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)