Benjamin Field Study

On Sunday we had the opportunity to go on a field study to the land of Benjamin. Benjamin is the strip of land that comes straight off Jericho and separates the old divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel. It is a very important land because whoever owns it gets the passage into Jerusalem. We studied the geography and learned what makes this land so special and why it was fought over so much. In all the stories of the Bible when location is given over 60% of them are in the land of Benjamin.


We started out the day in the wilderness on the Jericho road above the wadi Qilt. We learned many of images of Psalms that have to do with the wilderness. We then headed down to Jericho. There are two locations for Jericho. O.T. Jericho and N.T. Jericho. We went to N.T. Jericho first and looked at another of Herod's palaces and learned why this land was so important to Rome. After that we headed to O.T. Jericho where Joshua conquered the city and went into the promised land. We learned why it was such an important city to conquer and why Joshua did what he did.

After that we headed into the Shephelah and went to Gezer. It was a lot different being there in the winter months, everything was green! We learned about how Gezer was a hinge between Egypt and Israel and why it too was very important for holding the land.


Overall it was an awesome day. We got to learn a lot about the land and see a real oasis down in Jericho. One thing i miss is the application to our faith from what we are learning. The geography is all related the the bible and some passages we unfold to find their meaning, but many times we only talk about the land and the application isn't mentioned. One of the biggest lessons that we learned when here with Ferret was about the standing stones at Gezer and how our lives should be standing stones to other people, but we didn't talk about it at all this time. All three of us feel that the geography is a very important part of learning what the Bible says but also what is equally and even more important is how that applies to us. All that we learned from our own studies, in my brother's class, and from Ferret is a huge part that many people are missing out on. We feel fortune to have already learned the application information so that now we can now connect it all with the geography.

Eye #2

Somehow whenever I play sports I seem to get hurt. Many times it is because i play with passion and do the best I can and therefore I end up getting hurt; but recently I have found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Back in December while playing hockey at NWC I got hit in the right eye with a hockey stick and had to go get stitches. It was one of those times where I wasn't being reckless as my dad likes to call it, it just kind of happened. I felt i had been doing pretty good about being in Israel for three weeks and not getting hurt at all, that was until today.

Every Friday night we have our Shabbat dinner, but what starts before that is ultimate frisbee. I absolutely love ultimate frisbee and wouldn't pass up on a chance to play. Today it was pretty windy so the frisbee had many sudden changes as a person was ready to catch it. Unfortunately I caught one of those sudden movements in my left eye. It wasn't a super bad cut but it left a pretty good mark and it gave me a pretty good black eye. It didn't look to bad right after it happened, but after a couple hours it puffed up pretty good.

I just want to clear the record for my father that this was not one of those reckless activities that I many times do, but it was just wrong place at the wrong time (mad-dog).

Pictures!

Here are some pictures from the field study!

Mark and I in front of Jerusalem
Mark washing Krystal's feet in the Herodian.
Mark and I up on a pillar in the Herodian.
The new theater they just found at the Herodian.
Looking in a hole in the road, we tend to do this a lot!
The NWC group!

Jerusalem Approaches Field Study!

Two days ago had the opportunity to go on our third field study in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. For this field study we had the privilege to travel up high and get many good views of Jerusalem in order to understand the geography better, travel to Bethlehem to the church of the Nativity, and also to the Herodian.

The Herodian has grown to be one of my favorite locations in Israel. The Herodian was one of about a dozen of Herod the Great's palaces which are dotted all over Israel. He actually cut off the top of another hill and put it on this hill in order to get up high. It was awesome to learn a little more about Herod while finding out the lay of the land why he put his palace here. Many exciting things have happened at the Herodian in the past couple years. Just a few years ago the tomb of Herod was actually found on the side of the hill right next to the entrance. It was something that Josephus the Jewish historian had claimed existed there but the Archeologists had been unable to find. They recently located it and all that is left is the base but none the less it was cool to see.

A very exciting discover has also been made in the last month: the discovery of a theater on the hill as well. It is almost right next to the tomb of Herod and it was a small theater seating only 1000 people at most but still it changes a lot of what we thought of the Herodian, and we know now that it was used for entertainment purposes for his guest. Very cool!

Also while we were there mark had a chance to show his servant heart towards Krystal on Valentines day by washing her feet!

As I sit now in the library looking out the window at the rain coming down on the city; I am excited to be in a land that is overflowing with so much history and background and I can't wait to see what the coming months will bring!

I was going to put pictures of it up but they will have to wait due to the slow internet.

Studying in Israel

Mark's First Post...
When I was first searching out JUC on the web almost a year ago I came across a consistent phrase which seemed to catch my eye: “Location is everything.” Well, after being here close to three weeks I feel as though I can give a first-hand account of what it feels like to study in this land. Let’s just say that there’s nothing quite like it. Not many people can take a class on Judaism taught by a Jewish Rabbi with the most Holy Jewish site “the western wall” about 10 minutes from campus. Few people have learned about the history of the church in the east within a mile of the place where Jesus taught on the Mt. of Olives, tipped over tables in the Temple, and died on the cross for our sins. And finally, learning about Islam in a place where Mosques occupy half the city and the Muslim’s call to prayer can be heard 5 times a day makes the topic a bit more relevant. Remembering that all I have explained is within 10 minutes of campus should give you the perspective that Israel is a land where learning can never end and truly, location is everything.

2 weeks down...3 moths to go!

Its hard to believe that we have already been in Israel for two weeks! It feels like its been forever and I am excited that we still have another 3 months! I am constantly blessed with learning and trying to apply new things that God has revealed to me! It has been an awesome two weeks of exploring, hanging out, and going to classes.






[Even in Israel, Mark and I can find places to hang out hammocks!]












