The End

Mt. Nebo...Not much of a view really.

We're back from a four day field study in Jordan.  It was such a good trip! Its hard to say that it was the best because they have all been amazing and unique in their own ways.  This trip was different because in Jordan it is illegal to travel around to the different big tourists sites and even to the sites that most tourists aren't interested in, without a Jordanian Tour Guide.  Also, because we were on an extended trip far into another country trying to cover lots of land, each night we stayed in a different hotel and for every meal we ate at a restaurant.  The hotels started out nice and got worse and worse each night.  Our tour guide was nice, he let Dr. Wright speak at the sites and worked with us and helped us out.  It was interesting being in a different country and i added more stamps to my passport. we had a good time.
We started just south of the Sea of Galilee on the Transjordan side of the Rift Valley.  We moved south from there and went as far south as Petra.  Petra was a lot of fun.  It was basically a fun trip with free time, but we didn't really have a lot of time, so my friends and i literally ran all over Petra visiting the sites we thought were most interesting.  But of course afterward we were tired.  The Bible isn't directly linked to Petra so Dr. Wright had nothing to say there, but he did lecture for a bit on the bus and i learned some really cool stuff.  Actually, i think we spent as much in the bus as we did at sites.  We had a lot of land to cover so the bus rides were quite long.
We ended the Jordan trip standing on the mountain where tradition puts Moses and Mt. Nebo.  It may not be the exact mountain that Moses stood on looking into all of the promised land, but it is a good view from there and very well could be where Moses was.  So, that is where we ended the last day, of the last field study of this semester.  (I do have week long field study in Egypt, but thats for a different class).  So we talked about the end of Moses' life there and the nearing end of our time in Israel.  I am down to three weeks now, and i'm sure they'll go by faster than the 2 months ive been here!
Its been an awesome class and I am anxious but now also sad that the end is so close.  Between this class (Physical Settings), Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Israel, I've learned so much about Ancient Israel and the beginnings of them as a people and as a nation.  I'm even in a class called "History of the Jews from Medieval to Modern Times" AND "Palestinian Society and Politics" which deals a lot with Israel.  So this semester has been an intense, in depth, but short, look at the creation of Israel as a people and as a land; From Abraham to Benjamin Netenyahu.
We ended the Physical Settings class by standing on Mt. Nebo looking over the Rift Valley into the promised land and read the last part of the story of Moses' life.  In December, as we leave Egypt we'll climb onto the top of Mt. Sinai and shout the ten commandments.  It is quite a blessing to have this opportunity and to follow Moses around the desert.  The timeline didn't work perfectly out, it may have been cool to start at Mt. Sinai and end at Mt. Nebo, but i'll take this and enjoy it just as much.
So as Mt. Nebo marked the soon coming end of Moses' life, it also marks the end of my semester, which means I have papers to write. lol.  So i'll keep this short.
Sorry for not blogging more. I hope you have enjoyed it though.  I plan on updating a few more times but as the end of the semester gets closer and closer i'll have less and less time.  In 3 weeks i'm going to Egypt, afterward my friend Josh Houston and I are going to be traveling through Greece, Turkey and Cyprus for three weeks and then back to the US!  I'm looking forward to coming back and I have changed my mind about transferring.  (i know no one is surprised, lol).  But i will be coming back to IWU.  I'm already registered and everything.  My plane is scheduled to land in Chicago Jan. 10th, around 9:30 am.  My first class at IWU starts at 7:50am, Jan. 11th.  Hopefully I make it!  We will see.
Goodbye for now. Here are some pictures

Ammon Jordan

A Museum in Ammon..."hmm, we should go to Petra."

A Roman Decapolis

My Professor and I illustrating the story of Jacbo wrestling with a man while trying to cross the Jabbok River

Morning, Chilling at the Hotel

My Best Friends, Arnon Canyon below

Dr. Wright, Josh H. and myself at Mt. Nebo

Petra

Petra!

A Camel

More of Petra! Actually this is the coolest thing there.

Ah, Here I am, down below is the Jabbok.

More About the Galilee

Its cool this morning and it feels great. Its even trying to rain.  Its Friday and I'm facing a free weekend! hmmm, what should I do?  Oh, and its Halloween weekend isn't it? How nice, I wonder what you all will be doing. Here we'll be of course observing the sabbath on friday and saturday, and i think sunday we are having a "fall festival" whatever that means.  But we're all gonna dress up in our costumes and what not.  I'm going to be a columbian drug lord. it should be a lot of fun.
Well as promised, i am writing more on my trip to the Galilee...
Hmm, where did i leave off...
Oh dear, i only got to Caesarea...that was our first stop of the entire trip! I have a lot to write about.  And I have been purposely omitting all of the theological lessons i've learned from the land.  I've left them out for different reasons but i hope i get to share them with all of you.  I guess i should add a few into my blog.
Well, our second stop on Saturday (the first day) was on top of the Carmel Range, on Mt. Carmel.  The focus of the day was the Jezreel Valley and we looked at all the high points and surround the valley.  This stop really wasn't that exciting.  We looked at some Old Testament stories of things happening in the valley and of course read the stories in light of the geographical realities.  So it was good up there.
here are some pictures

