Sarah in Israel

Well, I'm finally home! It's been a whirlwind of a month, but honestly the best month of my life.  I was journaling a little bit on the way back home, on the Delta flight to Minneapolis (because we missed the first one...hahaha), and I thought it might be nice to share some of these things that I felt the Lord really taught me this trip:

• Patience (with what's coming next in the future)
• Trust in the Lord
• Even though I'm physically not the strongest one in the bunch, I can still give it my all and glorify God through my hardwork and spirit.
• When I first was at the trip, I thought, "man, this will be a great month! There's not so many temptations to sin over here..." HA! The Lord exposed in me many of my internal sins, such as jealousy, pride, insecurity, and a couple other things... He helped me remember that sin is not an action, but instead a state of who I am. (I AM a sinner, I don't just sin...)
• He didn't just point out the sin in my life though, he also gave me encouragement. Through others, and himself, he affirmed a spiritual gift of inclusion and hospitality. He reminded me that he has infact annointed me and I am to use these gifts for him!
• He also reminded and affirmed in my life my love of travel, and of people from different cultures.
• I remembered how rich time in the Word really is, and that intercession is SO important--to be praying for people around me throughout all of the day is vital and helps me keep my mind off of me and onto God and others!
• I was taught the importance of NOT being a lone in my spiritual walk, and to have both peers and elders help spur/encourage me in my walk with Christ.
• He taught me Solitude--being able to be my myself in order to take time to listen to God.
• He taught me Silence--being okay with not always talking about myself or needing to chime in on conversations and instead being silent enough to listen.
• He taught me Submission--killing the "me monster" and thinking of others before myself.
• I was able to experience and realize the humanity of Jesus
• I was able to see some of the living stones in Israel... seeing how messy the body of Christ is, but how we all need eachother and our various ways we worship (Church of the Holy Seplechur, for one example...)
• Being able to read the Bible and have better context for it, even just as simple as the climate and scenary, but also culture.
• Being able to experience that, "climbed up the mountainside and prayed"...!!
• He etched in my heart Psalm 19.
• He taught me humility
• I am realizing more and more how I need to get out of God's way of him doing his work in me. and how I need to not try and be ANYONE'S savior!
• Flexibility

 

So, those are just a FEW things... but man, powerful powerful things. Along with a greater understanding of Archeology, and a darker skin... I am coming home with just so much.

The last couple days of transitioning have been smoother than I thought, and I'm hoping I don't crash sometime soon. Saturday I unpacked, then went to a dubstep boat show. Then Sunday I went out to eat with Andrew, Anna, and Andrew's parents, then saw Khadra, then went to church and had ladies' night with Mimi and Anna, and today I've just been running errands I am going to go see Fadumo who is coming back from East Africa today! And I've got a meeting to go to as well... Then I'm off to MI to see family and friends and get some errands done there. I've been fairly busy, but yet also relaxed, and I'm just so at peace with what the Lord has done. AMEN!

I wish that I could fully put into words all the emotions that I'm feeling right now. It's the last day, and I'm feeling a bit sad. yet, I'm also feeling so at peace. I don't have any regrets for this trip. I loved every minute of it, and would love to do it again some day. I recognize that this was such a once in a life time experience and I want to treat it as such. The past week has been crazy! lots of things popping up on the dig site, lots of jokes being said, a lot of silly times, and good conversations. You can tell that people have been with each other for a very very long time, as the sarcasm is getting pretttty thick and the patience is wearing down. I am so happy for the team that we had though, and I jsut really enjoyed it. The Lord knew what he was doing! That's for sure.

It was fun getting to know the people from my group better, but also getting to know some of the people from the haifa team. I guess a lot of people from the American team don't really get a chance to know many of the Haifa team, but it's been really nice this year getting to know them. There's been some sketchy situations--but overall really good times of talking in broken english, or just smiling, or having awesome conversations and times together. There are two girls from Norway that are here, and we've become pretty good friends--whenever we have haifa events or tours we usually hang out with them (by we I mean dylan, david and I usually). The cruise and the end of the dig season party were quite fun. Tahlal and Wafa, the tractor drivers, cracked me up and it just overall was a nice relaxing time, and I enjoyed partying it up in Israel for that one night... haha.

