Back from Galilee

Sorry that I haven’t been very good at writing the last couple of weeks. I have been so busy with writing projects and then going up to the Galilee, which is always an intensive 11 days. But we’re back in Jerusalem now. It was hard to leave Galilee this time, even though the heat and humidity were so oppressive. I almost sent you a picture of the heat rash on my legs, but it’s too ugly!!!!! Even so, I love going up there. The spiritual experiences are so rich and powerful for both the students and for me. Each time I’ve been it’s a little different because it’s a different group of students with different personalities. 

I had to include this picture to prove that I climbed to the top of the tell at Beth Shean. This was the only time that I did it. In the past we were in a rush and the students could run up there and back, but it takes me a little more time. Last semester, I got half way up but then realized that I wouldn’t have enough time to get back to the bus. Beth Shean is famous in the Bible in the story of Saul’s death. The Philistines hung Saul’s and his son Jonathon’s bodies from the walls of Beth Shean. So this picture is with me and the girls: L to R Amanda, Rachel, Amy, Cara, Cara, Emily, Sabina, and Kim.

On the Sea of Galilee. Notice how glassy the water is. In the picture is Kim, Nicole, Abby and Kami. We had just finished talking about how much Jesus loved the Sea of Galilee. While usually we love to talk about him stilling the storm, for the most part he experienced the water like we were! This was the start of a great day where we went to Magdala, Capernaum, the Mount of Beatitudes and Peter Primacy. This was the first time that I had to do this field trip by myself. That’s a lot of teaching!!!!!! While we were at Magdala, we were confronted by a “missionary to the Mormons”! He was there to call us to repentance and to study the Bible, which I told him we were doing—that’s why we were there. Anyway, he went off and I excused us and kept walking, but I was afraid that he would follow us into the Church so I was trying to work out what my contingency plans were if he did. He didn’t, but when we got to Capernaum he was there as well and started again, so I had to back away until he left!

On the balcony at Church with Amy, Mads and Andrew.

We went to Megiddo. Again, I was doing this field trip by myself and Megiddo was a little scary for me because there is SO much to have to know about this site. It went ok though and he we are reenacting Egypt’s Tutmose III declaring that the “taking of Megiddo is like the taking of a thousand cities”! It’s hard to see but there is an iron chariot there that I’m standing in.

The class at the Banias waterfalls. This is not far from Caesarea Philippi. It is water from Mt Hermon and one of the three sources for the Jordan River. Look at the rain forest look—not the terrain that people normally think about when they think of Israel.

This is my favorite picture for this week. One of the afternoons we came home early enough for the students to swim. Some of them decided to make a sand castle of the Jerusalem temple and the City of David. I was so excited to see what they did because it showed how much they had learned. They included the fortifications that were around the Gihon spring—originally built in Melchizedek’s time and maintained up until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. They also included the step stone structure which is probably the Millo mentioned in the Old Testament. I loved the detail of the houses and the grass trees! I was so proud of them!

Well, I continue on my emotional roller coaster with the thoughts of coming home. I can’t imagine what it will be like to not have these experiences with the students. I know that I’ll have students when I get home, but I won’t be with them on 11 hour field trips, or be sharing intensely spiritual moments in quite the same way. I won’t be going to church with them and see them do amazing things as they fulfill their church assignments in spectacular ways. This has been one of the great experiences of my life. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here. 

I was asked to speak in Sacrament meeting here on my last Sabbath. That’s going to be a difficult assignment. It is always an emotional day for me anyway. Now that will be magnified.

Have a great week

Back Home from Jordan

My days in Jerusalem are now numbered. I’m told that it is 38 days left :o)   :o(

On Thursday we returned from Jordan. It was very hot. I’m glad that I did all of my hiking on the other trips. This time with it so hot I just stayed on the lower path and enjoyed the beauty from below.

 This is me cooling off in air conditioning and a mint lemonade—it was a bit tarter than I like, but it helped to normalize my body temp.

