Galilee Trip: Nov 20th & 21st

Nov 20^th

Today was a super chill day. We had New Testament Class today for 3 hours in the morning with a long break between. After lunch we went swimming. The water never go deeper than my neck where we were allowed to swim. It was fun. I must say that it took patience and a change of attitude for me to enjoy 'swimming' in four feet of water, when all I wanted to do is swim out far and dive down deep. After dinner we had a bonfire, it was a good time of socializing and playing music.

Nov 21^st

This morning started out with a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee. It was perfect. It was dead winds and glassy waters. We had a great devotional on the boat in the middle after the captain killed the engine. At one point Professor Schade said "Notice how still and peaceful it is?" and he stopped talking and no one made a noise, we were in absolute silence and tranquility. When he was reading the account of Jesus calming the sea, he read "Peace be still" then he paused for a moment and we all understand what that meant as it was dead silent and still upon the waters of the Sea of Galilee. We sang hymns as we continued to cross over to the west side. We went to see a boat that was found in the mud that dates back to first Century. It was pretty sweet. After we drove up to the top of a hill on the northwest shore and visited the Church of the Beatitudes, this site was awesome. My favorite part of this site was the free time we were given. Normally at sites we have instruction and devotionals then 20 minutes of free time. We were given a little over an hour to go find a peaceful place in the beautiful gardens and read and contemplate the Sermon on the Mount. I had a great experience doing this, while I was in my area a Filipino group came and did a mass while I was sitting there silently. I love being surrounded by people from all nationalities coming to worship and see these sites. On foot we descended the hill on a hiking trail to the next site. We went to two churches; the first was the Basalt Church of St. Peter's Primacy, the second was the Fish and Loaves Church. At St. Peter's Primacy we had a good devotional on John 21. We had spare time here as well which was great. We walked to The Church of the Fish and Loaves which was commemorating the feeding of the 5,000. Next was Capernaum. Capernaum was excellent, it was sunset and beautiful. We again had a devotional then explored the site. There was a 4^th or 5^th Century synagogue built on the foundations of a 1^st Century synagogue that Christ most likely taught in. There was a Nigerian group that had been at each site with us today, they were sweet! For some reason iPads hit Africa hard! Every African group that I have seen since I have been in the Holy land, this group included, has had at least half a dozen iPads that they walk around holding up to take pictures and videos, for some reason I find it amusing, iPads in general are funny to me. Anyways, there was a huge structure over a Byzantine Church that was built to commemorate Peter's house. There was another amazing sunset tonight.

Our Boat

2,000 year old fishing boat found in the Sea of Galilee

Church of the Beatitudes

Small kine Hike

Professor Schade giving a devotional at Church of St. Peter's Primacy

Byzantine Synagogue on top of 1st Century Synagogue, Dark stone is 1st Century

Inside the Synagogue

Sunset at Capernaum

Galilee Tip: Nov 19

We left the Center today super early. We drove down into the Great Rift Valley then north up to Beth-Shean. As we passed the Dead Sea the sunrise was glistening off of the water and it was absolutely gorgeous. Beth-Shean was awesome; it was the chief city of the Decapolis during the time of Christ known as Scythopolis. The ruins were sweet, we hiked up the Tel to get a sweet look on the city and see some old ruins on the Tel. Next stop was Nazareth, the drive there was beautiful, the more north you travel in Israel the more beautiful the landscape. We visited a church that was built on top of the foundation of a first century synagogue where it was likely Christ came and read the Isaiah passage and declared himself as the Messiah. We went to the Catholic Church of the Annunciation. This Church was huge! It had a grotto in the first floor that is believed to be Mary's house. The next floor was breathtaking. They had large art pieces donated from countries all over the world depicting the Mother Mary. The one from the U.S. was kind of weird, not my favorite. Just a stone's throw away was the Church of St. Joseph, the 'step-father' of Jesus. The Chapel was nice and humble; the lower level had the supposed house of Joseph. It was a neat experience going to Nazareth. We drove to Galilee then up to Mount Arbel. This was a sweet overlook located on the North West side of the Sea of Galilee. The vista was incredible to say the least. After taking photos we drove to Ein Gev, our place of residence while we are here in Galilee. It is on a Jewish Kibbutz. Down on the beach we all watched the sunset over the mountains surrounding the Sea of Galilee. The water was like a sheet of glass, it was quiet and peaceful.

