, the place he was betrayed and arrested, to the place of His birth was such a powerful moment. It was so modernized in Bethlehem and it makes it seem like nothing ever happened here and there was no little town or stable where Jesus was born, the Savior and Lord of our lives. But just being in the place, close to where He was born is just so amazing to me to think about and to try and comprehend because Jesus could of been born in the spot i was standing so Awesome!!!!
Then we went to the Herodium, the Herodium to those who do not know is the place where Herod kept his summer palace and as you approach this place it looks like you are going to a volcano but once you get up the mountain you see that on the top is this whole with a whole bunch of ruins. You can actually see the outlines of the first floor of the Herodian palace. It was amazing! I just love that stuff when you can see the outlines of what it actually used to look like! I really liked this place, and it was really interesting to note that the town of Bethlehem was in viewing distance and if you remember correctly Herod ordered to have all the children killed that were born around Jesus' time because of the fact of Jesus being born. It was also interesting to figure out that the Herodian palace casts a shadow over Bethlehem, so if you think about it then you think that the Savior of all men was born under the shadow of the man who tried to kill him, the man that everyone feared, and Jesus was able to be born and escape the grasp of him.
Ahhhh! I love seeing Biblical places in real life, just reading them and looking at pictures is great but when you actually see it you can't imagine how awesome it actually is to feel the emotion and power of what Jesus went through and how the Bible actually works! So amazing!!!!
Peace and Love! God Bless and DO GOOD!!!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
BENJAMIN!!
Friday we got on the bus at 7 am, early morning, and we started our trek around the Benjamin area! We started by going to a place called Beth-schmesh. This place is important because it is a passage way throught the Sorek Valley. It is also very important for the man named Sampson, the really strong guy from the Bible, who was born and buried in a place called Zorah no more than a half mile away. We then traveled up to Gezer passed Emmaus Nicopolis, which is mentioned in the Biblical text, and then arrived in Gezer. At Gezer we saw some amazing things! We got to see the Coastal Plain of Israel off the Mediterranean see! This was completely different because we have been going through a lot of hills from the Hill country. It was amazing to see so many beautiful cities along the Coastal plain and for the people of the plain it was nice becuase it was easy to farm but back in the day when the super powers of the world like Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Rome wanted to go through it was a terrible place to live because of all of the pillaging and stuff like that. Then we traveled to a place called Nebi Samwil. This place was an amazing look out area but also used a fortress back in the day for many different forces. They would come up on the ridge and be able to look out and see Gibeon, Jerusalem, which most were after, and smaller villages along the way. This place was called Nebi Samwil because it means the Prophet Samuel. They say that Samuel was buried under the sanctuary that is there. I am a little sceptical of this because in the Biblical text it says that he was buried in Rammah. So i believe what the Bible says and not what traditions say. Then we traveled to a place called the Lookout which looked out over the Judaean wilderness! This was completely different then what I imagined, because i thought it would be a lot of flat area like the Coastal Plain but nope! It was all hill country and it was really rough terrain. There were rocks everywhere and it was insane to get down the mountains and back up again. Me and a friend, Joe Minks, decided to go all the way down to the valley below and get a better view of the Wilderness from down there. It was intense! There were so many places to fall and slip and break something or even die! But getting down there and seeing what we saw was awesome. The view from the bottom was rolling hills and more hills. The valley was pretty massive in size unlike what it looked like from above. We then had to turn around and go all the way back up the mountain and that was just terrible. I was in so must pain, and just felt so dehydrated! But it was amazing.
We then traveled to a little place called JERICHO!!! It was amazing! The weather was awesome, and it was so much different than anything we had seen up until then! The archeological digs of the city walls were so awesome! And there stood a huge rounded tower in the middle of a dig, done by Kathleen Kenyon. This tower was amazing! It was from the Neolithic age. According to most scholars Jericho is considered to be the oldest city on the planet dating back to 6000 BCE and is considered to be the very first city with walls around it. Such an awesome place! So beautiful and so amazing!
