Today was a hard day, but it's a day I feel really good about. My body feels relived to be sitting, and my head satisfied since the sitting is well earned. Breakfast came fast, the morning had consisted of mostly cleaning. As I picked after our break, I found rock, after rock after rock. I admit that I have gotten off rather easy compared to other squares this month in the amount of rocks come across. Now I'm making up for it. I must have pulled out over 20 rocks weighing somewhere from 30-200 pounds. After prying and pulling and pushing them loose, they would be rolled into a pile meant for the cliff. One by one they were placed on the "Arny net" and lifted up and out of the 6 foot + hole. (I'm really glad for the tier.) Then once above ground, they were either rolled over the cliff, or picked up and placed in the pile of really big rocks. There was a time (the first and second week) when we could throw all the rocks into the valley, and watch as they bounced and broke. (It's one of the most exciting sights.) Then the Israeli Park People came up the mountain to tell us that we couldn't do that anymore, big rocks had to be pilled; only the smaller ones could go over. It's a shame they didn't define what small is. While lifting one particular not so small rock out of the hole, it landed on my foot. This was earlier in the day, and after that display of the rocks dislike for me, I decided that I didn't like those rocks to much either, so I tried as hard as I could to take out as many rocks as possible. Even with the great amount we took out today, there are still many waiting in that dirt - and they better beware, cause tomorrow, I'm coming back.
Recently in Israel Trip Category
I'm going crazy staring at the computer when it is soo beautiful outside, so I'm cutting it short.
The first stop was Mount Tabor. This is the stop that commemorates Jesus' transfiguration, complete with a church in 3 parts - one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. The church was very nice, but the most adventurous part, was the ride up the mountain. (This is another topographical mistake that I have made over the years - this mountain is huge.) We had to transfer ourselves from the one big bus to 3 taxi/vans. The road leading up held many sharp turns. Even though it was narrow enough to be a one way street cars sped towards us, and we sped toward them, in some insane game of chicken that apparently is common.
The next stop was Tel Megiddo National Park. This site was taken over and re-inhabited 25 times before 400 B.C. It had a central location for traders coming from Egypt and the Mediterranean. This is the site translated means Armageddon. If Revelation was to be taken literally, the battle that will end the world wouldtake place here. Knowing this, some of us decided to have our own battle - in jest of course and documented by photographs.
Our next place was Nazareth - the hometown of our Lord. There is a large church there that comemorates the anounciation of Jesus's birth to Mary. It is a beautiful place. It has two floors, the bottom celebrates Christ as true man and the top celebrates Christ as true God. All around the church and courtyard are pictures of Mary and Jesus as a baby. The pictures come from all diffferent countries and show how they are depicted in thier culture. It was very cool to see. The other spot we stoped at in Nazareth was a sort of reinactment village. It was all set up as Nazareth would have been in Jesus's time. I got to see how they spun their own wool, died it, and wove cloth. (so of course I want to by a sheep) The question that has been in my mind since 2nd grade has been answered: How did the paralicitc man's friends take apart the roof to lower him in to be healed by Jesus? (It must have difficult - see pictures on facebook) The whole thing was pretty cool.
We had lots of activity outside of digging that kept us busy and entertained (and kept me away from writing) On Wednesday Night we went an hour away at 8 o clock at night to Bet Shean. Its so hot during the day that they made a night exsibit. It was the most commercialized site i have seen so far, and it was a little releaf. It took away from a lot of the thinking, which was nice that late at night. (Keep in mind we wake up at 4 everyday) The site was HUGE! It had a full theater - which was my favorite part - a big bath house, a huge gathering area, and more that we didn't get to see, since those parts were only open in the day. Bet Shean was destroyed in the same earthquake that Hippos was. We didn't come back till past midnight. The next morning came way to fast.
Thursday was the last day for those on the team from Concordia Irvine. It was sort of wierd, with all the farewells since most of us were still staying. We took our group picture for the year (which is on the Dig website - www.virtualdig.org) and handed out certificates of completion to those who were leaving after pottery washing. The best thing that happened on thursday was the boat ride. Darryl Schmit speaks about the dig to various churches. This year, the churches insisted that they wanted to help us out somehow. Darrly got enough donations to take us out on a boat ride on the Mediterranean. It was soooo awesome. Everyone ran around taking pictures till the sun went down, then we all took a seat for the devotion. It was from Mark 6:45-52 - Jesus walking on water. Did you realize that the disciples were out on the boat in a storm for somewhere around 6 hours. When we were out there, we couldn't go very far out because of the wind. Those waves weren't too big, but they could really rock the boat. Jesus let them out there, He has his resons, but he was there and saved them when they were ready to be saved. He saved Peter, and didn't let him go under. Even in our lives when we feel stuck in a storm, we can know that he will be their to grab our hand when we need it - even after we fail. The boat ride was awesome. And really inspiring.