[Exploring right next to the potter's field where Judas hung himself.]

A couple nights ago, we had our first touch of the rainy season since we got here. It was about 40 degrees and we had a pretty big rainstorm. It was pretty sweet to see how the climate changes so quickly and to understand the differing of the seasons. When most people think of Israel they always think of a hot country with no water. But really this land has the same amount of rain that London gets but packed into 6 months! It was really cool to see everything perk up in green just from one rainfall!

Tonight was the weekly Shabbat, and I must say it is something that we all should have in America. For the Jews Shabbat begins at sundown on Friday and goes till sundown on Saturday. Some Jews are very particular about following Shabbat and not doing any work. Here at JUC we have a weekly ultimate Frisbee game at 4 pm and then at 6 pm a special dinner followed by a worship service called Vespers. It is a great time to hang out and thank the Lord for the many blessings he has given us, and also take some time to get away from the books and have some fun.

Tomorrow we head out for a 12 hour field study around Jerusalem and the surrounding area. We will be traveling to Bethlehem, the Herodium, and several other places.

A day of Study in Biblical Jerusalem

Today was an amazing but tiring day of study at some of the Biblical sites in Jerusalem. we started at 7 am and we didn't get done till 6 pm, none the less it was an awesome day of study!

We started off heading to what is know as the Broad wall which was put up by Hezekiah and runs through the Jewish part of the old city. Next we went over to the city of David where we spent a couple hours talking about the layout of Jerusalem and why David had the location of the city where he did. It was an eye opening time where we learned just how secure his old city was and then also what he ment when he wrote in his Psalms about looking up to the hills and such.

It was very cool because while we were there we got to look at some of the most recent archeological advances in Jerusalem. In the past 4 years there have been amazing amounts of progress made on the northern part of the city of David. They were said to have possibly found David's palace all the way down on the bedrock of the mountain and also they have found Jebusite walls that would have been there during David's time to help hold up the walls.

After that we headed down to Hezekiah's tunnel and we didn't go in but we talked a lot about it and about the progress of the water being tunneled throughout the last 4,000 years. very cool! After that we took a quick lunch break and then headed out to New Testament remains. We headed down by the Tyropean Road, Robinson's arch, the temple wall, mikvahs, and the southern steps. Although some of us had been there in the past Dr. Wright shared a lot of new information and we all found it very interesting.

Next we headed up to the pool of Bethesaida and an old Crusader church, and after that we finished on top a roof over looking some of the old city.

All in all the day was one of the best I have had here so far. It was filled with a lot of learning and rediscovery of the Biblical text. As my brother Jake would say when you study the Biblical culture and then examine that to the Bible to determine what things were really like your view of the Bible goes from reading a story in black and white to reading a story in color. I have experienced a lot of that over the years but after today its more as if those color stories have now become 3D to me and are jumping off the page, pretty sweet!

The day was also filled with a couple adventures. Chris and I love to explore tunnels and holes that aren't really part of the beaten path, we did this quite a bit by the southern steps and we happened to run into some tunnels, we followed these tunnels of course but they led us out to areas that were chained off. We quickly left the area and went back and while we were waiting to leave a couple police officers came running by and went to the exact spot we were and they came back a minute as if still searching, we couldn't help but think that maybe they saw us accidentally go to places we shouldn't have! Also another exciting time of the day was when mark decided to push an old Herodian stone that was part of Robinson's arch in the temple. He started pushing and suddenly it started to fall backwards onto him, the stone easily weighed 1,000 - 2,000 pounds and thankfully mark was able to escape with only scratches on his hands. The lord was watching him! And somehow i got the whole thing on tape and it has given all the people here at JUC a little entertainment!

A day at Tel Aviv and Jaffa

Today a group of 12 of us went to Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Tel Aviv is pretty much straight south of us and Jaffa is right next to that.

We arrived in Tel Aviv at about 1:00 and headed straight for the beach. It was a beautiful beach with an awesome view of the city behind us. Unfortunately the weather was a little chilly as well was the water so we didn’t get to go swimming but instead we hung out and threw the Frisbee for awhile.


After that we walked about a mile over to Jaffa. Jaffa was the main port city that led to Jerusalem and was actually one of the first ports on the Mediterranean. Jaffa was the location that Jonah hopped on a ship sailing to Tarsis when he tried to run from God, and also Peter was here when he had his vision of the sheet coming down from heaven with animals on it and God told him to take and eat. So it was theoretically the place where God first said that salvation was available to Gentiles. Pretty cool! The house that peter was at when he was that vision is actually still here and we were able to go walk by but couldn’t go in because an Armenian family actually lives in it, but nonetheless it was sweet.

After that we got to go out to dinner and then we head back to JUC, all in all it was a pretty sweet day. Tomorrow we are heading out for a field study around Jerusalem and it should be a pretty sweet day of study with Dr. Wright.

First day of class

Yesterday was our first day of classes here at JUC. We started them with much excitement due to the fact that they are all Bible classes and our classroom is Israel. Our classes over the past few days have included Physical settings of the Bible, Jewish thought, Islamic thought, Hebrew, and 2nd temple period. The classes are very interesting and don't have too much homework besides quite a bit of reading. We have a wide variety of teachers ranging from the director of JUC, to professors at Hebrew University, and even to a rabbi. Its awesome!



Besides starting classes we have had a couple chances the past 2 days to head off on our own and get around Jerusalem a little bit. Yesterday Chris and I went and looked at the Garden Tomb and then went and found the old Essene Gate. Today a group of us guys went to a catholic church that Mary supposedly "fell asleep" at, then we headed over to the mount of olives to watch the sun set over Jerusalem. The land here in Jerusalem is awesome and the more I am here the more i love it!