Israel: day three and on...

For those of you (mom) who are actually following the progression of my trip, I apologize for the pause in between day two and three. I'll try to summarize the rest of my trip in this blog so I can move on to the new things happening in my life.

On the thirteenth of March, I traveled to the top of Temple Mount. Most people are aware that it is now under Muslim control and the location of the Dome of the Rock. You can be arrested if caught praying at this site in any other fashion other than towards Mecca. You are not allowed to bring any religious paraphernalia such as Bibles and so forth. However, we were a little rebellious. Ryan had the Bible on his iphone. We stood in the place the altar once stood, and prayed. This was once the location of so much blood shed, where people came to sacrifice a lamb for the remission of their sins. It was such an amazing experience, standing there and thinking about the past and realizing just how good we have it. Christ was the ultimate blood sacrifice. That blood shed is no longer needed. We now have been saved by His grace. How sweet it is!

After leaving the Temple Mount, Craig, our guide, took us to an antiquities recovery center. Apparently, several years ago the Muslims decided to do a little remodeling at the top of Temple Mount. They used bulldozers to remove tons of dirt and dumped it into the Kidron valley. Archeologists everywhere were suffering from mild heart attacks. All of that dirt contains centuries of history and they bulldozed it! Anyways, this group fought for the right to sift through this dirt to see what they could discover. They allowed us to come in and learn about what they were doing, but also to do some sifting of our own. They taught us what to look for and how to recognize items of importance and put us to work. Keep in mind that everything has now been greatly disturbed so we were finding things that were centuries old mixed with modern day beer bottle glass. I began having a little mental pity party when everything I “found” turned out to be pavement, normal rock, or modern bath tiles. I was not very good at this stuff, but I kept at it even though it seemed everyone around me was finding some pretty cool stuff. Then all of the sudden!! with my bad vision and all I noticed something!! I cleaned it off and examined it closely. I had found a Byzantine coin. This era of coins can be dated anywhere from year 300 to 1300ish—a thousand year time frame. A little difficult to pinpoint, however, extremely old! They cataloged it with my name and everything. I even received a “junior archeologist” certificate. Ha. My mom would be so proud. This is a picture of my sifting partner and friend, Megan. She was an excellent partner :) I don't have a good picture of the coin since it was so small. Sorry.

We arrived at the Sea of Galilee that night. I didn't actually see the Sea until the next morning, but it was so beautiful and peaceful. We traveled a little more north to the site of ancient Dan. It was in the middle of a beautiful nature trail where the beginnings of the Jordan river were located. Now, since I cannot for the life of me remember what the people of Dan were called, I'm going to go with Danites. We all know that's wrong, but moving on. The Danites chose this location because it meant an easy life. It was beautiful. It was green. It was near water. However, it was far from Jerusalem. Taking a trip to the temple in Jerusalem was too difficult for them so the king created another altar in Dan in order to make life even easier for the Danites. The Jews were not allowed to worship anywhere but the temple, but they easily forgot that. They cared more for comfort and making the people happy instead of doing what God had asked of them. A lot of lessons to be learned from that.

On Tuesday the fifteenth, we visited Capernaum. This was one of my favorite locations. Much of Jesus' ministry was located in Capernaum. We saw the synagogue that was at the center of it all. What was neat about it was the synagogue was rebuilt on top of the original foundation so when I walked through the remains of the synagogue, I was walking on the same foundation that Jesus once stood on. Wow! Craig read the story of Jarius in the New Testament how he needed Jesus to come and heal his daughter. But Jesus stopped on the way to Jarius' house when He felt the lady touch the hem of His garment. Most of you know this story so I won't belabor it. However, it had such new significance to me sitting there in this location. She had such faith in that moment. She didn't need to talk to Him. She didn't even need to touch Him. She knew that if she could only touch something that was touching Him she would be healed. Oh how I struggle in my faith at times. She is such an example to all of us.

We also took a boat out onto the Sea of Galilee and read a passage of Scripture out there. I'm at a loss for words here. It doesn't happen often. I cannot possibly explain how unbelievable it was to be in the center of the Sea of Galilee and see all the locations of so many miracles and so many vital parts to His ministry.

We did so many things, and I'm skipping a lot. It would take so many blogs to tell you all of it so I've just summarized the highlights. The last thing we did before leaving Israel was visit the house of a Bedouin, ok well a former Bedouin, which means desert dweller. He was a friend of Craig's and his wife had made us dinner. They served the best food I have ever had in my life. I asked for the recipe but Craig said they use Islamic spices and if I eat too much I'll convert :( I couldn't get the recipe from him. They served chicken and rice and this soup similar to a chicken noodle. The bread was similar to a pita but grilled with lots of herbs in it. It was unbelievable. I ate so much and wasn't sure if I would be able to clean my plate (I wasn't sure about the customs and if they would be offended or not). Then the man comes out and starts offering seconds. I said no I'm full. Well he didn't listen. He piled my plate FULL of more rice. He did the same for everyone. I lost track of how many times he came back out with more food, but he continued to force feed us until we were rolling around his house.

He told us his story about how he had received Christ a few years ago. His wife and family did not know. He was able to speak openly with us because his wife didn't speak English. In his cultural, if you convert then you die. There was also the possibility of losing his wife and children if they found out. So he was a closet Christian in a Muslim family. It was awesome hearing his testimony and details of his former Bedouin lifestyle. It was a great end to my trip.