Farewell (nat)

Shalom.
I just wanted to thank you all for reading, and to let you know that there probably will not be any new posts for a while. I leave for Tel Aviv in an hour to start the FDD program. Taylor and I are going to spend the afternoon on the beach before I head over to jopin my group. Im not sure there will any internet access. If Im lucky I'll try to continue the blog, but it might not happen. Anyways, just didn't want everyone to think that I'm being lazy over here.


thanks again for reading. Its been fun. Pray for the end of this war, and for aid to the poor Lebanese. Especially the kids.

Nat

Road to Massada

Photo Notes.
1. 5Am and we have finished the road to massada.
2. One of the Roman camps still visible
3. Chris pondering the Roman perspective on getting up to where he is
4. Judean wilderness
5. Crows circling a promintory
6. Judean wilderness
7. En Gedi
8. Floating On
9. Dead Sea mud in use
10. Confused
11. The En Gedi Hostel
12. Life camping by the Dead Sea - that guy was really good at guitar
13. Starting into the canyon at En Gedi
14. It really was incredible
15. Lush Oasis
16. Because of the war, the place was full of people from Haifa and that region on holiday
17. David's Waterfall
18. The lagoon at David's fall
19. Starting the hike up
20. Rehydrating
21. Jordan is just on the other side
22. A dry waterfall - runs during floods
23. A natural shower
24. Dodum's Cave
25. Steps up to a pool
26. Streams in the desert

Shalom.