This is the Canaanite god Baal. Mt. Carmel is his mountain

Jezreel Valley

us in awe of the valley

Alrighty, moving on...Our next stop was pretty interesting. We stopped at the ancient site of Megiddo. Its an important place in ancient history.  Thutmose III said "taking Megiddo is like taking 1,000 cities" So theres the value of Megiddo.  Megiddo is also thought by some to the place of the Armageddon.  There are different reasons why and such but Dr. Wright says Megiddo is probably just another name for Jerusalem.  After that we went to another spot in the valley and I can't remember where we were and what we talked about. lol.  SO, that was Saturday.  Caesarea was by far the best spot of the day and I definitely have more to say about it, but Ill have to save it for later.

Don't be too much of a pagan this weekend

Galilee Field Study

Lake Galilee

Hello Again!
I have returned from the Galilee.  I'm back on campus in Jerusalem.  We had another wonderful field study, the longest one of the semester.  We stayed at the En Gev Resort!  A nice place located on the shore of Lake Galilee and we stayed there every night, which was much nicer than having to pack up every night and move somewhere else.  Our first day we went from sea to shinning sea, starting at Caesarea and ending at En Gev.  But through the entire four days we went up, down, and across the Galilee, we even climbed 3200ft up onto a volcanic cone and looked into Syria and Lebanon - we were as far north as possible.  Most of our field studies have been Old Testament focused, including parts of this one, but obviously there is a great amount of very interesting things happening in the Galilee during the New Testament...like the ministry of Jesus!  That made this trip unique and very special to me.  We traced the movement of Jesus and his ministry finding realities that could only be found in historical geography and how that plays into culture and society.  So, that is a basic overall look at our trip.  I'll go into some details about my favorite parts and show some pictures.

Our first stop was at the New Testament site of Caeserea.  Its an awesome Herod the Great city built up by him to impress Rome and to satisfy his ego.  He built crazy palaces there, temples, and theaters. So here it is, the west at its best on the shore of the holy land, Hellenism moving in.  We sat in what could have been a prison cell, perhaps Paul's cell, and read some stories out of Acts.  Another awesome find at Caeserea was this stone with an inscription on it and with Pontius Pilate's name on it! Until that stone was found scholars weren't sure of the reality of Pontius Pilate and his role.  So thats a pretty cool stone.  I meant to take a picture of it, and never did.  But the stone at Caesarea is just a replica, the real one is at the museum here in Jerusalem. so i need to go there.
Here are some pictures of Caesarea

Herod's Aqueduct

Caesarea

The Palace. Small rooms here, like prison cells

Theater

 

Ok. I'm gonna "publish" this post and keep editing it as I have time. So there will be more coming, either in addition to this post, or new posts. so keep yourself updated!

Who's still reading this?

Hello Everyone,
Did you enjoy my story of my Jesus Trail Hike?  I sure hope you did.  Who is reading this from IWU?  I miss you guys and I see that fall break is coming up.  Thats nice, I hope you all enjoy your break and your FALL.  Its still hot here. Hasn't cooled down any.  This past week I realized how much I really do enjoy all of the things that i despise about America, such as: Cars, Wal-Marts, and drive-thurs. So enjoy it for me, but limit your enjoyment for the sake of your own overall health.
Midterms are over for me!  Now I chill out a little bit and kind of coast to the end.  I am getting anxious to reach the end, but when I get back the US i'll probably miss Israel and dwell on how fast the time went by here.  But I do get an extra 3 weeks to travel Greece and Turkey and I'm nervous and excited about that too.
Tonight we are going to see some stuff going on in the Old City.  October is a popular tourist month and so there are tons of people around all the time.  There is also some special stuff going on in the city during this month.  So once I see it all I guess then I can write about it.
Tomorrow will be an average Friday:  wake up whenever, class at 1:00-3:30, Ultimate Frisbee from 3:30 till 5:30 or so. then Shabbat Dinner and welcome the Sabbath.  We'll have some sort of worship service together on campus and then sit around and play games.  Then back to the Galilee for me!
We have another field study this weekend.  This time it'll be 4 days long! wow.  We'll see a lot and I'll have a lot to share.  I'll make sure to blog all about it as soon as possible.
So I'm sure all of us will do doing different things this weekend. Traveling, relaxing, maybe doing something new and fun, or maybe doing the same-old same-old.  Whatever you do, make it worthwhile and enjoy it.  If you get real bored, open up your Bible and read about Jesus and all the stuff that was going on up in the Galilee, then try and imagine your friend Josh there, climbing the mountains and swimming in the sea.

