Last few days in Jerusalem

Well, it's been a great ride here in Jerusalem. I've done a lot of really cool things, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to be here. This will probably be my last post while I'm in Jerusalem. I wish I could have posted more, but hey I'll have plenty of time to post again once I'm back in the States. I'm only in Jerusalem once. I hope to come back here someday, but who knows? This may be the last time I see this beautiful country.

Today is Tuesday, November 30, and I leave for the States on Saturday, December 4. It's a crazy thought that soon, I will be able to eat fast food and other American food, have consistently hot showers, have a vehicle, have a cell phone, be with family and friends, studying for my last semester as a graduate student.

Those are some of the good things. Some of the things I'm not necessarily looking forward to is the freezing cold weather, not being able to have touristy things to do all the time, not living in a city that has shaped the world, not being with my friends here in close community, learning different cultures and studying archaeology.

It's important to always remember the past, live in the present, and look to the future. Right now a season of my life is coming to close, one in which I was blessed by God to live in the place where He lived. I have been blessed to have studied under the professors here, and I have been blessed to meet the people here who have shared these experiences with me. It has been a great season in my life.

Now, I'm beginning to look toward the future. I am looking forward to the Christmas season, I am wondering what jobs will be opened up or searched out, and I am ready for it. I finished all my work here, and I have one exam to take. Since it is in a subject that I love (Rabbinical Thought and Literature), I think I'll do fine on it. Basically, I'm already getting ready to go home.

I went to a 24/7 prayer house today. As I was there, I prayed that I would be able to remember the lessons learned here in Israel and apply them. As I go back to life, I pray this again.

As for all my devoted readers, keep reading if you want. I'll be posting more of my thoughts soon! Can't wait to see you all!

Jordan

Last night we got back from an amazing 4 day trip to Jordan. We covered most of the important sites (except Pella- I was pretty disappointed we didn't get to go there). I took about 300 pictures, so I will try to just pick a few and give you some of the details.

This trip was more of a tourist trip than all of our other trips. Since we only had 4 days in Jordan as opposed to 4 months in Israel, we had to pack everything touristy to see in Jordan in this trip and see the biblical sites as well.

I love the culture of the Middle East. The only thing that I don't love is the culture of the tourist spots. Everything is Americanized. It's like the difference between meeting some nice people who are relaxing and grilling out and meeting a salesman who wants to sell you a vacuum. Tourist spots just aren't as real as the rest of the places. They are still fun though. Here are the pictures!

Ok, so this was not in Jordan. I was sick for a couple days and had some free time, so I played hearts. I've been trying to get a perfect score for a while now, and finally did it!

In Jerash, the pillars were amazing. There will be more pictures of the pillars coming up, but I loved this photo.

This is the King and Queen. The Jordanians love their royal family and pictures are up of them everywhere. They have done a lot for the poor and needy families.

Here I am at Jerash surrounded by pillars. This was like a meeting place, and there was a stone in the middle where people would give speeches.

The Cardo street. Cardo means heart, and the Cardo street means that it is the heart of the city. This is the most important street in the city of Jerash. On each side, there would be shops. This is from the Roman times.

Another picture of the cool pillars

Here we are at the Jabbok River. This is the professor of our class. He is about to tell us the story of Jacob wrestling with God. It happened here, or somewhere close to here, as he was walking to meet his brother Esau.

This was at Petra. Esther here is standing in the place where you are supposed to stand to ask the gods for forgiveness. I find it fascinating that almost every culture feels the need for forgiveness, and each one goes about it in sometimes similar, sometimes radically different ways. No need to go into comparative religions here, but the concept in Christianity is both similar and radically different than other religions as well. By the way, Esther here has that big of a smile almost 24/7. I've never met someone who smiles as much as she.

Here I am at Petra. This place was simply amazing. Oh yeah, and if you recognize it, you might be thinking of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Jealous? You should be.

This bridge was at Petra. Not very sturdy. There's Dan and his wife Paula in front of me, two really good friends of mine here.

Dan and I ran up tonnnnnnns of stairs. It was ridiculous. At the end of these endless stairs (that makes sense, right?), there was nothing. I mean, it was a good view, but we were expecting something awesome. Surely they would tell us before we walked up a thousand stairs that nothing was up there, but no. They didn't. And we were fairly disappointed.

This is again at Petra, after we ran up another huge flight of stairs. This time, though, we reached a cool monastery, which is the next picture.

This is the amazing monastery carved into the rock. Yep, this place is simply amazing.

Wow. This is the view of the Arnon canyon. It's breathtaking, fo shizzle.

This is a picture of all the girls on our trip.They are my good friends, and I am sad we won't all be taking any more long trips!

 Here is all the guys. We have had a great time!