As Randy already noted, this weekend we finally had the chance to travel to Massada as part of one of Hebrew U's student trips. We met the group at 230 am on friday and were out of Jerusalem by 3. Massada is around an hour and fifteen minutes southeast drive from Jerusalem, and so by the time the sun had just began to wake we were already in the desert. The desert in the south is the desert that most people think of when they think of the Judean wilderness- monolithic rock canyons, sand drifts up the side of boulders strewn throughout the landscape, tracks of animals zigzagging back and forth across the dunes. The sunrise came while we negotiated the insanely sharp curves of the only road that runs through that part of the desert.
By 530 or so we had disembarked and began the easier of the two hikes up Massada. Massada is really impressive, it is a distinctive mountain that stands out of the rest of the wilderness around it by its sheer features and hight. Driving up I couldn't help but think of how frustrated the Romans must have been... they trecked across an extremely difficult wasteland only to find an unapproachable stronghold.
We had a rather energetic tourguide who gave us the flash tour of the stronghold, starting with the incredible cisterns below and culminating in the roman bathouse that Herod built himself. The story of Massada is even more affecting when sitting the actual room that the elders drew lots in to see who would be the last person left alive. Our guide talked us through the whole dilemma the jews faced - should they kill thier own people who were enslaved by the romans to build the ramp that would eventually lead to the downfall of the fortress. Thier decisions still reverberates through the Jewish national consciousness. The troops are sworn in there, and I have actually seen several tshirts that read: Massada will not fall again.
The view from Massada was incredible, some of the photos do a halfway decent job of conveying it. We then rode the cable car down, and the took the bus along the Dead Sea to En Gedi. The contrast of the Judean wilderness with this entire body of unpotable water is really intersting, it looks so refreshing even though you know that it is not. The tour then took a quick dip into the En Gedi park before finishing at the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea is really wild. There really isn't a beach to speak of, all there are is salt encrusted rocks stained crazy colors. And you really do float. The entire thing is surreal. I had just shaved a day ago, and so had a little unpleasant stingin sensation, not to mention the salt in the cuts on my legs, but after a bit it felt fine.
The Dead Sea is so saline you can just stand in the water and not go anywhere, either up or down. It just suspends you at chest level. On the whole, floating in the Dead Sea is one of the most relaxing things I have ever done. Randy and I talked about floating over to Jordan, but as ten miles would take a long time when you really can't move fast, we decided to just hang by the shore. For those who sting thier eyes, there are showers right on the water, which I saw several screaming children rush over to in the space of the afternoon.
Randy and I broke off of the group and stayed at the Dead Sea for most of the afternoon. The crazy part is that your skin doesn't absorb the water, so you aren't waterlogged even after several hours of floating in the sea.
The beach we were at is only a fiftenn minute walk from En Gedi and the Hostel there, so we walked up and got a room that afternoon. This lady apologized profusely for the supposedly
'pathetic' room, but it ended up being better than our apartment at Hebrew U. The hostel itself was amazing, with beautiful bushes of flowers everywhere and an amazing view of the Dead Sea and the Jordanian mountains beyond. The room even came with meals, and so we had a really pleasant sabat dinner. We watched the moon and search flares over the Dead Sea that night.
The next morning we had breakfast with a really funny british couple and then packed for En Gedi. They require you to take at least five liters of water per person if you intend to hike, and so our pack was pretty heavy. The En Gedi park is a series of oasiss (im note sure what the pluarl of oasis is) in canyons in the desert. Supposedly David rested there, and also once met Saul there.
The Judean desert really is a desert. It was around 110 or so with dry heat that parched you immediatly. Entering the park you start a hike up the canyon. Overhead are incredible rock formation and caves spot the canyon walls. After a while, its suddenly green and lush. There is just pool after pool of beautiful aqua water, each fed by a cascading waterfall and surrounded by rushes and palm trees.
At the end of the canyone is David's waterfall, which is a fantastic eighty or so foot fall that had carved out a lagoon at the base of it. We cooled off a bit, and then began the challenging hike out of the canyone to an old Chalcodite temple. The hike was intense, up straight rock faces with metal ladders. The view at the top was really incredible though. The temple was just a pile of bricks, but from there we hiked to Dodums cave, right above the falls.
Dodum's cave was without exageration one of the neatest places I have ever seen. Right in the cleft of the canyon is a cave, open on one side,with a lagoon and a waterfall directly outside. Green moss hangs off of the ceiling, and from the lagoon you can see out over the canyon and to the Dead Sea below.
Hiking back down, we spent most of the day lounging around in the pools. It was really wild... the pools were kind of cold, but two minutes after getting out you were hot, dry, and parched again. The air is just so hot and dry. We met some soldiers while hanging out there, got to hear about thier lives. It was really interesting to try and explain why we aren't interested in joining the military when talking to people from a culture where it's mandatory.
Towards the end of the day I saw several mountain goats running up and down the mountains and couldn't help but think of scripture. The image of making our feet like mountain goats on high places is really powerful when you see what the goats actually can do. Really something.
One of the thoughts I took away from En Gedi is an better understanding of what the scriptural image of streams in the desert is referring to. I could just imageine finding something like En Gedi after days of thirst wandering through the wilderness. It would seem to be heaven on earth, the most refereshing thing imaginable.

Incense only makes it harder to see the way

Randy's Post (No. 3)

Hey guys. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer. It's been a while since the last post and a lot has happened since then. Arabic has been studied. Falafel has been eaten. Ein Gedi has been hiked. And the Dead Sea has been floated. That was really interesting by the way. There is absolutely no way you could sink in that tub of salt. The funny thing is, Nat and I noticed that the life guard station had a large life preserver hanging on the side of the hut. I guess they were just being thorough. I did happen to get a little water in my eyes which was one of the more painful experiences of my life.

Over the weekend, we all took a bus to Massada and got to hike to the top of the fortress. We walked up the ramp that the Romans built (made of stones, wood, and dead Jewish slaves) with our guide, an enthusiastic Iraqi Jew for whom each trip to Massada seemed to be his first experience with the place. He ran up the trail and pointed out where the Romans had camped around the fortress and mused upon what the Jews must have felt and thought. He was really good.

