I'm just a traveler yet to arrive

Prior to leaving for Israel I was really sad about leaving my kids. The day before we left I held them and cried on their faces. All day I kept thinking "This could be our last breakfast together. This could be our last lunch together. This could be the last time we..." Pretty morbid I know. However, I am someone who thinks drastically about routine trips I take in this country- let alone into the Middle East and flying over the ocean. I felt guilty about the thought of something happening to us and leaving our kids to live with someone else. This thought was almost too hard to bear. In some ways I felt like a bad father, putting the future of my kids at risk- no matter how little the risk might be. God challenged me about my faith. I asked myself "Do I want to live in a way that shows my kids that God can be trusted or not?" What kind of father would I be if I talked about believing in and trusting God and didn't really live as if I believed in or trusted God? The theme of growing stronger in my faith was a theme that I felt repeated in my life throughout the trip.

I would like to say that the flight was a smooth ride that reassured me that things would go well but that would be utterly inaccurate. The flight bounced up and down with turbulence for two hours. At one point the plane hit an air pocket and dropped what we were told was 20 feet, it seemed like hundreds. We were flying on this enormous whale in the sky- eight seats across. I have never seen a plane this big. Eight seats across and you enter the plane at the middle...sent by the flight attendant either front or back and either down the near aisle or the far aisle...this plane had a far aisle to walk down. It was frustrating to look around and watch everyone else talk and laugh casually during the choppy ride while I clutched my tray table for dear life.

We switched planes in Madrid which looks like a beautiful city. I would like to visit it one day but I am not sure I would think the plane trip was worth it. The flight to Tel Aviv, Israel was much smoother, except for the fact that Israeli law requires everyone to remain in their seat for the final 30-45 minutes to ensure that no one will rush the cockpit. It was not comforting when the flight attendants...the flight attendants...were the first to break out in applause when the plane landed safely. I thought they were supposed to expect that we would arrive all right. The safe arrival seemed to be a cause for celebration for them. I was intrigued at this but hardly reassured.

As I began to meet the rest of the team I was excited about being with a team of students who was approaching this trip as a group of learners, not a group of sightseers. (Skip to the next paragraph if you do not want to read a description of team members that you do not know.) I appreciated meeting Dave Berdan. He was with his son and I loved watching how he related with his son on the trip. He was an example to me of a godly husband and father. I could only hope that one day I could have a similar relationship with my son. He was also a pilot and I liked asking him flight questions during the trip. (Did you know that a plane can fly with only one engine? Did you know that Midway is one of the hardest airports to land in- there is a White Castle at the end of a runway? Did you know that the floatation devices probably will not help if you crash into the ocean? I figured.) I loved being with Mark everyday. It is hard for people to understand how nice it is that someone like Mark, a former student, would not act weird when his two worlds collided-church and school. But he didn't and we had a great time. I am really proud of the man he is becoming. I am thankful that Mike and Brooke asked us to go with. They are some of our closest friends and I am honored that we will always have these memories together. We played Phase 10 towards the end of the trip. We still have not finished the second game which I am on the verge of winning. The professors on the trip Dr. Vanlaningham and Dr. Wechsler reminded me of the thing I appreciate most about Moody- godly and relational professors. Our guide's name was Jonathan and he was skilled and knowledgable. Reuven was the driver on our tour bus and his ability to bring the bus through tight corners and spaces is the stuff that legends are built on. Tiffany was happy that a guy named Jimmy was on the trip because she was pretty sure that she might be taller than him. Jimmy became known as the Hebrew scholar on the trip when Dr. Wechsler would call on him to translate different things throughout the trip. There was a guy who juggled his way across the country. Posing for pictures, juggling on the edge of every cliff and high point we saw. There was the person who happily exclaimed to the group "I was taught growing up that it didn't matter whether or not you won or lost. The important thing was that you looked good while doing it." I think this was a classic case of misunderstanding your audience. I made some friends for the trip, but it was probably just for the trip. I had a great time getting the know the Jeffers my yarmulke brothers. We all bought them and would pat our heads like apes when we walked by each other. There was Randy the tough football player who loved the movie "Emma" and thus carried a hidden sensitive side. There were the adult couples who had their new adventure clothes for the trip, and added so much. One guy when he found out I worked at Bethel kept telling me Norwegian/Swede jokes which I have never gotten no matter how long I have been at the church. I really like the team and have missed them since the trip has ended.

Is that Jesus claiming his luggage?

Ben Gurion airport seemed very American compared to what I expected, as did Israel in general. Almost all of the signs were in English and the bathrooms were even "flush the toilet paper" normal. When walking down the corridor to the baggage claim I had a moment that I have regularly when traveling out of the country. I saw a line of Israeli flags and flagpoles flapping over bushes that spell out Nokia. These flags send the clear message "You are not home." When we arrive at baggage claim there was the surreal moment of seeing the person who looked the most like Jesus that I have ever seen...in Israel even. I stared in stunned excitement bringing everyone over in a "Look who it is!!" moment. We all laughed and the guy turned and said "Tell no one what you have seen today!!" (writers embellishment).

From this point we boarded our tour bus which we would travel from town to town on for multiple hours over the next 12 days. We were like rock stars, without the fans and perks, and talent. The ride did not have many of the "Where in the world are we?" moments as I have seen on other trips out of the country. All of the signs were in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.

Our first stop was Beersheba. Lonely Planet travel guide called Beersheba "ugly" and this was pretty accurate. It was dusty and industrial. We have the first real culture shock when we arrive at our hotel and the desk workers unloading our bags both have handguns bouncing around in side holsters. I told Tiffany about this before the trip to help her feel safer, but I must say introducing a gun- usually multiple guns- into every situation didn't feel safe. It felt like the OK Corral could happen at any moment. I began to appreciate that when your nation is surrounded by people who don't like you and generally think you do not have a legitimate existence you tend to generally need to be on the defensive.

Our hotel rooms were pretty nice for the most part. It was interesting that all of the rooms did not have a large bed but rather had two small beds pushed together. The first three nights were one night stands (can I use that term?) at each hotel with no chance for unpacking. Still adjusting from the time change I felt like we were returning from dinner and collapsing on the bed to sleep at night. The travel was invigorating and tiresome. Awake at 6, breakfast at 7, load bags at 7:40 and rolling at 8. Go to 6-8 sites per day, return between 6 and 7, eat dinner and sleep. In Jerusalem we finally adjusted pretty well, but that was four days away.

