These past couple weeks have been bursting with many memorable adventures in the Holy Land. I've had the chance to experience a little bit of this and that [visiting churches, herding sheep, playing ultimate frisbee with the locals, playing the bells at the YMCA, and cherishing moments in sacred sites] and it's been so exciting and exhausting. Hmmm, let's just get to the pictures.
One of the highlights has been learning the Arabic version of the Hokey Pokey from a class of five year olds.
These past few weeks I've been able to volunteer to help little kids at the elementary school nearby to learn some English. We sing songs about colors, numbers, frogs, spiders, wheels on the bus, London Bridges, Do as I'm Doing, and any other song we can think of to keep them occupied and become more familiar with the English language. We help them learn actions, like 'I can jump, I can climb' etc, which is always followed by a chaotic mass of kids jumping on each other (or us) and ends in a massive dog pile on one of my fellow students. It's a little crazy to say the least, but very enjoyable. They get so excited to see us and there's always 3-5 kids clinging on to me and wanting to give me high fives.
The JC Gingers at the Garden Tomb
[the Amazing Amy, Me, the Marvelous Meagan, and the Snazzy Sheaghleigh]
Singing hymns in the Garden Tomb. The owners of the garden love it when we come and sing and there's always many different diverse tour groups going through the Garden. It is wonderful to just sing my testimony through the music and feel the Spirit in such a sacred site. It's an powerful feeling to sing "I know that My Redeemer Lives" or "I believe in Christ" with the empty tomb nearby.
This is pretty much the recipe for what we do most Sabbath days: enjoy an amazing church meeting, walk to either the Garden Tomb or Gethsemane, sing hymns for 45 minutes, study scriptures or write in journal for 30 minutes, pray together, maybe sing some more, then walk back to the JC, stuff our faces in the Oasis, play card games (MAO is a favorite) or other games, and then go to bed way too late.
This is in the Garden of Gethsemane (one of them; there are many different private gardens). The gardener let us take some branches off a pruned piece of an olive tree. :)
Gethsemane is not exactly what I pictured it to be because it's a little too touristy. However, it is still a beautiful place to think about what our Savior did for us. He loved each of us so much that He was willing to conform to the Father's will and give His life for us. I know that in order to make sure His sacrifice is not in vain we must conform to the Father's will and give our life for Him.
In the Jewish quarter of the Old City there is this heavenly bagel shop--with pesto cream cheese. :)
We spent a day at a place called Neot Kedumim where we learned about different plant species mentioned in the Bible and their significance, herded sheep, made pitas over a fire, pulled water from a well, and much more.
We talked about the significance of how Jesus is called our Good Shepherd. As we were trying to herd the sheep we learned a few things: sheep are just focused on grazing the grass and are hard to move, if you pat them from behind they respond better, and if you get one moving it is easier to get the others to move. This was really neat when we applied those things to how Christ is our Shepherd. Sometimes we are just focused on ourselves and He comes from behind and can lead us by gently urging us forward to better pasture. He leads best from behind most of the time so that He can see ahead of us and knows where to safely lead us to green pastures and fresh water. He knows His sheep one by one and will protect them at all costs, whereas a hired man would desert his sheep if there were wolves or danger. Christ will never desert us in our time of need. He knows us individually and will seek out His lost sheep. If we respond to His guidance then we will never be led astray.
Vladi and I grinding some hyssop, which is the plant used in Bible that the Israelites dipped in blood and wiped on their door frames during the smiting of the 1st borns in Egypt. It has significance because it is a bush-like plant and very humble, so the implication is that the Lord was saying to be humble and remember who was performing these miracles for the Israelites. There were really neat insights like that all throughout the field trip which really helped put some things in the Bible in perspective.
Home made pita!
[Amy (roomie #1), Madison, me, Loie (roomie #2)]
We had an actual Torah scroll writer talk to us about all the different rules and history of Torah scrolls and Judaism. For example, it takes over 5 years to write one Torah (the first five books in the Bible) and whenever God's name (Yahweh: YHWH) has to be written, the Torah scroll writer has to wash himself and do other things to make sure he is clean before he writes the name of God. It was very interesting to hear of the devoted worship of these people.
We had a Seder Meal (Passover meal) to see how Jews celebrate the Passover...even though it's only February...
A large portion of the traditional meal includes the reading of the Haggadah which is the script for the Passover meal and explains all the different symbolisms of the traditional meal. Our Israel/Judaism professor (Ophir Yardin) lead the meal and helped us understand all the different parts of the meal.
[Stewart, Meagan, Me, David]
One Sunday morning (don't freak out...Sunday is our Saturday here) we went to a field in West Jerusalem and played some epic Ultimate Frisbee and some crazy-skilled Arab kids joined in and blew us away with their skills even though they'd never played before.
Makara and I freezing in the cold on a Tel in Azekah (where David slayed Goliath in the Elah valley). Despite common belief, Israel can get REALLY cold and we've been pretty bundled up most days we go out. We usually don't think of Jesus and the apostles shivering and cold, but I fully understand how they could have felt most winters here...and they didn't have my awesome green jacket for protection either.
This was in some sweet caves in Maresha, which was an ancient town where some Canaanites dug caves in the soft limestone and lived in them. We sung some hymns in there because of the sweet acoustics and explored many different caves.
It just blows my mind to think that they carved all this stuff!
They raised doves in these little nests they carved out of the rock
ARAB CULTURE NIGHT! Our chefs cooked us some authentic traditional Arab dinner.
Napkin folding thanks to yours truly... :)
[Rachel, Marissa, Melia, and Kaitlin]
[Sterling, Sarah Beth, Dan, Me]
They are wearing the traditional Keffiyeh. The red and white is the most common.
[Joe, Vladi, Wesley, Dan]
The water level in Hezekiah's tunnel
[Dane and I]
Hezekiah's tunnel was made to ensure the safety of Jerusalem's water supply from the Gihon Spring when the Assyrians were about to attack. We got to walk through the whole tunnel which is pitch black and slightly cramped in some spots.
This is what the Pool of Siloam would have looked like during Jesus' time when he told the blind man to wash in the pool to receive his sight again.
This is the remains of some of the Pool of Siloam; one of the corners. It would have been a huge pool of water at the end of the Gihon Spring.
[Hannah, Kaylee, me]
Just a view west of the City of David (south of the Old City); houses like this are pretty standard.
Jen and I playing the Carolon bells at the top of the YMCA building in West Jerusalem. Our previous branch president (pres. Ohman) is an amazing organist and plays the bells every week here and let us come to play one Sunday. We played Heart and Soul...and over a million people can hear it from the tower. no pressure.
Sorry the video is crooked...
OH, and we spent a wonderful Sabbath evening baking cookies with the Ludlow clan.
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