theres the city wall standing above the trees. The little square building on the right is JUC. The tower behind JUC is the Dormition Abbey

sunrise over Sea of Galilee

Well now that I have finished all my midterms and they have all been turned in, I have officially crossed the halfway mark.  I only have 7 regular weeks left in the semester, then finals week, and then a week long trip to Egypt! That is still class time, but it'll be awesome.  So time is moving very quickly as expected.  So of course the big question of whats next is still something I think about too much.  But something that I may have already said and that i keep reminding myself is that I need to focus much more on today and what I am doing now, and that is exploring Israel.  This past weekend was free for us. Usually we have a field study going on, but this past weekend the whole thing was free for us.  I made it more free my skipping my History of Jews class which is on Fridays 1:00-3:30pm. So my two friends, Joe and Josh, and myself went up to the Galilee and hiked a trail known here as the "Jesus Trail"  Its about a 40 mile walk from Nazareth to Capernaum.  The main purpose of the walk, for us, was to seek God in a new and different way so we decided to fast during the journey.  We ate our last meal, lunch on Friday, left Jerusalem in the afternoon and didn't end up getting to Nazareth until about 6:00pm cuz of some travel difficulty.  When we got off the bus we had no idea where we were.  Well, we knew we were in Nazareth. lol.  We had a compass and a like, free map that was for tourists and business ads. (not that helpful) So, with actually little trouble, we found the trail and started our journey.  The sun had already set by now so we walked just far enough to get out of the city and pitch our tent out in the hill country.  Saturday was the hunk of our trip.  We walked for about 13 hours.  After we packed up our stuff and got back on the trail, we made a wrong turn like 30 feet after we started walking, which we ended up doing a lot through the trip. But we were very able to make our own trail.
We ended up walking along side a major highway for a while to bypass some of the actual trail.  We came to a big intersection and across the street from us was a McDonalds! haha.  We wanted to stop, give up, and eat.  So we sat a bus pick-up spot and debated what we were going to do.  Ended up sleeping/debating there for like an hour.  We finally got the strength to continue without eating.
The rest of the day after that was difficult in plenty of ways.
We wanted to hike through the night and get to capernaum so that in the morning we could eat.  We decided that while we were sitting down in a valley as the sun was setting.  We picked up and started walking again.  Now the sun had set again and we were came to a mountain we had to climb to get out of the wadi.  Just as we started we heard howling, coyotes i guess.  Whatever it was it was kind of scary, but at the same time really hilarious.  It took us like 20 minutes to get out of the wadi and then we decided we couldn't go any longer. lol. this was about an hour after we had decided to finish the trip in the night!
Well Sunday was crazy, but we got to Capernaum and sadly our trip was far from over. There was nothing there. No food and no public transportation. We walked along side the road with our thumbs out hoping to get picked up.  That didnt work. lol. We made it to another bus pick-up place along the road and waited there. Luckily a taxi passed by, so we got a ride to the nearest big city. Again - we still had a lot to do to get back home, to Jerusalem. But. it was fun.

camping in a fertile valley

on the trail

almost there

So that was an awesome trip in many ways.  Its Tuesday now aand I'm just wasting time.  THere are still plenty of things I haven't seen or done yet.  So I'm planning to get some work done and then make some time for more site seeing.  We have another big field study this weekend.  Its actually in the Galilee so i'll be going back there and probably seeing a few things for the second time. 
I got a 90 on my Egypt  midterm.  That  was good.  We only have 3 grades for that class. So i'm doing fairly well. lol. uhhhhhhhh.  I guess thats all for now.
I still don't REALLY know what I'm doing next semester. I thought I knew. But I don't.  No matter what, If you're reading this I will and cannot wait to see you in January.
Bye

WOW! Whatta Weekend.

lol - remember that saying from LIVE Weekend?
So, Its been one week since my "quick update" and a ton has happened since then.  Most of it comes from this weekend.  We had a 3 day field study for the Physical Settings class.  We traveled southward to the Biblical Negev and then moved West to East seeing different ancients sites and big tourists spots.  The first day was awesome, it was refreshing getting out of Jerusalem and seeing different landscape.  Most of our field studies have been in the hill country or the wilderness up until now.  The first day we went to the shephelah, which simply means "the lowland"  It is the land between the hill country of Judah and the coastal plain.  The hills and valleys are broad and open creating fertile flatlands that are filled with rich green produce.  It was nice seeing green.  It is also in this area that the state of Israel is trying to preserve forests and create national parks, so there are a lot of green trees here too.