I have a weak stomach, which some would fine hard to imagine. So I did not handle the first meal well. I think I had something like two hours sleep in 30 hours and I was not in the mood to be adventurous. I would enjoy many meals on the trip and come to like much of the food. But the smell of the spices in the first dining room was vivid and depressing because I was tired. Again was the reminder "You are not home." I feared I would not eat during the trip, but I did. I looked forward to the fruit and rolls and butter at every breakfast. Dairy was served at breakfast, not at dinner, I think due to kosher reasons. The first morning I tried cereal but I think it was in goat's milk which I did not like the taste of and thus I did not eat cereal or drink milk throughout the trip. One morning I ate a tuna sandwich, which some of the American tourists thought was so novel that it was laughable. "Tuna for breakfast??" someone yelled. One morning I was tantalized by some guacamole that looked so legit but it was filled with some odd spice. So much of the food was like this...close enough to break your heart. You expect one thing and get let down when it is just a little different than what you consider normal.

Lunches were either authentic Middle Eastern or American fast food. The authentic food choices were shwarama (sliced chicken), felafel (fried chick peas), or schnitzel (chicken tenderloin) pita. We brought some beef jerky from home and had that twice. We ate the authentic a few times. And had a few Big Macs and Whoppers while there. It was a real surprise when we found out that a Whopper meal was over ten dollars and I became sick of hearing how far the dollar had fallen multiple times everyday. One lunch we were in a Druze village and we had what was called a Druze pita. This was a wide roti pati smeared with cream cheese and herbs and olive oil. This was very good.

Dinners had meat (unlike most breakfasts), no butter for your rolls, and a big buffet of salads. One of the hotels had some amazing cole slaw that I piled on my plate every night. Every buffet had fish, chicken, and beef. By far the worst thing we saw was called St. Peter's fish. It was a broiled fish, skin on, hanging on the bones- head and eyeballs and all. At that lunch I chose what was called "St. Peter's Pizza" which was probably like a pizza you would make at home...but relative to the other offerings it tasted like Giordano's. At least it wasn't looking at me.

On the first evening we had a team meeting where nothing eventful happened. We fell asleep to the sounds of gunfire in the distance. The first few nights my sleeping schedule was so off that I would be up for a few hours during the night. I had a hard time adjusting, but it was much harder adjusting after returning. I felt like I slept for days.

The Father of the Jews

The first site of our trip was a place called Tel Be'er Sheva.

"Tel" is a Hebrew word meaning "hill." We would climb many "tels" throughout the trip. This site was the well of Abraham and Abimelech's oath in the book of Genesis. This was our first exposure to repeated themes throughout the trip: tels, ruins, archaeological sites, dug up cities, and cisterns. Towards the end they began to run together. However, it was amazing to look out over the ruins of a city. These huge stones that had been built into a city had been buried for almost two thousand years until one day people began to dig them up. It is hard to imagine how the cities got buried. Our guide pointed out that in the restored walls of the city there is a caulk like white line that shows where what was dug up meets together with what had been restored.
Being from such a comparatively young country it is unbelievable to consider that a city could be buried for almost 2000 years untouched and seeing this face to face makes you feel real insignificant to world history.




At the entrance to the site was a rebuilt altar that looked like what an altar from biblical times would look like. It was a small reminder of the story of Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac. That would have taken place about three days walk from this city and the altar would have looked nothing like this. Upon entering we climb the tel and entered the walls into the old city of Be'er Sheva. A look out tower had been built to perch atop and view the remains of the city. Only about 70 families lived in this city before it was destroyed. We looked at some of the remains of their houses.

As mentioned earlier, this city was the site of the well of agreement between Abraham and Abimelech. We saw a few wells on the trip and cisterns at almost every site. A well is dug deep enough to crack into the water layer of the earth's crust. A cistern is built to collect and save rain water and precipitation. The cistern here was impressive. We donned hard hats to descend to the depths of the cistern. It was one of like a gazillion "I've never seen this before" moments of the trip. (This was also the first site where we saw a herd of sheep with a shepherd, and a herd of camels in the distance. First but not close to final.) This site was in a region of land called the Negev Desert. Interestingly, Israel is like two-thirds desert and some books I read said it "intrinsically lacks water." This is astounding to consider because this was the promised land of God. The "land flowing with milk and honey."

Why would God give a land that would lack water? The Israelites complain about this in Numbers 20. They say "God we had water in Egypt. Why would you bring us from there into this land?" At this point in wandering they probably would have been somewhere near here. In Deuteronomy 11 God promises that if they obey Him they will not lack water. He will provide. God knows that if they become too comfortable they might lose their dependence on Him. But God brings them into a land where they will need to trust Him for the most basic needs.

At this site we heard an interesting teaching about the passage of the site. Abraham lies to Abimelech and says that his wife is really his sister because he fears being killed and have his wife stolen. This in spite of God's promise of protection. There is a pattern of distrusting God. In Genesis 21:22 Abimelech responds by showing praise to the Lord even though Abraham failed God. In Genesis 26 Isaac, Abraham's son tells the exact same lie. He fears for his life and says to Abimelech's men that his wife is really his sister. This in spite of the fact that God had just promised to protect him. Sound familiar? Isaac follows in his father's failures. Again Abimelech praises God, but in Genesis 26:28 he responds with the same wording of 21:22 except he uses the covenant name of God to honor God. The name of God was being spread in spite of failures. Good and bad passed on through generations.

When leaving for the trip Tiffany pointed out a book at the airport bookshop called "Walking the Bible." In it the author writes on the first page the truth that Abraham was the first Jew. This hit me like a line drive to the head. Everything I would see on this trip: the land, the peoples, the culture, the behaviors, the traditions, the religion, the entirety of the Jewish people and nation would stem back from Abraham's obedience to follow God into this new land. Good and bad pass themselves on. Decisions last for generations.

Wilderness Wanderings

Following Be'er Sheva we went to the tomb of David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of the new Israeli nation. He chose to live in the Negev Desert region in hopes that more countrymen would follow him into living here. This gave us a great view and perspective about how barren this land actually was. Which, I think, is the only reason we came here because we did not actually go to the tomb ...which was weird to me.

Our next stop was the ruins of a trade route stop called Avdat. A group named the Nabateans lived here along a perfume and spice route. They lived good and prosperous lives due to these sales. Camel caravans would cross the desert selling their goods and stopping at spots along the way like this one.

One of the things that made this sight interesting was a church that had been built in this city. Multiple pillars ran down the length of these early places of worship. Outside one of the churches was an infant baptismal. There was a cross carved into the stone and another spot to lay the head of the baby in and pour water over during the baptizing.