We then traveled to a little place called JERICHO!!! It was amazing! The weather was awesome, and it was so much different than anything we had seen up until then! The archeological digs of the city walls were so awesome! And there stood a huge rounded tower in the middle of a dig, done by Kathleen Kenyon. This tower was amazing! It was from the Neolithic age. According to most scholars Jericho is considered to be the oldest city on the planet dating back to 6000 BCE and is considered to be the very first city with walls around it. Such an awesome place! So beautiful and so amazing!
Wailing Wall and Dome of the Rock!!!
SO today was a pretty good day! Super tired so far but we have been walking all over the place and running up mountains, i will get to this later, and for the most part waking up at 5:30 or 6 every morning! I have a few posts coming so don't worry here comes all the fun!
Thursday was called Jerusalem walk, we literally walked around Jerusalem, and we started by going to the Dome of the Rock. For those of you who call it the Holy of Holys, then we are on the same page, but for those of you who do not know, the Dome of the Rock is a structure the Muslims have in the Old City and what it is, is the place they believe that Muhammad ascended into heaven, now on the Christian side of things i don't really believe that to be true but what i believe is that this is where the Holy of Holys is. I believe that on this place is where Solomon built the temple, then it was destroyed in 586 and then rebuilt in 516 again and then destroyed again. So this is the place where God was said to have dwelled and the place where Jesus would be entering into the city of Jerusalem and going to this point. It is really interesting to note that this place is forbidden for anyone not Muslim to go into and there have been problems in the past between Jews and Muslims over this spot. The Muslims wont let anyone excavate the area because, in my honest opinion, i believe they know that something was there at one point, aka the Temple built by Solomon and again in 516.
Then we strolled on down to the Wailing wall, now this was a cool place. We got to see a multitude of worshiping and we even got to see some Bahmitzvahs taking place. The culture is so amazing to realize that this is how things are really done over here, it is impressive. While at the Wailing wall me and a friend were swindled into a tour of the library and then asked for donations in a small area in a kind of back area. That was really creepy, that is all i am saying about that. The idea that people are at this wall, crying out to God was amazing, the intensity of it was so powerful. Some of us even made our prayers at the Wailing Wall itself, that was awesome!
The next stop was on the Southern part of the Old City and it was called the Southern Wall. This place was really cool because it was actually pieces of the old wall that Herod had built. There is one place that can be seen that has the huge rocks from the old wall that had been pushed over upon destroying the wall. The were actual pieces of the road that Jesus, our Lord and Savior most likely walked upon. We then went down a ways to a staircase which was massive in size. It led to the triple and double gates where people would enter into the temple mount area. These steps had been there since the day of Jesus time and I WAS SITTING ON THEM!!! Just think about how cool it would be to be walking up the steps to the temple mount with Jesus. Just amazing. From our vantage point we could see the Kidron Valley bending East going towards the Dead Sea and we could see all the hills of the Eastern and Western Ridges around us.
Okay now hold on there are two more coming tonight so just be patient and let me tell you about my life here in the beautiful city of Jerusalem!!!
Thursday was called Jerusalem walk, we literally walked around Jerusalem, and we started by going to the Dome of the Rock. For those of you who call it the Holy of Holys, then we are on the same page, but for those of you who do not know, the Dome of the Rock is a structure the Muslims have in the Old City and what it is, is the place they believe that Muhammad ascended into heaven, now on the Christian side of things i don't really believe that to be true but what i believe is that this is where the Holy of Holys is. I believe that on this place is where Solomon built the temple, then it was destroyed in 586 and then rebuilt in 516 again and then destroyed again. So this is the place where God was said to have dwelled and the place where Jesus would be entering into the city of Jerusalem and going to this point. It is really interesting to note that this place is forbidden for anyone not Muslim to go into and there have been problems in the past between Jews and Muslims over this spot. The Muslims wont let anyone excavate the area because, in my honest opinion, i believe they know that something was there at one point, aka the Temple built by Solomon and again in 516.
Then we strolled on down to the Wailing wall, now this was a cool place. We got to see a multitude of worshiping and we even got to see some Bahmitzvahs taking place. The culture is so amazing to realize that this is how things are really done over here, it is impressive. While at the Wailing wall me and a friend were swindled into a tour of the library and then asked for donations in a small area in a kind of back area. That was really creepy, that is all i am saying about that. The idea that people are at this wall, crying out to God was amazing, the intensity of it was so powerful. Some of us even made our prayers at the Wailing Wall itself, that was awesome!