Overall I am so blessed by the people I have met, and I cannot believe that for some of my new friends (like Felicia, Dinah, Jim, Darryl.... you get the idea...), this may be the last time I see them for quite some time.  :/ for someone who needs closure and what not, this may be a weird weekend to try and adjust not seeing everyone that I just spent an intense month with every day. It'll be crazy trying to balance two trips to MI in the next month, but that's life. hahaha. I'll figure it out, that's for sure.

I wish I could have given you guys more of a detailed look at my time here at the dig, but I suppose that's something that I wasn't very good at--taking time to sit down and journal. I was just soooo wanting to make sure I "lived" every moment, that I didn't really spend too much time in the room or on the computer. But now that I'm looking at other peoples' blogs, I'm realizing that I could have been a bit more detailed, or at least added more pictures--but that would take WAY too much time.. haha.So, I think I'm just going to add a select few on Flickr or something, and then that way I'll post the link to here and you can see an overview of a lot of my pictures. :)

I'm off to enjoy a wonderful meal at the fish restaurant! :) It's coming to a close, but every season has a beginning and an end. I'm hoping that I take the lessons, the MANY lessons, I learned from this trip and apply it. I really wrestled with a lot of things this past month. God worked a number on me. :) 

Now that the square is finally closed/done for the season, I figured it'd be good to give an update/summary on my perspective on it.

 Where should I begin to explain the piece of land that was labeled XXYY00? I had the privileged of working on the same square till the very end, and that was so much fun. The members of my team (well, not MY team, I was just a little peon..) were the following: Jim (Jim) was our supervisor--he always had a something punny to say and was really really hliarious. We were all pretty intimidated of him at first, but now we realize that he's an awesome awesome guy. It was a pleasure to work with him. He reminded me a lot of my dad with some of the jokes that he said.. oh man. it was great fun. Then there was Felicia--she's from Concordia Wisconsin! Her and I have gotten very very close, and I'm so grateful for her. Honestly. it's been a huge blessing and honor working and talking with her. Then there's Jackie :). It's been SO much fun getting to know her. Little by little we're becoming closer and closer friends, and it's just been so nice getting to know her better. Great team we had. We were only 4. And it was Jim and 3 ladies, and like I said in another post--we were the little engine that could. We worked hard, we worked the best we could, and we had a lot of jokes along the way. I was happy that we had our team intact pretty much the whole time, with only a day or two changed because of sickness. I'll have to make sure I have some good before and after pictures, because it is pretty drastic just how much dirt we moved. Man oh man. I loved loved loved the hard labor though, I've got to say.

As far as the things we have found: We first found a catch basin which gave us some clue that we would probably find some water channels in there somewhere. Then  as we kept digging we found a lot of plaster,  and figured we had found the floor. It was dirty and nasty  and uneven, but we were happy to hit floor. But THEN, Glen (who ROCKS at finding walls and floors...) discovered a mosaic floor! It was pretty exciting, because finally something cool was going on in our square. We then figured out that there were two long water channels going through the room on top of the mosaic, showing that it was a later addition.  I was the designated channel finder, and dug in a little corner next to the wall for quite some time, and found a total of 5 different channel holes, demonstrating what the system would have been like. It was fun--at one point I had my whole arm up in the channel and was lying trying to bend my arm in all sorts of directions. It was fun to have purpose though!