On the way out of the city we climbed through a network of caves that would have been the homes of the Nabateans. I felt like a giant Indiana Jones trying to climb and squeeze through caves and holes. This would not have been adventurous to most normal sized people. But to me this was dangerous. Many caves dotted the hillside. The cave network was like a neighborhood and you could imagine families turning in for the night saying "Good night" to their neighbor at the cave next door (or next hole I suppose).



Driving after lunch we wound up at the Maktesh Ramon nature preserve. This place is referred to as "The Big Crater." Accurate description. Big and craterlike. We ascend a winding staircase that leads outdoors onto an overlook of the crater. It stretched as far as you could see and went on much further than that. The geological map outlines the crater in the shape of a footprint...a two toed footprint. An amazing sight...feeling really small again.


The final site of the day prior to dinner was a site called Tel Arad. The fascinating thing about this site was that it had a mini version of the biblical temple. You entered into the temple courtyard and approached a sacrificial altar on the right. This altar was like a shelf of stones about neck high. The person would climb the stairs behind the altar to make the sacrifice. At the end of the courtyard was a stone wall that separated the courtyard from the holy area. Beyond this was a smaller area called the holy of holies. In the Old Testament, until the time of Jesus' death the holy of holies was separated from the holy area by a curtain. In this temple at Tel Arad the holy of holies was dedicated to a false god and two stone idols can be seen set up in the picture above.

Camel Rides for Everyone

We ended our day at a Bedouin camp. The Bedouin are a nomadic people who wander the desert and live in tents. The Bedouin are a people in transition due to the fact that the Israeli government is pressuring them to move into houses and essentially join civilization. When we arrive at the Bedouin camp we see a couple large tents that are used for serving dinner. We also view a herd of camels that will be used to give everyone a camel ride around the camp. This was a cool memory. Another adventure that I shared with my wife and one that we will remember for the rest of our lives.

Here are some things I learned about camels. It is a real pendulum swing when they stand up or sit down. You swing back and forward and it is critical to hold on tight. They also will take a swipe at you if you get too close to their mouth. Finally, do not get too close to their mouth.

We enter into a large tent for dinner. A Bedouin host begins to educate us about their culture. As he spoke we were given some fresh bread, and hot tea and coffee...the strong coffee. The taste and smell reminded me of growing up with an Arabic stepfather who used to serve the same things. The host shared many details about Bedouin life. The thing that got the biggest rise out of the crowd was the statement that many Bedouin take multiple wives. He joked that he thought Bill Clinton might be Bedouin. The crowd howled.

We shared a family style meal sitting on carpet on the ground around a pad set on the floor as a table. It was nice but I was still unadjusted to the time change and almost fell asleep often through the night. As we walked outside the tent it was alarming to see that the security at this site (every site had security) looked like a group of fifteen year olds carrying huge machine guns.

We return to our hotel. This was the most run down hotel of the trip. Every hotel at the beginning of the trip had Fox News. Which I used to like but don't really trust as much anymore. But while we were in Israel a few stories broke and seeing how Fox covered them was interesting. First, Governor Elliot Spitzer of New York resigned because he hired a call girl for like thousands of dollars per hour. I kept wondering how we were viewed.

One night Sean Hannity began to talk about how there was a story about Barack Obama that was being ignored and it had to do with comments from his pastor Jeremiah Wright. The comments were played over and over. I wondered if this story would catch on. By the next day it had exploded. All of the major news organizations had caught onto it and Obama was getting hit somewhat hard. It was fascinating to view this from a distance. On one hand I thought the questions raised were pertinent and should be addressed somehow. On the other hand it looked like a vendetta and that was offputting. I really disliked this aspect of it and viewing it from a distance made this more obvious.

This hotel was the one that gave us a plastic card that we needed to insert in a slot in the wall in order to turn on the lights. Probably a sabbath thing. I also noticed that every door in every hotel had a mesuzah on the outside of it. This was a small metal scroll box that contained some scripture in it. This came from some verses where the people were told to write the words of God on the doorposts of their homes.

Of Course It's Hard to Climb- It's A Fortress

This would be a day of highs and lows for us. The trip begins with a long and windy road to the Masada fortress. Along this road our tour bus was stopped by a large herd of sheep walking with a shepherd crossing the road. Driving further we also saw a caravan of camels strolling along the desert road next to our bus.

We arrive at the Masada and the sun was beginning to beat down on us though it was still early morning. Masada is intimidating. It is a fortress and is very fortresslike. The ramp that we would need to climb was steep and high. Tiff and I struggled. We don't climb...really anything. But I was proud of her resiliency throughout the entire trip. On this climb I became more certain that we should find out if she was indeed pregnant to see if she should be a little more careful.

Masada was by far the most rigorous climb of the trip. It was also where I began to develop a massive sun burn...really a sun scorch. This would crack and peel throughout the rest of the trip, at times I began to look like a snake whose scales were falling off. I was proud as if this proved my endurance. It probably just proved my stupidity. Throughout the day people would ask me if I was doing OK which began to wear on my nerves. I didn't know why they were asking until I walked by a mirror and saw my face as red as a firetruck. The good news of the day was that we went to the Dead Sea on this day and the Dead Sea is believed to have healing powers. Outside of the Sea was a lotion superstore of Dead Sea products. When I walked in an excited salesperson ran me over and handed me a jar of lotion to slather on my face. It was instantly soothing. I checked the price- $30. No wonder she was excited. No thanks, I'll handle the pain.

The Masada has a cool story behind it. The Jews overtook Masada from the Romans during a revolt in the 60's. When the Roman army came to retake it the Jews chose to commit mass suicide rather than become Roman slaves. The Jewish people see this site as a place of great national pride. Interestingly, the term Masada means "fortress" in Hebrew.

REST

Later that day we went to the beautiful En Gedi refuge. In 1 Samuel 24 David has already been promised the kingdom and anointed king by Samuel. However, since defeating Goliath everything has been going downhill and he is running for his life. This brings him to En Gedi. This refuge in the desert where David is going to find out that God will do his work, and He will do it in His timing.

David writes some of the Psalms of refuge at En Gedi. En Gedi is a place where David will learn that he must be patient and wait on God. This was a great place of refuge and a wet place in a dry land. In the middle of the desert you come upon an oasis of waterfalls out of nowhere.

Tiffany and I did not climb the waterfalls because she was tired from the earlier climb up Masada. Instead we strolled along the base of them and watched as a couple plunged in and out of the pool of water. This was a nice moment of the trip for us. A time where we could pull away from the rest of the group and just enjoy spending time together. Tiffany and I enjoyed just being together. It was an en gedi for us.