After that, the bus took us across the desert to Ein Gedi, which is an amazing place. (I really wish I could upload some photos of the place now, but our current internet connection is too slow for that. When we find another computer, we can upload from there.) What made it so amazing was its stark contrast from the dusty wasteland in which it is situated. It's as if you've found a tropical rainforest with cold pools and palm trees in the middle of the most desolate wasteland. Actually, that's exactly what it is. I'm sure David must have found some great relief there.

Once we do upload the pictures, you might see me in a pair of aviator sunglasses. I'm sorry. It was the only pair the store had at the Dead Sea. It seems that Israel has been stuck in the 80's for quite some time; or at least the time that it takes for certain aspects of American culture to reach this place is delayed about 20 years. They love New Wave music and anything with echoing drums. (Rami, you'd really like it here.) Thus, I wear the Top Gun sunglasses. Maybe in a decade they will discover Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I'll have to come back in 2022 when Interpol makes it big here.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. We're staying safe and will enjoy the last week here.

Randy

The Old City

Continuing the update, we didn't go anywhere this weekend while waiting for things to cool down. Te school has prohibited travel up north for the most part, and so we decided to try and see most of the sites that we hadn't hit in the old city. Our roomate Phil, this divinity student, kindly offered to play tour guide.

Photo Notes:
1. A chapel inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
2. Crossed carved by crusaders inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
3.Chris lighting votive candels
4. The cathedral part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
5. Incense burner inside the ethiopian section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
6. The bells of the ethiopian section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
7. Road sign
8. Sitting by a cross atop the Austrian Hospice, only a stones throw from the Dome of the Rock
9. View of the Arab Quarter
10. The Garden of Gethsemane
11. Cemetary covering the hillside of the Mt. Of Olives
12. Stairwell into the crusader Church of St. Mary Mother of Jesus
13. The Russian Convent of St. Mary Magdalene
14. Inside the main part of the Russian Convent of St. Mary Magdalene
15. Another view
16. View of the Golden Gate (historically blocked off by an arab cemetary- but it is the one Jesus went through) and the Dome of the Rock from the Mt. Of Olives. Jesus would have had this view on the way down for the triumphant entry
17. Zion Gate - pockmarked by gunfire