Here is us starting our hike down into the Shiloh Wadi System.  I don't think I ever really described what a wadi is. I probably should. They are very important to the land of the bible and to my field studies. lol.  In short - they are valleys that are usually dry except during the rainy season.  So here in the picture above we are at the top of a ridge and going down.  Here was our first stop...

Here we are a ways down into a valley on the side of the hill there is a natural cave in the shade of these ever-green trees...looks like a perfect place for a house!  This would have been a nice home for a family during the time of Solomon, when everyone lived in safety, each man under his own vine and fig tree, and everyone ate, drank, and were happy. (1 Kings 4:20-25).  I thought about what life would be like here in a cave, under my own vine and fig tree.  Just hanging, taking care of a few of my crops, vines and trees and whatnot. I wonder what I would do for fun, or if I would get bored with life.  I suppose there were some back then who preferred city life - life in Jerusalem that is.  I guess its not that different than life in America now...where everyone lives in safety under grocery stores and malls, everyone ate (too much), drank (too much) and were miserable. - a few differences. Anyway, moving on.
Our next stop was Beth Shemesh - Samson's "stomping grounds"  So we read his story and imagined him setting the wheat field on fire with foxes as we looked over the shephelah into the Sorek valley.

Here ya go. See the flat land in the middle of the picture right under those green hills?  There, once upon a time, that was probably a burning wheat field.  We saw other ancient cities in this area, we saw where David knocked down Goliath. Here is a reenactment

Goliath on the left, David on the right, and look closely...you can see the smooth stone about to hit Goliath

We also saw some cities that Sennacherib attacked.  We eventually ended the day at the Mediterranean Sea.  So we got to swim and the waves were treacherous.  Several of us almost perished.  I've never seen such big powerful waves before, and the undertow was just insane!  If you went out too far it wasn't enjoyable, only life-threatening.  You would see this massive wave rising over you, which you could probably handle, but it was recovering and trying to get your head above water for another breath before the next wave, that was the difficult part.  Josie - I should have taken your advice.  Afterward we went back to the new city of Beersheba and slept in a Youth Hostel. It was pretty nice, ate dinner there, went to a very westernized mall.  Had a good time being Hellenists, it was great.
So the next morning we started our day at the ancient site of Beersheba.  It was pretty neat. Saw some cool things there.  I climbed the Tamarisk tree that Abraham planted (Gen 21:33).  What else...

We saw a 4 horned altar and talked all about that.  Then we moved on to Arad and did some stuff out there in the desert.  Honestly the second day of the trip (sunday) was pretty boring and i was tired and sleepy so i can't even remember all what we did.  I need my notes but i don't have them with me right now.  (its tuesday right now). But here are a few pictures of the day.

Me in the Tamarisk Tree at Beersheba

the desert...

This picture above is me in the holy of holies!...not THEE holy of holies.  But this is the holy of holies in a Israelite temple which was in Arad, a city way out in the desert....Jerusalem is supposed to be the religious center....There must have been some bad Israelites worshiping idols out here in this waste land.

Alright - That was Saturday and Sunday.  Next was Monday.  Monday was the coolest day of the trip. We began the day at Masada.  Another desert fortress built by Herod the Great, but more it is more popularly known as the place the Jews were massacred by the Romans.  Well here is a picture.

Yes, there it is, with the Dead Sea behind it.  A fortress 1200ft up on a limestone chunk.  That ramp you see is the siege ramp the Romans built to overtake the fortress.  Our professor challenged us with a race to the top. He didn't run, lol, but encouraged us to race the JUC record.  The record wasn't broken, but me and some others did try.  The record is 2:50.  I ran to the top in 3:12, so I was kinda far from the record, but I beat everyone that was racing. lol. that was good enough i guess.  So we did a bunch of awesome stuff up there, and saw cool things.  I'll have to explain it all some other time.  Here are some more pictures.

This was Herods Palace

Looking off Masada into vast desert

Chillen in Herods Palace

wow. thats a long way down.

After Masada, we went to the Dead Sea for lunch.  It was so craaaazy!!!  Swimming in the Dead Sea...it was like you could tell the water was thicker, thick with salt that is.  The oceans are about 3% or something salt, and the Dead Sea is 35% salt.  It was so insane.  You just bobbed up and down. It was a lot of fun.  Burned though, we do a ton of hiking and what not, so we are all scratched up so it didnt feel very good. lol.  And i got some in my eye. that was awful.  Then we had a nice lunch, cooked some hot dogs.  We usually just get tuna salad packed into pita bread.  So this lunch was like amazing. lol.  Then later we went into "David's Wadi"  Just another Wadi that tradition puts David.  Really its just for the sake of tourism.  It was cool though, and there we read Psalm 42, which makes better sense to me.  My professor is amazing, just as the bible was divinely written, i think my prof is a qualified divine reader. lol.
Well...This is definitely long enough and plenty here for you to enjoy.  So i'll be done for now.  Oh and remember in my quick update i said i am trying to finish my Egypt Midterm paper, well i'm still trying to finish that. lol.  So.  I hope all is well back in Indiana and up in Estonia.  I don't think i have any other readers anywhere else. lol.
Well, if you're reading this - I love you and I miss you A LOT!
Bye