The next stop was on the Southern part of the Old City and it was called the Southern Wall. This place was really cool because it was actually pieces of the old wall that Herod had built. There is one place that can be seen that has the huge rocks from the old wall that had been pushed over upon destroying the wall. The were actual pieces of the road that Jesus, our Lord and Savior most likely walked upon. We then went down a ways to a staircase which was massive in size. It led to the triple and double gates where people would enter into the temple mount area. These steps had been there since the day of Jesus time and I WAS SITTING ON THEM!!! Just think about how cool it would be to be walking up the steps to the temple mount with Jesus. Just amazing. From our vantage point we could see the Kidron Valley bending East going towards the Dead Sea and we could see all the hills of the Eastern and Western Ridges around us.
Okay now hold on there are two more coming tonight so just be patient and let me tell you about my life here in the beautiful city of Jerusalem!!!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Hezekiah's Tunnel and City of david
So since the last post ran way long i will make a new one for Jan. 5th
Today we traveled down to Hezekiah's Tunnel and to the City of David. We first traveled and stopped at the City of David, all of this in walking distance mind you, and it was really cool to see the history here. The City of David is said to have been located on the very tip of the eastern ridge, right off the Kidron Valley. The City of David is something that we don't actually know a lot about. Many believe that it was a big city with a major King David and had power, but some believe that this wasn't even a city at all, and it was almost just a settlement in the hills of Israel. Now the things that I saw today at the site were pretty amazing, we first stopped and saw a rounded steps made from rocks. This dates back as early as 1300 BCE. and it could of actually been a place where at the top held an amazing building built for someone of great importance like a King, David perhaps? We don't actually know for sure and my professors believe that David's palace was in a different place as well. We then made our way down to a pretty entertaining 3D movie about the land itself. It was 15 minutes long but it wasn't filled with historical information, kind of cheesy, but hey that is always the best right? Yes!
Okay, moving on, from the City of David there is a very significant piece of history just below it. under all the rubble and rock there is a tunnel, this is called the Hezekiah tunnel. It is called this because during the reign of Hezekiah, he built a stream leading up to and from the Gihon Spring to bring water to his people. Now this Gihon Spring is at the bottom of the Kidron Valley and off of the Eastern Ridge there is a HUGE drop-off so to defend such a prominent water source in a good location is very hard to pull off so Hezekiah built huge towers to defend this spring because of its importance. Back to the tunnel, the tunnel itself is about 1400 feet long, give or take, and it was dug out from both directions so there are two sets of people digging this out in the 8th century BCE and they are trying to get to each other so there are some mistakes but pretty good overall. This tunnel was very small and narrow and had to duck a lot of the time. It used to be that people couldn't go in it because of it flooding when people were in the tunnel, FREAKY!!! So here we are, 27 Bethel Students, walking through this tunnel that has water up past our shins and half of us in sandals and the other in socks. It was a great time. I absolutely love that kind of stuff. Walking through tunnels and actually living out history by doing it and not just hearing about it. Then at the end we come to the pool of Siloam, now the pool of Siloam as some may know, is used in the Biblical text from the New Testament when Jesus heals the blind man with mud and spit and then goes and tells him to wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam. It was really cool to see a portion of this because it is like WOW Jesus healed someone around here! He was HERE!!!!! The rest of the pool is under a garden owned by some dude who has yet to accept an offer from the government to excavate, LAME!!!!!
Well we also visited some cool tombs today of some super old people from a long long long time ago. I really liked the tombs too, it is just one of those things where you are living history and not just hearing about it. I took a picture of a friend laying down in an actual grave. Thats just wrong and creepy, but also awesome!
Well there is so much more to say and more to talk about but I will have more to tell you tomorrow as i travel to the wailing wall again and then on to the Mount of Olives. So stay tuned!!!
This land is your land this land is my land from the Watershed Ridge to the Mount of Olives, from the Kidron valley to the Old City, This land was made for you and me! That was epic! All land features of Jerusalem. Look it up!
