Made it back from Turkey

This morning we made it back from our trip to Turkey. It was a wonderful week: cold for the first couple of days, but we were really quite lucky with many days forecasting rain, but we only had one afternoon where it hit us while we were on site. The Turkey trip is just a great trip. We didn’t have one of the buses break down on the way to Gallipoli this trip, so that was a blessing. Both classes met together and I read from some of the journal accounts of a couple of the nurses and one of the signalmen who landed on the evening of April 25. You know when I was growing up, going to the dawn services with Dad and watching all of the parades I really didn’t think too much about the events of Gallipoli. Now it’s pretty surreal about how emotional I get each time that I go there. I think of all of those lives that were lost and I can’t help but think that there MUST be a better way to solve our differences. This year is the centenary celebration of the landing. My cousin has tickets to attend. I think that will be a very special event.

The major purpose of our Turkey trip is three-fold: sites of Paul’s second and third missions; the cities of John’s Revelation; and the sites of the Christian ecumenical councils.

This is my new New Testament class outside of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. It is just nearby the Hagia Sophia. It is called the Blue Mosque because of the blue tiles from Iznic (ancient Nicea) that adorn the inside. It has 6 minarets, 9 domes and beautiful stained glass windows. The more I visit it the more I appreciate it’s beauty.

Will, Philip, Mackenzi, Andrew, Alyssa, Thomas and Hannah surrounding me at the synagogue in Sardis. This one of the best preserved synagogues in the ancient world. The mosaics on the floor are glorious (I’m not sure that there are enough supernal adjectives for my descriptions of all of these wonderful places)

Sun setting outside of my hotel window in Efes (near the ancient remains of Ephesus). Isn’t it gorgeous?!!!! The light in the center isn’t a comet; I think that it’s a reflection of the light on the window, but it looks pretty cool :o)

Kelsie and I looking at what remains of Constantine’s summer palace at Nicea. This is the place of the First Christian Ecumenical Council, the source of the Nicene Creed which denounced the Arian beliefs and declared the divinity of Christ. There is little, if anything, in this creed that Latter-day Saint theology doesn’t support.

               Nicene Creed as adopted in 325[edit]

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (ὁμοούσιον) with the Father; by whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

And in the Holy Ghost.

But those who say: 'There was a time when he was not;' and 'He was not before he was made;' and 'He was made out of nothing,' or 'He is of another substance' or 'essence,' or 'The Son of God is created,' or 'changeable,' or 'alterable'—they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.

It was great to be in Nicea and discuss the events that took place here. The shopping was also fun!

Off to Turkey

This is going to be short today. We're in Istanbul and I came down with a head cold so I'm feeling pretty miserable at the moment. I'm having to send this in the hotel lobby because the wifi isn't very good in my room.

I love Istanbul! I wish that I could stay longer and just wander around. As we were going to our lunch restaurant we were driving along the shore of the Bosporus and we saw a family of Dolphins about 20 feet off the shore! The driver stopped the bus and we watched them for about 10 minutes. It was glorious. I didn't get a photo but one of the students is going to send me one and I'll post it next week.

We went to the Hagia Sophia again and each time I go I enjoy it more. The Christian mosaics are glorious and I'm getting better at reading the Christian abbreviations.

This picture is of Mary, Christ and John the Baptist. There's one more abbreviation about Mary that I have to work out. I think that it has something to do with her title theotokos = "bearer of God" but I'm not sure. I wish that I had seen this mosaic when it was in its complete glory!

                                                  The students are making a wish.

This picture is of the Siloam inscription from Hezekiah's tunnel. In Israel we only get to see replicas but this is the original inscription telling about the two crews who were making Hezekiah's tunnel meeting. I may have posted a similar picture last semester, but this is a better picture. 

Final Exam Week

This coming week is final exam week and there is a LOT of tension in the air! BUT when exams are over we’re off to Turkey so that will be a very welcome change of pace.

Today was our last Old Testament class together. I am constantly behind all throughout the semester, but I was finally able to catch up today and spend time talking about Malachi. I’m always sad at this time of the semester because it is very hard to say goodbye to the students. They will have the other religion teacher, Ron Anderson, for New Testament and I will get the class that he just finished teaching Old Testament to. 

One of my goals is that my students will get to the point that they will want to stand up and testify that they KNOW that the Bible is the word of God!!!! I begin and end the semester with the Prophet Joseph’s statement, speaking about the Bible, “He who reads it oftenest will like it best”! I really believe that statement is true and has certainly been my experience. As we finished class today I reflected with my students about how much I would lose if I didn’t have the Old Testament: my understanding of the Abrahamic covenant would be superficial and incomplete; I would lose the great examples of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, imperfect men, to be sure, but men who God chose inspite of their imperfects and worked with them until they became the great spiritual leaders that they were. I would lose the story, in particular of Jacob’s spiritual journey of not being sure whether he wanted to covenant with his father’s god at Bethel, even though he was invited by the Lord. But by the time that he came back to Penuel, he wanted that covenant more than ANYTHING else! That spiritual journey was critical for Jacob and I learn SO much about my own journey every time that I study that story. Without the Old Testament I would miss those inspiring stories of people like Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and so many others who had to pay great costs to be the Lord’s prophets and in spite of those costs they drew their line in the sand (figuratively) and declared to all that this is where they stood. They were followers of Jehovah! I would miss the stories of Isaiah and Jeremiah and their great hope for future Israel when they would return to the covenant and finally be able to receive the blessings that God had always wanted to bestow upon them, and the reminder that descendants of Ephraim I have the opportunity and responsibility to help bring about the fulfilment of those ancient prophecies. Most importantly, although it is often lost in modern discussions of the the Old Testament, I would miss the myriad of stories and teachings of God’s great mercy to his people! I LOVE the Old Testament!!!! It IS the word of God and has so many things to teach us if we will just give it a chance. I do love these students!

Well, this week our field trip was to Neot Kedummim, a biblical nature reserve. It gave the students a very “hands-on experience.”

The students had the chance to herd sheep and goats and learned that sheep and goats have very different personalities and respond very differently.

Ann and Merick learned that sometimes you have to leave the flock and go and get the goat that strayed!

We learned how to make Lentil soup (I.e., the mess of pottage that Esau wanted so much that he was willing to sell his birthright). I must admit that lentil soup has never been very appealing to me, but this tasted GREAT! If I ever serve in Young Women’s again and go to camp I am definitely going to push for us to make this! Although I don’t have a photo of it, we also fried some whole wheat and then add date honey to it. It was also very delicious.

We ground up some dried hyssop. This is a medicinal plant that is often used as an antiseptic. In Psalms 51:7 it’s medicinal qualities are mentioned, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” In the Gospel of John 19:29 , we learn that when Jesus was on the cross he was given a sponge of vinegar with hyssop put on it: "Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.” And I have some to bring home :o)

We celebrated Passover Seder this week. Here Lana and a group of students are singing one of the songs. It was a fun night!