While I was working on the channels and holes, People were working on uncovering the mosaic little by little. After a day or two of doing this, Glen noticed a little something something--an inscription! So, we were pretttty pumped. We managed to clean off all of the dirt and had a nice mosaic floor on half, but then it seems that they either stopped the mosaic, or in the later addition they took it all out--either way, we worked on all of that. Then Jackie and I cleaned off the mosaic inscription and design all of the morning, because you have to scrap each tessera individually to help show the color. It was fun though, being able to clean it.  The reading says "Enter for good"--like, enter for good reasons.... It was great because Schuler did a sermon on Sunday about the Greek word used in the matt that was used 3 other times. Matthew 6, talking about entering into a private room to pray; Acts 9 when Paul was told to enter into the city to receive more instructions and his sight back, and then Matthew 25 (or 26...) about the talents, and to enter into the joy of the master. That made me so so so happy. I loved what he talked about... it really clicked a lot for me.

I kept thinking, "Oh, I'm just so happy to be able to see the room from beginning to finish....." and THEN more exciting things happened! The conservators had come in to work on the edges of the mosaic in order to help preserve and protect them from becoming lose during the rainy season. We worked along side of them the day that Jackie and I were cleaning the inscription, but then we were moved to the big team to try and reach floor in 4 days... haha. And so the conservators were working on their stuff, and today, they were cleaning out a place where there was a circle of mosaic missing, in order to preserve, and they were clearing out dirt and noticed a rim of a pot! Well, they kept digging... and it was a fully intact pot. Hidden. Underneath the mosaic. So. We're pretty excited. They having excavated it yet--they are going to let the conservator who found it have the joy of excavating (which is how it should be). I'm thinking though, because the mosaic was all cleared, that maybe the people that put it there have already removed anything of value? We'll find out!

It was interesting, because apparently in the world of archeology, there are a LOT of egos... and usually if and when conservators ever find things, the archeologists run in and take over and take the credit. I'm glad that our team is not like that, and I hope that it shows that we have Christ's light in our team and know that all the glory goes to God, not human glory.  I've had to deal with that throughout the time, because to be honest, I haven't really found anything diddly squat to write home to--as in, I occasionally find like the water channel or whatever, but overall I don't find anything too exciting, but everywhere around me people were finding nails or coins and what not. But, once I realize that, A.  it all depends who is digging where and when... it's basically chance. And B. everyone works on the square--and it really is a group thing. Sooooo, moral of the story: all the glory belongs to God, and I didn't really find much cool stuff. BUT the square did, which is awesome and I'm excited to be a part of this team!

Oh, I almost forgot to say what this square actually was! What it was in its first phase was a "welcome room" (I forgot the fancy greek name for it...) It's esecially the place where people would first walk into, and then it leads into the basilica. The door that was leading to the garden was blocked off in its later phase, but the mosaic so perfectly lines up with the door frame, it's obviously it. They found two squares of stone right across from eachother, which doesn't give TOO much discription, but we'll find out more sooner on when Dr. Schuler does some research. Then the later phase it became some kind of industrial kind of thing... lots of water channels going through, a grinding stone... ect. So! yeah. That's a little bit about XXYY00.

Thanks for reading all of this, Here are some pictures as a gift!

Well, maybe one picture... haha but I'll upload more some other time!

So, now for the Sabbath day. It was a fairly early morning, because me and the other CSP 7 went up with Schuler and Rachel to do some measurements and explore around the site. This was one of the best decisions I made! The hike up was great. I really have found a love for hiking, even when that means I get super sweaty and out of breath. I love it. It was a great group to hike with, and we got to hear and share a lot of stories about ourselves and our lives. It was great! When we got up there we got to see what some of the Haifa teams were doing, and that was fun! Then Rachel and I went off exploring and looking at a ton of things. I'd like to say I got pictures from it, but I had dropped my camera just as we were going up the hill and it broke, so no pictures to show of this! But we had fun climbing around and exploring... then I met up with the filth brothers (David and Dylan) and we got to climb and explore around too. It was so fun to be on the hill when we don't HAVE to be working! It was great sitting on rocks just thinking and praying and looking out to the sea...