Throughout the day I thought often about how vast and big this land was extending as far as our eyes could see. I pictured Abraham caravanning through the desert with his family trusting God to provide the destination. I envisioned David fearful at En Gedi running for his life. This seemed very lonely to me.

In the afternoon we went to the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The caves contained scrolls which were kept in pots for almost 2000 years until a Bedouin boy threw a stick into the caves and heard a shattering. The scrolls were found. One of the major scrolls was one of the Isaiah scrolls. It was a hugely important find because the scrolls that contained the Isaiah books were almost exact to the words of the Isaiah that we have today. This was an interesting site because holes in the walls of the mountains showed the dozens of caves of the area.

We concluded the day with a swim in the Dead Sea. The mud on the bottom kept swallowing up our shoes. The mud was thick and black like soft serve tar. People travel to the Dead Sea to rub mud on themselves to heal because they believe the mud to have healing powers. I rubbed it on my face hoping to ease my sunburn. It was a different experience in the Dead Sea. You could lean backwards and almost sit on top of the water with your feet floating in front of you.

Cue the Music

We rode into Jerusalem and begun to hear a song blaring over the bus’ CD player. It was a song entitled “Jerusalem” and the chorus was almost overwhelming with the words “Jerooosalem…Jeroooooooohhhhsalem” repeated over and over again. We came around a bend and went through a tunnel and upon our exit we were staring out from an overlook onto the temple mount and the Dome of the Rock. It was a world class vision.

The Mount of Olives was separated from Mt. Moriah (The Temple Mount) by the Kidron Valley. This was the East side of Jerusalem. The center of Jerusalem is the Temple Mount which is surrounded by the Kidron Valley in the East, the City of David to the South, and the Central Valley to the West. On the other side of the Central Valley to the West of the Temple Mount is Mt. Zion. The Hinnom Valley is West of Mt. Zion and turns to travel underneath the City of David.

The City of David was built near water. King Solomon built the first temple on Mt. Moriah which was destroyed in 586 B.C. During the return of Ezra and Nehemiah a second temple was built…a smaller one than the first. Herod gave much attention to expanding and beautifying this second temple (second temple Jerusalem 19 BC – 63 AD). Back in those days when you were rebuilding something that had fallen you would just put dirt over the ruins and build on top of the dirt. Herod built restraining walls that would be filled to build the temple on. These four walls make up the Temple Mount. This became the site of the second temple and therefore the Holy of Holies. This area of the temple was close to the Western retaining walls of the Temple Mount. The temple was destroyed in the 60’s when the Romans squelched a Jewish revolt. The Muslims eventually controlled the site and built the Dome of the Rock on the site of the old temple. The Jewish people are forbidden by religion to go onto the site because it is a Muslim site. Thus they worship and pray at the Western Retaining Wall, aka the Wailing Wall, which is their holiest site because they believe that this site is as close as they can come to the biblical Holy of Holies that used to reside on the West end of the Temple Mount.

Herod knew about the Messianic promises that the Bible links to a person who has zeal for the temple. It seems like many of his provisions for a better temple had to do with his delusions of Messianic grandeur. I asked if this was weird for the Jewish people receiving such “outside”- gentile- help in establishing the temple. Dr. V. put it this way “What if someone wanted to rehab your home for free?” I don’t really think that God was OK with such ungodly establishment with the temple but what do I know? Herod worked with priests of the time to ensure that he was expanding the temple in a kosher way.

There was an interesting note concerning the coming of the Messiah. In Daniel 9 there is a prophecy that says that the Messiah will come before the city of Jerusalem is destroyed like a flood. This would seem to point to the Roman destruction in the 60’s which would mean that the Messiah would have needed to come before 60 AD.

On the side of the Temple Mount facing the Mt. of Olives there is a gate into the Old City named the East Gate. This gate has been sealed. Ezekiel 43:4 promises that the Messiah will appear through the East Gate. The Jewish people built a cemetery on the Mt. of Olives facing the East Gate hoping that when the Messiah appeared that the dead would be raised and would be the first to see Him. The Muslims sealed the East Gate to keep the Messiah out. The Muslims also built a cemetery directly outside of the East Gate knowing that a righteous Jewish person would not approach a dead body.

Anguish

The Mt. of Olives was the site of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew. It contains 97 verses, 61 of which concern readiness for the return of Jesus. It is also the site of the triumphal entry as Jesus rides down the mount and through the Kidron Valley. People threw their garments onto the ground as a sign of submission to him.

When the glory of God leaves Jerusalem in Ezekiel it is seen departing over the Mt. of Olives. When Jesus returns to the city prior to the crucifixion he returns along the same path.

We stop for a lesson at the Church of the Dominus Flevit. This is the site where Jesus reportedly weeps over the city. It is a touching place. Jesus would ride down this site and look over a valley and see the place of the sacrifices and think about the crucifixion in a few days. From this place it looks almost like you could reach out with an extended arm and touch the Temple Mount from Mt. Moriah. Jesus sees this view and weeps with compassion over the people of this place. It made me think of Jesus as a prize fighter walking alone to the ring, one person in the midst of a huge mob walking towards the fight of his life…approaching his destiny. Zechariah 14 promises the return to the Mount of Olives for the Holy One.

Near the bottom of the mountain is the place called “Gethsemane” which translates “Press Olives.” John 18:1-3 says that the disciples had a regular hang out and this olive press seems to be the place. The garden would be filled with olive trees for picking olives to make olive oil. This garden would have been the place where the closer disciples fell asleep while praying for Jesus before his arrest. Jesus went on ahead and fell to the ground in despair.

Near the site of Jesus’ anguish the Church of All Nations has been built. You enter through the garden which contains olive trees that are millennia old and probably were already in place on the night before Jesus’ murder. A few centuries after Jesus’ death Christians returned and seemingly built a church on every site where Jesus breathed. Each of the churches has been designed to reflect the atmosphere around the story it is memorializing. Thus the Church of All Nations is a somber and morose setting of blacks, browns, navies, and deep purples. The steel doors are designed with olive branches engraved in. The outside of the church is decorated with a gaudy mural, and the inside ceiling is made up of twelve seals representing the twelve countries that contributed money to build the church. This was one of two churches built on the Gethsemane site. The second one is at the Olive Press or “grotto” itself. Both had great beauty in completely different ways. The grotto church was simple in its’ anguish. The Church of All Nations was grandiose.

On a touching note, at Gethsemane Jesus would have seen the armies approaching from the Temple Mount and across the Kidron Valley carrying torches by night. Jesus could have ascended back up the short Mt. of Olives and escaped into the Judean Wilderness. He would have easily gotten away. The Romans probably would not have chased him because they were annoyed with all of it anyway. Jesus chose to stay. And we are here because of it.

