Field Trip to Shphelah - The Lowlands in Israel

This weeks photos come from our field trip to the Shphelah (the lowlands in Israel). Many Biblical stories take place here—too many to mention. What was different about this field trip to last semesters is that Pres. and Sis. Worthen (BYU President) came on part of the trip with us. They even came on the bus. They are wonderful gracious people, but it still made me a literal nervous :o) We went to Beth Shemesh first, which is where we discuss two Biblical events: the story of Samson and the story of the return of the Ark of the Covenant after it was captured by the Philistines (which is loosely the story behind the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark). 

Our next stop was Azekah, where we look down over the valley of Elah—the place for the David and Goliath story. We took a little too long at Beth Shemesh so we had to hurry up to Azekah because we were trying to time the mirror event with Ron’s class who were at Lachish. That meant that we had to immediately do the mirrors, like we did last semester, before we did any teaching. This picture shows us signaling. 

This picture shows me teaching afterwards about the significance of the mirrors during the Babylonian conquest of Judea (with Mikey, Merrick  Ann, and Kenzie). Do you like my new hat????? I think that it looks a little more classy than my old one :o)

My class singing in the Bell Caves at Beit Guvrim. The caves are man-made. When they discovered that you could take chalk and mix it and make a hard shell to line cisterns (so that they wouldn’t leak) and houses. People would dig a hole, break through the hard crust (naarim) and then mine the limestone in every increasing circles, which led the the bell shape of the caves. The acoustics here are divine!!!! So the picture is of my class singing. In the background are a group of school students who were also in the caves. When they heard us singing they gathered to listen to us and gave us a rousing applause when we finished! I’ve found that whenever our students sing, people always stop, listen, and give very enthusiastic applause! They certainly radiate a spirit when they sing.

Tomorrow we are off again to the City of David excavations, the highlight of which for the students is going through Hezekiah’s tunnel. This trip I will be leading all by myself, which is a first for me. That means that I have to do ALL of the teaching, and I won’t have anyone to back me up if I forget something important, which is easy to do because there is SO MUCH history and archaeology associated with this place. So you can imagine what I’ve been doing for most of the day today—reading, and reading and reading! So I can only do the best that I can. If I forget something, then it’ll have to be okay :o) I am looking forward to it and I know that the students will love it. It is winter though, so we’ll see how cold the water is.

Field Trip Week to Jordan

This week has been a big week for us. We went to Jordan. I really enjoyed the trip. It was a little less stressful for me because this time I had a bit of an idea about what I was doing. Unfortunately the lookout from Mt Nebo, where Moses looked out and saw the promised land, was hazy so we couldn't see very much.

Z (her name is Lindsey, but she goes by Z) and me at the Jabbok River. I LOVE the Jabbok River. There isn't much to see; the water is pretty polluted, but the story of Jacob’s wrestle with the messenger from God, continues to inspire me.

At Petra this time I chose to climb to the High Place. It was fun to see Lana up there when I arrived. 

Coming down was pretty hard on my knees and I knew from last time what it was like after a climb to walk the 5 miles from the restaurant out of the park, so we decided to ride camels from the restaurant to the Treasury.  All of us at the end of our ride, in front of the Treasury. This is the Treasury from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Then I walked out through the Siq (the canyon) and then rode a horse back to the gate. In doing so it only took me 2 days to recover, rather than 2 weeks!!!!! 

In this picture the camel was very friendly :o) 

We got home from Jordan late. It took us FOREVER to get through Israeli customs, probably because there were some problems in the north. But then I had to prepare for my two hour class on Friday morning. I must admit that there got a point where I was so tired, I decided that I would have to wing part of class. Luckily I’m behind in class, so most of it was what I had previously prepared! We were supposed to be in Joshua, and I finished in Leviticus! Oh well, I guess we’ll catch up before the midterm somehow.