At one point, I was sitting in one of the churches that was excavated and I sat on the ground, reading the scriptures, and knowing that I was worshiping in a place where people had worshiped 1,300 years ago. Wow. If that's not humbling, I don't know what is! Then I went over to the baptismal font and sat for a bit reading, and then I noticed a whole pack of ants... carrying little pebbles and leaves to make a pile. It was mesmerizing to me, and I spent a lot of time just gazing at them. It's funny... at any moment I could have just smashed their pile. To them, that was all they were focused on, they didn't realize they were in such a bigger picture of the site... and how often is that us? We think that the little work that we do in our little square of life is the most important work that could ever be done. We start to get so narrow minded that we don't take time to realize that the material things that we build will fade away--or even be destroyed in any minute. We need to realize, that a lot of times, what we do, fits into a VERY much bigger picture of life, and that especially materialistic things will just fade away. AND it just reminded me of me carrying rocks that were my size... haha.

Anyway, back to the day at the site... Then we got to sit on a cliff over looking the path that we hike up every morning. That was amazing. Just sitting there, and thinking about how much Jesus would retreat to the mountain side to pray. It was amazing. I can't say it enough! So then everyone but Dylan David and I left to go do a final measurement, and so we just kinda hung out there then explored a bit more, and found a wicked IDF tunnel that we walked through with quite a few bats... and not too much light... but it was fun and adventurous! Overall a great day, and well worth it.

Then we just kind of hung out. We didn't have anything formal scheduled for the rest of the day, so I just hung out around the kibbutz and swam a ton. I've been doing a lot of reading from Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster and it's just been great. I really really enjoy his work, and the topics that he's been covering just blow my mind. It fits perfectly with what I need to hear on that day, such as solitude, submission and service. Those ones have been really hitting me hard this trip. It's been a blessing to spend hours reading and thinking and sorting through all of these things. I love being available for God to do His thing in my life.

I can't think of anything super exciting to add, other than the usual sunset watching and swimming... So, I'm going to move on to Sunday in my next blog! Thanks for the continued support of reading this! 

This is my 4th time trying to sit down and write this, and I'm kinda cutting it short anyway, seeing as we have dinner in 7 minutes. But, I'm going to give it a shot to summarize at least this weekend for you faithful readers, and then later tonight after my sunset swim, I'll try and catch you up on what we've been finding in XXYY00!

This weekend was a free weekend. Part of me kinda wanted to get a group and go to Lezli's kibbutz about an hour away, to see a bit of non-touristic Israel... but alas, I figured 1. Schuler would NEVER let us, 2. I don't know if I could find people that would go with me, and I would not go by myself, and 3. I knew we would be hiking up the mountain and I wanted to do that. So, needless to say, I did not take up an Israeli stranger's offer to go to his kibbutz for the weekend. Mother--be proud. haha :) So, instead I had a brilliant weekend at the kibbutz!

It started off with a crazy weird dream about running. It was painful when I was running, and very very realistic. It was a race, in fact. The word that kept coming to me was endurance. Endure through the pain, and I'll get to the prize--quitting isn't an option. That spoke to me a lot, and I know God was speaking to me through that, so I was pretty excited about it. So, what do I do when I wake up? I went for a run. It was a fantastic run. I probably only ran one mile, MAYBE, but just kinda snaked around the kibbutz and the pier, and just enjoyed listening to some music and running in silence, when it wasn't SUPER hot out. Then I ran straight into the Sea of Galilee, and did some stretches on the little floating dock. That was amazinggggg. It was just me, and it was just so peaceful and still and beautiful. After a couple of dives I left for getting ready to head to Tiberias.

