Shephelah/Philistia

Hey Everyone! This past weekend we spent three days in Southern Israel hiking around what is called the Shephelah, the Negev, and on to En-gedi and the Dead sea. It was a fantastic weekend and some of my favorite traveling that we have done so far. I usually post after each day in the field all at one time....however, because this field study was three days long, I'll have to post three different times....for my sake and yours! :) So, this is the first of three!

Last Saturday morning we boarded the bus with all our gear and headed out to the land of Shephelah and Philistia. I don't have as much to say about stories you may recognize from the Bible that took place in this land but many kings and judges went through the six valleys of the Shephelah and pushed each other in and out. This part of the land is a bit of a gateway to the different sections of the country and the valleys serve the people with great agriculture and easy access to the coast. That's why so many people wanted to own this land. It had great routes in and out of Judah and Israel and to the coast. The mountains surrounding the valleys also served the people greatly with summer crops. Anyways.....some of the big stories to take place here are the story of Samson and his taking of the land as well as his indiscretions as a leader. Even though he was a bit of a soundrel as a judge, God seemed to be faithful to him in order to care for His people. The account of David and Goliath also took place here along with other battles with the Philistians that are found in Judges, Chronicles, and Kings. Looking out over this land as we talked about each of these stories, stories I have grown up with in Sunday School, helped me to understanding the depth and magnitude of them. I think one of the themes of the weekend was God's sovereignty, how big He really is, and how much He cares for His people. Hopefully you'll catch a glimpse of that in the next few posts as well! Enjoy some pictures from the weekend!

The Sorek Valley...looks more like a canyon but it's hard to see how deep it really goes in this pictures. We hiked most of the way down it and back up....I'm definitely getting my exercise! You'll also notice the constrast of this valley versus the other valleys as we go further south. Also, this is quite different from the desert/wilderness that we hiked the last two days of the trip. A lot of terrace farming takes place here and we were able to get a good picture of what Jesus meant in making a metaphor about being a vinekeeper. When the grapes begin to spoil on the vine and are fermenting in a bad way, the vinekeeper can no longer use them. So, the vinekeeper waits until just the right time and lifts the grapes up off the ground and lays them over a wall or some kind of support for the them to bear more fruit and to live. We then get the picture of Jesus does for us. As long as we are connected to Him, the vine, He will help us to grow, lift us up out of spoil, and produce fruit in us. What a reminder that I have nothing to do with my sanctification except for staying connected to Him. Even then, He picks me up off the ground, lays me in His support, and bears His fruit in me. This is amazing. Particularly because I am often capable of allowing my soul to spoil and so incapable of bearing fruit on my own. He is always for our good.

This is the Elah Valley - Samson's home town is south east of this picture and could be seen from this lookout. He would have traveled across this valley in his journeys. This was taken at Beth-Shemesh. The story of David and Goliath also takes place here.

We went to a place called Arad where we walked around this archeological site. It's called Tel Arad. It's a Solomonic temple and has what seems to be a Holy of Holies in the temple section of the remains. Very cool to see.

We finished the day going to the city of Ashkelon and going in the Mediterranean Sea. It was so nice after being really hot all day!

Me and Danielle were ready to head in for the night at the Hostel. We're looking pretty fantastic after a long day.....I wonder how many backpacks we really need

High Holy Days

The Jewish community in Jerusalem and all over the world has been celebrating a series of holidays over the past month or so. Right now the series of holidays is finishing up until Channukah by the celebration of Torah. Basically the Jewish community reads through the Torah in a cyclical pattern and they have just finished and are starting again with Genesis 1. So, they have reason to celebrate! The other holidays in the past month have been Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur (the atonement day where they lament, fast, and plead for their eternal souls), and Succot. I love that Jews know how to celebrate their faith and even the whole city still honors these holy days. On Yom Kippur the entire city shut down, no cars were on the road (because of guidlines in the Torah), and people spent the day reflecting on their sin and pleading with the Lord. It was amazing to walk around that day and hear the sound of silence and be reminded that I don't have to plead for my soul. Succot just finished and it celebrates the feast of Tabernacles. For the sake of space I can't go into detail on all these holidays but google them and you can see what's happening on these holidays. At any rate, during Succot many Succa are built and they are little tents that people eat their meals in all week. It's fun to see them at restaurants in town....even at Arab owned places where they are not Jewish. The whole city finds reason to celebrate on these holidays and although not everybody is Jewish they still have respect for one another. Every store closes in the city, including every Friday at sundown until sundown on Saturday for Shabbat. This is amazing considering they are also at great odds with one another in the political realm. What an interesting city! Here's a couple shots of the Succa we built on campus and of what it looks like every Friday night when we have Sabbath (or Shabbat) dinner!

Our beautiful little patio is always covered by these grape vines but it was extra special to have the sheets around it to make the Succa

This is Luna and Lamara in the Succa...their dad is our friendly campus handy-man and they live on campus with us in a little apartment. These girls are very sweet and friendly.

