Samaria

Yay, I'm finally caught up with blogging! This post is from yesterday. We spent the entire day busing around to Elon Morea, Nebulous, Samaria, and Shiloh-all parts of the lands of Ephraim and Manasseh and all now included in the West Bank.

We stared the day at a lookout point overlooking the many important hills. Ashleigh and I posing...
Kaytlin, me, and Ash

This is a refugee camp right outside of Nebulous (Old testament Shechem) created for the 1947 refugees. There are third generation Palestinian refugees living here as they are waiting to return to their land in Israel. They won't move out of the camps because then they will no longer be considered refugees and it will tell the world that they now belong in Palestine. That is not what they want, they want to belong in Israel, as they see it as their land, so they are still waiting...

Samaritans

A few minutes after questioning Dr. Wright about the history behind Samaritans, to my delight, we ended up smack dab in the middle of one of only two Samaritan villages in the entire country of Israel. The city that we visited was located on Mt. Gerizim near the city of Nebulous (Shechem) and is called Kiryat Luza. These are a people who have been around for thousands of years and yet, today, they are so few. There is a total population of seven hundred in the combined cities- seven hundred people who all intermarry so as to keep everyone in the same blood line. As would be expected, this causes problems as many are born with disabilities because of all the similar blood lines.
Samaritans are actually a people group separated by their religious beliefs even more then their blood line though, now, they are considered neither Arab or Jewish. They are decedents from the tribes of Levi, Ephraim, and Manasseh but grew apart from the other sons of Israel as they only accepted the Torah as their Bible. They believe that the old laws must be followed. They celebrate many of the same holidays as Jews and continue to sacrifice animals once a year as they hold tight to their original religious traditions.
A priest of the Samaritans spoke to us and filled us in on the information above. He is a decedent from the tribe of Levi and, because of this, his sons will also be priests. Unfortunately there is not a lot for priests to do these days in Samaria, so our new friend spends most of his time running the city’s snack shop.
Kaytlin, Liz, and me acting out the Bible story in front of the Good Samaritan Restaurant. Guess what part I got to be?!
The Samaritan priest

The place where the animals are sacrificed (the long trough) and then burned (the metal alter)
some cuties that were excited to hear my few Arabic words and then let me take some pics of them.

A little guy with a disability )-:

(-: Cassidy

I don't have time to post the whole blog of pics from today and last week because my Internet connection is once again being rather difficult, but I did want to post a few pics for my darling Cassidy!

Happy Birthday Cassidy in front of a possible sight of the OT temple in Samaria.

well, the WC's/washrooms here are pretty much the same, Cass, sorry to disappoint. (-:

Benjamin Field Study

Ok, so this is over a week late, but I still wanted to share these pictures from last weeks field study with you. I also decided to paste in my reflection paper from this study below:

Desolate Awakening

The howling sound of complete silence- sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? My face becoming clearer as I look at someone else's-is this possible? This was my day, this is my life, this is a small window into what I have learned...
Our first stop was to view the vast expanse of Judean wilderness. The rolling hills of the senonian step land were mostly smooth with a scattering of dry tufts of dessert grass that help keep the animals alive. From our look out, we saw no one, the only signs of life were the few birds in the sky. Our entire group became still and silent as we tried to envision what it would have been like to reside in a place like this, alone, and with no protection. The silence pounded in my head; it was unreal. I was impressed with the fact that this is where Elijah fled from Ahab and Jezebel. This is where the Israelites came as they began to journey into the actual promise land. And this is the wilderness where Jesus was tempted by Satan. The harsh beauty of this place will not soon be forgotten as I now have a better understanding of the geography where certain biblical narrations took place.
On a completely different note, in Deuteronomy 32 verse 10, Moses not only talks about the barren wasteland described above but also how God keeps us as "the apple of his eye." This is better translated as "the small man in his eye" or less literally "in the image of God" and can be better understood by looking a fellow human very closely in the eye. I did this, and saw a very clear image of myself. This is an example of God and us. As we look to Christ, we see ourselves because we are molded after him and as Christ looks at his creation, he sees himself for he has made us to be like him. What a beautiful picture of his joining us to himself. May we strive to please Christ more so that the reflection we see is becoming more and more like the reflection Christ sees.

A Bedouin man offering camel rides to the tourists
The Juedean wilderness- note the tiny tuffs of grass- this is all the animals have to survive on during this time of year. They are provided just enough to get by.

This is the Mountain of Temptation where tradition says Jesus was tempted by Satan.

We then went to Jericho, the oldest city in the world. And here I am touching the oldest man made structure in the world! This tower is 10,000 years old, twice the age of the oldest structures in Egypt!

Bedouin tents in the wilderness.

This is an ancient well and water trough. The age is unknown, but apparently they haven't changed much through the millennium. Picture, in Genesis, Rebekah watering her animals here...