This semester we were able to participate in Petra by night! It was expensive, but I’m glad that I went. It was great to walk along the Siq by lantern light and see the Bethlehem star!

Here are the participants in our race at the hippodrome in Jerash. It’s a race between the two classes and I don’t think my class participants have ever one. But that’s okay. Since we’ve just switched classes, I lay claim on both of them! Besides, I believe in the willingness to compete. From left to right: boys: Marco (served briefly with Adam in Singapore Mission); Romney (knows Nancy Packer); Dallin; Ben (his mum is going to be one of Rachel’s colleagues when she starts working at BYU-I); Hayden and Spencer (I taught him back in Provo six years ago!!!!!. girls: Mads, Amy Anderson; Amy Thornton; and Amanda.

The coffee might be recommended from Australia, but not by this Australian.

Down at the baptismal site on the way home it was so hot that I couldn’t get enough water. I think that it took me two days when I got back to re-hydrate myself!

I finally sent my paper off today!!!!! It’s quite the relief, but now I’m having the normal doubts about whether it’s good enough. Will I ever get over those feelings of inadequacy?????? I celebrated by going to the bakery with Ron and Jill :o)

Tomorrow we’re off to Bethlehem. It’s always a great day—but long. Ron and I are both flying solo because Jeff is off excavating at Gath and David has other responsibilities. I always like having someone else—less stress for me :o)

Well that’s my week in a nutshell.

This week I have been remembering Pres. Packer. I was very sad to hear of his passing. What an impact he has had on my developing testimony. I will greatly miss his powerful talks. I had the opportunity to meet him a couple of times. He was very gracious to me and I will always remember his kindness.

Ramadan

Ramadan has started this week. This is one of the five pillars of Islam, fasting from sunrise to sunset for the entire month! For me that means my favorite shwarma place is closed for the month.  

look at the puff of smoke: the highest looking cloud on the left hand side. Every evening a canon is fired to let everyone know that it is now ok to start eating. The cloud is the puff of smoke from the canon. The canon is fired from the cemetery that overlooks the skull hill which some people think is the hill of golgotha/calvary. Some people also think that the canon firing is not very good for skull face because the vibrations mean that the hard na’ari rock cracks and then crumbles. In time the skull face will no longer be visible.

Before Ramadan started, Jimmy—one of the people that sells olive wood—took us out to lunch.

This is the meat presentation! I think that it looked a little more impressive in real life. The photo doesn’t do it justice. The guy on the left is the owner of the restaurant, and in the picture is Dr. Heiner (left) and Marybeth and Brent Jones (the music service couple who live next door to me at the Center.

Jill and I at En Kerem. This is a beautiful, Park City type of place where we sometimes go to eat dinner onFriday nights. It is absolutely beautiful and we got to eat on the roof this time with a gorgeous view. En Kerem is the traditional place where John the Baptist lived. A major reason why we go here on Friday nights is that it is in West Jerusalem, but it is open on Friday night (the Sabbath) when most of the West Jerusalem stores are closed—hence the Park City comparison.

We had two field trips this week. On Monday we went to Neot Kedummim, the Biblical reserve park. The students love the opportunity to learn how to herd sheep and goats. A number of the guys wanted to recreate Luke 15:5 “And when he had found it [i.e., the lost sheep], he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

Bryce finally getting the sheep up on his shoulders. Unfortunately the sheep did NOT like being up there and jumped off as soon as he could. Luckily I got the photo seconds before he did! 

