Safety Concerns

When we left for Israel, many people assured us that they would pray for our safety. I took it that they were concerned about conflict between Palestinians and Israelis and that we might get caught in the cross fire. I am very grateful for those prayers. There is some danger in this place. Most of the danger comes from the places we are visiting! We are hanging over cliffs, climbing into dark cisterns, hiking up paths with danger of falling rocks, walking along staricases suspended hundreds of feet in the air, winding down narrow mountain roads in our bus, and encountering drivers who are more aggressive than any we see in Chicago.

Walking up the Kidron Valley, below the area of Silwan, we walked below power poles with severe warnings about climbing the tower. In Hebrew, Arabic, and English, the sign said: "Warning! Danger of Death!" Another sign warned against walking too quickly down a flight of marble steps; a stick figure is seen with one leg out at a 90 degree angle, his upper body in the opposite angle, and arms flailing helplessly over his head. Below is one of our favorite warnings: don't stand too close to the edge of the cliff or ... this could be you!

Tears of God

On the Mount of Olives, a little chapel rests on a traditional site where Jesus may have stopped to weep over the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. At this site, Jesus could have looked across the Kidron valley and seen the entire temple complex and the city rising behind it; the view is strikingly beautiful;. I can imagine Jesus seeing that entire week in one glimpse, his sorrows, his trial, his death - and the people who were rejecting his sacrifice of love.

I also love the chapel, Dominus Flevit. It is shaped like tear drops falling on the hillside. Inside, there are mosaics and reliefs that commemorate Jesus sorrow over Jerusalem. The chapels concave ceiling is lined with strips of gold leaf 'trickling' down the roof, punctuated by a small, central opening in the ceiling that lets in light. To me, the church suggests the tears of God, streaming down from heaven, over people who refuse his compassion, his sacrifice, his love for them. Tears of heaven.

I was so moved by the thought that it overwhelmed me; God's tears for us, as Origen wrote. God's tears over our hurts, our brokenness. Gpd's tears of compassion and love for us.

Our Class

We have 45 students in our class as we study and travel throughout Israel. Our instructor is Dr. Carl Rasmussen. Dr. Rasmussen is Professor of Biblical Studies at Bethel College in Minnesota, has a Ph.D. in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, and also Th.M., B.D., and B.A. degrees. He is the author of the Zondervan NIV Atlas of the Bible and the history, archaeology, and geography editor for the revised Halley's Bible Handbook. Here is a link to his website, jammed with photos: http://www.holylandphotos.org/ Needless to say, he can speak in depth about what we are studying. What a gem of a resource!

the students in our class include a dozen people from Columbia Bible College in British Columbia, 5 students from other colleges - like our son Nick, 6 seminary students, 7 pastors, 4 college professors, and a good number of folks who simply want to learn more about the Bible. It is a great group of people; we are enjoying our time together!

Here is a picture of Carl Rasmussen, in one of our "on the field" class sessions.

He made a spring in the desert

Near the shore of the Dead Sea, the terrain is barren and the air is hot. We hiked up the wadi En Gedi, past ibex combing the rock face for food, and thornbushes clinging to the pathway. As we climbed, there was water in the bottom of the wadi; within a fifteen minute climb were waterfalls and pools, grasses and trees. What simple joy to wade in to the cool water at the spring. It was like grace, pouring down on us from on high., soothing and calming our troubled hearts, filling us with joy. Here our class is enjoying the cooling spring.

Into the desert

We just got back from three days in the desert. At first the desert is quite intimidating: temperatures in the 90's, bright hot sun, rocks and sand. But it actually has its own beauty and is full of life. Even people fill the desert. Abraham spent a fair amount of his life around Beer Sheva.

Water is a scarce and precious commodity in the desert. In Beer Sheva, we walked into a massive water system that held waer diverted from the wadi. The wadi's drain a large area and the water runs off the surface quickly, collecting in a torrent at the bottom of the wadi. In an ingenious way, the ancient people diverted water from the water into their system, and they could use it for months to come. We were able to walk into the water system, walking down the well by taking four long flights of stairs. You may be able to see one of the flights of stairs on the right of the picture. I began to appreciate how water gives life. And how the bible calls the spirit of God "life giving water."

