Encountering Israel

We had a new tour guide today, Hannah, as we made our way back to Jerusalem! As I'm sure you've noticed, we tend to visit Jerusalem a lot and that's mostly because there's so much to see there. Monday we focused on the temple and the ancient history (Old Testament), Thursday we visited the Dome of the Rock and were on the Temple Mount, and today we focused on Jesus' life (mostly leading up to his death). It's Not About The Location, It's About Connecting With The Story One thing to remember throughout this blog post and when attending the Holy Land in general is to not get caught up in the logistics. Many holy sites act as memorials to recognize certain people or events. It can't be certain that these events happened directly in the spot that they are today. The guides have been doing a good job reminding us that this is so much more than the concrete images we see. Our faith has the opportunity to grow as we relate what we know in the Bible to diffe...

Literally laying in bed beyond happy right now and laughing at all the adventures that were had! Definitely one of the most memorable days here so far!  It all started because we had a "free morning". We had nothing on our schedule so we could do whatever. We could stay at the hotel or venture out to Bethlehem and Jerusalem. So this morning a group of 8 (Caleb, Damon, Elyse, Whitney, Erika, Christine, Grant, and myself) decided to go to Bethlehem. It was about 5 minutes from our hotel. So the important thing to recognize about Bethlehem is that it is in Palestine and behind the wall so to get in and out requires passports. So we walk up to the only entrance that we know how to get in: the vehicle lane. Of course that was not where we were supposed to go but we were told to wait for someone to escort us to the right place. 5 to 10 minutes later 3 Israeli soldiers come and walk us about 20 feet to point towards the direction we were supposed to go. We kind of laughed at th...

6 o'clock came around way too early this morning! Getting adjusted to sleep has been interesting, I haven't felt too tired until this morning when we left an hour earlier than normal. Today we had Jared as our guide again and we went back to Jerusalem where we were with him the first day. This time though we got to go up onto the Temple Mount where the famous Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock stands. It's a unique place as religions come together. Christians and Jews come to this mountain because they believe at the top is where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac and Muslims believe in their traditions that this is where Muhammad ascended into heaven. So it holds special meaning for all religions and somehow is shared equally, unlike what most would think. The struggle is in keeping it a holy site and a tourist site at the same time. There are only certain hours in the mornings on Sunday through Thursday when this site is open to visitors. During the other time...

Today we traveled to the northern part of the Western Bank into Samaria. It's about an hour and a half drive from Tantur, near Bethlehem so along the way Kamal pointed out different sights such as the Judean Desert in the distance where Jesus fasted for 40 days. When we got to Samaria we went to a museum where we heard a Samaritan woman talk about their culture and beliefs which includes only reading the first five books of the Bible (Torah) and following the laws.  We went to Nablus which is part of Samaria as well. Samaria is a region in some essence and there are many cities that lie within that. The people don't call the area Samaria because that's more what it was referred to in Bible times. In Nablus we went to St. Phillips church which is addressed in Acts 8. When the church out from Jerusalem back in the Bible times, this church was founded by St. Phillip. St. Paul and St. John visited as well. One of the priests that we talked to, is also an archaeologist and ...

Today was a difficult day with lots of information to absorb and hard material to think about and hear. But it was definitely a learning opportunity and such a great experience to hear from many different native people. When most people think about Bethlehem their thoughts immediately go to Jesus' birth and the Christmas story. While we did focus and sight see around that area, most of our time today we focused in on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. It's something that can be displayed one sided and growing up in the United States I realized I am very naive to the hardship that these people face on a daily basis. And to hear this conflict presented from real people rather than the media was a heart wrenching experience. So we woke up and went to Bethlehem which is about 5-10 minutes from Tantur where we are staying. Now to get into Palestine it requires a passport because it is a Palestinian region. Israel is currently in the process of building a wall around this whole...

I woke up this morning and first thing I said when I rolled over and said good morning to Erika was, "GUESS WHAT??? We're in Israel!!" And that phrase repeated itself throughout the whole day while the group made its way into Old Jerusalem, Hezekiah's tunnel, and the Western Wall. It was a rough start to the day, trying to adjust to the time change and get out the door by 8 oclock. For most of the trip we're staying in a resort/hotel called Tantur Ecumenical Center. It's absolutely gorgeous. When we first drove up last night it was pitch black, but we could definitely tell that is was a beautiful place and seeing it in daylight this morning just confirmed that! We drove to Old Jerusalem where we stayed all day. For most of the trip we have a tour guide, Jared, who lives in the area. We had the opportunity to meet him earlier in the year when he came and visited the states so it's nice to have a somewhat familiar face. When we first got th...