These next couple weeks will be basically only writing papers. Most of us are really behind on our papers and need to catch up. Also thrown in there is trying to see as much as possible (and possibly taking a trip to Mt. Sinai) before we leave in less than three weeks. Wow, less than three weeks. I will really miss being here, being with my friends here. It has been a great experience in every way.  I'll save all that mushy stuff for another blog, but all that to say that it will be an insane three weeks. In fact, it's going to be an insane couple of months. And in May, I will graduate from Seminary which will be insane. I've said insane far too much, so I'll end it there.

I love you all! Can't wait to see most of you soon!

Jesus Walk

Well this is a long overdue post about my latest adventure this past weekend. I and 4 of my friends did the "Jesus Walk." The Jesus Walk is a hike from Nazareth to Capernaum. It is about 37 miles. Our goal was to traverse it over 3 days. It was my first hike ever, and I loved it! Here is what happened in the form of the pictures we took.

First, let me introduce the group. From left to right, it's Jason, me, Lis, Stacy, and Hans. We took this picture when we were in Nazareth. It was the beginning of our adventure!

Now to each person individually. This is Lis' excited look.

This is my excited look as well.

However, we soon walked about a million billion stairs getting out of Nazareth, and I decided that Stacy should give her "exhausted" look. Here it is.

(On a related note, The Bible says that some people didn't trust Jesus because He was from Nazareth, and nobody of importance comes from Nazareth. I decided that it wasn't because nobody important was in Nazareth, but it takes so much work to get out of Nazareth that nobody ever leaves.)

 Hans said that something was annoying, and so I told him to give me his annoyed look. He didn't understand what I said, but he looks annoyed that I'm talking to him anyway.

There was a sheep sitting in the back of a truck, and Jason pointed it out, so I told him to give me his "I just saw a sheep" look. He did a fabulous job, I thought.

Here is possibly my favorite photo of the trip. It is a mosque in Nazareth. The clouds were great for pictures that day/night.

 

We went to Cana the first night, and stopped to sleep in an olive grove, much like this one. This was actually the second night we were there, but it looked basically the same.

 

While in Cana, we picked up a small bottle of wine and some bread. This was our Sabbath Communion meal. It was a great experience! It was in rememberance, of course, of Jesus turning water into wine. Sabbath meals always consist of lighting candles and thanking God for giving us the sustenance for the day.

 

 This was in the ancient synagogue of Arbel. Lis and Hans climbed the pillars.

  

This was a picture we took before the cliffs of Arbel.  We are about to sorta climb up the cliff and then go down a different way. It was a lot of work, and we wanted a good picture before we did it!

 

Unfortunately, we didn't have any food for the entire day. It was Sabbath and everything was closed. So we got up to the cliffs and found a Visitors Center open selling snack foods. So the only food several of us had on that day of hiking was cookies and ice cream. At least we had water!

These are the cliffs of Arbel. We climbed down these on nearly empty stomachs, with pain all over our bodies, and ready to enjoy the Sea of Galilee!

 

Unfortunately, most of us never made it there. Lis had to go and sprain her ankle on the cliff. We had to help her back up, and then Stacy and I went to the hospital and back to Jerusalem with her while Hans and Jason continued onto Capernaum.

 We had a good group, and we had a lot of fun.

One of the games we played was picking movies or tv shows and deciding which of us would be which character. We did the Lion King, and decided that Hans was the Father lion and I was little Simba. So we re-enacted the scene where he lifts Simba over the cliff.

 That's it for the pictures. It's been a few days and Lis' ankle is very swollen, and the rest of us are also slowly recovering. The highlight was probably Communion with the Cana wine and bread. Every Friday here at school we do Shabbat (Sabbath) meal on Friday night, so it was special to be able to celebrate it even though we weren't going to be there with the rest of our classmates.

As for the rest of life, we have several papers due in the next three weeks, and all of us are behind on them, so the rest of my time here will be very busy. I may not get much time to blog, but I will try. I come back to the States in about a month. It is a sad but good feeling. Jerusalem has become somewhat of a home to me and my friends like family. I thank God for this opportunity.

Last minute blogging

Life is crazy! It seems that these days blogs have taken a second or third seat to homework and doing fun stuff in Israel. I am enjoying life tremendously. Let me share a little of my weekend through the pictures that were captured.

Here I am in front of the Sea of Galilee. Here Jesus did most of his ministry. How exciting!

Some fishermen fishing at the Sea of Galilee... Is that Peter and Andrew?

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I love this picture mainly because I can't stop looking at the light. It was a really cool little passageway leading to the Sea of Galilee.

This is the view standing from Mount Carmel, where YHWH defeated the gods of Baal through Elijah. Elijah told a bunch of prophets of Baal to build altars and he set up an altar as well. He said that whichever god sent down fire from heaven to burn up the altar was the true God. YHWH did. 

This is at the cliffs of Arbel, looking over the Sea of Galilee. As with all my other pictures, this is likely where Jesus stood at some point in his life.