The favorite thing for us today after hearing all the history of ruins is to climb all over them. This was the hardest column to climb, but super sweet. (me, courtney, ashleigh, and stephen)

Herodian

Since we never made it to David's Citadel on Friday, we went back Saturday morning before our half day field study. The Citadel 's first wall was built by Hezekiah and then new parts were added by Herod the Great, Arab conquestors in 638, and many other people up until 1948. Now it houses a museum of Jerusalem history. View into the citadel from one of the wallsView out into the city. Beautiful day!

Inside there was this very accurate model of the old city of Jerusalem that was made in 1878. The red arrow in the bottom right corner is pointing to my school (JUC). The empty, tree spotted land at the bottom of the picture is the Hinnom Valley and is now filled with buildings as part of the new city of Jerusalem.

After the citadel, we went back to school for lunch and then left on our half day field study to the West Bank. First stop- the Herodian.

View of the Herodian from the window of the bus.

A look into the Herodian- the Herodian was one of the fortresses built by Herod the Great. He built the fortress as an escape from the watchful eye of the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem and as a place to entertain. It was his "mini Rome."

Jesse, Ashleigh, Me, and Matt (Matthew David-yep, check it mom!)

Amy, Ashleigh, Alana, Kaitlyn, Matt, and Me chillin on the pillars

"AH! Help me!!!" I almost didn't make it...

Beautiful view from above

Rolling stones...you know, to kill people

After a few hours at the Herodian we headed to Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity

The "exact" (-; place where Jesus was born

Pretty "almost" sunset on our last stop, Ramat Rachel, believed by archaeologist to be the remains of Hezekiah's palace.

Friday Adventures

"Friday Adventures" is what Ashleigh, Kaitlyn and I have so endearingly named our Friday mornings as we venture off into the city to discover new sights and experience new cultural activities. On Fridays, none of us have class, and so we have set it aside as a day to work through our "to-do/see list." It's my job to read the guide books and create the very long list of all the interesting places that we might want to see (planning is always my favorite part) and then the three of us talk over the list and Ashleigh and Kaitlyn actually make our plans happen. It works out perfectly. Here's a few things on the top of our list for the next few weeks:

-get stretchy ice cream in Ramalla for my birthday

-walk the ramparts (tops of the old city walls- a photographers dream I'm told)

-St. James Cathedral

-German Colony

-watch the Jews party it up at the western wall at the beginning of Shabbat

This last Friday we attempted to go on the ramparts walk but sadly were informed it was closed for Shabbat. "no problem" we thought, we'll just jump to the next thing on our list which was David's citadel. Unfortunately, this was closed for the day as well! By then, we figured we would just go to a little cafe along the street and people watch and talk. There is nothing quite like a cup of coffee and the atmosphere of a tiny little cafe to provide the perfect place to share your heart and escape for a little while. It turned out to be the perfect break from all the running around we had been doing.

Here are a few pictures from our Friday adventure of our casual walk around the city and our few hours of people watching:

Lovely random tower thing...not unusual in the old city.This was just hanging out with a bunch of other bumper stickers in the Jewish quarter-click on it to see it up close. This is not an uncommon sight at all-civilians carry around guns anywhere and everywhere

Kaytlin and Ashleigh later Friday evening all dressed up for Shabbat

Hiking in Golan Heights

We set out early Sunday morning for a 2 1/2 hour bus ride north right by the Israel/Jordan boarder to go on the best hike I have ever been on in my entire life! We hiked over rocks, above rocks, through rocks, through some streams, swam across a pool, did a bit of cliff jumping, hung out under waterfalls, swam some more, and then climbed up this huge ravine (see below). God's creation is simply breathtaking.
This is what we hiked down to (and then back up :-), beautiful eh?
Kaytlin jumping off a beautiful falls while the guys watch on in envy- I was the unofficial photographer since I was one of the only ones crazy enough to bring a big camera along.
more cliff jumping near another falls. we had to swim across this pool (about 100 meters) with all out stuff being held above our heads (I def put my camera in 5 zip lock bags!...I was taking no chances!)

A chunk of us adventurers- Ryan, Matt, Taryn, Heather, me, Ashleigh, Josh, Christina, Courtney, Anna, and Megan
That's me jumping! awesome!!!!

Thanks God!

and then Ash and I goofing off at the ruins of an old Syrian village that we found along the hike back

Hezekiah's tunnel and Shabbat

It feels like it's been forever since I last blogged. As has become the pattern of life here, SO MUCH has happened in the last several days. I really should be studying Arabic right now, but all the squiggles and dots are getting old, so I'm gonna share a few pictures from this last weekend.

Friday, Ashleigh, Kaytlin and I went through Hezekiah's tunnel. The tunnel is what King Hezekiah had dug to divert all the water from the Gihon into the city when Sennacherib, king of Assyria, laid siege to Jerusalem in 701 BC.