Quick Update of my Life

I'm here in the library on Mt. Zion looking out into Jerusalem.  I'm tired and I'm trying to finish my Ancient Egypt take home mid-term exam.  Its not really an exam, its 4 essay questions I have to answer with reference to primary and secondary sources...whatta drag. lol.
For some reason I haven't been sleeping well lately.  I think its my pillow.  I have two. One is extreme huge and fat, and the other one is like if you folded up a sheet 4 times and stuck it under your head.  So it takes me like 1 to 2 hours to fall asleep, no matter what time I go to bed.  But I always fall asleep instantly when I lay down for my afternoon nap.  But then sometimes I sleep till dinner and then I'm not ever tired again.

The Holy Land is not very holy.  During the last day of the Sukkot Holiday we went out into the city and there were just tons of people - all drinking and dancing.  I'm not sure what the Orthodox Jews were consuming...they were dancing too though, and waving flags around and stuff.  Then me and some other guys got on top of this van.  It had a dance pad on top of it with large speakers.  So we danced for a while. lol.  There is a video of it on facebook. You should be able to find it under "videos of Yehoshua"
The next day we took our first trip to McDonalds. mmmm.  All i got was a McFlurry though.  Right now i'm really craving a burger...maybe tonight will be my second trip to McDonalds.
OH! And one of my friends was sent a package, it was actually sent to 3 students who are all from CIU, the school I was thinking of transferring to.  So in it was a package of Oreos that my friend shared with me. MAN! I miss not being able to just go down the road to walmart and buy whatever I want.  I miss cookies and COLD milk.  The milk here is never cold, nor is it even sold cold.  I don't really understand how it works. But that'll be one thing I look forward to back in the good ol' U.S.

Today was a crazy day.   I made a lot of decisions... lol
1st - I changed my flight back to the U.S. for Jan. 9th 2011. I'm spending Christmas and the New Year with my friend Josh in Greece.  Well, we'll probably be on the island of Cyprus by the new year.  But, in any case, I wont be home for Christmas.  Which is definitely sad, I'll be missing those biscuits badly AND all that BACON!  It's illegal to sell bacon here.  I miss bacon.

this is my McFlurry

This is us at McDonalds

2nd - I have officially decided to transfer schools.  I'll be going to Columbia International University to finish off my undergrad degree in Pastoral Ministries.  It was a tough decision, but after sleepless nights, talking with friends, and of course lots of prayer and prayerful thought I believe that it is God's will.  I just now made the decision so I still have a lot of e-mails to send and calls to make.  So the act of actually going I guess is not finalized, but my decision is to go that direction.

This is my friend Josh in an Olive Tree

Greek Orthodox Church in a town called Sychar where Jacob's well is

Another week has gone by, another stinking hot week.  Did I say I'm going to miss fall?  The semester has definitely picked up to full speed.  I'm already stressing over mid-term papers, one of which is due today! So my time here is definitely going by quickly.  There are still a bunch of things I haven't done or seen in the Old City, including going on top of the temple mount! Man. 
This past weekend was our first free weekend with no field studies!  It was nice to be able to relax all day on saturday and get some homework done.  But actually there was a field study for my Ancient Israel class, that was on sunday.  It wasn't as long and intense as the Physical Settings field studies.  Last weekend I did not write about though.  We went to Samaria.  However, we were studying the OT, so we went to the land of Ephraim and Manasseh.  It was kind of disappointed because there was thick fog that blocked our what could have been amazing view from the top of Mt. Gerizim. We went there to read some of the story of Joshua, and we also shouted the blessings from there. (Josh. 8:33; Deut 11:29) So that was really awesome, but we couldn't see anything cuz of the fog.  On a clear day you can see from coast to coast. (Mediterranean Sea to Dead Sea) Basically you can see "all of Israel"
We then went to the Samaritan museum and listened to a Samaritan priest tell us about their history.  Its pretty interesting.  There are only like 800 real Samaritans left in the world, and they think they have the original copy of the Pentateuch, like..the one written by Moses himself.
We then went to Shiloh.  Again...nothing to see but great stories from the Old Testament.  This Holy Land is a land of rock! Just rocks everywhere. Its hot, dry, and rocky! but the Lord looks upon it with favor.

We also stopped at Jacob's well for a drink.  lol. No it was really cool.  Unlike some of the other historical sites, they are quite certain and everyone agrees on this spot being the well that Jesus met the Samaritan woman at.  There is a big Greek orthodox church build around the well and they allow visitors and tourists to come in, go downstairs, and even drink from the well.  The water was really good too.  Cold and refreshing.  Not quite the living water though. I wonder if that woman even ever gave Jesus a drink...? 