Sorry this has to be short this week. I have to get ready for the field trip tomorrow. I've just heard that Pres. and Sis. Worthen (BYU President and his wife) are coming on the bus with us. So I had better go and make sure that I’m up to speed!

Australia Day in Jerusalem

Happy Australia Day!!!!!!

I’m sorry that this is going to have to be short this week. It is 9 pm on Sunday night and tomorrow morning we leave early for 4 days in Jordan. It will be a fun trip but I haven’t even started packing yet!

It’s been a great week with three field trips: down to the Negev with stops at Beersheva and Arad; Jericho with stops at Zacchaeus’ tree, Tel Jericho, Herod’s Winter Palace and Wadi Qelt; then off to the Western wall on Friday evening to welcome in the Sabbath.

Lana and I on the balcony of the Jerusalem Center with the Mount of Olives (left) and the old City (right) in the background.

Me teaching in the temple at Tel Arad. This was a legitimate temple that was decommissioned when Hezekiah and later Josiah decided to centralize temple worship in Jerusalem. I am standing right next to the altar where the sacrifices would have been offered. In the background are the hills leading up the highlands of Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Me teaching outside the city gates of Tell Beersheva. We stopped here to talk about wells. the well is where the two girls are standing. the well is 120 feet deep so I asked the two of them to pull up the rope. As they did so we talked about Rebekah and what it meant for her to get water for Eleazar and all of his camels! I think that the girls had a greater appreciation for Rebekah after that. Then we talked about the importance of water in a semi-arid desert and then finished by talking about Christ as the living water.

Lana and I in front of the Zacchaeus tree in Jericho (Luke 19). We talked about how often we can see in a tree and think that we have a good vantage point to see things, but how salvation doesn’t take place if we’re sitting in the grandstand watching things happen. Jesus called Zacchaeus out of the tree so that he could come into his home. Salvation takes place as we come down and get involved in what is happening in the kingdom!

The last major event, that I don’t have a photo for, was on Friday night. One of our Palestinian security guards had his engagement party and we were invited to go. It was a traditional party with the men and women separated. I think that the girls got the better deal because there was music and dancing; the men, apparently, just sat around, smoked and talked! Anyway it was a very interesting night. The Palestinian people are so kind and welcoming.

Life in Jerusalem Moves on

Well, life in Jerusalem moves on. We were finally able to do our Old City walking tour, which means that the students were finally able to be set loose to get out into the city by themselves. I enjoyed taking my small group of students around. Lana was in the group. I didn’t get lost, well not exactly. I missed one turn, but then we were back on track. It was interesting for me to see the change in me. Last semester I was tied to the directions and notes about all of the sites, but this time I hardly used them except to make sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything. So I felt that I have learned a lot in this last few months.

In class we’ve had one week of Old Testament and I’m already more than an entire lesson behind schedule! It’s the story of my life. There’s just too much great stuff to talk about. I was hoping to finish Genesis on Friday and start exodus, but no such luck. I’m starting to get to know the names of some of my students. It’s a hard job! I think that when we go on our trip to Jordan next week, it will help.

Picture 1 this week is of Lana and I at Mar Elias, an overlook that allowed us to see Bethlehem. The photo is us in front of an olive orchard. This overlook that we walked to was interesting because before the Six Day War in 1967 it was controlled by Jordan and was just over the hill from land controlled by Israel. So there was the remains of a Jordanian army bunker, so that was interesting to see.

Picture 2 was taken at the Good Samaritan Inn that used to be a Khan or a refreshment stop on the road to Jericho. It has been converted into a Museum that houses ancient mosaics from the West Bank. The faculty and wives took a trip there on Thursday. I really liked because it had a room dedicated to Samaritan mosaics found on Mount Gerizim. I’ve been interested in the Samaritans since I wrote a paper on the Samaritan Woman at the well. What I really enjoyed was being able to read the captions on these photos that were in Hebrew and English, but I didn’t need to read the English—I could understand the Hebrew! That was a lot of fun!

