Egypt was fantastic... and so are finals (okay, maybe not that)

It's been about a week and a half since I returned to Israel from Egypt, which means that I've finally gone through most of the pictures from the trip! I would love to write a comprehensive blog detailing the trip, but there is simply too much to say. I do have to say, however, that this trip was one of the highlights of my time in the middle east and indeed all of college! Seeing the Pyramids, Karnak temple, Luxor temple, Valley of the kings, the Colossi of Memnon, Banana Island, the Egyptian Museum, and Petra (that's in Jordan, not Egypt :D) was incredible, but what made the trip so memorable were the adventures along the way. There are simply so many stories to tell of haggling with Egyptians who barely speak English, almost getting run over twice every time we crossed the street, shady hotels, overnight train rides from Cairo to Luxor, getting ripped off on Banana Island, and staying in an apartment owned by an (and arguably THE) Israeli drug lord. Hopefully the pictures will convey some of the fun that we had on this trip. Enjoy!

Chillin' with Pharaoh...

In approximately 6 hours I will be on a bus bound for Egypt. This week is spring break for us here in IBEX, and most of us have decided to go down to Egypt (I know it's a little backwards... God brought the Israelites OUT of Egypt and now we're going back...?) to see the pyramids, temples, sights, and smells of the land of bondage. We will, presumable, be without Internet for around 9 days, but I promise to write about it as soon as I get back. If you remember, please pray for the safety of our group and that God will teach us while we are away from the familiar. I am extremely excited about his trip, but not so excited about the extremely short night of sleep ahead of me!

God Bless!
ברוך השם

The Beginning of the End...

The end is in sight. It's quite a bittersweet thought. There is a part of me that longs to be home and another part of me that never wants to leave. I have learned so much in this land and know that there is still so much left to learn. I am torn between longing to see family, friends, familiar places, and a yearning to stay in a country that I have grown to love. I have even fallen in love with the language of the land, which before coming here I had always thought was a course and uninteresting. Lord willing, my studies in Hebrew will continue even after I am home.

This week has been rather hectic preparing for finals and getting ready to go to Egypt. Even though this is such a hectic week, I HAVE had some time to go through some pictures and edit them. Here are some more from the Galilee trip!



ברוך השם
Baruch HaShem!

Here are some photos from the FIRST day of the Galilee trip I just returned from. There are pictures from 7 more days! I just haven't had time to go through them all yet. The last picture, of the rolling stone tomb, is actually from the second day. Since my camera still thinks it is in California, this photo was included in Day 1.



In Christ

Over the past 8 days I have seen such sites as The Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Caesarea Philippi, Caesarea Maritime, Nazareth, Mt. Carmel, Bethsaida, Chorizim, Tiberius, Beth Shan, The Jordan River, Megiddo, The region of the Gadarenes, Bashan (the Golan Heights), Mt. Herman, Dan, and a great many other places where the redemptive history of the Bible took place. However, even after seeing these places and standing on the very stones upon which Jesus, Paul, or Peter may have walked, the question of whether it is real must still be asked. This question of reality is not a question of whether these events really did happen, but whether or not I truly believe that they did. There is a mountain of archeological evidence that says Jesus really did live, that He really was born in Bethlehem, and that he really was executed on a Roman cross outside of Jerusalem, and that he really did rise from the dead on the 3rd day. Knowing that these things happened and truly believing them are completely different matters. To know that they happened is to acknowledge the historicity of the events in the same fashion as acknowledging that I ate breakfast this morning. It happened. But, to truly believe that these events happened and to have my life changed by them, that's a completely different matter. How will my life be impacted by these places and what happened in them? How will I live differently because of what I have seen and what I have experienced? These are the questions that I must deal with for the rest of my life.

Let me now pose the question to the reader (that's you). You have read the Bible. you know the story of Jesus. How is your life different because of what Jesus said and did? How does it need to change?

Blessings
ברוך השם

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!

Trip to Tel Aviv

Well, It's been awhile yet again. It seems like that is how this is going - no posts for a week then a flurry of them!

Yesterday the History of Modern Israel class (which I'm not taking) took a field trip to Tel Aviv to see some sites relating to the founding of the Jewish state in 1948. Even though I'm not in the class they allowed me to tag along. A lot of other people tagged along as well, so I was in good company.

