Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The End
I leave JUC in about 3 hours, my sheruit picks me up at 6:45 to head to the airport for my 11:55 flight back to philly. So around 5 pm in the states I'll be leaving the place that was my home for the last three weeks. It's been an amazing trip, everyone should come to Israel at some point in their lifetime. I already miss all the people that are gone, I made some great friends here. Today has definitely been weird being on my own. I went out and did a little shopping for last minute gifts and got some snacks for the plane (the same biscuit things I raved about in my previous posts!). Do you remember that Full House episode where the 3 girls come home from camp and they are so sad to have left and they go back to return a rabbit that stowed away in the car? Well, they basically get there and it is really different than what they remember because everyone is gone. That's basically what it's been like today. And I am avoiding packing like it's the plague. Well now I'm down to 2 and a half hours til I leave and that includes dinner. So I should definitely go. Thanks to everyone that's been keeping up with my insane blog! Love you all! See you back in the states!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Jordan
Jordan was so great! We got back into Israel yesterday afternoon to a campus full of people we don't know. Everyone that didn't go to Jordan left while we were gone which is so weird and I miss them all already! But I leave today after dinner, so I guess I can survive til then. Here's all the stuff we did in Jordan!
Saturday 7/3:
Today was a long day. We were up at 6am on the bus, started crossing the border around 8, finished crossing around 10:30, then headed on to our destinations. After getting almost no sleep the night before, it was a rough day to say the least. Our first stop was at Jerash, one of the
Decapolis cities back in the day. It was huge and there was tons of awesome sites to see.
Then we trekked over to the Jabbock River at a point that overlooked part of it. This was absolutely stunning! Here we read about Jacob wrestling with God. It would have been somewhere down by this river where Jacob spent the night alone on his way to meet his brother Esau, hoping to be received well. It was amazing to see the very place that this happened and to talk about all that it meant. Being there really makes it come alive.
From here we headed to Dibon, which was the capital of Moab and where the remains of King Mesha's palace are. After a long day we finally made it down to the hotel in Petra where we stayed for the night. I don't think I have ever anticipated sleep quite as much as I did tonight.
Sunday 7/4:
Today began with an awesome breakfast at our hotel before we went over to Petra and spent the whole morning being amazed by the city. Petra is seriously something everyone should see at some point in their lifetime. It is massive and absolutely amazing that all of these remains are still preserved. You can really feel what it would have been like when the wealthy Nabateans lived here. We walked a full 6 miles around Petra, including a long hike up and down a mountain to overlook the city from the "high place". We took a camel ride back to the treasury and then walked out of the city in the heat of the day. By the way, riding a camel is just as awesome as it sounds :)
We headed over to lunch from here (which was excellent!) and then went to overlook the Wadi Dana. Here we read about Moab's revolt against Israel (2 Kings 3). It is in this dry desert wadi that the Kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom would have been when the Lord sent them water. The King of Moab looked down in the morning and saw the red of the sunrise reflecting off of the water, assumed it was blood, and thought the Kings had killed each other. They approached the camps and, to their surprise, the armies rose up and overtook Moab. It was here that God provided for his people and delivered Israel once again, both from thirst and from war.
After this, we went over to Bozrah, the capital of Edom, which is basically a pile of rocks. However, it's a really really cool pile of rocks. We read a ton of scripture that really made us understand the city that once stood here and the people that inhabited it. We read the book of Obadiah, which is entirely about the people of Edom. This gave us so much insight as to who these people were, what they did, and what they were all about. At the end of the day we made our way up to Amman where we stayed at a pretty snazzy hotel and yet another awesome meal and called it a day.
Monday 7/5:
On our last day in Jordan we began at the historic site of Rabah, the ancient capital of Amon. We looked around the archeological museum there where we got to see some of the Dead Sea Scrolls (as well as some of the copper scrolls) and a skull with bore holes in it (apparently the Ammonites attempted brain surgery) along with other cool stuff. Then we headed over to Medeba where we saw the church with the ancient mosaic map of the land and ate our last amazing Jordanian meal.