Our second field trip was to the city of David. The part that the students love the most is going through Hezekiah’s tunnel. I enjoy that too, but I also enjoy talking about Jeremiah’s experience in the City of David as a prophet and then to talk about Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem when the Jews come back from the Babylonian exile. I particularly like to read selections from Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk about Nehemiah 6:3 when confronted by his enemies who try to get him to leave the work of rebuilding the wall around around Jerusalem to come down and talk with them. Nehemiah responds with, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?” Then Pres. Uchtdorf says,         

"We live in times of great challenges and great opportunities. The Lord is seeking men [and women] like Nehemiah--faithful brethren who fulfill the oath and covenant of the priesthood. He seeks to enlist unfaltering souls who diligently go about the work of building the kingdom of God--those who, when faced with opposition and temptation, say in their hearts, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”

        When faced with trial and suffering, they respond, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”

        When faced with ridicule and reproach, they proclaim, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”

        Our Heavenly Father seeks those who refuse to allow the trivial to hinder them in their pursuit of the eternal. He seeks those who will not allow the attraction of ease or the traps of the adversary to distract them from the work He has given them to perform. He seeks those whose actions conform to their words--those who say with conviction, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”

Today we had our last Old Testament class. I actually caught up and was able to do Ezra, Nehemiah and Malachi in a two hour class. This is always a challenge for me because I’m always behind—but there’s just too much good stuff to talk about. But finishing Old Testament means that we switch classes and I’ll start with a new class on Friday for New Testament. I hate to let these students go.  We’ve spent 7 weeks together and have got to read scripture  together on a daily basis, bear testimony and feel the Spirit. These are all activities that build bonds, wonderful bonds. Even though I will certainly see them around the center, it won’t be the same. But, I am looking forward to getting to know the new class—and it’s New Testament, and I LOVE NEW TESTAMENT!!!!!

Amazing opportunity this week!

OK so this picture

has absolutely NOTHING to do with Jerusalem, but I love it. This is the story of a young koala named Phantom whose mother Lizzy was hit by a car and needed surgery for a collapsed lung. Phantom would not leave his mother so he stayed attached, wrapping his arms around her neck even during her surgery and recovery! I think that this is a great photo and story, so I’m starting the week off with it :o) Here in Jerusalem I have a picture of a koala with bright blue eyes as the sign for my bus, so that students know which of the many buses to get on.

One of the highlights for this week is that we got to go to Ramallah. It is a major city in the West Bank and so generally we do not have permission to go there. The Church’s LDS Charities has a program where they "provide lifesaving training and equipment for birth attendants to help resuscitate babies at birth, support the care of newborns, and improve maternal survival following births.” “The World Health Organization estimates that one million newborns die each year from breathing difficulties" (ldscharities.org). So this week Dr Anderton and his wife came and spent a week at the Jerusalem Center. They were providing training at a number of hospitals in Ramallah. The purpose is to train people who will then go out and train others. A number of people from the Center go and help with the training. On Tuesday we received permission to go there as well. It happened to be Dr. Anderton’s birthday so we got to watch the handing out of the certificates to those who had completed the course and then sing Happy Birthday to him.

 The next picture is Tina, Sis. Anderton and Sis. Heiner after the meeting.

Afterwards we were able to visit Yasar Arafat’s grave.

This was a great opportunity. The Palestinians believe that this is only a temporary burial place. They believe that one day he will be buried in the Al Aksa mosque in Jerusalem. I was hoping that while we were in Ramallah we’d be able to go to Bethel, which is only 5 km away, but unfortunately that didn’t eventuate.

My last photo is of Elias Feinzelberg and Ancilli. Elias is the 97 year old Holocaust survivor who comes and speaks with the students each semester. Ancilli is his caregiver who is a member of our Branch. I’ve mentioned him previously, but I realized that if I didn’t get a photo with him this time I’d miss my opportunity. A new story that he told this time is that while he was in the concentration camps they were given black bars of soap to use. They later found out that the soap was made from the ashes of the people killed in the gas chambers. I still don’t understand how people can do these horrible things. Anyway, Elias is proof that you can survive dark, dark, days and come out with a love of life and a positive outlook.

Harry Potter Caves?