Proof?

Being in Israel and seeing all of these sites, accurate to the biblical story you begin to see that this place is so historically accurate that you must ask “What are you going to do with all of this spiritually?” I believe Christianity is linked more to specific history than any other religion. It is about ages and places and kings and kingdoms and cultures and buildings and wreckage and movement and things that we know happened…even if we are a historian and not a Christian. So what do you do with the other stuff? It makes a strong apologetic. If you accept the Bible as mostly historically accurate, even in its’ predictive nature, what do you make of its’ spiritual veracity? Can you accept one and not the other?

We followed this with a trip to the potential site of the Last Supper. Honestly, this lacked really anything interesting in itself. The message from the Upper Room in John 14-17 preps the disciples for his imminent exit. He promises to send the Spirit, calls on the disciples to abide in Him, and gives the promise that the world will hate you on behalf of me.

Two things made this site interesting:
1. We were promised that if we got through this site quickly we would eat at Burger King...Yes Israeli Whoppers. Order: 1 Whopper meal, 1 Whopper, (no cheese we're kosher in this country pal) 1 medium drink...$24
2. The parking lot was extremely small and up a one lane- that was actually a two-lane street, up a little hill. By the time we returned to our bus the lot was filled with two buses like a mid summer day game at Wrigley. To leave the parking lot bus after bus drove in reverse down the hill. We finally squeezed out.

The Upper Room site was above what is called David's Tomb but it is unlikely that David was buried there. We didn't have time to see it, though I wish we would have.

The Hinnom Valley is the biblical place called GeHenna. Here garbage would have been burned and it would have smelled with the stench of rotting burning garbage. This is the picture of Hell biblically which Jesus refers to as Gehenna.

In the afternoon we went to the Israel Museum. Here we saw a model of Jerusalem as it would have been in Herod's day. Here we learn that the normal public entrance to the Temple Mount would have been up the Southern Steps. Which might have run all the way down into the City of David near Hezekiah's Tunnel. The fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls are here in a place named "The Shrine of the Book" which is a white building shaped like the pots the scrolls were discovered in.

A memorial and a name

In the afternoon we went to Yad Vashem the holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. The design of the building is extraordinary. When you enter a film in black and white of Jewish families is playing at the beginning of a long concrete triangular hallway. The hallway branches off into ten rooms which chronologically tell the holocaust story. The Nazis moved in under the world’s eye and began to arrest and organize the Jewish people to keep track of them. They were eventually sent by trains into concentration camps to be murdered. The museum told harrowing stories of families separated and not being able to say goodbye as they passed each other on the way to the gas chambers. You couldn’t help but think of your own kids and the heartbreak of a passing final glance in a crowd. The last stop in the museum is the hall of remembrance. This is a circular room of bookshelves filled with hundreds of soldiers containing names and stories of those murdered in the holocaust. There were six million Jews killed in the holocaust. Let that sink in…six million.

Following the holocaust the United Nations wanted to give the Jewish people their own land to establish and defend themselves. So in the late 1940’s they divided the land between Israel and Palestine. The Arabs, who had previously owned the land, thought this was unfair and fought to defend the land attacking Israel the day after the proposal was supposed to take place. They lost the war and lost their piece of the land.

The end of the hallway leads to a spectacular, peaceful view of New Jerusalem. There is a huge glass window and while you walked through Yad Vashem you were unknowingly ascending a mountain that would lead you to an oversight of the city. Spectacular.

Outside of the main building was a second building which was the children’s memorial. In the first section of this building were silhouettes of children and over the loud speakers name after name and age of children who were killed in the holocaust were read. I heard ages from 6 months to 17 years. The final room of this building is a room with glass windows and thousands of candle reflections surrounding you on all sides. Speechless.

The name Yad Vashem comes from the Hebrew in Isaiah 56:5
“I will give them a memorial and a name that will not be cut off.”

On a story that is a little funny… Yad Vashem has a room that contains an eternal flame. Some years back German Chancellor Schroeder was invited to turn a handle to boost the eternal flame as a sign of friendship between Germany and Israel. In a diplomatic nightmare he turned the handle the wrong way and extinguished the eternal flame.

Presence

For 1900 years the Jews of the diaspora longed for a place to come and worship and the Western Retaining Wall of the Temple Mount became that place. There is a steady stream of worshipers 24 hours per day who came to pray at the wall at the place that they believe is the closest place on earth that they can get to where the presence of God continues to reside. You can even see a live shot of this at www.aish.com/wallcam. As men and women come to the wall to pray they are divided by a wall into men's and women's sections. Men must wear a head covering and I am glad that I bought a yarmulke for the trip. The ones that they had for people to use at the wall were paper and looked like Chinese food containers. I was bothered by two things at the wall: First, the tourists kept walking up to people praying and took pictures of them as if they were viewing caged animals at the zoo. Second, there were locals who were using this holy site as a place to hit people up for money.

The wall is made of gigantic stones. People walk up to the stones and stuff prayers that they have written into the cracks in the wall. I looked forward to this and thought for months about what prayer I would put into the wall. I thought the best prayer I could give was that my kids would have a stronger faith in Jesus than I do. I pray so hard that this would be true.I envisioned returning here with Ben one day. It would be cool to stand with my son at the wall. As I went to stuff my prayer in the wall the cracks were stuffed full of prayers...thousands of the crushed together so that new ones could barely fit in. You can even fax your prayer to the wall now. I was glad that I am taller than the average Jewish person and I could reach higher than most.Being at the Western Wall was one of those moments where you feel like you are at one of the most important places in the world. Sometimes I close my eyes and imagine being at the wall again.

People would prepare to enter the prayer areas by washing their hands at huge sinks and water fountains before entering. In Jesus' day people would take a ritual bath before entering the temple areas for sacrifice. Upon leaving the temple many walk backwards out of the prayer areas because they want to stare at the wall as long as they possibly can. Although it is misguided I am moved by this reverence. It was interesting to see fathers with their sons- both dressed in black suits- fathers with long beards and suns with curly payot (sideburns) twisting down the sides of their faces.

We returned here on the Sabbath and this was a great scene. The prayer areas of the Wall were filled with tables to study the Torah on the Sabbath. Big tables with Hebrew inscripted coverings and Torahs on top of the table. There was a hallway that led into a tunnel which was a library filled with Torahs and songbooks and people worshiping.

