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.

 

 

The Southern Steps leading up to the Temple wall.  Back in the the day there would have been a gate at the top of the stairs that would open up into the temple courtyard

This past weekend was so great.  Friday, which I wrote about previously was an amazing day.  Besides having class from 1:00-3:30 I'm sure Fridays will always be great.  Every Friday is ultimate frisbee day followed by a Shabbat (sabbath) meal and worship.  Saturdays here will always be different.  Some Saturdays we'll have field studies, fun trips, and the days I will certainly enjoy, nothing planned at all.  This past Saturday was one of those.  So we took it upon ourselves to find something fun to do.  We took a Sherut, a small bus, so small we actually had to take two, to a beach in Tel Aviv.  The Mediterranean Sea was amazing!  The water was insanely warm.  I approached the water with that feeling of uncertainty having no idea what the expect.  I inched my way forward just barely enough so that a wave would wash over my foot.  As that happened I was just amazed.  The water was like bath water and so then I went running into the sea.
Other than being at the Mediterranean, it was a typical day at the beach.  Playing frisbee and laying out.  Since we were at the sea there were a few more things to do like wash your mouth and throat out when salt watered splashed into your mouth and body surf when a huge wave would come in.  There was also this rock island a ways out into the sea and I decided I would swim there.  There were voices yelling over a megaphone from the beach, but hey, I didn't know what they were saying.  They could have been yelling at me, but I continued.  It was pretty awesome, then on my way back I realized there was a sandbar all the way from the rock island back to shore!  I think the beach guards didn't want people out there, but there were plenty of people ignoring them and enjoying the sand bar and rock island.
Sunday was our first official field study.  It was titled "Old and New Testament walk of Jerusalem."
The day started with breakfast at 6:00am and ended with dinner at 6:00pm. Yes it was a long day.  It was soooo cool though.  THe first half was stories from the Old Testament and visiting those places that we read about in scripture.  Our first main stop was Robinson's Arch.  This was an arch that connected a marketplace outside of the temple.  The marketplace was where people would do their shopping and preparing for their annual sacrifice.  That was really neat.  We were actually in an archaeological dig site and saw several things that relate back to OT and NT scripture.
It was really lame, however, when I got separated from my group. lol. I missed a few things but luckily it was close to lunch so I just met back up with my group on campus.
After lunch was super hard because everyone was tired and full.  We were acting like middle school students. lol.  We were all tired but talkative and less attentive.  But as we were walking through the Old City we were passing some ice cream shops and I yelled out "time for a break!?" So after our treats we continued on.  One of my favorite spots was the city of David.  Another really awesome spot was the Southern Steps.  Its just a staircase leading into the temple.  The Psalms of Ascent, Psalm 120-134 all refer to this site.  We read lots of scriptures as we sat on the Southern Steps and that is why I enjoyed that place so much, not to mention we were sitting.  We went to other awesome places too like Zedekiah's tunnel, the Pool of Shiloh, the Pool of Bethesda and some church that is dedicated to Jesus' grandma. But i actually missed that one when i got separated from the group.

Kidron Valley and Mt. of Olives

Well I've been writing this over a period of like 24 hours. so i can't remember if i've said everything i've wanted to say, or if i've said too much and repeated myself.  So i'll be done now.
I hope you are enjoying my blog

Robinson's Arch. Its hard to see, but at the top right corner of the picture there is some extra stones protruding from the wall, that is the beginning of the arch.  Below the temple (just beyond the big wall on the right) is the market place.

 

 

Zedekiah's Tunnel

I Wanted to Post this on Friday...Sorry its so late

Well I've officially been here in Israel now for one week.  This is my forth blog with about a four day gap from my last two, which i posted together.  So technically this is only my third time bloggin and because so I have a lot to say.  Alright. Anyways.  By 3:330 today i had been to all five of my classes.  Each class overlaps into the other classes so being here is like being in one big continuous class.  That aspect is pretty cool and is also helpful.  At the same time each one goes into great detail on their respective subjects and i know i'm going to learn a ton. Probably too much.  Physical Settings is the cardinal class of JUC.  Through that class i'll explore a lot of Israel and the Bible will become more like a geography book.  Our first official field study is this Sunday.  We'll be going through the Old City studying its treasure and history in much more detail.. The day begins at 7am and ends at 6pm... Well enough about what I'm going to do. I'll write about that after I do it.
Like I said before, this whole being in Israel, and especially Jerusalem, is overwhelming and that feeling hasn't quite gone away.   Everyday people go into the Old City and other places and I have a hard time deciding what to do.  I feel like I might "wear it out" too soon.  I'm trying to balance out all the experiences over the three months that I'll be here, and not forget that I'm still a college student with plenty to do inside at a desk.  That balance between schoolwork and college life, especially college life in Jerusalem, is already becoming a challenge to me.  All of the other students here are fun cool, normal people.  And because of the size of the student body, there aren't really groups or clicks or whatever, its just one massive group, making everyday like a big party. lol.
But the work load shouldn't be too bad.  Most of my grades come from writing assignments. Yes mom, you were right, I'll be doing a lot of writing.  Most of my classes the grades come from small writing assignments throughout the semester, a mid-term paper, and a final paper.  I guess I should review my comp notes.  Friday, the day i tried posting this, (its not monday...sorry) was a really fun day.  We played ultimate frisbee down in the Hinnom Valley.  The Old City Walls towered above us.  Late on friday i was kinda bored so I decided to take a hike up to the Mount of Olives.  That was pretty crazy.  I think I ended up in a shady part of town, predominately Muslims.  (Nothing against them, its just that weird feeling you get if you've like ever been inside a Mosque)  And I ended up going down through the giant graveyard that is on the western side of the hill.  We also had a barbeque out in the garden for dinner followed by a worship service that we started right after Shabbat (sabbath) began.  The worship service was just one student playing guitar, and everyone singing along.  But it was one of the better worship services I have been to.  I still would have preferred hymns however.  One great song we did sing was "Lead Me to the Cross" and that was powerful being only a mile or two away from Calvary.  The song just really spoke to me and everything that is going on in life right now.
I have more to write, its Monday and i wanted to post all of this on Friday. So I'm sorry for that cuz i'll be posting another blog soon about Saturday and Sunday. So you'll have plenty to read!

View of the Old City from Mt. of Olives

In the graveyard. Temple Mount Behind Me.