Birthday week in Israel

Well this has been a birthday week—52!!!! I had a lovely day. 

One of the pictures is my lemon bar squares birthday cake that one of the sisters made for me. She had invited me over for lunch, but didn't tell me that she had invited all of the sisters in the center. It was quite a surprise and I really enjoyed hanging out with the girls!!!! I have to say that my students were also lovely. They came early and decorated my classroom with a hand-crafted banner, signs, and balloons, and then both classes came and sang Happy Birthday to me. I wasn't expecting that, and I certainly wasn't expecting the other class to come in. Then they gave me chocolates and a pair of earrings!!!!!! (I had lost one of the earrings that I always wear). That was so lovely of them, and I was very touched. Then in the afternoon one of the service couples had invited Tawfic (one of the administrators) and his wife to come to a potluck dinner to talk about life as a Palestinian Christian growing up in Jerusalem. It was a lovely day.

There were three big events this week. The first was on Sunday where our Judaism teacher, Ophir Yardin, took us to Yad Vashem—the Holocaust museum.

 I must say that I had been there once before as a student and I was not excited to return. It is such a horrible reminder of the absolute worst of humanity. But I did enjoy (if that’s the right word) having Ophir took to us about the developing consciousness of the Holocaust in Jewish discourse. It took some time for Holocaust victims to be able to come to a point where they could talk about it and it also took time for society to develop to where they were willing to listen. We first walked down the path of the righteous, where trees have been planted to recognize those people who put themselves and their families in danger to try and hide and thus save Jews from the Nazi roundups. I’ve included a picture of a sculpture that stands outside the hall of children. It depicts Janusz Korczak, a Polish-Jewish educator who worked for years as a director of an orphanage in Warsaw and who refused to abandon his children when they were sent from the Ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp in 1942. I can’t put in words the feelings I had. As we went through the museum (which is impossible to complete in a few hours), I just went from exhibit to exhibit watching the videos of the survivors. Then on Wednesday night we had a 97 year old survivor come and speak with the students about his experiences in Poland and Germany. He was incarcerated in 9 different camps including Aushwitz and Dachau. He was the only survivor in his family. Fortunately his mother had a family portrait taken of the parents and 7 children and she sent it to her brother living in Guatemala. That’s all that he has left of his family. Even at 97 he loves life and hangs on to every minute of it!

The second big event was on Monday. It was time to harvest all of the olives that are growing in the center grounds! This is a major event that only in the Fall semester get to participate in. So I’ve included a photo of some of the students up in the trees picking the fruit.

 Tomorrow the students will be able to process the olives into olive oil and bring home a small bottle. Of course olives are an important industry in the Mediterranean region. They are used for food, usually at breakfast lunch and dinner; and their oil is also important for cooking, medicinal uses, and in antiquity it was the purest of flames for lamps, and it was also used as part of bathing. Of course, it also has important implications for the atonement as well. We learned by experience that if you score the fruit and taste the juice it has a very bitter taste. I am sure that there are some parallels here that we could relate to the atonement! I’ll finish the discussion next week after we have pressed the olives :o)

Our field trip this week took us to the city of David. We toured the archaeological ruins of the large stone structure dating from about 1000 BC which may be the remains of David’s palace. Then we went down and saw the “Millo” mentioned numerous times in 1 & 2 Kings. It is a large stepped structure that was placed to reinforce the hill are and stop the monumental architecture—David’ palace—from sliding down the hill. We saw homes dating from the 6th-7th century that show evidence of Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. We saw Jerusalem city walls that date back to the time of Melchizedek! Then we went and saw the massive fortifications that were built to protect the water supply of the Gihon spring. 

The highlight of the trip, without doubt, was going through Hezekiah’s tunnel, which he built to take the spring water into the city to supply the growing needs of the western city and also when he decided to rebel against Nebuchadnezza, knowing that it would result in him coming and laying siege to the city. The tunnel was an engineering masterpiece of two teams starting at opposite ends and digging through rock for 1770 feet and then meeting up in the middle. I’ve included a photo of me in the tunnel. It was pitch black except for our flash lights. The initial step was into water up to my thigh, but for the most part it was up to the middle of my calf. I was a little nervous about whether I would be claustrophobic, but I led out at the front and one my students helped me take that first step into the water. It was a LOT of fun. 

We came out and went to the pool of Siloam and I took some time to teach about the man born blind in (John 9) because Jesus directed him to wash clay off his eyes in this pool. Then we walked back to the temple mount through the ancient sewerage tunnel!! Josephus tells us that when the Romans were sacking Jerusalem in 70 AD that many Jews fled to this tunnel to try and escape. In the drainage system archaeologists found a small gold pomegranate bell which they believe came off one of the priest’s robes and fell into the drainage system. The bell still rings 2000 years later!!!!! Here is a link to Youtube which has a photo of it and where you can hear the sound of the bell ringing :o) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjx9tP3yTRI

I have to say that all of this makes me very happy! I’m living the dream!

October 17, 2014

Sorry I haven't written for a couple of weeks. Life has been pretty busy here and if I don't write on Saturday then I don't usually get a chance. 

The first picture is of 3 students in my class (Katelyn, Erin & Emma).  Obviously we are standing in front of a camel, but it has a sukkah on top of it. The rabbis say that it is a legitimate sukkah if it's on a camel! So since the feast of tabernacles has just finished, I thought that it would be a fun picture to send.