I had some pretty low expectations of Tiberias, but I knew that no matter what I would enjoy it, simply because it was a change of pace and it was so beautiful at night, how could it not be in the day?! We took the public bus system there, which I loved, and saw a ton of soldiers that had HUGE guns, just lying there. It made me laugh. and then when we got there we were in a group of Felicia, me, David, and Dylan, but of course we lost the "filth brothers" within the first store. But it was fun just wandering around and looking at all the little shops and talking with some of the locals and enjoying the busy market day. It was very very very nice. AND, I got some poofy pants, which is what I went there to get. And a shirt. and a scarf. hahah... oh dear.  It was fun though. THENNNN what did we do? hmmm. Then we celebrated dinah's 17th birthday! It was a blast blast blast, and we all had wonderful dessert from Jim. He is such a great guy. I've really enjoyed working in his square and all the jokes we had! Man, can't believe tomorrow's the last day of officially in XXYY00. Anyway. That was really fun and I enjoyed myself there.

Then we had pottery lab stuff, where I stayed for quite a while in there by myself, and man. it gets lonely in there, tell you what. But, I got all caught up with the bones and glass entry stuff that is my job. It's been a fun job. It's fun looking at what everyone has found.

Wow. I'm only on the first day, aren't I? Shesh. I'm just going to close this with saying that I love watching the sunset on the sea of galilee. I've been swimming a lot afterwords too, and that's been fun. Usually with some of the Haifa girls, along with the occasional guys from our team. Lots of AMAZING conversations have been had with multiple people, and God is just really breaking through. I love it. I really really do.

Saturday is a whole other blog, which needs to be done at a different time because I need some sleep! So. Goodnight. Sleep tight. 
 

This is my 4th time trying to sit down and write this, and I'm kinda cutting it short anyway, seeing as we have dinner in 7 minutes. But, I'm going to give it a shot to summarize at least this weekend for you faithful readers, and then later tonight after my sunset swim, I'll try and catch you up on what we've been finding in XXYY00!

This weekend was a free weekend. Part of me kinda wanted to get a group and go to Lezli's kibbutz about an hour away, to see a bit of non-touristic Israel... but alas, I figured 1. Schuler would NEVER let us, 2. I don't know if I could find people that would go with me, and I would not go by myself, and 3. I knew we would be hiking up the mountain and I wanted to do that. So, needless to say, I did not take up an Israeli stranger's offer to go to his kibbutz for the weekend. Mother--be proud. haha :) So, instead I had a brilliant weekend at the kibbutz!

It started off with a crazy weird dream about running. It was painful when I was running, and very very realistic. It was a race, in fact. The word that kept coming to me was endurance. Endure through the pain, and I'll get to the prize--quitting isn't an option. That spoke to me a lot, and I know God was speaking to me through that, so I was pretty excited about it. So, what do I do when I wake up? I went for a run. It was a fantastic run. I probably only ran one mile, MAYBE, but just kinda snaked around the kibbutz and the pier, and just enjoyed listening to some music and running in silence, when it wasn't SUPER hot out. Then I ran straight into the Sea of Galilee, and did some stretches on the little floating dock. That was amazinggggg. It was just me, and it was just so peaceful and still and beautiful. After a couple of dives I left for getting ready to head to Tiberias.

I had some pretty low expectations of Tiberias, but I knew that no matter what I would enjoy it, simply because it was a change of pace and it was so beautiful at night, how could it not be in the day?! We took the public bus system there, which I loved, and saw a ton of soldiers that had HUGE guns, just lying there. It made me laugh. and then when we got there we were in a group of Felicia, me, David, and Dylan, but of course we lost the "filth brothers" within the first store. But it was fun just wandering around and looking at all the little shops and talking with some of the locals and enjoying the busy market day. It was very very very nice. AND, I got some poofy pants, which is what I went there to get. And a shirt. and a scarf. hahah... oh dear.  It was fun though. THENNNN what did we do? hmmm. Then we celebrated dinah's 17th birthday! It was a blast blast blast, and we all had wonderful dessert from Jim. He is such a great guy. I've really enjoyed working in his square and all the jokes we had! Man, can't believe tomorrow's the last day of officially in XXYY00. Anyway. That was really fun and I enjoyed myself there.