Going down...

It was really narrow and pitch black with out our flashlights or a camera flash. The water went higher then our knees in some parts.

I'm sttttuck! In a deep dark tunnel! FOREVER!

All in all, very fun experience. We then went home and got ready for....Shabbat!

Shabbat starts in the evening Friday night and goes until Saturday evening. All the Jews in Jerusalem celebrate it with a big Shabbat meal, loud singing, time with friends and family, and for the religious ones- prayer. Everything Jewish in the old city closes for Shabbat and there is even a few streets where you will get stones thrown at you if you dare to go during Shabbat. Here at JUC we celebrate Shabbat every week by getting dressed up (our only chance when we're here) and having a really nice meal. We had a Messianic Jewish lady lead us in the typical way the dinner ceremony goes with singing "Shabbat Shalom" and the lighting of the candles, eating special bread, and drinking wine (or juice). It was great.

Anna and Taryn, aren't they beautiful?

Me and Melissa-crazy chica!

Ashleigh, Taryn, Caitlyn, Melissa, Me, Anna, and Kaytlin- new friends, but I love them already!

(o:

A random cool pic from the New City:
And a laugh for the morning:

Roses are redish

Violets are blueish

I don't eat bacon

Beacsue I am Jewish

:-D

Life and the West Bank

I feel the breeze caressing my skin and blowing my skirt in a peaceful flurry
I hear the church bells ringing, car horns beeping, the neighbor's Israeli music blaring, and the construction workers as they bang and hammer some sort of metal into submission
I see the deep blue sky, not a cloud in sight, holding the bright sun that has yet to descend into night
I smell the air, and the fresh baked bread, with the occasional whiff of garbage wafting up from the streets below
I taste the sweet juicy grapes from a fruit seller on the street, spitting the seeds carelessly into the wind
Here I am, home on my roof top, hanging with Jesus and enjoying the simple life experiences of Jerusalem-All is well

Today was a great day full of all sorts of learning. I went into the West Bank again this morning to visit the city of Beit Jalla. Me and some other classmates were visiting a school we are going to be volunteer teaching at this semester and spent a few hours there checking the place out and learning more about the Palestinians before we headed over to Bethlehem for Arabic class (like 3 minutes away). I learned that everyone in the Jerusalem area has been allotted a certain amount of water as it has not rained since February. The Palestinians in the West Bank get 1/4th the amount of water as the Israelis get per person. The water shortage is terrible over in Palestine. The principle from the school we talked to hasn't had water in his house for 2 weeks and the school just ran out a few days ago. And by "no water" I really mean, NO WATER. When you turn on the faucets- nothing. They have to buy bottles of water from the store and use it for everything, from cooking, to cleaning, to bathing, to drinking! There is an option of getting your water tank specially filled, but it is very expensive and most people can't afford it. It's really not ok. Water seems like it should be a basic human right and shouldn't be held back. But anyway, I'm definitely going to be conserving water from this point forward, and we're gonna be bringing the principle and the kids bottles of water when we go to teach. On a side note, I am SO excited to be able to work with kids for a full day every week! It's gonna be great!

Kids and Bethlehem

God gave me a little gift yesterday. See, this whole seeing the culture but not being a part of it has been kinda hard. As a female, I can't be friendly to the men here (because they already think American women are loose...if you're friendly, it's so much worse) and for the most part am supposed to ignore them (except in certain settings), and I really haven't had an opportunity to talk to the women here as they are not nearly as accessible as the men and are not out in public as much. Thankfully, I will be getting opportunities to get to know some of the people soon- I'll post on my new gypsy friends later. But anyway, God just brough along some really sweet kids in the market the other morning. They were on their way to school, and though many Arabs don't want their picture taken, I decided to ask...just in case. At first they were hesitant, but as soon as I showed them their faces on my camera screen they were totally into it. They goofed off and hammed it up for me for a good five minutes before running off to school. It was so nice to be able to laugh and smile and just "be" with them- even if it was just for a few minutes. I'm so excited for more times like these...(-:



Aren't they just precious?

So...I'm not gonna lie, the whole "West Bank Wall" (This is the wall that separates the West Bank form Israel. People are not allowed to go back and forth. Everyone has one side they must stay on) really struck me the other day as I went into Bethlehem for the first time. I was going to post a lot of pictures and write about it now, but I think I am going to wait until I am more informed. The wall has really intrigued me and I might even write one of my term papers on it. I have some crazy pictures that I will post eventually. This is just a little picture of what I get to see and do twice every week for Arabic class.

I found out later, that I'm not allowed to take pictures of all the security stuff we have to go through...oops. There are several gates, a long chain fence walkway, metal detectors, x-ray bag machine things, and two passport checks we have to go through to get back into Israel. It's crazy what an American passport will do for you though, it's like money here. Flash it, and we're good to go.