Today we traveled down to Hezekiah's Tunnel and to the City of David. We first traveled and stopped at the City of David, all of this in walking distance mind you, and it was really cool to see the history here. The City of David is said to have been located on the very tip of the eastern ridge, right off the Kidron Valley. The City of David is something that we don't actually know a lot about. Many believe that it was a big city with a major King David and had power, but some believe that this wasn't even a city at all, and it was almost just a settlement in the hills of Israel. Now the things that I saw today at the site were pretty amazing, we first stopped and saw a rounded steps made from rocks. This dates back as early as 1300 BCE. and it could of actually been a place where at the top held an amazing building built for someone of great importance like a King, David perhaps? We don't actually know for sure and my professors believe that David's palace was in a different place as well. We then made our way down to a pretty entertaining 3D movie about the land itself. It was 15 minutes long but it wasn't filled with historical information, kind of cheesy, but hey that is always the best right? Yes!
Okay, moving on, from the City of David there is a very significant piece of history just below it. under all the rubble and rock there is a tunnel, this is called the Hezekiah tunnel. It is called this because during the reign of Hezekiah, he built a stream leading up to and from the Gihon Spring to bring water to his people. Now this Gihon Spring is at the bottom of the Kidron Valley and off of the Eastern Ridge there is a HUGE drop-off so to defend such a prominent water source in a good location is very hard to pull off so Hezekiah built huge towers to defend this spring because of its importance. Back to the tunnel, the tunnel itself is about 1400 feet long, give or take, and it was dug out from both directions so there are two sets of people digging this out in the 8th century BCE and they are trying to get to each other so there are some mistakes but pretty good overall. This tunnel was very small and narrow and had to duck a lot of the time. It used to be that people couldn't go in it because of it flooding when people were in the tunnel, FREAKY!!! So here we are, 27 Bethel Students, walking through this tunnel that has water up past our shins and half of us in sandals and the other in socks. It was a great time. I absolutely love that kind of stuff. Walking through tunnels and actually living out history by doing it and not just hearing about it. Then at the end we come to the pool of Siloam, now the pool of Siloam as some may know, is used in the Biblical text from the New Testament when Jesus heals the blind man with mud and spit and then goes and tells him to wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam. It was really cool to see a portion of this because it is like WOW Jesus healed someone around here! He was HERE!!!!! The rest of the pool is under a garden owned by some dude who has yet to accept an offer from the government to excavate, LAME!!!!!
Well we also visited some cool tombs today of some super old people from a long long long time ago. I really liked the tombs too, it is just one of those things where you are living history and not just hearing about it. I took a picture of a friend laying down in an actual grave. Thats just wrong and creepy, but also awesome!
Well there is so much more to say and more to talk about but I will have more to tell you tomorrow as i travel to the wailing wall again and then on to the Mount of Olives. So stay tuned!!!
This land is your land this land is my land from the Watershed Ridge to the Mount of Olives, from the Kidron valley to the Old City, This land was made for you and me! That was epic! All land features of Jerusalem. Look it up!
Jesus' Tomb, Crucifixtion and SO much more!!!
So today being January 5, 2011, it is 9:07 here in Israel and 1:07 in the great US of A. The time thing is still killing all of us. We are all pretty jet legged and it doesn't help that we are walking around for four hours daily, up and down hills. You know how old people always say they had to walk up hill both ways to school and back, well if someone from Israel told me that they would be telling the truth it is full of hills and i will get to that later.