Picture 3 is Lana having her first shwarma in the Old City, just inside Damascus Gate. Tomorrow I’ll take her to Al Shula’s for the best shwarma (in my opinion)!!!!!

Picture 4 is Lana at the Garden of Gethsemane 

Today in Seminary I showed a video of the combined BYU choirs singing, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-a1VI7Q0g8.  It is a low tech video, in standard definition and the people’s mouth’s don’t line up exactly with the singing. Nevertheless it has great sentimental value for me. When I was hired at BYU I went to my first preschool meetings. In the afternoon session the Academic Vice President showed this video. I was so excited to be started at BYU, never did I ever think that this lower middle class Australian kid would end up teaching there. But I was also very nervous. This song is about the tension a person feels between their spiritual inadequacies and their longing to be one with Christ: 

"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above."  

I remember the power and emotion of this video. I felt the testimonies of these students as the sang and played and I realized the responsibility that I would have as I taught at BYU. I also thought about how that song echoed my own spiritual struggles to give my heart and life over to the Savior, but realizing that I am so inadequate. It was just a powerful moment in my life, that comes back to me whenever I hear that song. Anyway, last night as I was preparing my Seminary lesson, I felt that I should share it with my class today, giving the background of why it is important to me. As I did so there were technical difficulties which interfered with the Spirit, but eventually we got it going and I felt the Spirit so powerfully. I just hope that my students did as well.

First week with new students Winter Semester

We heard a cool experience in Relief Society today. One of the women here is a student at Hebrew University. She is getting a Masters in Islamic and Near Eastern Studies. She was a student on the program a few of years ago. She was talking about her mission. She was called to the Temple Square mission. Her companion was from Jordan—they think that she was the first sister missionary called from Jordan! So both of them spoke Arabic. She talked about how there was this guy who they met on Temple Square and he loved everything that they told him, but they couldn’t teach him because he was an Israeli citizen. Then she said that she came here and the Second Counselor in the District Presidency was speaking and she realized that he was the man who she had talked to at Temple Square. So somehow he and his family were able to get baptized. I’m going to have to track down the story and find out how that happened!

Lana is now here with me and it’s wonderful to have her. She arrived on Wednesday in the middle of a huge storm. We were worried about whether the plane would be able to land. In fact, just after they landed the controllers tower was hit by lightening! There was a lot of “behind the scenes” work before they arrived because a snow storm was forecast for Jerusalem. Jerusalem is not equipped for snow. Last year they had a major snow storm and people were stranded on the road to Jerusalem and it took them a few days to get everything moving. So this year they were going to make sure that didn’t happen again. So the police planed on closing down the major roads into Jerusalem as soon as it started snowing. We had to leave before they closed the roads and then they arranged for all of the students to spend the night in Ashdod, with the hope that we could get back to Jerusalem the next day. It as a very bumpy landing, but we got them and made it to Ashdod. The next morning we were able to make it to Jerusalem, but the weather was such that we couldn’t get out and do our orientation walk of the old city, so they have all been itching to get out. Today after church we were able to walk down to the Garden Tomb, so that was a lovely break. Tomorrow we’ll get to the Old city and then they’ll be free to get out and about, which, I think will make them all very happy!

Yesterday I woke up not feeling very well. I taught class, but afterwards I spent the day with my head in a bucket! Lana was so kind to me and kept emptying my buckets! I didn’t stop throwing up until I got a blessing. So the moral of the story is that I should have gotten a blessing earlier!

I hope that you like the pictures that Lana took. The second picture is of the Russian Orthodox tower of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives.

Lana and Snow make it to Jerusalem this week!

Detour.....Ashdod

The students flight has been delayed. Jerusalem is preparing for lock-down for snow. We came to Ashdod because we'll stay overnight with the students. It's blowing a gale. Unfortunately you can't see the HUGE waves on the Mediterranean Sea!