We heard big things about how the Western Wall was on the Sabbath which begins Friday afternoon. We were excited about being there for this but were disappointed when we approached the time of sunset and the atmosphere didn't change much. We chose to stay a little longer and we found out that our time had been off. As we approached the true time of the Sabbath for that afternoon the crowd began to build more and more until it was a packed mob. The men's courtyard was packed shoulder to shoulder. People would break out in songs and chants. A youth group danced in a circle just inside the security entrance. Following the dancing they entered the prayer section. This was a happening. More on the Sabbath later.

Returning to our first day at the wall- on Wednesday afternoon we entered into the Western Wall excavation tunnels. It was said that there used to be houses and basements that went down two or three stories below where the above ground wall is visible. One of the most impressive aspects of this site was a clear look at the stone design of the walls. Herod was so obsessive that he made his servants chisel the stone until it was flat until they were immaculately smooth. One of the foundation stones that we saw was about fifteen yards long and probably six feet high. It weighed tens of thousands of pounds and no one can figure out how they could be moved. Even hearing the descriptions of how they were moved it still seemed impossible.

Along the tunnel route there was a movie that tried to explain how this would have been built. There was also an original street that would have undoubtedly been walked on by Jesus. At one point we came across a couple ladies in fervent prayer. There was a sign at this point in the tunnel which said that this was the closest place on earth that anyone could get to the original holy of holies.

When we left the site we entered a dark street of the old city. It was a human moment as the streets had quieted down and the residents of the neighborhood were going to and from their home. We looked up an inclined street and saw a couple children running and playing. It was a reminder that in the midst of all of the history and meaning and religiosity and faith people were living life and kids were playing and going home for dinner. What would it be like to live here in the middle of all of this? I almost cannot comprehend it.

We ended a long day with a group meeting to talk about our feelings from Yad Vashem. I had been bothered prior to the trip about the Jewish-Palestinian question. Palestinians have a distinct culture and have been created in the image of God. So I asked the unpopular question at the meeting: "If they are created in the image of God why do they not deserve their own land?" I derailed the holocaust discussion- not purposefully- but many seemed interested. A major premise was that the land had originally been promised to Israel by God and not by men. This promise was never revoked and was often restated biblically. This is true. But I feel like the Palestinians must still be cared and provided for...this is also biblical.

Two things were clear to me from the trip. One Israel has a biblical right to land and identity and seems to be working to give land to the Palestinians as well...although some might question how sincere this desire is. Yet we often hear that some Arab leaders or countries do not believe that Israel has any right to land or existence and some would seek to destroy this. When we went to Palestinian controlled Bethlehem we needed to cross a border crossing. It was a striking site. On the Israeli side were large billboards that were cheery and had the message of "Shalom-Peace." When you crossed the border on the Palestinian side there were murals of Jihadists. As I write this President Abbas of Palestine is discussing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. However, the ruling Hamas majority seems to desire the absence of Israel.

The land is a land on the continual brink. Three days before we left we heard of someone walking into a Jerusalem seminary and killing like 10 students. When this happened the Arabs of the West Bank fired celebratory gunfire in the air. When we got to Israel we were told that every day rockets were fired from the West Bank into Israeli territory; neighborhoods that tourists groups do not come near. I thought this might be an overstatement until I returned and read an AP story on yahoo that said this was true...rocket attacks happen multiple times everyday. Investigators found out that the seminary attack was not done by Arabs but rather by an unhappy Israeli. But the initial impression was an Arab/Israeli attack. It is sad. But I also wonder something that I would be too afraid to ask out loud: Had the Palestinians decided to live peacefully would anybody be offering them their own state today?

Once in Royal David's City

Our next day begins with a trip to the city of David. It starts with a forgettable 3D movie. I remember nothing about it except my glasses did not fit as usual and that Jack got a big laugh by suggesting that the adventurer of the movie looked like Dr. V.

At this point I was facing my major fear of the trip. For weeks I had been worried about going through Hezekiah's tunnel. Remember the issue of water in Israel. It was scarce. In 2 Kings 18 and 2 Chronicles 32 Hezekiah is fearing an attack by the Assyrians and so he takes drastic measures to outlast them by protecting his water supply. He orders a hidden tunnel to be carved in the stone to bring the water from the Gihon Springs safely into the city. two teams started on opposite ends and carved this tunnel until it met in the middle. The picture that I saw of the tunnel made me worried that I would not fit but I wanted to walk through it so I did. I am pretty sure that Brooke and Mike knew I was worried and so they planned for me to walk in between them. You jump in on one end where the water is about knee deep. I was nervous and short of breath as we began to walk. We kept a quick pace and trudged against the water flow. At times the tunnel dropped under five feet and my shoulders bounced back and forth between the walls the entire way. I scratched my head which had the unfortunate consequence of me realizing just how bald I am when I took a picture of my head to see the cut. (Maybe I will include that picture maybe I won't). I think that tall skinny guys started on one side and short kind of skinny guys started on the other as at the end of the tunnel the ceiling rose to probably fifteen feet.

The tunnel ends at the Pools of Siloam where Jesus heals a man in John 9. Half of the pool is excavated and the other half is not because the church that owns the land will not sell it to the government to be dug up. This is bad. It is also really good because it demonstrates how a ruined site would look prior to being dug up. One side looks like a swimming pool. In the middle of the swimming pool is a wall of dirt and grass unexcavated.

Next to these pools were stairs that were currently being excavated. These stairs probably traveled all the way from the city of David to the southern steps of the Temple Mount.

While awaiting to go into the tunnel we entered a working excavation site that looked out over the City of David. It might have been a stronghold of David as in 2 Samuel 5. This would have been a potential place for David to look out over the city and spy Bathsheeba bathing.

Dr. V says that 1 Samuel 8 the people want a king to help them fight in their battles. In 2 Samuel 11 the Israelites go to battle and David stays back...derelict of duty. He gets into trouble in idle time by viewing Bathsheeba. We are challenged- what do we do with our free time? He challenges us to work hard. It is a good challenge

Showdown in the Old City

From Hezekiah's tunnel we would go and sit on the Southern Steps of the Old City. Dr. Wechsler gave a good handout about the strange occurrences that surrounded Jewish traditions at the time of Jesus' coming. Even Jewish sources thought something strange was going on.

One of the striking scenes from Jerusalem was the evidence of the Roman destruction of the temple. Jesus prophesied that the stones of the temple would overturn one on top of the other. The Roman government put down the Jewish revolt in the 60's by systematically dismantling the temple stone by stone. We stood at the base of the walls and looked down the huge stone street running along the walls pockmarked by huge chasms from where the stones were pushed off into the streets. There is a replica cornerstone on the ground reminiscent of the one that would have been destroyed earlier. The replica is engraved where the trumpets would be blown to start a celebration.