The rest of the pictures are from our field trip on Monday. We went to the Shphelah, which are the lowlands of Israel and visited the ancient cities that controlled the major valleys that lead from the coastal plains up to the high lands where Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron are located. There is soooo much history involved in all of the sites. The two parts that the students loved the most were slinging rocks in the valley of Elah 

(where David defeated Goliath; This is Loren with her sling) 

and shining lights between Azekah and Lachish. I'll need to explain the last one. Azekah and Lachish were two of these fortified cities guarding the valleys. At Lachish a piece of pottery was found containing a letter from the military leader of Lachish to the leader in Jerusalem. It dates from around 585 BC, the time when Nebuchadnezzar was coming with his army, wiping out cities on his way to lay siege to, and destroy, Jerusalem. The letter says that he is guarding his signal fire because he can no longer see the signal fire of Azekah--meaning that Nebuchadnezzar has overcome Azekah and is now heading towards Lachish to wipe it out as well. When we were at the base of Lachish I told this story to the students and they weren't overly excited. But then we went up on to the top of the hill with a large mirror. At the same time we had organized for the other bus of students to be on top of Azekah, which is about 25 kilometers away. We had the students on both hills use the mirrors to reflect the sun's light. They were trying to get it right for a couple of minutes and then all of a sudden we saw a huge flash of light from Azekah! It was sooooo amazing, and the students and other people on top of the hill were so excited! Suddenly the story that I told them at the bottom of the hill had real meaning and they were excited about it.

This is a place called Bayt Guvrin. The picture shows places where the ancients mined limestone so that they could make plaster for their cisterns (to waterproof them), and to plaster the walls or their homes and buildings. The picture shows what is left. The acoustics in them are amazing and when we arrived there was a concert going on! The sound was brilliant!

Recap of our week in Turkey

We just got back from an intensive week in Turkey. We had the worst ever takeoff in the plane from Istanbul. In fact all of us thought that we weren't going to make it! We didn't get back to the center until 4 am.

We spent two days in Istanbul. I love that city and would love to have more time to explore. We went to the Hagia Sophia (first Turkey post). Then we went to Istanbul Museum where I got to see things that I've always wanted to see, such as the Siloam Inscription from Hezekiah's tunnel in Jerusalem. It talks about when the two groups who were digging the tunnel could finally hear each other just before the two tunnels met. I also got to see a copy of Hammurabi's law code, and magnificent panels from Ishtar's gate in ancient Babylon! The next day we went to the famous Blue Mosque, the bizarre for some shopping, the Bascilica cistern under the city, had a boat ride on the Bosporous, and then went to see some Whirling Dirvishes, which was a bit too much for me after an exhausting day!

Day 3 we headed out on the road, first to Gallipoli, which was great! I spoke about the ANZACS and why this place was important for both Turks and Aussies. I think that at first the students were wondering why we were going there but they all ended up having a wonderful, spiritual time! Then we went to ancient Troy and got to talk about Homer's Iliad and also about Paul's experiences at nearby Troas. Day 4 we went to ancient Assos (Paul's 3rd missionary journey). What a MAGNIFICENT view!! 

 I am standing with Abbie, and Cygnie is sitting down. This a view of the Aegean Sea. The island is called Lesbos

                          Pergamum, one of the seven cities of Revelation - a white marble temple.

Some have thought that this may be the background for the mention of the white stone with a name written on it mentioned when john wrote to Pergamum. Day 5 we went to Ephesus, which is an amazing site.

I've included a picture of the theater where Demetrius and the other silversmiths made a riot because of Paul's teachings

 and also a picture of the Main Street looking down to Celsus's library.

Then we went to Miletus, where Paul stopped at the end of his 3rd mission and invited the elders from Ephesus to come and meet with him.

Day 6 we stopped at Sardis, another one of the 7 cities of Revelation. It has the remains of a magnificent temple to Artemis and one of the earliest synagogues that has been found outside of Israel.

I've included a picture of me standing in front of an ancient Roman road. I took the picture because it followed the very ancient Persian road that went from Persepolis in Persia to here in Sardis.  We then had a long trip to Basra where we got to go shopping at a local bazaar and see another mosque.

On our last day we went to Nicea where two of the Ecumenical Church Councils were held, and then headed off to the airport. At the airport we saw a group of men who were just wearing white towels! We found out that they were on their way to Mecca to take part in the Islamic pilgrimage!

So that was our week in Turkey. It's taken a while to recuperate! At the moment we are in the middle of the Jewish High holy days. While we were in Turkey they celebrated Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. Today is Yom Kippur, the most holy of Jewish Holy days where they seek forgiveness for their sins. In five days time they will celebrate the feast of Succot or Tabernacles.

Arab Cultural Night

Donna (nurse professor from BYU-I) and I at our Arab Cultural night. We had a father and son sheikhs who give the call to prayer at the al Aksa mosque (their family has been doing it for 400 years) come and recite the call to prayer and show us how they pray and answer questions. It was great! Then we had a big dinner and then the students did Palestinian dancing. I, however, went home to write a test!

Today is Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, and the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. They fast for 26 hours. Roads are closed down so that people don't drive. Only those who can walk to church will be coming today.

A little bit of our trip to Turkey

This is Jessica, Abbie, Lauren and I at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It was originally a wonderful Byzantine Church. then it was converted into a mosque, and now it is a museum. It is an absolutely gorgeous building!

                                                                       Gaye in Trojan Horse at Troy