We had full day, and saw some amazing sites. Starting at the Mt. of Olives, we were wandering up the path by the garden of gethsemane when several nuns asked us to help put up a sign for the St. Mary Magdalene convent. Knowing that it is always wrong to refuse to help nuns, we put up their signs, and in return one of them gave us a tour of thier beautiful monastery. Turns out the monastery is normally closed to the public, and so we felt really lucky as Mother Catherine explained the history of most of the artwork, painting, and even explained the servied. Mother Catherine is actually not a russian, but a native San Fransiscan and spoke perfect english, which was a real treat.
After that we saw the supposed garden of gethsemane, and wandered through the graveyard that covers the mt of olives.
It is really easy to be skeptical of all these religious sites, especially ones created by the crusaders, but the truth of it is that most are based on tradition and have a fairly good chance of being authentic. Also, this place is not that big. There is only one mt of olives, and so there is a good shot that that really is the garden of gethsemane. As much as skepticism is healthy when it comes to things like the church of the holy sepulchre, it isn't fair to entirely dismiss it.
We wandered down the hill through Jaffa gate and had lunch at an incredible arab restuarant. It had the best hummus I have ever had. Here they leave the midel sort of unblended with just chick peas in olive oil. The food here is so good, but also so all the same.
Phil then led us on the Via Dolorosa, and we stopped at most of the stations of the cross. I put my hand in this imprint that Jesus reputedly left, and we said some prayers at several of the chapels. Phil then took us to the roof of the Austrian Hospice, a beautiful limestones building with gardens and almost spanish architecture. As the hospice is in the center of the city, it provided and incredible overview of the entire old city. It was odd to see that the different areas really do look different. The Jewish quarter is definately in better shape.
From there we went through the labrynth streets to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the pilgrims highlight and the home of the last station of the cross. As the church is built on the site where Jesus was crucified, it has been fought over for centuries by all the various christian factions. Eventually, it was partitioned into various sections and today there is a status quo agreement that keeps everything the exact way it was about a hundred years ago.
We first saw the ethiopian section, wich is in the ruins of the original church that was destroyed a long time ago. They sort of got the raw end of the deal. Thier section is rundown and dirty, with mud walls and a set of old bells hanging in the last reamianing buttress.
We did get to go into an old cistern underneath the city though, which was a really strange experience. We went into this old room where a lone priest was hunched against the wall singing. We started putting change into this old incense pan, and he sort of kept an eye on how much was in there. When he saw enough, he suddenly whipped this door open and pointed down a shaft of stairs so narrow I didn't know if I would fit. It was like something out of a movie.
The rest of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was everything you would expect it to be- beariful, majestic, colorful, run down in parts, full of pilgrims rubbing cloths on the stones to try and take part with them, hanging incense burners everywhere, mosaics... this is what I always thought the holy land would be like. It really is hard to describe what the church is like. I plan to visit it several more times before I go. We saw most of it, but as the Catholic patriach was coming to do his daily duties we were ushered out of the Catholic section before we could actually go into the sepulchre itself. The sepulchre, supposedly the exact spot of Jesus's crucifixion, is inside a massive ornate wooden box, all the sides of which are full of pilgrims candles. Amazing.
Seeing all these sites has given me a lot to think about. Seeing the actual historical backdrop of the faith I have put my trust in has really grounded it more in my mind. Jerusalem really isn't much. Jesus didn't come out of the greatest city or nation on earth, either in his time or in ours. God really chose to give great worth and value to a little stone village in the middle of nowhere. It still is too much to process a visit to the supposed site of the crucifixion, but the fact that I have stood and looked at Jerusalem from the same hill that Jesus did is really something. I am where Jesus actually walked.
The thing that really strikes me about things like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is that, while they are beatiful, and do commemorate the most exciting events in human history, that they are also empty of any real saving grace. Simply walking the Via Dolorosa or standing in Gethsemene imparts no grace of its own. It is actually sad to the see the slavery to inaniamate things. More and more I am realizing the real beauty of Christianity is that it is a living religion. Unlike any other faith it is not tied to sites and objects. Christ is with us, is alive, and wants to have a relationship with us wherever we are.

Life in these parts

Sabbah Kaer.
First off, blanket apologies for my laziness in not putting anything up in a while. Its been an intense last week and a half. Arabic has only gotten more and more intense, and now we are in the middle of country at war. Thanks for all the notes of concern and for all those who called my mom and told her that they were praying for us, that really meant a lot to her. I don't know if you'll ever read this, but thank you very much.
As it stands right now, we are about as safe as you can be in Israel. The only real threat to us, the bomber caught two days ago at Jaffa gate (which is only twenty minutes from Mt. Scopus, I can see it from my classroom) is not really a new worry or threat. That is a constant danger here. Also, even if Hezbullah had the capabilities, they would probably not bomb Jerusalem as so many major religions consider it holy, not the least of which is themselves.
I just thought I'd share some snapshots of the living here the last few weeks.

Photo Notes:
1. The Friar and I - that is a real franciscan friar there people - his name is Antonio and he is learning Arabic so that he can minister to those in his congregation that speak Arabic. The guy is really smart, already speaks latin, spanish, italian, english, and now is trying Arabic. Amazing. I always get a kick out of the thought of him sitting in the monastery prepping for an exam.

2. Taylor doesn't really like schwarma - a couple of days ago we went to the arab souk under the city. That cafe is actually under Jerusalem, I liked the juxtoposition of Taylor with the guy in the background. We really do stick out that much sometimes.

3. Morning from Mt. Scopus- because of where the hills are, the sun hits Jerusalem before Mt. Scopus.

4. Devotions overlooking the Arab village to the east

5. Street vendors at Damascus Gate.