The steps of the temple are said to have been built staggered to cause a person approaching the temple to be thinking as they walked and to not take a trip to the temple mindlessly. I personally don't believe that this is why the steps were designed this way...but what do I know? At this site we saw a movie about what a pilgrim's trip to the temple would have been like. This has always fascinated me. We go onto the temple mount itself. The history is amazing. This single spot is the most important site of Judaism and one of the most important sites of Islam as well. The Muslim Dome of the Rock is built on the site of the old temple. The building is beautifully adorned with gold and mosaic. Many believe it has been built over the site of the holy of holies. The Muslims believe Abraham went to sacrifice Ishmael here and that Mohammed ascended to Heaven from this spot.Guards make Tiffany put a sweater on to cover her arms as we get there. It feels less joyous than below. It really felt like the site of a holy war...and in innumerable ways it was.

We are warned that though the Dome of the Rock is beautiful it was built as an anti-Christian and anti-Jewish monument. The inside contains a scroll across the top of the dome about God not having a son and on and on. I read about this before we came yet I wish we still could have gone in and seen it. We took a picture in front of it anyway.

The Old City is one of the most confusing places I have ever been. It is a mix of Jewish and Muslim and Christian and Armenian sections with holy sites and shops and bazaars and bizarres all around. It was the most wondrous and wonderful place I have ever seen. Since returning from Israel I heard that it was recently named as one of the new seven wonders of the world. Geologists also believe that it is the single most vulnerable place in the world to be obliterated by earthquake because of the poor foundation it was built on. This might say something about the vulnerabilities of the holy buildings as well and how some might come down and be replaced by others. This is a city that exists in a box of walls. Like building a metropolis on top of a sand box.

We did most of our souvenir shopping here. We bartered an olive tree nativity music box down to $20 from $50. Tiff says I'm good at this. I found out soon that she is bad at this. International incident starting bad. We found a shop that custom made t-shirts which was nice because we bought Hebrew Sesame Street shirts for Addie and Ben. In the Old City we drank fresh squeezed pomegranate juice which was amazingly good.

We enter one shop and I buy a shofar and Tiffany is interested in a ring. The vendor does not have the ring she wants but he pushes her into saying she is interested in another type. He runs down the street to find a different ring that she will like. It does not fit and she does not like it anyway. However, she doesn't say she doesn't like it...she says it doesn't fit so he runs to find a different size. As he leaves I know she doesn't want it but the guy is running back and forth to get a ring. When he returns I say "She doesn't like it and we're not buying it." The guy explodes. I begin walking out and Tiffany keeps apologizing and I am nudging her "Let's go...now!" She was bad at this bartering. Almost an international incident. We felt bad and Tiffany feared the Old City for the remainder of the trip.

Later that night we bought personalized Hebrew rings that we do like. I bought a pinky ring which might or might not look pretentious that has the names of my kids on it "BEN-ADI" in Hebrew lettering. It is beautiful but we will soon find out on the trip that it is going to be one name short.
We walk to the Pools of Bethesda an amazing site with multiple pools and colonnades excavated in the 1800's. This site is mentioned as a place of Jesus' healing in John 5. Because it is only mentioned in John 5 and nowhere else biblically and no where else in Jewish history most scholars believed that the place did not exist. Until it was dug up.

At this site was an amazing church with impeccable acoustics. We sat in the church and sang "It Is Well With My Soul" along with another group that was in the church at the time. The acoustics caused the singing to boom forth and crash audio down onto all of us. It was one of the most memorable moments of the trip. I wish I could sit here with the people of Bethel and have them experience the same thing.

I think this night was the first night that we played Phase 10 with Brooke and Mike. I was glad that we had now adjusted enough to stay up and enjoy our evenings more. Also at the Prima Kings hotel in Jerusalem I found out that Illinois was surprisingly still alive in the Big Ten Tournament and in the finals. They should not have a chance to make the NCAA tournament but they did. This was exciting and gave me a reason to check the news every morning. They didn't make it but it was a nice ride from a distance. We were wearying of being away from home and this was a nice touch of home. Going home seemed so far away. Something that was not a nice touch from home were our daily phone calls to our kids. Addie would just yell out "DAD...DAD..."and then say nothing. Ben just said nothing. These calls were not very fulfilling and usually took me about fifteen seconds before I handed the telephone to my wife. On an answer to prayer note...Before we left we looked hard for a good, cheap and reliable way to call home. We heard of something called the Pelecard which was an Israeli company that sold pin numbers over the internet to use to call the United States from Israel. It seemed fishy but we took the risk. It was good, reliable, and cheap. God bless the Pelecard company.

The Special Find

The next day was one of the best days of the trip and a real good surprise. We participated in an archaeological dig in a system of caves. The thought is that the people of the caves left in a hurry and buried all of their stuff in the caves 2000 years ago so that the stuff could not be plundered by their invaders.

I thought this would be a bust but it was great. I imagined some sun beating down on us in the middle of a dirt field thing with us finding nothing but toil and sweat experience. I was wrong. We were given a pick and a trowel to chop up the dirt and sift through it. Everyone found something...which is cool to think of because it would have been the first time these things were touched in two millennia. Tiff started by finding a big animal tooth. Pottery was found and a big wine jug handle. But the big find of the day was a metal toga pin. Found by...me. The archaeological highlight of my life. I dug up this thing that was bent and metallic and green. I thought it was junk but the guide saw it and got real excited. He called it a "special find." I'm glad I could assist the cause of historical interpretation. We could have kept digging for hours but we only dug for like 30 minutes. I loved watching Tiffany here. She was so excited and in her element and wanted to take pictures of our finds. She seemed proud when I found the pin. It was an adventure we will remember forever. After the dig we saw an amazing winepress at the site. The rest of the group continued to climb through the cave system which i was warned I would get stuck in. I saw pictures...I would have. We ended the day with a briefing about what happens to the stuff we found. We were given some shards of pottery as a souvenir and we went on our way. Following this we drove to the Elah Valley the site of David's battle with Goliath. You can see the dried up brook that David would have pulled the smooth stones from to take Goliath out. This valley was between the two hills that the Philistines and Israelites would have descended down to fight the battle. The striking thing of this site was that the battleground would be pretty small. Which means that Goliath would have stuck out like a sore thumb here.

Wechsler gave a devotional about what made David a man after God's heart from 1 Samuel 16-17:
1. He hated the things God hated
2. He relied on God
3. Everything he did was motivated by God's glory 17:46

We ended the day at Sabbath at the Western Wall. On Sabbath the city absolutely shuts down. The grocery store closed for like 36 hours. The nice thing was that the hotel served a deluxe meal on the Sabbath with beef carving stations.

