Attempt number three at this blog ...

The interent often goes on the fritz around here, so sometimes it takes me multiple days to complete one of these things! I have been on two field studies since the last time I wrote but I will only focus on the first trip for now. Also, sad warning for today ... it's taken me this long to put this blog up because the picture feature has not been working and I've been trying to wait and see if I could get some up, but sadly there will be no picutres with today's post. I'll try to put them up on my facebook and we can share them this way!
SO ... two Sundays ago was great!

I got to visit the City of David which is no longer a part of the Old City! It actually doesn't look like much ... but I have to admit it was neat seeing the city first thing in the morning. I was standing across the valley from the ancient city and on the other side was another valley with a higher range (the Mount of Olives) and when the sun came up, the light was only hitting the ridgeline of the City of David. It was pretty neat to see Ancient Zion lit up in the midst of a valley of shadow.

I don't have a great picture of it yet (it's a little hard to take good pictures and write down all my notes at the same time!), but there has been some neat excavating going on inside of the city.

One part that I was most excited by was a section that had a small piece uncovered of Nehemiah's wall! This part was pretty exciting for me because my brother (Jeremy) recently did a theatrical monologue of Nehemiah asking for help rebuilding the wall after the Jews returned from exile in Babylon. I had a great picture in my head of the reading as I looked at an actual piece of that wall!

Another section of wall that has been uncovered inside of the Old City is a piece they believe is part of Hezekiah's wall that was built around the city in anticipation of the Assyrian invasion!


This invasion was also the prompting for the digging of Hezekiah's Tunnel which I also walked through.

However, the ceiling actually is really low for most of the first half of the tunnel. For those of you who are not aware -- I'm a little short. There were sections of the tunnel where I was bent over double ... but then at the end there are really high ceilings! It's a strange transition. The tunnel was dug from both ends and the workers met somewhere in the middle. The general understanding is that one end started up too high and had to dig down into the ground in order to meet up with the other half -- hence, high ceilings.

It's pretty interesting because they aren't exactly sure how the tunnel was dug. I find it crazy that we can think of ourselves as so much more advanced but we can't figure out how the ancient Israelites dug a proper tunnel!

After exploring these Old Testament sites, we moved on to exploring the area in terms of what occurred in the New Testament.

We were able to go into the area of ruins that was one of the main enterances up to the Temple Mount in the southeast corner. If you look up pictures online and search for Robinson's Arch you'll see a recreation of the ruins I was looking at! There are only little chunks of rock left sticking out of the wall where the arch met the Temple Mount. The ground underneath this area is fairly well smashed up from where all of the rocks fell when the city was destroyed.

One thing I always wondered was when I would read about how the city was "burned" down. How can a city made of stone burn? Answer ... the rocks the city is made of are limestone rocks -- very porous and great at retaining water. Unfortunately, this means that if you set a large enough fire under the rocks, they will heat up and pretty much explode from the expansion inside!

We were also able to sit on the southern steps where Jesus would have taught outside of the Temple to preach. It's amazing how much more the stories/parables he tells make sense when you are sitting in the context of the situation! More on that next time ...

The last thing I want to share with you was our last stop on the study ... the Pools of Bethesda and the Church of Saint Anne.

First ... don't ask me if I jumped in the pools ... there's no water anymore and it is a REALLY deep pit. An interesting side story to go along with the story of the invalid who was healed here in John 5, it is said there were smaller pools next to Bethesda that were dedicated to the cult of Asclepius, who was the Greek god of medicine. In John 5:14 Jesus says to the man “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” It was common practice in OT to believe that if something bad happened to you it was because you had sinned and were being punished, but Jesus contradicts this teaching everywhere except this one instance. Out of context it seems that Jesus is conforming to the traditional thinking of the time; instead, he is telling the man, who had been waiting, not just by Bethesda, but by the Greek pools for healing, to stop following the pagan ways of other gods and turn to the true God of Israel, lest he continue his life in sin. Jesus is calling him to repent of his cultural compromises.

I think it's easy to miss out on how much of the cultural meaning is used in biblical stories and they add so much more depth to our understanding. I'll try to keep adding these in so we can all benefit from this knowledge!

The last stop was actually inside of the church which was built over the place where Mary (Jesus' mother) was born and raised. This church is also called the church of singing because of the acoustics. I am going to post the video I took of our group singing a couple of songs in the church and its amazing! If you ever come to Israel, make sure to visit this church.