Yad Vashem - Israeli Holocaust Museum

We were free on Monday afternoon so we took a taxi to Yad Vashem. The memorial sits on a 60+ acre campus, beautifully wooded and landscaped. Surrounding the outside of the memorial is a walk of memory, honoring gentiles who helped save lives of Jews during WWII. The rooms of the memorial contained photographs, written accounts, and visual displays including interviews with holocaust survivors. The memorial was organized as a history of the holocaust, showing events that led up to the war, the rise of hitler and the Nazi party in Germany, and the development of laws that took away rights of Jewish citizens in Germany and the countries it occupied. As a Dutch woman said, it was like the Nazi's threw the people a loop of rope around the Jews and it gradually became tighter and tighter until a whole people was being murdered. It was deeply moving and troubling, leaving us in tears at some of the stories.

We saw a name we knew in the walk of the righteous, and I was moved by remembering the sacrifice this person made to save the life of a young Jewish boy in Rotterdam. Trudy left a stone on the traintrack of an exhibit of a boxcar used to transport Jews to the prison camps (leaving a stone on a grave is like leaving flowers in our culture) and we walked away in tears at the enormity of what had happened less than a century ago.

A land of contrasts

On Friday, we travelled from the mountain region around Jerusalem and Bethlehem, down through the Sorek Valley toward Gezer in the lowlands, which guards teh way to Jerusalem from the coastal plain. In less than an hour's drive, we changed altitude from 3000 feet to just above sea level, and changed from brilliant green mountain valleys to the recently harvested flatlands. Here is a glimpse of the Sorek Valley, a little west of Bethlehem.

I can imagine David walking along the ridge of this canyon, on his way to bring meals to his brothers who are locked in fear because of the intimidating threats and size of Goliath from Gath, a Philistine city on the coastal plain. God trained him in courage, wandering through the hills, caring for his father's sheep, protecting them from bears and lions. Courage - it would take a lot of it just to walk through a valley like this.

Original Ancient Core

Wednesday we focused on the ancient core of Israel: the city of David. Excavations in the past quarter centurty help us get a good picture of what life was like in David's day. The city of David sits on an escarpment with one house upon another. No one could live in this hot and dry region without access to fresh water; alongside the city of David is the Gihon Spring. There was a shaft dug deep into the ground to tap into the spring and draw fresh water into the ancient city. Here I am descending toward the source of the spring. The spring has been used for thousands of years as a source of life giving water.

Walk around Jerusalem

We arrived in Tel Aviv at 2:30 AM on Tuesday. We got a couple of hours of sleep before our first day of class - orientation. Part of our orientation was a circle trip around the old city of Jerusalem First stop was the souq, where we could buy anything we needed or any souvenir we wanted. The streets are narrow and crowded; the sellers have many tricks to get our attention to bargain with us. Here is Trudy standing outside one of our favorite shops in the market.

Another stop ws the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the ancient church set on Calvary and the empty tomb of Jesus resurrection. Five churches have a part of this large building complex. you walk from an inner courtyard into a spacious building filled with people remembering Jesus' death and resurrection. At a side chapel, there is a pair of first century tombs, much like the tomb Jesus would have been buried in. It has an open room and a couple of niches in which the bodies of the deceased would be placed.

Needless to say, we were pretty tired at the end of day one. We couldn't take it all in at the Holy Sepulchre; we hope to go back for a longer visit soemtime next week.

Rest for the weary

Jet lag. Two night flights. It caught up to us! We slept in snatches, any place we could rest our head. Here is Nick taking a nap in an airport waiting room.

A day in Amsterdam

Our flight to Tel Aviv included a 14 hour layover in Amsterdam. After waiting for the arrival of our travelling companions, Jon & Karen Westra, we ventured out to see some of the sites in the city.

We walked from Amsterdam Centraal Station to the Rijksmusem - a half hour walk we managed to stretch to an nour and a half, thanks to Mike misdirecting us and Nick saving the day to get us back on track! We spent a couple of hours in the Rijksmuseum marvelling at the paintings from the Dutch "golden age" - some of the portraits by Frans Hals, two Vermeer paintings, and the Rembrandt exhibit. Trudy, our resident Art Historian, guided us through the exhibits! Wow, is she a great guide! Everyone's favorite was the "Nightwatch" (what is its real name?). After the museum tour, we walked up the street for a rijstafel at the Sama Sebo Indonesian restaurant. It was great! There were about 25 different little dishes that we could enjoy with a bit of rice! What a wonderful day; the nighcap was our 9:00 PM departure to Tel Aviv.

Getting Ready

We are eager to head out to Israel! We will be studying at Jerusalem University College on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. To the right is a picture of the campus in the evening, viewed from across the Hinnom Valley. You can read more about the school and its mission on their website: www.juc.edu. I hope to keep this blog up to date so you can keep up with our travels.