Sunrise on the Dead Sea

Scriptural Connection

Me and some of my favorite people here

Beth-Shean was destroyed by the 749 AD earthquake

The beautiful countryside on our drive to Nazareth

Scriptural Reference for Synagogue Church in Nazareth

Synagogue Church

The Grotto where Mary lived

The upper part of the Church of the Annunciation

Church of St. Joseph

Mt. Arbel overlooking the Sea of Galilee

Conflicts and Bonding

Sunday November 18th

The Conflict in Gaza continues, but our security said it was safe to go out today. We went to the Tomb of the Kings. This place was sweet; it was resting place for the family of Queen Helene of Adiabene in the first century AD. We had to pay 10 shekels before climbing down stairs into the huge pit and entering a small opening into tons of rooms inside the rock. Each room had a handful of tomb slots for the body to be laid. It was kind of eerie in there because it was pitch black and only two of us had head lamps. I had to use the red light on my camera before it would flash, so I had a faint little red light to navigate through these old stone tombs in the dark. We sang Hymns in one of the rooms because the acoustics were amazing. We then went to St. Georges Cathedral and sat for a few minutes during their service, their hymns sounded exactly like LDS hymns, the singing, organ, and the melody it was weird. After we walked to the Church of St Saviour to try and see the door that Orson Hyde carved his last name in when he was staying here in 1841. We got taken to the part of the church, but the Father that took us didn't have the keys and said that the Father that has the keys was not there for a few days. We split up our group after and I got separated from everyone a few minutes. It was actually nice to cruise around the old city by myself. When I met back up with everyone I had to wait around a bit while they shopped. Then we went to a grassy area right across the Governor's office just outside the city walls on the border of East and West Jerusalem. We set up my roommate's slack line. It was super cool, we had a Hasidic Jew come and try it, then some Palestinians, then another Jewish guy our age. It was super cool to have both Jews and Palestinians together slack lining. I'm not a slack lining advocate, but I found it neat to see both peoples, who just 50 miles south are fighting against each other, finding enjoyment, sharing laughs, and doing something with each other. We later had a large group of little Arab girls come and do it as well. It was a beautiful sunset and an even more beautiful moment to mix and mingle with the people of Jerusalem.  

Outside the Tombs, the entrance was in this open mouth to the left.

Rachel going into one of the Rooms

One of the rooms with the tomb shelves

St. George Cathedral

There are always old men playing games in the old city, I love it.

 

Roommate Jordan and Moses our hasidic Jewish Friend.

Our new Palestinian and Jewish friends enjoying the slack line.

Group of Arab girls loving it

Sunset over Jerusalem, taken from the BYU Center.

An Intense Friday Evening

Due to the rising conflicts at Gaza starting on Wednesday some events happened on Friday that were very intense, but not as intense as it seems...at least for us here in the Jerusalem Center. We had the sirens go off  around 4:50 pm. We had to all evacuate into the bomb shelters here. I had just woken up from a long nap because we were not allowed to go out of the center due to the conflict and the Friday prayers. I was halfway into playing a song on the guitar still half asleep in my undies when I heard one of my professors in the hallway intensely yelling and i thought, "Someone is getting reamed!" Then the air raid sirens went off and I realized things were serious. Immediately the head of security came over the loud speaker saying "This is not a drill, head to the nearest bomb shelter!" So I threw on some clothes and ran down into the shelter as my teacher was screaming at everyone to get to the nearest shelter, waving us in like a third base couch sending us to home plate. I was half asleep and out of breath as I entered the bomb shelter (which is also where we do our laundry and play table tennis). We took attendance as the teachers were figuring out where everyone was, there were still students out in west Jerusalem, which we later found out made it into bomb shelters in the city. Our Branch President said a prayer. We were only in their for about 30 minutes before they told us that its safe to come out, and we had a forum where the security and administrators addressed us. It was crazy, it was the first time students had to evacuate into the shelters, actually the first time Hamas has aimed an attack on Jerusalem. They told us it was more a symbolic war, they are just sending messages to the Israeli Government that they are serious. I really feel bad for the Palestinians who are in Gaza, it will not be pretty as Israel retaliates. We were kept safe, I feel very secure here in the Center, our security is amazing. Though it was crazy when the sirens went off, it added that much comfort to the experience that I knew the voice of the head of security, Tarek. He is that man!!! There were two rockets that landed 10 miles South of Jerusalem, they landed in empty fields south of Bethlehem. We are all safe, it was pretty intense for a little bit. I really just feel for the families and innocent people in Gaza, after getting to know the Palestinians here and Arabs in general I am even more sympathetic towards the plight situation they are in the middle of. Pray for ceasefire, peace, and Gaza.  

Olive Picking

After a few weeks delay because of some construction going on at the Center, we finally got to pick then press Olives for Olive Oil. It was a blast. Pressing was a good time. We have three presses, First we would put the olives into the wheel press and crush them into a mush, next we would put that mush into rope-net basket deals, then we would squeeze them in our screw press and the other super old biblical type press. It was a cultural and historical learning experience.

Picking

More Picking

The cleaned Olives

Loading

Roommate bonding

The Mush into the rope-basket deals

Screw Press

More Screw Press

The Not so final Product

Other Press

Rocks of the other Press

Pulling up the Rocks to press the oils

Ramparts Walk

October 28th So we went on the Ramparts walk today all around the Old City. It was pretty awesome. We ended by the al aqsa mosque. We went and said a prayer at the western wall then walked back to the center. Some local kids rode by on donkey's as we hiked up the Kidron Valley.

A view from behind Damascus Gate

The crew

Another View of the City walls

The southern Part of the City

Praying at the Western Wall

Normal crowded day in the City

Funny kids on their family Ass