Shabbat Shalom!

So it's my first Shabbat in Jerusalem.

Every Friday night the school celebrates Shabbat at sundown together with a big "family meal" style dinner. The first Friday of the semester is always a cookout. It was a great time ... we just take over the garden and everyone hangs out, eats, laughs, and other such things people do in large friendly groups.

After dinner is Vespers. It's great to have a Friday evening where a bunch of college students choose to get together and worship followed by a Bible study.

So one of the ideas we've been talking about is the full meaning of Shalom. Generally, people think of the word as meaning peace ... but that does not seem to include the full meaning intended behind this one simple word. Shalom is not just peace as in the absence of violence -- a better definition includes the idea of the way life is supposed to be, full, complete and dependent on God. I've started to think of it more of a prayer that you say to other people that they will find the fullness of life in God which will bring you peace of mind, heart, and soul. We ask to prayer for the peace of Jerusalem (shalom) because it is currently absent from the city and the people as a whole ... a peace which we can never truly achieve here but we can strive for as we pray and worship.

It's a complete change in the way I have understood the idea of "peace" in the past. So if I say Shabbat Shalom to you, my hope is that you will start to find it!

On a slightly less serious note I have made a discovery today ... there is a sport I am actually quite good at!

This afternoon, a group of us went down to a courtyard in the valley and played ultimate frisbee and I kind of rocked. This is totally out of character for me; normally I am AWFUL at all things sporty. It was a great escape from the campus for the afternoon and lots of fun!

Also, tonight after Vespers we played sardines on campus. I don't know if you all know what sardines is ... think hide-and-seek but ... sweatier and in the dark. Basically, one person hides, everyone else seeks and when you find the person hiding, you join them. So eventually, you have one area with about 17 people trying to "hide" in. You're also not allowed to turn on lights in a room if they were not on to begin with! So there was a lot of tripping on furniture, but it was still fun.

Well ... it's late here and we're going to church in the morning (yes it's Saturday ... but we have a trip on Sunday, so it really is Shabbat for us tonight!)

Love you!!!!

Alright my friends!

A few random updates:

First, a few people do not know why I am here ... so let me explain!

I am attending Jerusalem University College (JUC) for a masters program in Middle Eastern Cultures and Religions. When (or if) you look up the school it is right on Mount Zion just south(?) of the Old City wall (by Zion Gate and Jaffa Gate). It's a very small school with only two masters programs but its fantastic being here and the program I'm in is great!

Sorry about the ? after south ... I am awful with directions, but I'm pretty sure it's south.

So for the first semester the big class is called Physical Settings ... it's all the geography, climate, settling patterns, etc. of ancient Israel. Lots of work and LOTS of maps. But very cool to learn about.

I'm also taking Palestinian Society and Politics, Intro to the Modern Middle East, Christian Communities in the Middle East, and the History of Israel from the rise of Islam. PLUS I'm auditing a class on the book of Joshua. It's a lot, but I'm excited and I seem to have everything well in hand so far ...

My Tuesdays are almost completely open and there is a local church offering free classes in Hebrew, so I think I'm going to try to attend some of those and start learning the language. (we'll see how well that goes!)

Random interjection -- I have found a new favorite late night/"I'm still doing homework at 11pm" snack ... Peanut Butter and Chocolate sandwiches. They always have the fixings for these set out in the dining room and it is fantastic.

(That wasn't entirely random, I just finished eating one because it is 11:30 here even though it's not yet dinnertime for you guys)

So there appears to be a button for inserting photos at the top of my screen (that wasn't there last time I did this) so I am going to tell you about my two excursions yesterday into the Old City and pictures will be included!

So first, as I said in my last post, Michelle and I got up early and went back to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (or the Church of Resurrection or the Church of the Tomb -- which is what sepulchre means).  On the way there we noticed the Old City is not awake before 8 am.

This is one of the main streets on the way to the church and normally all of those green stall doors are open and filled with various merchandise with people trying to talk you into buying everything.

Usually, it's hard to just walk down the street, let alone hear or see.

That top part that looks like the glare from a florescent light is actually the sky. The middle of the overhangs is open, but it is difficult to notice when there are normally so many people surrounding you.

SO ... we did make it to the church (after going in a circle and getting lost after we looked at the map ... it was awesome).