The first place we stopped was the home of Chaim Weizmann, who was the first president of the modern state of Israel. He was apparently very good friends with many famous people including Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Harry Truman. He was also a brilliant chemist that helped the British war effort by engineering new ways of manufacturing chemicals used for armament production. By the end of his life, he had acquired over 120 patents for his work in Chemistry! Throughout his life Chaim Weizmann had a fascination with western culture and loved traveling around the world, especially to Britain and the United States. Even though he loved the west, his heart was always in Israel. In fact, the efforts of Chaim Weizmann were largely responsible for the United States recognizing the existence of the state of Israel when it was created in 1948. However, his love of the west ultimately caused him not to become the first prime minister of Israel, as many had wanted. They believed he was to easily influenced by non-Jewish thinking. Instead, the office of President, which is more of an honorary position than a political one, was created to honor this man who had contributed to much to the establishment of the Jewish state. Here are some picture from his house.

From Tel Aviv Trip

From Tel Aviv Trip

Chaim Weizmann was eventually buried on his property in Rehovot. His wife Vera was buried beside him when she passed away several years later.

From Tel Aviv Trip

The next stop we made was at David Ben Gurion's house in downtown Tel Aviv. Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, was a much more modest man that Chaim Weizmann. He moved to Israel very early in his life and never had an urge to travel, unlike Weizmann. It is interesting to compare the differences between these two patriots. Chaim Weizmann loved western culture and would often travel abroad to foreign countries, while Ben-Gurion was more of a homebody. He moved to Israel when he was very young and basically never left, but lived a humble life fighting for the founding of his country. Unlike Weizmann who achieved a doctorate in Chemistry before the age of 20, Ben-Gurion never earned an academic degree in his life. However, he was an incredibly brilliant man speaking 11 languages fluently. He apparently learned enough German in 1 week to carry on a conversation with a German delegate (a fact that is disputed by some. I have no comment)! I have to admit that I skipped out on the tour of the David Ben-Gurion house (I just stayed for the talk at the beginning. But I'm not in the class, so I didn't have to be there!) and went to the beach instead, which was 1 block away.

From Tel Aviv Trip

And if all that wasn't great enough, the highlight of the day came next - the Latrun tank museum. And by tanks I don't mean the things fish swim in... I mean THIS!

From Tel Aviv Trip

The Latrun Tank museum and memorial is located at a fort that protects the only road up to Jerusalem from the coastal plain (or at least it was the only road. There is a new road that goes up to Jerusalem a different way that has been built just recently). This was a fort that the Israeli troops attacked and tried to take at least 3 times over the years and failed every time. When they finally did capture it, they snuck up on it and fired upon the main fortress for 20 minutes before realizing it had been abandoned by the enemy several months before (I guess military intelligence is and oxymoron in every country). Upon taking the fort, the Israelis turned it into a museum and memorial for all the troops that have died fighting in the IDF Armor Division since 1948. Their names are etched in wall at the museum that is reminiscent of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. The names of the fallen soldiers are etched in black to symbolize the black color of charred steel in which these men died. The rest of the wall is silver in reference to a Hebrew poem that says the state of Israel was not given to the people on a silver platter. The silver color of the wall makes reference to this poem by saying that they men who died are the silver platter upon which Israel was founded.

From Tel Aviv Trip

The inside of the fort has also been made into a memorial for the soldiers who have died. There are pictures of the soldiers inside with their names, how old they were when they died, and some of their stories. The idea of this place is that no soldier is forgotten. After visiting a very somber inside, we went outside to a veritable playground. The fort is laid out in a circle and all around the edge there are over 160 tanks that can be climbed on, jumped on, and driven (well, maybe not that one). We had a blast out there! Here's proof.

From Tel Aviv Trip

From Tel Aviv Trip

From Tel Aviv Trip

(Rival dorms... Hotchkiss and CDUB)

From Tel Aviv Trip

So, we had a great day, but it was really nice to get back and sleep. Just about everybody fell asleep on the way home because we had such a great time. Also, I got to speak some Hebrew with the bus driver, Moshe. That was cool. BTW, click the link on the bottom right of any of the photos to see some more. God Bless! Baruch Hashem!