Shiloh.  Somewhere nearby here was the Tent of Meeting.  Here sat the Tabernacle and inside the Ark of the Covenant. This was God's home among the Israelites. Nice place to call home isn't it?

The Samaritan Pentateuch...thee original copy. Written by Moses himself. (obviously this isn't true)

Our View from the Alon Lookout...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Hot Week

I've gotten into the college life pattern. The pattern that I always seem to fall into. That is, sleeping at weird times, going to bed super late, or waking up super early.  Wasting time doing absolutley nothing and then being depressed about it.  And worst of all, slacking off on studying.  For me, college life here in Jerusalem really isn't all that much different than back at IWU.  But of course there are differences, good and bad.  So despite the similarities I really am having a unique experience here, having lots of time to myself, time to think and reflect. Time to ask myself questions and try to answer them for myself.  But I still seem to be unsatisified with something...I'm not sure what. But never are my answers good enough. I'll try and convince myself that they are, but I know something is still wrong.

It has been hot here this week.  High 80s all week long.  Pure sunshine. No clouds.  Even the "cool of the day" has been absent and the nights have become kind of humid and definitely not refreshing. It seems like it has added to my frustration.  The weather is one of the differences of being here. I am really going to miss the Fall Season.

Tensions have heated since the peace process has continued.  If you aren't up to date on Middle Eastern politics. here is a quick review. Obama is coordinating peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.  The two have begun direct talks with each other and there is some progress being made.  "Peace" means a lot more than just the absence of violence in this case.  Peace means a deal between the two peoples.  A fair deal in which both parties get what they feel they deserve.  The main fight is over Jerusalem.  Palestine wants it as their capital and so does Israel.  So there are some problems.  There are also a few million Arab refugees who were mainly displaced at the end of WWII, when Israel became a state, and in 1967 when Israel went to war with the entire middle east.  So where do these refugees go? And who gets to deal with them?  That is another major issue in the "peace" process.
There was a shooting the other morning a few miles from campus.  An angry mob of Arabs were throwing stones at a privately owned and operated Israeli security guard, and he ended up shooting a man dead.  And thus riots broke out.  People started burning stuff, cars and whatnot, and you could smell all of this stuff on campus.  It wasn't too serious and it was an isolated incident  Don't worry, I'm not in harms way by any means.  My mom driving through Gary everyday is probably more at risk than I am.  However we were advised to stay out of the old city and away from East Jerusalem.  It is going to be very interesting to see how all of this plays out.  Just pray for the peace of Jerusalem. (Psalm 122 )

We had another fine field study this past weekend.  We ventured across The Land of Benjamin! The land between inside the land between!! The very heartland of Israel. 60% of stories of the bible have this land incorporated into them somehow.  That stat might be for the Old Testament only...which makes it more impressive.  But in any case, it is an important strip in the land between.  One of the main things that we have been learning in class is the geology of Israel.  The different kinds of limestone here in Israel have had an incredible influence on the people and stories of the Bible.  Every hill and valley are worth mentioning.  The complex road system in and out of the wadis (valleys that carry water) are so important to the people of the land.  I never thought I would be tracking the watershed ridge going through the land of Judah, or coloring the different wadi and valley systems on a map, or plotting important cities and the roads the connect them all together, or doing any of this to gain a better understanding of the Word of God.  Shoot, I never thought I would be doing all of that, then witnessing with my own eyes everything that I saw on the map!  But let me warn you, while all of this has increased my knowledge of the bible in a very awesome and special way, it has also challenged my faith.  While I have been doing all this studying on rocks and roads of the bible, i have also been learning about the rest of the Ancient Near East. I'm in another class called Ancient Egypt and the Biblical World, so obviously i have been studying Egypt as well.  What I have been noticing is the parallels, similarities, and differences of the other religions, texts, cults, whatever else, and how they compare to the Bible.  I will admit it has really shaken me.  I am currently reading a book called "The Bible Among the Myths" This has become one of the most interested topics to me.
So that is my warning, with all of this new knowledge and learning, I have entered in my own heated situation, going through all of this and trying to solve problems that challenge the legitimacy of the Bible.
But don't worry, I do have a "blessed assurance" just like the song sings the words of Hebrews 10:22

There was also another big Jewish holiday this week.  I would love to talk about it, but i'm tired and i actually don't really want to.  I'm sick of Jewish holidays.  lol.  I actually haven't written anything about the Jewish holidays and they are all super interesting, but i can save those for my sunday night series at Faith. ;)
Well. Tune in Again for some more amazing stories.  I'm hoping to keep better track of my experiences and and stories so that i can blog better.  I plan to add some video to my blog too. So look forward to that.  I will also post again soon, but with just a bunch of pictures.  welp, see ya later.