Jan. 4, 2011
Best day of the trip so far, well it was the best because it was like our first day but it was so spiritually and emotionally awesome! I can't believe the things i am seeing over here. My favorite part of the trip so far was going to the Holy Sepulcher. The Holy Sepulcher is a church that is pretty much place around the most significant places of the Christian faith. You walk into the church and the first thing to the right is a staircase that leads up to Golgatha, where Jesus was Crucified! WOW! I haven't been up there yet and i am itching to go, but just knowing that the savior of all men and where it took place was only like 30 feet away is so powerful! Then you go to the right, around a bend and there you see this box like thing with steel gerders and a round like thing sticking out of the top of it. Well this is actually the place where Jesus was buried, they had to put up a holding place around it to secure it from earthquakes and well people that would want to ruin it. So you go stand in a long line and then when it is your turn you come to the first of the two rooms where a piece of the rolling stone is actually placed and you can look at it and touch it. Then you go into the second room and that is the supposed burial place of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who of course isn't there because of his resurrection 3days after burial. I also have not been in this but just standing there knowing that this is where Jesus rose from the dead is so unbelievable it is just amazing! I get goosebumps thinking about this. Then behind that is a room for the Armenian prayer and worship. There is a little shrine in there and off to the left is a whole in the ancient bedrock. This is actually a place where people think Joseph of Aremathea was buried, now this is the guy who went and got Jesus body down and buried Him. I actually went into the tomb and that was really cool! Then we strolled along the rest of the day looking at a bunch of sites in the Old city, like the pools of Bethesda, St. Anne's church, Waling wall and many more things. Another one that stood out to me was the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is the place where Gethsemane is, where Jesus was arrested and betrayed by Judas, and where Jesus is said to be returning. There are graves everywhere along the hills of the Mt. of Olives and mostly Jewish. They believe that when Jesus returns they will be the first to be risen and taken into the Holy City where Jesus will reign. The most interesting part of that is that the Muslims have burial plots all along the Eastern Ridge, which is opposite the Mt. of Olives, where the Old city is, and they believe that by putting their dead there Jesus will have to defile himself and become unclean to get into the Holy City. Very interesting idea by the Muslim culture, just goes to show that there is still fighting but in strategic burial placements.
One more thing i wanted to point out is that the almost shocking thing to me what that with the grave site of Jesus body and the where he was crucified were so close to each other. They were literally within a football field for sure. It was so close. That amazes me. When I read the Bible i have this sense that everything is so far away from each other and i don't realize that Bethlehem is only 5 miles from Jerusalem. Just awesome. Also it is said that the church of the holy Sepulcher can not be the place of Jesus' death and resurrection because it is inside the city walls but when you look back to the time of Jesus' day Herod's wall of Jerusalem is not including the site of the Holy Sepulcher and in fact when it says that Jesus was taken out of the gate and was crucified, there was a gate built right by the Holy Sepulcher.
So to wrap up yesterday as it were I just wanted to point out that this place is so AWESOME! I wouldn't personally live here but just the idea that Jesus walked in the places I am walking and that my Lord and Savior died and then rose again only a half mile from my living area is just amazing and mind blowing!
Jan. 4, 2011
Best day of the trip so far, well it was the best because it was like our first day but it was so spiritually and emotionally awesome! I can't believe the things i am seeing over here. My favorite part of the trip so far was going to the Holy Sepulcher. The Holy Sepulcher is a church that is pretty much place around the most significant places of the Christian faith. You walk into the church and the first thing to the right is a staircase that leads up to Golgatha, where Jesus was Crucified! WOW! I haven't been up there yet and i am itching to go, but just knowing that the savior of all men and where it took place was only like 30 feet away is so powerful! Then you go to the right, around a bend and there you see this box like thing with steel gerders and a round like thing sticking out of the top of it. Well this is actually the place where Jesus was buried, they had to put up a holding place around it to secure it from earthquakes and well people that would want to ruin it. So you go stand in a long line and then when it is your turn you come to the first of the two rooms where a piece of the rolling stone is actually placed and you can look at it and touch it. Then you go into the second room and that is the supposed burial place of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who of course isn't there because of his resurrection 3days after burial. I also have not been in this but just standing there knowing that this is where Jesus rose from the dead is so unbelievable it is just amazing! I get goosebumps thinking about this. Then behind that is a room for the Armenian prayer and worship. There is a little shrine in there and off to the left is a whole in the ancient bedrock. This is actually a place where people think Joseph of Aremathea was buried, now this is the guy who went and got Jesus body down and buried Him. I actually went into the tomb and that was really cool! Then we strolled along the rest of the day looking at a bunch of sites in the Old city, like the pools of Bethesda, St. Anne's church, Waling wall and many more things. Another one that stood out to me was the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is the place where Gethsemane is, where Jesus was arrested and betrayed by Judas, and where Jesus is said to be returning. There are graves everywhere along the hills of the Mt. of Olives and mostly Jewish. They believe that when Jesus returns they will be the first to be risen and taken into the Holy City where Jesus will reign. The most interesting part of that is that the Muslims have burial plots all along the Eastern Ridge, which is opposite the Mt. of Olives, where the Old city is, and they believe that by putting their dead there Jesus will have to defile himself and become unclean to get into the Holy City. Very interesting idea by the Muslim culture, just goes to show that there is still fighting but in strategic burial placements.