Sorry for the angle....these are some of the girls at Shabbat dinner...they decorate the table beautifully and everyone gets dressed up

Ramallah

The other day some friends and I boarded an Arab bus and headed through the checkpoints into the West Bank to Ramallah. You may have heard of Ramallah on the news in the discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is a Palestinian refugee camp there and although I was hoping we might come upon it, we ended up just walking around the city center for a while and then running into an American woman who was originally from Israel. Her name was Waffa talked with us for a while about the Arab people, the devestation they have experienced during war times, and about the motivation of terrorism. It was interesting to hear her perspective on the conflict as an American but also as someone who is from this land. She was very pro-Arab and thought the Jews and other groups may be to blame for planning the September 11 attacks. She was very kind to us and invited us to come find her again and join her for dinner sometime. Waffa also told us to come see her at any of the seven gas stations she owns in Ohio. Our conversation with her definitely helped us experience the culture in Ramallah and how they all are fighting to survive, especially those in Palestinian refugee camps. However, the conflict runs so deep and it's often hard to understand both sides and where they are coming from.

On a lighter note....we had fun walking around the city and we certainly stood out as American students. There was a coffee shop there called Star & Bucks coffee which we thought was pretty funny. The shop keeper opened up the shop for us even though many in the city are observing Ramadan this month. At any rate, we had a great time and I learned more about the Israeli-Palestian conflict and the people it affects. We are promised that one day there will be no war, no pain, and no tears. I am looking forward to that day.

The Star and Bucks Cafe

The lady in the middle of this pics is carrying a ton of stuff from the market on top of her head.....She has a crate full of stuff on top of her head...amazing!

The city streets of Ramallah

Samaria

Yesterday we traveled around the land of Samaria. This included Mt. Gerezim, where Joshua followed through on Moses' commandment to read the blessings of the nation of Israel again on top of the mountain. This is found in Deuteronomy and we, as a class, had the privilege of shouting the blessings of the Nation of Israel from Mt. Gerezim facing Mt. Ebal. It was pretty incredible to be looking over the vast expanse of the land that the nation was given while shouting these blessings....very cool. We also spent some time with a Jewish man from New Jersey (he had an amazing Jersey accent) where he shared
the history of this particular region, including parts of how the Jordanians tried to capture the land but Israel was able to hold their ground and sustain occupation. We stood on Elon Moreh during our time with him and were standing near Shechem....where Abraham received the promise of God for him the first time. The man's name was Pinchas. He was short with bright white hair, with his orthodox tassels hanging at his sides and a small hand gun tucked into his pants. He was very passionate about the state of Israel and he did not seem to have great affection towards the Palestinians and Arabs in Israel. However, he was very nice and assured us this was not a political tour but a view of the geography of the land ;).
Next was the trip up Mt. Gerezim I mentioned. Up on this mountain were some remains of a Byzantine age temple where it is said that the temple mentioned in John 4, as Jesus was talking with the Samaritan woman, was located. This temple would have been destroyed by the time the conversation between Jesus and the woman took place in John 4 but it was still significant for the explination of the rocky relationship between the Samaritans and the Jewish in Jerusalem. The Samaritans had built their own temple back in earlier days so that they would not have to travel to the temple in Jerusalem among the other Jews. This emphasizes the cultural issues of Samaritans being outcast. It also gives more depth to Jesus' words to the woman at the well that a temple is no longer needed to worship God. Jesus came to fulfill that law and she could now worship in spirit and in truth.
On our way back down the mountain we stopped and talked to one of the remaining Samaritan priests in the community. Apparently there are only 700 Samaritans in the world and most of them are on Mt. Gerezim, while the remaining are in Tel Aviv. The Samaritans only use the first five book of the Bible, the Pentateuch, and still practice animal sacrifices on Passover. They practice these sacrifices for the sack of remembering the tradition however, they also believe the sacrifices were supposed to take place inside the temple and the temple no longer exsists. So, they sacrifice only on Passover since those sacrifices are to take place outside. It was very interesting to speak with him and he was kind enough to sell us some ice cream and sodas from his little shop after talking with us. :)
The day ended at Shiloh where we looked at three different locations the Tabernacle, which the Israelites traveled with in the desert for 40 years, may have resided after the wandering. This means we may have walked around where the Ark of the Covenant was located for a time. The region has some great views of the agriculture in the area. Also, when we were up on Mt. Gerezim we could see the church where Jacob's well is...which is also the well found in the John 4 story of the Samaritan woman. We couldn't get to the church due to the political situation...the road was barricaded. However, we also got a view of a Palestinian refugee camp where much of Hamas and their activity comes out from. It was a very politically interesting day. Here's some photos:

This is a shot of Mt. Gerezim and Mt. Ebal

This is a view of the Palestinian Refugee camp from the top of Mt. Gerezim

Some of the graduate girls on top of Mt. Gerezim
Ruins of a Byzantine temple built where it is thought the Samaritan temple may have been

This is the altar where the Samaritans offer their animal sacrifices during Passover. They hang the sheep on top of the blue racks, kill them, and then put them on top of the rack to offer them as a sacrifice. Sorry for the gross details!