May the peace of Jerusalem come!

A Deadly Hike

This Sunday a lot of us went north of the Sea of Galilee in the Golan region to the Yehudia Park.  Its a nature preserve just like any other nature place you'd go to.  It was a lot of fun and the hiking trails were actually pretty intense. I was surprised that everyone was able to keep up with the group and I was surprised with all of the girls too. lol.  The main trail that we followed started on top of this canyon.  We hiked down into the canyon and met up with the stream that flows through it.  Our first stop was a pool that the stream falls down into.  it was a pretty tall drop making a nice looking waterfall.  We took our first break there and did some cliff jumping. lol.  That was kinda scary.  It was just a small pool but apparently it was very deep.  Deep enough to jump off a like 30 foot cliff. Maybe it was taller. I'm not sure.  So we went on and the group kinda split up a little bit.  My friend Josh is insane.  I thought I liked to do crazy things and take risks but Josh is fearless.  He was trying to climb up the waterfall...I was like "dude. you're going to slip and die"  but he really believes that God's strength and power is made complete in our weakness...thats all I'll say about that. lol.  I actually ended up leaving him cuz he went off on the trail and i couldn't find him.  So the next pool/waterfall we got too was a little bit taller and there was only one way to follow the trail...that was by jumping off the cliff into the pool. just kidding. there was actually this crazy ladder going down the side of the cliff.  I had my camera and my bag with me, so i climbed down the ladder, but the ladder went straight into the water, there was no way across other than swimming.  So i go down. give my bag to the person above me, get in the water, start to tread water and the girl gives me back my bag and I immediately sank. Haha. So i just started kicking like crazy and got to the rock wall and i was able to keep the bag above the water the entire time but not my head. So i found a place to grab on to on the wall.  So i needed a new strategy.  So i kept along side of the rock wall for a while, then i realized i could hold the bag with one arm above water and use the other arm to help tread across the water.  So i successfully made it across with out getting any of my stuff wet.  We stopped there and had lunch, and more people were jumping off the cliff. Josh was being crazy climbing higher and higher and jumping until finally he landed kinda sideways and decided that was enough.  After that we went further. I kinda got in a bad mood cuz the trail was actually kinda difficult and my shoes were soaked and i was slipping on every rock and i really didnt want to fall into the stream and ruin my camera. But when we got to the third pool josh had caught up with me and went off the trail again. This time i wanted to do it. We came up to another waterfall and he went off the trail and climbed, like rock climbed, hanging on to the wall...down to the water fall. then i tossed him my bag and was doing the same thing except on the opposite side.  Our friend joe was above us on the trail.  This next part is hard to explain, but i'll do my best.  So i'm on the rock wall beneath the trail hanging on for dear life, Josh is on the opposite side of the stream but made it down the wall and was sitting on a rock just above the water.  Beneath both of us is another pool, but we hadn't been in it yet. so we didn't know how deep it was. Up on the trail, by Joe, one of the girls was climbing back up.  She was on the trail, but the trail was pretty intense itself and you had to do a few short vertical climbs.  So she was taking a different way to get higher up and the ground just gave out beneath her.  She fell probably about 15 feet back onto the path right in front of Joe.  She broke most of the fall with her leg but hit her face pretty bad on the rock.  So when all of this happened, Joe dropped his camera, which slid right past me down into the pool. So Joe yells for help, Josh dives into the pool and swims across back to the path. Then i let go of the wall and fall into the pool and get myself to the scene.  So its me, Joe, and Josh and we all kept pretty cool....kinda.  Robyn, the girl who fell, was talking and it didn't seem to be a huge emergency but me and Josh had all these ideas of what we were going to do and Joe was like "no man! we need to find some old people!"  haha. so looking back that was pretty funny.  Then like, out of nowhere some experienced hikers showed up.  One of them was an ex-US Marine and the other was an ex-Israeli Solider, who both knew first aid very well.  So they ended up taking care of her.  One of them had a cell phone and we were able to call in the rescue team.  So a bunch of awesome Israeli guys came down and put her on a stretcher thing that connected to this guys backpack, they strapped her in and carried her all the way out of the canyon.  It was really impressive.  It was hard enough getting yourself out of the canyon.  The trail up was very steep and rugged.  A lot of our group and showed up before the hikers, and for the situation, everyone was pretty calm.  We all kinda backed away and kept our distance so that the guys could take care of her.  It hadn't been more than 5 minutes after she fell that more people started showing up.  So me joe and josh just let the other people take over and we gave them their space.  Josh actually went down and did more climbing. I swam in the pool a little bit longer and took some pictures.  Once we knew rescue was on the way we started heading back to the bus.  Me and Josh rock climbed out of the pool, not taking the crowded path.  That was fun and dangerous.  Robyn was taken to a hospital to have tests and x-rays done.  I actually haven't heard anything about the situation yet.  I'm sure she'll be back on campus sometime today.
So that was Sunday.  OH. and Joe got his camera back. lol.  One of the guys was able to dive all the way to the bottom of the pool and get it.  Dan, who got the camera, actually found it on his first dive down. so that was crazy.  The camera is now in a bag of rice.  hopefully it'll come back to life.  Joe just bought it for this trip.  And i forgot this detail. Joe actually had to stop Robyn from continuing her fall.  She landed on the edge of the path, just above where i was climbing.  If Joe hadn't been there she probably would have rolled off the path and into the deep pool and things would have been much worse...she would have fell on me and knocked me out and i could have drowned. lol. just kidding.  But really. Joe was kind of a hero yesterday.  I'll post some pictures of this trip on facebook.
Welp. See ya later.