Then we had pottery lab stuff, where I stayed for quite a while in there by myself, and man. it gets lonely in there, tell you what. But, I got all caught up with the bones and glass entry stuff that is my job. It's been a fun job. It's fun looking at what everyone has found.

Wow. I'm only on the first day, aren't I? Shesh. I'm just going to close this with saying that I love watching the sunset on the sea of galilee. I've been swimming a lot afterwords too, and that's been fun. Usually with some of the Haifa girls, along with the occasional guys from our team. Lots of AMAZING conversations have been had with multiple people, and God is just really breaking through. I love it. I really really do.

Saturday is a whole other blog, which needs to be done at a different time because I need some sleep! So. Goodnight. Sleep tight. 
 

Well, now things are starting to pick up in our square! Finally... haha. But now TOO many things are happening, as in, we are so confused at what is going on in it. It's exciting though--actually digging TOWARDS something. Today, finally, my puney body was used for some good. Lately, I've had to get out of the way because i'm not quite strong enough, or tall enough, or something like that--and I was getting a bit discouraged with myself, because I have such high expectations for my performances, and I just get embarrassed that my body can't do what I want it to. BUT, finally! my little hands and arms were used for good! haha. I found a large water channel, and then dug deep into the ground another water channel/system leading out of the room, under ground, to the cistern in the other room. At one point I was literally on my stomach, with my face in the dirt, digging down into the hole. I was one with the dirt. hahah as Schuler said--I was in my element. :). Finally. haha

We keep plugging away--the little engine that could square... and every time that Schuler comes by, we are finding more things to show him... haha. We are a quiet group, but full of jokes... except apparently this week was no-joke week, which was killin' me. We also had a bit of a switch out--Felicia and Jackie were traded out and Meghan and Dinah came in. I don't think they are used to our square and our entertainment. haha, ah well!

We have been going on tours and what nots with the Haifa team. It's been fun getting to know people from that team, as well as getting to know our people a lot better. It's just so much to type all out... I feel bad that I'm not as detailed as others... but I've got it in my heart and mind and photos.. haha but one included a great synagogue that is getting completely reconstructed, and then we went to one of the only big cities in Golan and watched at 3D move and then map/light show explaining the history and the good things of the Golan Heights... it was straight up propaganda, but hey, there were cool lights... haha. And then beer tasting, which was wonderful. It's nice to compare and know which kinds of beers I like and which I don't. Then we went to an ancient volcano and had dinner and explored an old IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) bunker, over looking Syria. That was pretty intense.

Well, That's all for today. I've got devotions tonight and want to meditate on it a bit more.

So, it's been a more interesting week as far as finds goes for our little XXYY00 square, compared to the last two weeks. First off, I found 3 squishy eggs, which was pretty crazy. I put them on the rock in order to take them home, cus it was really interesting and cute (sadly no pictures...). I of course forgot them at the mountain, and the next day after working hard, we realized that we hadn't seen the eggs... so we were kinda looking. and we saw no eggs. but what we DID see, were two dead little lizard bodies with bees devouring them. It was pretty sad, but also fascinating. After some pictures and what nots, I gave them a burial because it was just too gross. So. that was one find... haha.

Another found that we had was a water basin! I was pretty pumped to discover that, just because it's so exciting when we find something that helps you understand the room and everything. Then we found floor, but then we didn't. then we found another floor, and that wasn't the one we wanted... and so FINALLY we (and by we, I of course mean Glen) found a mosaic floor!!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! hahaha so, it may not be the highest quality, but we have something exciting again to dig to, which is good. Well, it's time to eat. So. I'll update more a bit later, I suppose!