The Way of the Cross

We began Saturday morning by walking the Via Dolorosa. There are 14 stations of the cross along this route chosen in the 14th century. Some were made up and the group did not really stop much along the way. Except when we stopped at the Church of the Flagellation which is near the site that Jesus was believed to be whipped and flogged prior to his crucifixion. I thought the church was the most beautiful one that we saw on the trip. A simple golden crowned Jesus figure was at the center of the altar with a grimace on his face. A beautiful stained glass depiction of Jesus' suffering encircled the church. A glorious crown of thorns was painted on the ceiling.

The final stations are all in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. On an interesting note the church is divided into different denominations and they can't agree on much. After we returned we heard of a fistfight between priests on the orthodox Palm Sunday. While we were there we saw a ladder outside of one of the windows on the second floor of the church that we heard has been there for decades. The church leaders cannot agree who should move it. The church was trying to be reverent but looked more Hollywood. The church is said to have been built on the site of the quarry that Jesus was crucified on and the tomb he was laid in. These things were almost unrecognizable although most scholars believe that this is the actual site. The quarry was outside some windows near at the top of a staircase near the entrance of the church. The tomb was in a wooden shelter in the middle of the church. You needed to wait in a long line to enter the tomb's "house." As we waited we were cut in front of by a number of Europeans...which became a regular daily annoyance at different places on the trip. Only a few of us made it in. When people asked what it was like I didn't know what to say. I couldn't figure out what I had just seen.

Because of this there arose a much more adored site of a proposed crucifixion and tomb site named Gordon's Calvary. In the 18th century Charles Gordon, a British explorer, discovered this area which has a mountainside that looks like a skull and does contain some tombs. Again almost no one believes this is the true place of crucifixion. It is a gorgeous area, a serene garden. It was peaceful except for when the group of women entered into the tomb site and began wailing and wailing- which was echoing out of the mouth of the tomb. I appreciate that they felt a connection with Jesus in this place. We had group communion and sang together. This was drowned out by the riotous tongue speaking of the group that was having their communion service just below us.

During this Wechsler commented that the last bread of the passover feast was traditionally a hidden piece which has the translated title "come again." Jesus ends the passover meal with the promise of the hope of the resurrection.

Following this we went to Bethlehem. We needed to switch drivers and guides and buses to do so because our Jewish guide and driver were not allowed into Bethlehem. This was an uncomfortable feeling because throughout our time we switched guides three times. Our first stop was a souvenir shop filled with gorgeous olive tree carving...gigantic nativities that sell for thousands of dollars. I am frustrated that I did not take picture of them because they were beautiful. I loved the carving of Jesus washing feet. It was great. It was $8000.

We moved onto a Herodian fortress on a mountain above Bethlehem. This gave a perspective of the distance between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. It was pretty close. This means that when Herod sent his people to kill the babies in Jerusalem there would not have been a huge escape period if Joseph and Mary had delayed. This fortress might be the final resting place of Herod and they are currently studying that possibility.

We ended our time in Bethlehem with a trip to the Church of the Nativity. I am glad we came here because for a while groups were not allowed. Across from the church is manger square which fills on Christmas Eve. Today it had some type of seemingly militant gathering with banners of armed shoulders hanging over the square. This was the most nervous I had been on the trip.

The church is nondescript. To enter you bow through a door that is about a five foot rectangle cut into the wall. The door is fittingly called "The door of humility." I love that symbolism.

The church is old and falling apart. Holes in the floor reveal old mosaics underneath. The look inside is garish. Plastic ornaments hang everywhere. I laughed at the thought of priests driving to FIM and buying a box of Christmas ornaments to hang at the church. "These would look nice" I imagine them saying. We offended the religious leaders of the church by laughing while waiting in line to go to the basement to see the supposed site of Jesus' birth. Above the stairs into the basement hangs a golden picture of Mary and baby. Downstairs there is a manger on one side and a simple silver star on the floor marking the spot where Jesus is said to have been born. I know many hated it. I thought it was brilliantly simple.

We board the bus to go back. For some reason we switch guides again and we get nervous. To cross the border we are abandoned at the end of a dead end street with no directions. Fortunately a nice kid pointed to the ramp that would take us up and over the border and back into Jewish Israel. We return to Jerusalem for our final night.

On the Road...AGAIN

At this point in the trip the schedule was becoming tiring. We had to load the buses up again and depart Jerusalem on the way to Galilee. When we do arrive in Galilee we will find our kibbutzim (hotels) are right on the Sea of Galilee. They were amazing. There was a beach right next to the hotel which was nice but we didn't really have time to use it. I felt like the team was tiring and thought that it would be nice to have like an afternoon of rest. The constant rush was the only negative of the trip. but if we were going to see everything we needed this hurry. If I were running the trip, I might drop a couple of the Galilee sites and give everyone an afternoon off at the kibbutz.

On the way to Galilee we drive the bus to the top of a windy road and a tall lookout over the vast and dry Judean Wilderness. Jesus faced temptation here and seeing this place gave me an impression about how strong the temptation could be. This place had nothing. This place was lonely. If I were here I would be tempted for any kind of relationship even if it were with Satan. Luke 4 shows physical, power, and pride temptations. An interesting thought was offered: while Jesus can relate to our temptation we cannot relate to the strength of His.

We saw many ruins on the trip. To the point that at times they became repetitive. However, the coolest ruins we saw were at a site named Bet Shean. This is where Saul's dead body is hung out in 1 Samuel 31. Here we saw a huge excavated theatre complete with a toilet room next door. The toilets were stones that stuck out of the wall like gapped teeth. You sit in between these stones and pull up your toga and do your business. The city also had a strip of stores like a strip mall. It was destroyed by earthquake and pillars toppled over onto the streets. Other sites were destroyed by earthquake and Cesarea Philipi has a street that goes along and just collapses due to the quake.

We travel to the Gihon Springs which is a small site with a pond filled with stale discolored rain water. This was the site of Gideon choosing 300 for battle in Judges 7. We all talked about what this kneeling down and lapping water would have looked like.

When we arrive in Galilee we are taken to the top of Mt. Arbel which overlooks the city and the sea. The view is amazing. As we look out we are reminded that this is the major site of Jesus' ministry. He spent up to two of his three years of public ministry here. This is a small area and the name/fame/work of Jesus would have spread quickly across the sea and into other lands. Yet few cities remain from that time because Jesus guaranteed they would be cursed for rejecting Him.