A Spiritual Lesson from the Land

Me and my friend Josh. lol

After to talking to several of you back home and noticing comments left on my facebook and such, a lot of you seem to be really enjoying my blog, which makes me very glad.  But as I was rereading through them I noticed a lot of errors in my writing. Sorry about that.  Usually when I write I'm rushed for some reason.  So, for those faithful readers of my blog, I will try harder to commit more time and effort into my writings so that you can enjoy it even more.

This is the start of my third week here according to our calendar.  Here in Israel they use their own Hebrew Calendar.  It is actually based on the moon, not the sun and so the days and months are all messed up compared to our Gregorian Calendar.  So anyway, Its Monday morning, a new day and a new week.  I had another amazing weekend which ended a decent week of class.  I would like to write all about what I'm learning but I don't know how interesting that would be to all of you. Plus maybe I should save all of this wonderful information for when I become a pastor.  ;)
But I will tell you about my field study which we had all day on Saturday.  It was titled "Jerusalem Approaches"  What we did was travel in somewhat of a circle outside of Jerusalem and looked at the different ancient routes or "approaches" that armies would use to get to Jerusalem.  Depending on who you are, this may sound kinda boring, or perhaps very interesting.  But if you think a little more about it, no matter who you are, there is a lot to learn about God from these lessons.  If you ever visit Israel and specifically Jerusalem, you may find yourself wanting to read through the Old Testament straight through.  Every now and then when you hear stories of the people that have come to this land to study the Bible they'll say things like this, "oh it was just incredible being where Jesus was and following his steps" Yeah yeah, its kind of true.  But what has really impacted me is how the OLD Testament has come to life since I've been here. And I've only been here for like 2 weeks!  What started this desire to know more about the Old Testament was my map assignments.  So. You can have a similar experience. Get out your OT and get some maps of ancient Israel. You'll have a blast!  But be very careful.  The more you learn about the promise land, the land flowing with "milk and honey" you'll start to wonder why God chose this land to be the land of His people.  I'm just a young college student in the early stages of my studies, and some of you older folk may know this already, but this land is far from the images we make up in our head of what a promised land should be.  I'll save what I have to say for a sermon one day. lol.  But the main point is this.  In the short time I've been here, I've seen just how much the Israelites really did have to depend on God.  This land, the land flowing with milk and honey, is not a place of economic and agricultural security, or any kind of security. It was surrounded by huge empires to its north and south.  This was very dangerous, fragile land and still is today.  Are you seeing it?  There is only one way to survive in God's promised land, first you must be His chosen people, and you must fully rely on him, which is hard work.  Deut. 11:10 - 13 says it all quite clearly.  This land is cared for by God, and that is the only thing that makes living here possible.  Do you see any logic in this?  God is always operating in a backward sense to the rest of the world... Do you see the illogical work of God in your own life?  If you seem to have been brought into an impossible situation, consider yourself blessed.  God has His eye on you and cares for you.  Put all of your trust in him, obey His commandments, work hard, extremely hard, and you will live abundantly.

I just realized I didn't even really talk much about my field study on Saturday. Sorry about that.  It was a good one too. You know the Christmas Carol "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem"  thats a very appropriate adjective to describe Bethlehem.  And we went up to one of Herod's desert palaces/fortresses, The Herodyan as its called.  That was a significant part of the day.  So i'll just put up some pictures and be done for now.  I'm actually going to make a little separate post about my adventures from Sunday.
If you're reading this, I love you and miss you. Come see me in Estonia for Christmas.

And a lovely view of the "pasturing lands" from atop of the Herodyan. Yes those are pasturing lands, also known as "the valley of the shadow of death"  See my point..you REALLY have to depend on God...

THE HERODYAN! (that volcano looking mound in the distance)

The Garden of Gethsemane. Man! Look how old those olive trees are!...

View of the City from Mt. Scorpus. A good staging place if your interesting in attacking Jerusalem.