This week has been a
little different pace for me. It was exams week, so I had my final Old
Testament class on Sunday. It was hard to say goodbye to this class. I have
grown to love them and will miss them, but I am looking forward to getting to
know the other students as we begin our New Testament journey together.
There were two main
events this week—both on Monday. Technically it was a reading day, but in the
morning we went up to our biblical gardens at the center and pressed the
olives. The center has one of the few working ancient olive presses in the
country. The girls and I working to crush the olives.
After the olives are washed they are put in this large stone basin
and they are crushed by the rotating rock. Donkeys were probably used to turn
the lever but today the students and us were the donkey! It was hard work! The first
time I tried it I jumped in with the students and of course the boys have lots
of energy and I was running to just try and keep up with them! Of course, I
don’t have the correct shoes on for running to keep up with the boys. That
lever was heavy! Once the olives are crushed they are put into rope bags and
then put into a press. There are two types of presses at the center. One is the
screw press. I'm standing next to it, with the oil draining out of
the bags.
The screw press dates to the Byzantine period and would not have been
used during the time of Jesus. The other press is a lever press. You can see a
photo with the students around it. This is the type of press that would have
been in use in the first century. The oil that we made here will have a bitter
taste and we won’t be able to use it for culinary purposes because we are
pressing the olives in the sunlight. This would never have happened anciently
because the sun causes a chemical reaction in the oil. I think that I said in
an earlier post when we were at Mareshah that anciently oil presses were found
in caves in inside dwellings—which is an important element to remember when we
think of Gethsemane (“oil press”). It wouldn't have been in an outside garden;
it would have been in a cave. Each of the students will be given a small bottle
of oil from our efforts this week. Although it won’t be good for eating, it
will be perfectly fine for all other uses.
The second highlight for
me was Monday afternoon. I went with the girls to Ikea . I'm standing in front of the Hebrew Ikea sign).
I went along for the meatballs! You don’t get a lot of
comfort food here :o) It was just lovely to be able to get away with the other
women.
We had a wonderful time. I got practice reading the Hebrew signs and
everyone and then I could actually work out what they were saying, which was
very exciting. I did end up buying a small fake pine tree that I’ll use for a
Christmas tree and a fake poinsettia plant so that I’ll have at least some
Christmas decorations. As you can imagine, they’re not prevalent in Israel!
Well tomorrow we’re off
to Jordan for 4 days. I’m looking forward to that. I've never been there
before, so I’ll get to go to Mount Nebo, Machareus, Petra, Amman, Jerash, the
Jabbok River, and the traditional site where Jesus was baptized. So you’ll have
to wait a week for pictures and news of those sites!
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