Friday deserves its own post.
Saturday evening ended with fireworks over the city as I sat and wrote in my journal. I think the air is always perfect in Jerusalem. I know I only spend two days there, but from my experience the air is just right. Especially the night air. It was the perfect temperature to sit outside on the ledge of the roof and just ponder about all that I had seen and done that day. Stray cats ran by on roof tops near mine. There are stray cats everywhere in Jerusalem. (Don't feed them - more and more will show up) Men carrying very big guns roam the rooftops at night too. They shine flashlights in the dark corner to make sure that all is well and safe. This day was only beat by the republican national convention for the number of guns I have seen in one day.
I woke up very early Saturday morning, just to the sun. It was one of those magical mornings when you realize that you don't have to get up right away - so I just laid in bed for a while. A half hour or so later, the Muslim call to prayer was sung to the entire city. Its very melodic and calming. Dr. Schuler told us to bring ear plugs so we wouldn't have to wake up to it, but I would much rather wake up to the prayer than to an alarm clock. At 7 o'clock I got up and went to breakfast. This was much nicer that the 4:00 I am getting used to. The breakfast was wonderful. The hostel had a full buffet of cereal scrabled eggs and any other breakfast foods a person could want. It was the first non kosher meal I had since getting here - we could have meat and dairy in the same meal.
Dr. Schuler had arraigned an archeological tour of the city for us for the day. It was complete with multiple ruins and lots of lengthy explanations. I appreciated all of them, although I don't remember all of them now. To be honest, I had no idea where the first place he took us was. The second place w was very memorable. He took our group to the place where Jesus was most likely sentenced by pilot. I walked up the remains of the stairs that Jesus probably walked up. I sat in the chair that pilot probably sat in when he washed his hands of Jesus' blood, and turned him over to the jews. That was a pretty heart-hitting moment. How often do I forget that it wasn't just the jews who crucified him, but it was my sins too. Sitting there reminded me that I am the guilty one.
We walked back the closest way we could get to the road that Jesus would have walked on to get to the cross. We can't go in the actual spot anymore, because it is covered by buildings. The trip took us back to the church of the Holy Sepulcher - the same place I had seen the night earlier, though then I had not gone inside. 6 different religious sects own parts of the church. Its fought about between the Latins (Roman Catholics) Armenians, orthodox, Coptics, and two more that I don't remember. I heard that two weeks ago the priest actually got into a fist fight. They can't agree on anything, sso nothing has been repaired in the old building since the 1970's. Also the key to it needs to e held by a Muslim since the Christians wont trust any other Christian with it. Its all rather bazaree and inside of the church each group has their own section. The building was built on top of Herod the Great's old cory for obtaining rocks for all of the buildings he was making. It is believed (and very likely) that the large stone left in the cory was latter used for a place to crucify the prisoners. It was named the place of the Skull because the big rock that wasn't worth anything - being a bad piece of limestone - looked like a skull. Only about 100 meters away, at the back of the cory, was were people would by plots to be buried. Its really likely that Jesus was crucified on that rock (this is a huge rock by the way - two stories high at least) and buried just a short distance away at the back of the current church of the Holy Sepulcher. The whole building is packed with people. I really liked it there - not because of where I was, but because of the intensity of all the people that were there. The lines were too long to touch the rock where the cross is commemorated to be and to go into the etucile that commemorates Jesus burial. I didn't go wait then, but I did come back later that night.
Once the group was gathered up again we walked a block over to Redeemer Lutheran church and climbed the tower to the top - up all 178 stairs. The view from there was pretty spectacular. I could actually see the hostel, and my bedroom window.
We headed off again - after climbing down - and got a bite to eat. I had the best bagel of my life. It had this fluffy cream or sour cream cheese chive sauce and lettuce and tomatoes. Once the meal was over, we found ourselves at an archeological museum. It was built next to the Wailing Wall - and also was part of the original temple's walls. The blocks used to make it were huge! They are over a meter thick - and measured over five of our team member's arms spans. (and that wasn't even the biggest one) We saw the area that vendors and shops would have been. I climbed in a ritual Jewish bath (now without water)
The group split then, since time was getting cramped, and one half finished the tour of the archeological sites. I knew I wouldn't be able to retain much more anyway, so I went through the security to the Wailing Wall. This was another place that was really cool, and is now really close to my heart, not because of the place I was, but because of the people that were there. The wall was stuffed with pieces of paper - all prayers. There were bookshelves with bibles in many languages that were for the use of whoever wanted to use them.