One more thing i wanted to point out is that the almost shocking thing to me what that with the grave site of Jesus body and the where he was crucified were so close to each other. They were literally within a football field for sure. It was so close. That amazes me. When I read the Bible i have this sense that everything is so far away from each other and i don't realize that Bethlehem is only 5 miles from Jerusalem. Just awesome. Also it is said that the church of the holy Sepulcher can not be the place of Jesus' death and resurrection because it is inside the city walls but when you look back to the time of Jesus' day Herod's wall of Jerusalem is not including the site of the Holy Sepulcher and in fact when it says that Jesus was taken out of the gate and was crucified, there was a gate built right by the Holy Sepulcher.
So to wrap up yesterday as it were I just wanted to point out that this place is so AWESOME! I wouldn't personally live here but just the idea that Jesus walked in the places I am walking and that my Lord and Savior died and then rose again only a half mile from my living area is just amazing and mind blowing!
Monday, January 3, 2011
LONG DAYS!!!! But worth it:)
So yesterday at 7:30am, January 2nd, 2011, I left for Israel. I arrived in Israel the net day at 4:00. It was the longest days of my life. We had a relatively nice and short flight from Minneapolis to NYC but from there everything was just blah...We had a 7 hour layover in NYC and couldn't leave, so that was boring to sit in an airport for 7 hours with nothing to do. Then we have to board this huge plane with an upper deck and everything, a Boeing747. Well i thought it would be a good flight and everything would go really smoothly. Apparently the plane ride had other plans. First off there was this couple that had a baby that cried and well it wasn't a lot of crying but just annoying, then that same couple treated that baby like a rag doll. They were just handing it over plane seats like it was nothing. Then the same guy from the same couple decides that he is going to stand up every ten seconds just so he could distract the other people on the plane from watching the movies. It was extremely annoying. On top of all of that the worst part was the seat are the most uncomfortable things to ever sit in. I tried to sleep but that was just not going to work. It was horrible. So the plane ride is over and we have finally landed in ISRAEL!! Awesome right!?! well customs is next. This was so poorly done it was pathetic. I couldn't believe an institute could be run like this. First off, they weren't prepared, they were not ready for people to come through customs. They were not ready for people to come into Israel. So we all stood there for like 45 mins. in a group of about a thousand people or more just waiting. Then they finally opened. BUT IT WAS SO SLOW!!! It was the worst service, it finally came to my turn and the computer for my line apparently doesn't work anymore, so ten mins. later it starts to work and the girl looks at my name asks me why i am going to Israel and then she asked me my parents name, and then proceeded to ask if i was Jewish. I was like I don't think so lady. It was super weird i have never had anyone assume i was Jewish before.
So after all of this we get on a nice looking bus with comfy seats and we come over this hill and boom! There are the lights of Jerusalem! It was so amazing! I just loved it! I was really excited at that point. We get out of the bus and we are walking to our Jerusalem University, and we are walking right past the Old City Walls of Jerusalem. It is just amazing that way back in the days of Jesus these places existed! It blows my mind!
Tomorrow we start our orientation and a walk through the Old City! I will be taking pictures of that for sure! I can't wait for that!
God is straight up awesome! He impresses me everyday I can't wait to see what he has for me tomorrow!!
So after all of this we get on a nice looking bus with comfy seats and we come over this hill and boom! There are the lights of Jerusalem! It was so amazing! I just loved it! I was really excited at that point. We get out of the bus and we are walking to our Jerusalem University, and we are walking right past the Old City Walls of Jerusalem. It is just amazing that way back in the days of Jesus these places existed! It blows my mind!
Tomorrow we start our orientation and a walk through the Old City! I will be taking pictures of that for sure! I can't wait for that!
God is straight up awesome! He impresses me everyday I can't wait to see what he has for me tomorrow!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)