Yes...it is true friends...I have developed a watch tan....don't be alarmed, it's sure to be gone by the time Christmas rolls around!

The Land of Benjamin

This past Monday we returned to travel for a day of field study. We traveled through all of the land that was given to the Tribe of Benjamin. This included Jericho where Joshua began his conquests to take the land for the nation of Israel. Benjamin was given such a large variety of land and many kings in history fought over the land for it's great resources. This is where Joshua and the Israelites began taking over all the land because this was a gateway to Jerusalem and had amazing resources. We started the day walking through a Wadi...which is a natural gorge between the hills where fault line, erosion, and folding of the rock created these deep gorges where water runs. Because we are still in warm weather season, there was no water running through the wadi and we were able to hike through it and walk along the ancient road to Jericho. It was ridiculously hot but also an incredible hike through this kind of land.
As we were down in the Wadi we read through Deuteronomy 32:9-14. This passage talks about this kind of land that we were hiking through and metophorically uses the geography of the land to show God's protection over His people. Verse ten talks about God's people being the "apple of His eye". However, in discussing the whole of the passage and the original word to "apple" we came to understand the vastness of this statment. The word for "apple" is actually "little man" and "eye" is"pupil". If you have ever looked into the pupils of another person's eyes you can see your own reflection in their eyes. In this passage then, it is suggested that we are considered to be the "little men" in God's pupil. Our reflection is in His eyes as we are in relationship with Him. It also suggests that as He looks at us His reflection is also in our eyes. Much like we are created in the image and reflection of our parents, God has created us as a reflection of His image. He sees himself in us and we have the opportunity to see Him in us as well. I'm not sure if you will find this discovery nearly as exciting as I do, but it definitely had me thinking twice about how God has created me and how He looks at me as His own. It's pretty powerful to me that He can look into my eyes and see His own reflection as I look into His and find myself created in the likeness of Him.

Wadi Qilt

View of Wadi Qilt.....there were cross set up sporatically around the Wadi

St. George's Monastery in the Wadi

The undergrad students walking through the Wadi....we walked behind them on the same trail....the Jericho Road

Scott talking with some kids from the Bedouin community

View of Jericho

A view of the Aijalon valley while the sun was setting in the other direction......It's amazing that Benjamin was blessed with land that not only had a vast desert landscape but if you travel 10-20 miles West, you hit fertile and vegetative land. They had the best of both worlds which explains why everyone was fighting over their land in scripture. Their land also accessed all the main routes to the coast in the West and had the best resources of water, agriculture, economy, and security.

The Beautiful Mediterranean

Well, it's been another week since I blogged....I'll try to be a little more frequent. However, it seems as if all the fun things, worth blogging about, happen on the weekends. Anyway, here's the update. Classes have been getting a little more challenging and Biblical Hebrew seems to need a great deal of my attention. I think if I stick with it daily I'll get the hang of it. All of the homework and studying necessitated a day off this weekend and a group of twelve of us headed to the beach. We took a Sherut (group taxi/shuttle) to Tel Aviv and sat on the beach of the Mediterranean all day. It was so nice and a much needed break. We spent the extra twelve shekels ($3) and rented lounge chairs for the day which was an added bonus. The water was so warm but still refreshing from the heat. We also sipped smoothies and went out for Mexican food for dinner (not our best decision....it's a little weird here in Israel). The beach was beautiful and the company likewise. Here are some pics from the day!

A view of the hotels along the beach in Tel Aviv

The Sunset!

Natalie, Jenna, and Me
Love these girls! We had so much fun!!

Yehuddiya

Just after a long day in the field on Saturday, about fifty of us signed up to head north to the National Nature Preserve called Yehuddiya. It's up in the Golan hills and is so beautiful. As we were driving along the road the area looks dry, desert-like, and even slightly desolate. However, when you hike down in between the hills there are many waterfalls and beautiful sights. It was a really difficult hike and we even had to swim a little ways to continue on the trail. But, it was most definitely worth the effort and swimming in the water holes under the falls was magnificent. It was a gorgeous day!! Here are some pics!

This is a before picture with some of my friends (also girls in my small group)....we were looking ready for a hike!

Beginning of the hike...it was so hot and desertlike that it seemed like I would never survive this hike if it was like this the whole time!

However, we arrived at the first waterfall and were very relieved

Sometimes we would have to climb down little stairs in the rock because it was too steep...we were climbing over rocks and boulders most of the time anyway

Some of the girls in my small group!

The last waterfall we came to was my favorite. The mist in the back right was so fun to stand under and it was a constant stream of water...it felt so good!! It was such a fun little place to swim and jump in off the cliffs! It was beautiful!!

This would be our "after" picture...we were still a bit wet from the swim even though we had just hiked straight up the mountain (the ascent was incredibly difficult...not to mention it was in the afternoon...in the heat of the day!)

The best hike I've been on yet!!!