Whats better than hanging with the bro in Israel!!!

The last five days have been a world wind of excitement. Josh arrived on Thursday after being detained for 2 hours in Geneva due to suspicious of being a terrorist he arrived in Israel! Here has been our schedule thus far:

4/23/09: Picked up Josh, walked around the old city
4/24/09: Herodian, Bethlehem (church of nativity), city of David, Broad wall, Cardo, Church of the Holy Sepulcher (burial and resurrection of Jesus), David’s tomb, and the upper room, Shabbat
4/25/09: (Galilee) Hippus, Beth Saida, Beram, Kedesh
4/26/09: (Galilee) Gamla, Jotapata, Cana,
4/27/09: Israel Museum (dead sea scrolls) , southern steps, pool of Bethesda, shopping, Garden of Gethsemane, Mount of Olives
4/28/09: Hezekiah’s tunnel, city of David movie, Western wall, Garden Tomb, Shopping, Ben Ya Hudah street (new city),

There is so much to do in Jerusalem alone and you could easily spend a week here just seeing the stuff around the city, we have packed most of it into about three days! It has been amazing having Josh here and huge blessing to share with him what I have been learning!





Today I had my last class and I am totally done except for two finals next week! Crazy! The classes have been amazing and it hasn't really felt like I have been going to school because they have been so interesting. Things are starting to unwind here at JUC and before I know it we will be heading home.

Tomorrow Josh, Mark, and I are heading to Masada, The Dead Sea, En Gedi, Sodom and Gamora, and Qumran! It will be another full day but it will be awesome to share with Josh! What an opportunity of a lifetime to have him here! I have now been in this awesome land with both brothers! Awesome!

Jordan Field Study

Wow what an amazing experience it was to travel to Jordan for four days! We just arrived back two days ago and our time in Jordan flew bye. I didn't really know what to expect when we went to Jordan because I really had no idea that it was related to the Biblical in such a deep way.



During our stay in Jordan we went from up north to down south. We covered an amazing amount of land in only four days. The first day we got caught in the rain but here at JUC that doesn't mean anything at all and we found ourselves standing out in the rain listening to Dr. Wright teach. We were able to travel all around Gilead, Edom, Moab, and the Mediba plateau hitting all the capital cities of the regions. All the places were awesome but here are a couple of my favorites:

Jerash, We went here on the 2nd day and it was an amazing spot! I never knew just how deep the impact that Rome had on the cities over in Jordan. This site was complete with a theater, hypodrome, temple to Zeus, huge cardo, much more and my favorite the artemis temple. It made me feel like i was in Turkey again. I liked the Artemis temple so much because in Ephesus there once existed one but all that is left standing there is one pillar, at Jerash there were amazing remains that gave me a great Idea of what would have stood there.





Another place we went was the Jabbok Wadi. Jordan has 4 main wadis that flow into the rift valley and this is one of them While at this spot we read the story of Jacob wrestling with God. It was awesome to look at the story and then look up and see the exact spot that it happened. We talked about how God molds and changes people as he did with Jacob and as he is doing with us. It was awesome


The sweetest place that we went was Petra! It was an amazing site that shocked all of us! I did not know people made such structures 2000 years ago. When I thought of Petra before I thought that all it had was the famous treasury which is displayed in Indiana Jones but once being there I saw that there was a theater and hundreds of amazing tombs carved right into the solid rock. Here we talked about the Nabateans and there relationship to the Bible and how possibly the wise men came from this location.


Our last spot we visited was Mt. Nebo. We were blessed with the exact view that Moses had as he was looking into the promise land right before he died on this mountain. Dr. Wright applied this view to our lives and gave us a fitting lesson for our last stop on physical settings. He talked about how the future was hazy for Israel as they were entering the land and how also for us our future is hazy. It is in fact over beyond the river but we don't know it yet. It was great lesson to end on and a challenge to all of us!




I can't believe how fast this semester is going. we only have a week and a half before finals and yet there is so much to do. Josh arrives in two days and I am overwhelmingly excited for him to visit and to share with him some of the things that I have been learning during my stay here in Israel!

Passover Triclinium

Last night we had an awesome Passover Triclinium dinner. The cultural backgrounds class took apart our dinning room and set it up as a traditional banquet would have been in the first century. We came in and had our feet washed,were served authentic food and while we ate we reclined on our left elbow. Everyone dressed up and it was one of the coolest things that we have done while at JUC.Chris Mark and I were a little lacking in the authentic outfits so we made do with some blankets and came as Romans. After we ate Dr. Wright talked for about an hour about Jesus coming into Jerusalem and what his meal with his disciples would have looked like. We talked about where people would have sat and why Jesus did some of the things he did. It reminded me a lot of the Passover Seders that we have done with Ferret over the years.











For all three of us these last couple days have been some of the best here at JUC. Passover week has been awesome and tomorrow should be a day of new experiences as well. For Easter Sunday we are going to the church of the holy sepulcher at 7:70, then a huge priestly blessing that happens at the western wall at 8:30, then finally at 9:30 a service at the Garden Tomb. Then later that day we are having the JUC BBQ, it should be a day to remember! What a privileged to be in the land during this time!

The Samaritan Sacrifice

Yesterday a pretty good group of us joined with about 50 other people and had the chance to go to the Samaritan's sacrifice. Years ago there numbers had dropped down to 150 and today there are only 750 Samaritans remaining. The Samaritans have a religion of their own, they follow only the five books of the Torah and hold some interesting views. On the day of the sacrifice every family must slaughter a sheep, skin it, burn it and then eat it. It was quite an experience to witness hundreds of men dressed in white cut the throat of sheep and follows the laws set down by Moses. I can only imagine how this would have looked at the temple when hundreds of thousands of people were offering sacrifices.



As the Passover week continues we have had many of awesome experiences. Late last night seven of us went to the Garden of Gethsemane and hung out in the Garden for awhile and read the four gospel accounts. It was awesome to be so close to the place where Jesus would have been arrested and betrayed by Judas. This morning a couple of us followed the path of the Via Dellarosa, which traditionally follows the path that Jesus would have followed. We ended at the church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was awesome to go up to the most probably spot where Jesus would have been crucified this same day so many years ago.

Jerusalem is a bustling city during this week. Tonight we have a Passover seider put on by the cultural backgrounds class to give us a closer look at what the last supper would have looked like. Sunday we have a couple more event going on around here with some services at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and a barbecue for our entire campus. It has been a good time of relaxing and getting to experience some new things. In the next two weeks I only have 1 day of class surrounded by travels to a couple new places! Its a hard life here in Israel!

A Weekend in Eilat!

This weekend 12 of us had to chance to go to the southern tip of Israel to a place called Eilat. Eilat is a popular beach attraction for many Israelis. It is a very westernized city that is popular for tourism. We stayed there for two nights and had the opportunity to snorkel in the crystal clear waters of the Red Sea, play volleyball on the beach with some locals, and take an awesome boat ride giving us a lay of the land. Snorkeling was by far the coolest activity of the trip. I had snorkeled in Lakes but to actually be in crystal clear water, swimming above coral, and be surrounded by fish of all colors was amazing!





It was an awesome weekend to get away from the school work and relax out on the beach for a couple days.

This week is Passover and it is pretty exciting to be here during this time. Yesterday a group of us participated in the yearly walk from the Mt. olives to the Old City. There were thousands of people carrying palm branches and singing, it was pretty sweet!