What a weekend. I'm typing on Felicia's little mini lap top, and so if there's a lot  On Thursday  spelling errors, I'm blaming that. We're on the bus heading home from an amazing weekend. We went to the Dead Sea region and went to Qumar, En Gedi, the Dead Sea, and Masada. Yeah, it was a great great weekend.  Where  to begin? Thursday was a nice relaxing night, with lots of pottery to scrub... haha and then we just had our meal and enjoyed everyone's company for a bit! Then we did some walking around the Kibbutz and that was a great time too... I don't think I'll ever get sick of the sunsets here.. they are mesmerizing.   We moved into our new room as well, it's room number 5 which fits 4 people--and with lots of space. I like it. Hahah. It was SO nice to sleep in.  We left for the trip and Christine and I sat by eachother.

 Can I just say that I am going to miss her very very dearly? From the very beginning we've gotten along very very well, and the more we got to know eachother, the more we saw ourselves in one another. She said I'm her 7 years ago (when she was my age). We have so much to talk about and she's an encouraging woman of God! I love it. I'm also going to miss Sarah, Matt and the Marrs' very very much too! They are all just such a joy to be around, and it'll be different and sad when the 5 leave. But, I'm also excited that the rest of the group will be in the same room together the next 2 weeks. It'll be fun, cus sometimes the dorm gets a little too quiet. Okay, that was a ramble...

So we first went to Qumar--the location where they found the dead sea "scraps" as Schuler so wonderfully says. It was very fascinating and it was very helpful to have schuler there to talk us through what is just theory and how interpreting thigns can sometimes be misleading and it was just nice. He really is a brilliant man and I'm glad to go to all these sites with him. It's been such a blessing getting to spend time with him in a different environment. And I just LOVE LOVE LVOE traveling. Especially when the other tourists that are there are from all over the world. Love that. I've been taking a lot of creeper pictures, so Kara--if you're reading this... you would be proud. Haha.

Then we headed to En Gedi, where Schuler dug in 1999. That was a fun place, and actually probably one of my favorites of this weekend trip. We hiked up to David's Waterfall, where it is said that David cut off a bit of Saul's cloak when Saul and his men where hunting for him. That was amazing to be able to picture that. And we got to go swimming with the locals in the water, and I got to go under the waterfall... For sure my favorite spot of this weekend.  Then we hiked up more, and that was fun. I just have found a deep love for hiking. It's been great. I feel a lot more in shape now too--I'm thinking of going on a lot more bike rides when I get home, to find some nice places to go hiking! Anyway, after En Gedi, we headed off to the Dead Sea.

My first experience with the bathrooms of the Dead Sea is worth noting... there was a cat in my stall! I Loved it! Well, once we made sure it was still alive... but yes, it was just a cat. Hanging out by the toilet. Trying to stay cool. It reminded me of home.. Then we went down to go swimming, and it was just one of those things that when you first step in and your feet bob up in front of you and you're floating.. you just have to giggle. I was giggling quite a bit as I tried to spin around and get situated. It was a great experience with lots of burns and uncomfortableness, but completely worth doing! After that headed to the youth hostel near the beach and hung out there for the night. It was a great place--we played some basketball over looking the Dead Sea, walked around, ate great food, and enjoyed eachother's company. Dinah and I had some solid conversations while watching the moon reflect on the Dead Sea. That was amazing. Then the next day we headed to Masada!

I was SO excited to climb Masada! And it was truly amazing. I loved every minute of it--even when I was heavy breathing and HOT and all alone. It was just great to just breathe. To take one foot in front of the other and push myself. It gave me time to reflect on the climate of the land, the culture of the people, the beauty of the brown desert around me. It was perfect. I got up the mountain in 33 minutes,... I'm pretty dang proud of that. Hahah and then I made it down in 15... but that's another story... hahaha. Up on the hill was great to look around at what was Herod's palaces, and then where the story of the Zealots and the Romans took place. To think what it must have felt like... looking down from your place, seeing the romans getting ready to attack, just... waiting... watching them build the siege ramp... just... waiting.... We talked about how we're not sure if the story of lots and the suicides that happened are true... but the story is very intense and worth knowing. Anyway, then we walked back down (well, Dylan and I walked very very fast...) and that was fun.

