Walking in the Footprints of the King

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Sorry about that. Things over here have been getting pretty busy with projects being due, trips to strange and far off lands, and just life. Some highlights from the past few weeks are archeological excavations in two different places around Jerusalem. The first project we helped with is called the Temple Mount Sifting Project. The story behind this project is that it is the first time in history, modern or ancient, that the artifacts from the temple mount have been able to be analyzed by archeologists. The Muslims have controlled the temple mount for around 1400 years and do not let anyone dig or look around for artifacts up there. In fact, some IBEX students were arrested several years ago for bringing a spoon on to the Temple Mount because the Muslims believed they were attempting to dig with it! In addition to this, it is illegal to dig for antiquities anywhere in Israel without express permission from the government. It is even illegal to build without an archeologist inspecting the property first and affirming that there are no important ruins on build site. About 10 years ago the Muslims decided that the Al-Aqsa mosque, which stands on the south end of the temple mount and accommodates 5000 worshipers, was not enough mosque space on the temple mount (The Al-Aqsa mosque is the gray dome on the south end of the Temple mount. You can see it in most pictures of this site). So in 1997, they decided to renovate what is known as Solomon's Stables and turn it into a mosque. Don't be deceived, however, Solomon's Stables are not stables and were not built by Solomon. They are support arches for the Temple Mount expansions of Herod the Great in the first century AD. This 1997 mosque expansion was carried out quite illegally, but not necessarily covertly. Trucks and tractors were brought onto the temple mount and used to haul away several thousand cubic meters of dirt and rubble to a dump site about 2 miles away. The authorities, knowing full well what was going on, chose to look the other way for fear of agitating already volatile Jewish/Muslim relations. Many archeologists were outraged by the behavior of the authorities in not stopping the Muslims from bulldozing and dumptrucking material from one of the holiest sites in the world without allowing it to be examined first. After several years of legislation, archeologists were granted permission to sift through the rubble that was illegally dumped during this construction project. That project is the Temple Mount Sifting Project of which we had the privilege to be a part. It has been going on for about 5 years and will probably continue for another 15-20.

This past Sunday, our IBEX group spent some 3-4 hours sifting through the rubble from the Temple Mount. Between the 40 of us, we found 2 ancient coins (we're not sure what they are yet because they must be cleaned first), several blue glass mosaic tiles that had fallen off the Dome of the Rock, a section of Opus Sectili (extremely smooth and colorful tiles used in decoration - Very expensive and very rare), many mosaic tiles ranging from half an inch square to over 3 inches across, lots of nails - both ancient and modern, and more pottery than you ever thought existed!

The second excavation we helped with does not have so elaborate a story as the Temple Mount Sifting Project. Or perhaps it does but remains unknown to me. The second day of archeological excavations (that's Monday, if you're counting) we helped with excavations in the city of David. The city of David is the original city that David build when he became king. It was built in the exact same location as the Jebusite city of Jebus and is actually outside the walled city of Jerusalem that stands today. Faulty philosophy of archeology has led many archeologists to believe that the City of David never existed in this location. The excavation we helped with on Monday, as well as several others, are working on finding remains of civilization from the time of David thus proving these unbelievers wrong. Our work in this excavation was not nearly as fun or rewarding as our work on the Temple Mount Project. Basically, we were dirt movers. There were 4-5 people digging about a hundred yards underneath and building and the 40 of us were the line of people passing the bags of dirt and rocks up out of the hole. I would be lying if I said it was loads of fun, but I would also be lying if I said it was the worst day of my life. Some of the best times with other people are had when working hard together. All in all, the work was hard, but the fellowship was good. If you're still reading this, I apologize for the lack of photos. I didn't bring my camera these two days because I knew the work would be hard and dirty and not a good place for a camera.

I'm constantly amazed at how fast this semester is going, yet how long it seems at the same time. If my thoughts turn to home and the people I love, it seems like I've been here for years and won't be going home for a really long time. On the other hand, when I think of what has happened here in the past two months, I think "holy cow, it's been two months already!" I know that my time is growing short here in Israel, please pray for God to keep my heart soft and open to hearing from Him for the rest of this trip. God Bless!