This week has been a busy, but a little lower key. Our field trip this week was to the Shphelah so we got to do the mirrors on top of Azekah and Lachish. We’re getting pretty good at doing this now. I should have gotten a photo of the the flashing light from Azekah, but I guess I just don’t think quickly enough once we get up there. One of the students got the flashing light on video, so maybe I can get it off him some time. I think that this is one of those great pedagogical moments. It’s so fun to see the students get so excited when they see the flashing lights. All of a sudden, what we were talking about from the Lachish Ostraca Letter #4 about the fires from Azekah going out during the Babylonian invasion becomes meaningful. I’ve done it three times now and I still get excited about it!

After Lachish we went to Maresha. Two fun things there are the Zidonian tombs

 and the Bell caves. 

I call the Zidonian caves, the Harry Potter caves! I started saying that to the students this semester and all of a sudden the light went on in their eyes and they were eager to go in and see why. See here I’ve taken my picture with “Fluffy”!!!! The burial cave has some great decorations inside. This is just one of the fun ones.

The caves were formed as the Israelites learned that if they broke through the hard naari rock they could get down to the limestone and harvest it to make plaster to cover their homes, and most importantly, their cisterns. Maresha is a water-poor site, with no natural spring. The only way that they can survive is to collect every drop of water during the rainy season and store it in cisterns. That water has to last them for about 8 months of the year. If the plaster crakes then the cisterns leak and they lose their water. One thing that I learned this week is that while the Philistines in the Iron Age had superiority over the Israelites in the making of iron, particularly iron weapons (which are stronger than Bronze weapons), the Israelites had superiority in making leak-free cisterns! Anyway, the Israelites would harvest the limestone in ever-increading widths, which gives the shape to these bell caves. The acoustics in here is amazing and I love to go in here with the students and to hear them sing! It’s like choirs of angels! The picture is me with Kim Chadwick. She’s married to the archaeology teacher, Jeff.

We had the formal talent show this week. Once again there were some GREAT talents. One of the girls, Julia, sang a song in Hebrew about a diaspora Jew and his longing for Jerusalem. It was absolutely beautiful!!!!! 

Well my stressor for this week is working on a paper—which was due last Monday. It’s a chapter for the new NES textbook that they want to use this Fall. My chapter is on Christian History, four hundred years in 25 pages—an impossibility. So my stress is what to include and what to leave out. There is so little time here, that decided not to go on the Yad VaShem field trip today so that I can have 2 full days to work on it. I’ve been hard at it every spare moment for a couple of weeks and I have about 8 good pages. Only 17 more to go.

Foot Doctor from many years ago in Jerusalem?

This has been an great week. It was midterm week for the students, so they were naturally a little stressed with 3 exams, including mine, on Friday. I’m half way through grading them. There are some really sharp students in my class! The question that I enjoy reading most is the “What is the most important principle that you have learned from your study of the Old Testament this semester. Give an example from the text.” I love reading their answers because it gives me a window into the discussions that have been meaningful to them. There’s quite a range but some of the recurring ones are: the importance of making and keeping covenants; God as the divine warrior; the importance of the temple in the ancient world; and the importance of obedience with precision. Exams are good because they force me to get caught up in class!!!

I forgot to post this photo from Turkey. We are at Anzac Cove and Rachel and Rebekka are eating Anzac biscuits that Tina made for all of the students! She is WONDERFUL to do so and the students love them!

Tina and I went out on a field trip to the excavations for Herod’s palace and we realized that we had independently chosen to wear the same colors. See what happens when you live so closely with people. You start to think like them, even down to what you choose to wear! Tina has been a great friend and it has been wonderful to work and play with her!

Our field trip this week took us down to Jericho. We were lucky that we went there first thing in the morning because by the time that the other bus got there it was 108 degrees!!!!!! On the way back we stopped at the Wadi Qelt lookout. This wadi was the ancient road from Jerusalem to Jericho so it is a great place to stop and talk about the story of the Good Samaritan. It is also in the Judean Wilderness so it is a great place to also talk about the Temptations. This picture is of Jeff Chadwick teaching. He loves to have the students pick up a stone that looks like a piece of pita and talk about turning stones into bread.