The best part of today though was our final stop on Mt. Nebo. This is the last place Moses stood, as he looked out over the promised land before he died. We read Deuteronomy 34 as we looked out over Israel, as Moses would have. It was incredible to stand there thinking about how Moses was looking out over a hazy land, not knowing what awaited his people, but with a sense of joy that he was seeing with his own eyes all that God would give them. Paul (the leader of the trip and director of the school) talked about how we are all headed off to different places and we are all at points of our life that still hold uncertainty. But as Moses looked out on the barren land with confidence of God's goodness, so we should trust that God is good and he is leading us to our promised land. With a whole life ahead of me (of which I have no idea what's coming) it gives me such peace to know that I simply don't need to know what the future holds; God is leading me and He is good. Wherever I end up is where He wants me and there is nothing I can do to change it or mess it up, which is incredible! He guides us through the desert and brings us to the promised land and there is no sense in worrying about what is to come.
From Mt. Nebo we went over to the border and crossed back into Israel to end our trip to Jordan. It was an awesome time with great people and some amazing insight into the land of the Transjordan, which is so greatly intertwined into the Old Testament.
Saturday 7/3:
Today was a long day. We were up at 6am on the bus, started crossing the border around 8, finished crossing around 10:30, then headed on to our destinations. After getting almost no sleep the night before, it was a rough day to say the least. Our first stop was at Jerash, one of the
Decapolis cities back in the day. It was huge and there was tons of awesome sites to see.
Then we trekked over to the Jabbock River at a point that overlooked part of it. This was absolutely stunning! Here we read about Jacob wrestling with God. It would have been somewhere down by this river where Jacob spent the night alone on his way to meet his brother Esau, hoping to be received well. It was amazing to see the very place that this happened and to talk about all that it meant. Being there really makes it come alive.From here we headed to Dibon, which was the capital of Moab and where the remains of King Mesha's palace are. After a long day we finally made it down to the hotel in Petra where we stayed for the night. I don't think I have ever anticipated sleep quite as much as I did tonight.
Sunday 7/4:
Today began with an awesome breakfast at our hotel before we went over to Petra and spent the whole morning being amazed by the city. Petra is seriously something everyone should see at some point in their lifetime. It is massive and absolutely amazing that all of these remains are still preserved. You can really feel what it would have been like when the wealthy Nabateans lived here. We walked a full 6 miles around Petra, including a long hike up and down a mountain to overlook the city from the "high place". We took a camel ride back to the treasury and then walked out of the city in the heat of the day. By the way, riding a camel is just as awesome as it sounds :)
We headed over to lunch from here (which was excellent!) and then went to overlook the Wadi Dana. Here we read about Moab's revolt against Israel (2 Kings 3). It is in this dry desert wadi that the Kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom would have been when the Lord sent them water. The King of Moab looked down in the morning and saw the red of the sunrise reflecting off of the water, assumed it was blood, and thought the Kings had killed each other. They approached the camps and, to their surprise, the armies rose up and overtook Moab. It was here that God provided for his people and delivered Israel once again, both from thirst and from war.After this, we went over to Bozrah, the capital of Edom, which is basically a pile of rocks. However, it's a really really cool pile of rocks. We read a ton of scripture that really made us understand the city that once stood here and the people that inhabited it. We read the book of Obadiah, which is entirely about the people of Edom. This gave us so much insight as to who these people were, what they did, and what they were all about. At the end of the day we made our way up to Amman where we stayed at a pretty snazzy hotel and yet another awesome meal and called it a day.
Monday 7/5:
On our last day in Jordan we began at the historic site of Rabah, the ancient capital of Amon. We looked around the archeological museum there where we got to see some of the Dead Sea Scrolls (as well as some of the copper scrolls) and a skull with bore holes in it (apparently the Ammonites attempted brain surgery) along with other cool stuff. Then we headed over to Medeba where we saw the church with the ancient mosaic map of the land and ate our last amazing Jordanian meal.