For the folks who are unaware, the Church was built by Constantine over the proposed site of Calvary and Jesus' Tomb. There are two places inside which are traditionally considered the actually locations and people come from all over the world to touch them. Sorry ... this time I did not take pictures of these two places. At Calvary, there were monks doing a service and I did not want to interrupt and the line for the Tomb is crazy! Don't worry, it will happen sometime.

OK, so this is the entrance to the Church. As you can see to the right of the doorway was ... also another doorway! But at one point it was walled up so no one could get in. Up at the windows, the monks used to lower down buckets and the people in the city would fill them with food so the monks could eat.

This lovely picture is of the spot right below Calvary where the bedrock is split from the earthquake!

This is my "don't put me in there" face. There is a really old chapel area that still displays damage from a fire that occurred inside of the Church and off the side of that chapel is a little cave entrance that leads to these 1st century tombs. Don't let the light of this photo fool you. We had no idea if the camera was even pointing in the right direction because it was pitch black ... but then the flash goes off and WHAM ... picture success.




Alright ... so I lost internet last night and I have been able to participate in a few extra activities since I started putting together this blog.  For instance ....

This is a view of the Mount of Olives from the Temple Mount!  Yes ... ON the Temple Mount. At 1:30 in the afternoon with no sunscreen ... it was not a good idea in general for my skin, but it was neat!


















So .... Here I am in front of the Dome of the Rock! Neat right?

Tonight (which is Thursday night now ... I know I take a long time to get these things done) ... some of my friends and I wandered down to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) just to check it out at night and there was this huge crowd. Soon discovered that the new recruits for the IDF were being sworn in and receiving their guns (like diplomas only more dangerous!). So we hung out and got to watch the short military assembly (and understood none of it).


Well ... that's it for now but get ready for Sunday's pictures! We're exploring more of the Old City, checking out the City of David (which is no longer inside of the Wall), the Mount of Olives, and Hezekiah's Tunnel!

First Weekend Update!

Alright .... So this is my first time with a blog (I didn't even know how to set one up -- thank you Carmen for helping me with that!) ... So you will all have to bear with me as I figure out everything I can do!

Catch up for everyone that isn't my parents (the only people I've spoken to since arriving) ...

The plane ride went fairly well. I just barely made my connection but that was kind of nice because I didn't have to wait around in a random airport for a long period of time! The flight to Tel Aviv was a little bit more of a struggle. It was WAY too long on an airplane and I didn't get any sleep. On the up side, there were two other people going to JUC on my flight and we met another person at the airport and then a whole group of eight in the parking lot, so the ride to Jerusalem was fun and easy!

Friday was move-in day and it was pretty easy. My roommate's name is Michelle. She's from Houston and is completing the same Masters degree I am, so we have most of our classes together. After that it was just dinner and hanging out ... leading to very little sleep again.

Saturday! It was a fun and exhausting day ... orientation, signing up for classes and all the technical stuff. Later we were split into groups to do a "scavenger hunt" in the Old City -- my group got distracted after about 10 minutes and we ended up just wandering around looking at whatever we wanted to see. This entitled seeing the Dome of the Rock (from afar) and the Wailing Wall (no there are no pictures yet, it was Sabbath and you cannot take pictures at the Wall on Saturdays). After dinner we received an official guided tour of the new city, at least everything within walking distance. This also led to another night of very little sleep.

Jet lag killed me this weekend.

Sunday was better! We had our first official class. Our Physical Settings teacher took the class on a tour/beginners introduction to the Old City. I have no idea where we all went but I am fairly determined to find most of the places again! One of the cool things is that rooftops are considered public spaces, so we can just go up on the roofs and enjoy the view!

In the morning, a group of us went to one of the options for churches in the area (I believe it was called Christ's Church -- there might have been more to the name). It's located in the Old City and its an anglican church. The cool thing about it is that the priests incorporated Hebrew into some of the service (yes I was completely lost but I will learn) and they offer classes on our (Christians') Jewish roots.

Anyway ... I thought I would catch everyone up. Technically I had my first day of classes today, but I think that's enough info for the moment! Besides, it's 9:30pm here and I have to be up at 6 am! Michelle and I are checking out the Church of the Holy Sepulchre tomorrow morning after breakfast.

(I have not figured out to upload pictures to the blog yet -- as I said, I'm not technologically savvy -- but I will keep trying or have someone explain it to me!)