Next was the walk up to the Mount of Olives. As a child I had always pictured the Mount of Olives as a little hill. In my mind it was at most 10 feet tall. It was really more like a mound than a mount, and it had just some grass, not olive trees. My mind was way off. It is a big big hill, with very steep long roads that are rather difficult to climb on. At the top was the church of the ascension. Its less of a church, and more of a eticule that protects the stone Jesus was suppose to have last left the earth on. (This is the one I found hardest to believe.) There is actually a foot print in the stone itself. Even though the church was a little disappointing the view was not. (Nor was the realization of how fit Jesus and the disciples must have been - it put things into perspective) Jerusalem really is a beautiful city. We walked a little bit down the hill again to the church of all nations. It commemorates the spot where Jesus prayed to God before his arrest. It had a beautiful garden and a beautiful view. The last place on the mount that we stopped was right at the bottom - Gethsemane. I was pretty disappointed with it, because we couldn't even get into the actual garden. It was all fenced off.
After this we walked along the street that commemorates the 12 stations of the cross. We did take a little side stop at the church of St. Ann. This church has gorgeous acoustics. The group of us that were there sat in the front and sang together just enjoying the echo of our own voices. This was our last stop of the day, and after just getting a little lost , we went on to shopping.
Bartering is a big part of the shopping in Jerusalem. If you pay what the store keeper tells you - you are largely over paying. I'm pretty much in love with bartering, and I have to admit I'm getting rather good at it. My big claims of the day were getting clerks to go down from 40 shekels to 20, 25 to getting two for 30, and (my best find of the day) getting a clerk to take his price from 130 shekels to 50.
The day was great overall. I only wish I could have spend more time in Jerusalem.
I wont be blogging till sunday - but that should be exciting. I'm spending this weekend in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We leave tomorrow after the dig is over.
The water in the sea was a little colder today than yesterday, but coolness is something prized here. The clouds have also gone away after we get back to the Kibbutz everyday. God is really blessing us.
The Jerusalem trip is in two days!
I awoke fast after a night that had lingered on through tossing and turning. The alarm went off at 4:02 am. The group met just a half hour later, and seemed to have multiplied from the night before. The bus was crowded, attempting to fit the not only the Concordia Team but also those who dig on the site next to ours. It was dawn. There was no doubt about it. The sky was cloudy and the sun was nowhere to be seen. The earth just filled with light - dull pink light. The bus drove us to the begging of a path enclosed with barbed wire and decorated with "danger mines" signs. There was no danger on the path, just possible remains from the war in 1948 in the bushes and thistles on the sides of the hill. At the top the rocky uneven path turns into a stone pathway built sometime in during the Roman reign. The church we are uncovering had weeds growing among the cracks. Our first job was to get rid of them, without risking the welfare of the wall and avoiding the treat of scorpions. The only creature I found was a Chameleon who I named Fred. He was hiding under these purple flowers, which I was removing. We drag the brush and dirt that we clear to the edge of the cliff. The view from there stops me every time. It is straight out of a Christ Light illustration, except majestic. I did not bring my camera with me today, but I will soon. The view looking west is also magnificent. Tiberius became a city of pink at around 6:30 this morning. The sun had still not shown itself but still reflected against their city. It was a great day for digging. The clouds have never been so welcomed. The air was cool - for July - and later in the day when the sun did shine, our tarps were already up shading our square. Each group of about four or five people gets a square roughly 2 square meters to dig on. First one or two people strike the ground with a pick ax to loosen the dirt, then others come and scrape the loose dirt away with a turea - a flat shovel that is perpendicular with the handle. The others take remove the dirt in buckets and throw it over the edge. Water breaks are every 30 mins and breakfast comes at 8. My group - the only all female group - reached the next layer of dirt today - tomorrow looks like it will bring pottery shards. The bus leaves for Ein Gev at noon, and lunch is served right after.
I had planned on resting today, and catching up on some reading, e-mails, and sleep, but right before I went to eat, Kristina asked me if I would like to come along on a side trip, there was still one seat open. I thought on it for a minute and then accepted, and I'm glad that I did. We traveled near the Jordon boarder to the ruins of Kadesh. It was made sometime in the early bronze age- 2000 years before Christ - was abandoned then inhabited by squatters. Originally it must have been some sort of palace - or a government official's building. Pillars would have lined the main hallway. The squatters ruined and confused many walls and areas - which shows they didn't really care that they were living in the beautiful place - with a gorgeous view. Other walls were robbed by Romans later. It all makes for a very interesting puzzle. We got to see some of the artifacts that they found when we were at their lab. There was a little statue of a little boy with wings. It was pretty cool to see. After this we saw this site we looked at an old Roman temple to Apollo and/or some other god. The stones were soo big, and it was just sitting there. How cool. We also passed the spot where Deborah and Barak are suppose to be buried - although it doesn't make too much sense since the tombs are Roman.
The Ride back was fast. We then had supper, and after a church service down near the sea. The lesson was Mark 4 - Jesus calms the storm. It was windy too, so it was pretty awesome, to read that right next to where it happened.