Overall, I'm typing a lot for this blog because it just all happened... and I'm thinking maybe I should have typed out all my blogs as things just happened, but then they would all be this long... so maybe not.  You got what we actually did...now some thoughts on the matter: First off, the Dead Sea Region is... dead... it's crazy how HOT and DRY things are here.  I was listening to some Arabic music while we were riding, and just looking out to the desert gave me just this very reflectent view on the desert culture. I do ministry with a lot of Somalis, who live in heat and desert (I know it's not the same.. but it gives a least a perspective) and it was great to be able to get a little understanding on their culture back in their homelands.  I can't imagine riding a camel or donkey across this land, or walking for that matter, like Jesus and so many other Israelites did over the centuries. I'll stick to my air conditioned tour bus, thank you. Haha. I'm also starting to crave dates more and more, from seeing all these date trees. Crazy.

This land is a land of extremes.  I know I'm just getting the tip of the ice burg in these two weeks, but I pray that my eyes and ears will be open to what the Lord is calling me to learn and see on this trip. Praise be to HIM for letting me get here and see the things that I have so far!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, thanks to Anna Shaw helping me figure out how to switch from my Honors blog name to my "Sarah in Israel" blog area, I will now be able to have spaces in between paragraphs and maybe enter the occasional link or picture in here and there :).

This week has been good. I'll start on the dig site--Basically, XXYY00 has just been rocking (hahaha, get the pun?) out and doing what we can to move all the rock and dirt we can outta the unknown room. In our team, there's Jim--who is AWESOME, and I absolutely LOVE working with him, and then me, jackie, and felicia.... We're not the strongest bunch out of them all, but as Schuler said as he walked by once... we're like the little engine that could... just truckin' away and he never has any issues with our square. That's nice (the little engine part :) ) but I wish some more exciting things were going on in our room/square. like finding something significant. But, alas. we're just still digging. and still finding them rocks... It's getting harder and harder to move the rocks out, because now we're stepping up onto the wall, then throwing it up onto the ledge, then carrying it quite a distance over to the cliff where we lodge it off. It gets real tiring after a while.. haha. But things are going well at the dig site!

As far as outside of the dig site--we've been doing a lot of tours and fun things! Like this week, on Tuesday we went on a wooden boat on the Sea of Galilee. We had an amazing bible study about the storms of our life, and how sometimes... we just have to go through them. and that's okay. I can for sure attest to that truth. it was so nice to just sit there, looking at the waves and having the wind in my hair/face and just. breath. No one to impress. Nothing to do or prepare. Just. Being in the Lord's presence. it was pretty amazing. Wednesday we went with the Haifa team to Baniass and then to one of the rivers that feeds into the jordan river. It was so interesting and sad to see HOW many bomb shelters and mine fields there were in northern Israel. And to see the wall for the west bank... it's so crazy how acres of land cannot be used because of the mines everywhere abandoned. So much hatred and conflict... so many complicated issues... urgh. I wish there was an easy solution... Anyway. The swimming time was AWESOME. the river was FREEZING and deep. Me and a couple other girls met some locals in a hilarious way. They didn't speak any english, but talked aobut some rocks. and dying. hahaha... it was funny. Then having a great Israeli dinner with the younger people of the team... it was just a great time. I am loving this time here! Lots of random fun places to see.

Well. It's getting late, and even though we get to sleep in till 7am tomorrow... I'm going to go to bed to get some solid sleep! Sorry again about the lack of details in my blogs... Sadly, we'll be losing 5 people from our team this weekend... :/ I'm going to miss them very dearly, especially Mega-me... who is me... in 7 years, or i was her 7 years ago... either way. it's crazy. hahah. The team combines living spaces in a couple days too--THAT should be interesting...
Shalom!