BYU Jerusalem: Galilee Trip: Nov 22 & Nov 23

Nov 22

Today we had another 3 hour stint of New Testament class. It was really good, I love Professor Schade. I love that we first took Old Testament and Judaism so that we have a good background and context for the life and ministry of Christ. Today is also Thanksgiving! I spent some time this afternoon writing the things that I am grateful for, we were challenged by our District President a few weeks ago to write 100 things we are thankful for, I didn’t finish, but I got to the mid 70s feeling pretty blessed especially because I was writing that list sitting on a lawn chair on the banks of the Sea of Galilee watching a beautiful sunset. We went to the Ein Gev Fish restaurant for our Thanksgiving dinner. I had the fish because I was at the Sea of Galilee…when in Rome. We then went to Tiberius for ice cream; unfortunately I only had enough money to get ice cream at McDonalds. I got separated from the group…which I can’t say I made much effort to find any students. So I wondered the streets of Tiberius and stumbled upon a sweet little art studio. I asked if it cost money, the lady said no and excitedly invited me in. She says she thinks she made it too fancy where people think it costs to go in and therefore don’t come in. We chatted a bit, really nice lady. The art was awesome. She left me with her card and an invitation to call her if I needed anything, sweet lady. I made it back to the buses just fine. There was a thunderstorm brewing as we drove home, and upon arriving Kaylin and I got in a Hammock and watched the really intense thunder and lightning storm as it made its way across the Sea of Galilee towards our side. Finally the intense wind and rain sent us all running to our rooms. It was neat to see a storm over the Sea and just the day before be on the calm sea, the contrast helps me now when I read about Christ calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee.

Nov 23

It is still raining from last night’s storm. We went to Gamla, it was a hike in the rain and all I had was a flannel. I got soaked. We hiked down this valley then up a little to Gamla, a small city from the first century that was destroyed by the Romans during the first Jewish Revolt in 66-70 AD. The destination for us was a first century synagogue that Christ most likely taught in. We then Hiked back up to the busses, all of us soaked. The next site was Kursi, here was a Byzantine church and monastery built to commemorate the miracle of Christ casting devils out of a man and sending them to possess swine that ran into the sea. We talked about our bodies and how we are children of God in our devotional. A few of us ran up the hill to get some pictures and see the site where the man supposedly lived. The next site was Hippos or Susita. In Christ’s time it was one of the Decapolis cities. It is also possibly the city Christ used as an example in His sermon on the mount when he said a city upon a hill cannot be hid. We hiked up to this city, there were barbed wire fences with signs warning of live mines still left over from Israeli conflicts with Syria. All of the pillars from the city have not been moved and all show that they all fell in the same direction during Hippos destruction during the 749 AD earthquake. This was our last site for the day; we came back to Ein Gev for lunch. I hung out with Quinn and Jackson until dinner. After dinner we had two hours of our Ancient Near Eastern studies class (ANE). I was really into the lecture tonight; it was on the Dead Sea scrolls. I was asking all kinds of questions and answering questions, everyone was over it, maybe half the class was paying attention.