This is a 1st century mosaic. It is intricate, and is kinda a big deal. It is sorta the Mona Lisa of Israel.

This is the tree that Judas hung himself on in the movie Jesus Christ Superstar. And this is an awesome picture.

This is a toilet. You just sat down there and let it out. Dan here is havin a good time.

I hope next time to share more about my trip. If you want to see the collection of pictures, they're on facebook.

Suffice to say that the weekend was great. Every night I got to hang out at the Sea of Galilee! Jesus probably did this often as well. It was surreal, and very exciting! I will share more at another time. Right now, I have work to do. Can't wait to see all my family and friends back home someday soon!

Adventures every day.

Every day is an adventure here in Jerusalem. I and some friends love to walk around at night. We walk around, people-watch, get some food, watch the Western Wall, or do anything else we feel like doing. It's given me a good feel for the neighborhood I am in.

Speaking of which, let me tell you what neighborhood I'm in. I am currently living on Mount Zion. Some of you may know that name... it's in the Bible a lot. The sad fact is, though, that when the Bible talks about Mount Zion, it's actually referring to what we call today the Temple Mount. It was where the Temple stood. At some point since the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, people (probably the Crusaders in the 1500's) thought that the hill where I live now was Mount Zion. They were wrong.

Anyway, I live right outside the "Old City" of Jerusalem. This name is also a little deceptive. The Old City has a wall around it, fortified since around the Middle Ages. It is not the same parameters as the city of Jerusalem back in the Bible periods. You can see in the picture below that the now Mount Zion is Southwest of where it was back in the day. Also notice that within the Old City there are different "Quarters"- Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and Armenian. You walk through it, and you definitely know when you've switched to a different quarter.

I also live close to the "New City" of Jerusalem. This is a very recent development with a mall and a bustling cultural center with nightlife and everything people could want. It starts mainly to the East. I walk through Jaffa Gate to the Old City usually, and right outside that is the New City, with a coffee shop named Aroma that has become the favorite place to get coffee around here.

I'm coming back to the States in about 6 weeks, which is sad and exciting at the same time. Today it is 99 degrees, and in Lansing Michigan right now it is 35 degrees. Yep, you read that right. I think I may leave on that note. I wish I could spend more time talking about Jerusalem, but I have homework to do. I have to study for a test in my Rabbinic Thought and Literature class with a friend. God bless!

Three Day Weekend

This is my favorite picture that I've taken so far. It's of the Dead Sea. For those who may not know, the Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. It's so salty and dense that you naturally float on it. Your whole body just floats on top of it. It's a very strange experience!

This picture is also a favorite of mine. Somewhere out there, a long time ago, a huge man named Goliath stood and yelled out "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." Then he said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other."

David heard these words and was irate. Goliath wasn't just defying the nation of Israel. He was defying the God of Israel. So David knew that the battle was not David vs. Goliath, but Goliath vs. God. And David knew that giants could be surrounding him, but if God was for him, who could stand against him?

 This is a picture of my friend Reggie tied up on an altar ready to be sacrificed.

Here I am sitting in a temple in Israel. This was a temple around the time of King Solomon, until the reign of Josiah (possibly destroyed when Josiah reformed Israel). Where I am sitting is the Holy of Holies. The fascinating thing is that there are two altars here. The Israelites were regularly worshiping not only Yahweh, but Asherah, a goddess of fertility.

I climbed this cliff in the wilderness. It was great!

A view from the top

Israel has the largest natural crater in the world. While standing on it, we saw some wild Ibex. 

 Another view of the Dead Sea

We stood here and yelled out, and the echo from the canyon was beautiful!

This was just a portion of my weekend.

Highlights:
- Looking at the place where David killed Goliath and chased the Philistines all the way to Gath
- Dead Sea
- The Waterfalls at En Gedi (I'll put up pictures soon)
- The largest natural crater in the world
- Hanging out with good friends!

I try to update this at least twice a week, so I'm sorry it's been so long. I also try to add a personal note in each of my updates. Here's the one for today, and it's basically my ramblings about living in Jerusalem.

I find it challenging learning so much about the ancient Israelites. The world they lived in is so different than my own, and I find it hard to make connections. Faith is hard here. Whenever there is something that contradicts my personal beliefs, I find myself in a "faith crisis" where I have to choose between what I believe and what people are telling me. I've had to rearrange certain things. I try to hold on to my faith in Jesus Christ in this land.
You would think that would be easier here in Jerusalem, but it's not. Everything about Jesus here in Jerusalem is a tourist spot, and every place is only significant because of what Jesus did there. I find myself being concerned for the people around here... people who have to watch as thousands of rich people from all over the world visit these sites, take pictures, and leave. People who depend on these rich people to buy a souvenir for a dollar so that they can feed their families. People who are in a war for their own land (both Arabs and Jews).
Anyway, I've written probably more than I should have. I'll post again soon with more pics from this weekend and maybe a joke or something. Shalom!