The best part of today though was our final stop on Mt. Nebo. This is the last place Moses stood, as he looked out over the promised land before he died. We read Deuteronomy 34 as we looked out over Israel, as Moses would have. It was incredible to stand there thinking about how Moses was looking out over a hazy land, not knowing what awaited his people, but with a sense of joy that he was seeing with his own eyes all that God would give them. Paul (the leader of the trip and director of the school) talked about how we are all headed off to different places and we are all at points of our life that still hold uncertainty. But as Moses looked out on the barren land with confidence of God's goodness, so we should trust that God is good and he is leading us to our promised land. With a whole life ahead of me (of which I have no idea what's coming) it gives me such peace to know that I simply don't need to know what the future holds; God is leading me and He is good. Wherever I end up is where He wants me and there is nothing I can do to change it or mess it up, which is incredible! He guides us through the desert and brings us to the promised land and there is no sense in worrying about what is to come.From Mt. Nebo we went over to the border and crossed back into Israel to end our trip to Jordan. It was an awesome time with great people and some amazing insight into the land of the Transjordan, which is so greatly intertwined into the Old Testament.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Goodbyes and Farewells
Today we had our final and our last moments together. Tomorrow I leave with a different group of people from the college to go on a trip to Jordan for 3 days, so you won't here from me til Monday. It has been so so sad saying goodbye to so many people that have become such dear friends over these three weeks. I spent the afternoon with Stacey (my roomie and good good friend here) doing a little shopping and getting shwarmas for dinner. The we had an awesome time at a little cafe with a huge group of people for one last hurrah before we part ways. After we left, no one wanted to leave so we just walked around the city a little bit, taking pictures and simply enjoying each others company. So since it's midnight here, and I have to be on a bus in 6 hours, I'm going to call it a night. Please pray for our safety in Jordan (which shouldn't be a problem whatsoever so don't freak out), a good time of fellowship with this new group of people, and for God to use this trip to show His glory to all of us. Shalom til next time!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Last Field Trip
So today we got on the bus for the last time as a big group. We headed over to Samaria and made our first stop at Mount Gerizim and overlooked modern day Shechem. We overlooked the area and then headed down to a museum about the Samaritans. One of the priests talked to us for a bit about the Samaritan people and many of their traditions and beliefs. Then he proceeded to tell us about how the Smaritans use facebook, which we pretty comical if I do say so myself. Then we went over to Shiloh and spent some time looking around at the place where the Tabernacle would have been. This is the town Samuel lived in for a good part of his life. I got to talking with another woman about the Tabernacle and how it was essentially a movable temple, before the real temple could be built in Jerusalem. This is where God dwelt among His people. It's interesting to follow the idea of the temple throughout the bible. It starts as the Tabernacle, then eventually a real temple is built in Jerusalem, but then when Jesus comes He dwells among us (as it says in John 1) and esentially is the temple Himself, God dwelling with His people. Then, with the Holy Spirit in us, we become temple to God ourselves! It's so awesome to see this run throughout the entire Bible. Our God clearly is a personal God who desires to be with His people.
After this, a few of us went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum here in Jerusalem. I cannot even begin to tell you how intense this was and how much was going through my mind but I will leave you with this: after seeing something like this, one cannot have any argument that there is not evil in the world. Our world is broken, with people killing other people and filling hearts with hatred. Praise God for those that made it through and for those that took a stand against it. As Christians, we are called to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. We need to know what's going on in the world so that somehting this horrific NEVER happens again. The God we serve weeps for these people, for the hatred that occurs in our world, for the injustice that occurs everyday. May His kingdom come, on Earth as it is in Heaven.
On a happier note, we ended the day with a beautiful time of worship in the garden at JUC. It was awesome to just stand here with people I have gotten to know and simply be before the Lord, worshipping as we are called to worship, with no shame or distractions. It was so pure and so wonderful, just to be there before God, as if I were completely alone, simply in His presence. These people are so wonderful and I feel like I have made so good friends here, I shall surely be sad to leave them.
After this, a few of us went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum here in Jerusalem. I cannot even begin to tell you how intense this was and how much was going through my mind but I will leave you with this: after seeing something like this, one cannot have any argument that there is not evil in the world. Our world is broken, with people killing other people and filling hearts with hatred. Praise God for those that made it through and for those that took a stand against it. As Christians, we are called to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. We need to know what's going on in the world so that somehting this horrific NEVER happens again. The God we serve weeps for these people, for the hatred that occurs in our world, for the injustice that occurs everyday. May His kingdom come, on Earth as it is in Heaven.
On a happier note, we ended the day with a beautiful time of worship in the garden at JUC. It was awesome to just stand here with people I have gotten to know and simply be before the Lord, worshipping as we are called to worship, with no shame or distractions. It was so pure and so wonderful, just to be there before God, as if I were completely alone, simply in His presence. These people are so wonderful and I feel like I have made so good friends here, I shall surely be sad to leave them.
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