This is my surprise for the week. Our doctor went home about a month ago and we have been waiting for his replacement. I knew that the new doctor was an orthopod and that his name was Dr. Heiner. I didn’t think anything about it. This week I learned that he was from Price Utah. That started me thinking. When I had my accident at Lake Powell and tore my foot off I was life flighted to Price hospital. I couldn’t remember the name of the surgeon who put me back together but I wondered if it was even possible if it was the same doctor. I had really liked the surgeon. He was very kind to me. I had no idea how many orthopods were in Price. I knew that this Dr. Heiner and his wife had just returned from a mission to Hong Kong. Anyway, I went out to dinner with the Andersons on Friday night and when we got home the Heiners were here so I went to introduce myself. I didn’t even get me name out and he said, “I know who you are. You’re Gaye Strathearn!” I replied, “Are you the Doctor who reattached my foot?” I couldn’t believe that he would remember me. I think that I only saw him twice. I think that he had seen me on tv and so remembered who I was. So, anyway, the doctor who reattached my foot is now serving with me in Jerusalem!!!!!! How random is that??????? So I had to get a photo of us after Church today. I figured that my Mum would get a kick out of it :o)

Return from Turkey

We had a very full week in Turkey. We arrived back at the center this morning at 2 am. Turkey is such an absolutely wonderful trip. The country is gorgeous! I love the Pauline and Johannine sites and I love visiting the gorgeous mosques. It was particularly sad to leave because I was saying goodbye to our two guides, Necip and Jasemine.

Necip is leaving to be with his family in Scandanavia, so he won’t be our guide any more. Jasemine is getting married next month, but she’ll continue working with our students. So to mourn Necip’s departure and to celebrate Jasmine's wedding we all gathered together at the remain’s of Constantine’s palace in Nicea to give them both a gift. It was a really nice moment on the trip.

So, what was different on this trip compared to the other two trips? The “old girls” decided to dress up at Troy and have our photo taken!

 The photographer got a little upset that our friends were taking photos of us, even though we were all committed to buy a photo from her. One of the students took this photo. We were staged sitting on a throne and standing in a chariot with swords and bows and arrows, but the lighting wasn't very good for most of those. The one we bought has the Trojan horse in the background. It’s not often that I play dress up!!!!!

Also, at Ephesus I went to see the residential houses. There’s an extra fee for this and I had not done it before. We didn't have much time, but I raced over there and I didn't have time to fully take everything in, but it was MAGNIFICENT!

This is just one example of the tiled floors and fresco-ed walls. There were the terrace house of ancient Ephesus’s wealthy. Although I doubt that Paul lived in any of these during his 3 year stay, it is clear in Acts that he had friends among the well-to-do there, so he may have gone over there for Sunday dinner some time! I really enjoyed that. Maybe one day I’ll be able to go back and have more time to really enjoy it.

Today is the celebration of Shavuot or Pentecost. It is one of the three biblically-mandated pilgrim festivals where Israelites were directed to go to the temple. It is celebrated 50 days after Passover. It is an early harvest celebration (the time of the wheat harvest). Rabbis say that it celebrates the time when Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai. It is an important festival for Christians, particularly in Acts 2 where the Holy Ghost is poured out upon the people. Today Jews celebrate it by reading from the Torah and the book of Ruth (which is a harvest-gathering story); celebrating nature in the National Parks, and it is a day for eating dairy products, especially cheese cake. So Ron and I went out and bought little bite-size cheese cakes to share with the students tonight! Half are flavored with passion fruit!!! (I love passion fruit)

and the other half with blueberries. Sabina is enjoying a passion fruit one in this picture. So it was a fun day.

Tomorrow we’re off to Jericho for our field trip. The temperature is supposed to hit 100 degrees!