Lots of crawling around in small dark spaces

Hi! We didn't have internet last night, and technically we don't tonight, but we are at the neighboring hotel in the lobby thiefing theirs. Tomorrow we are getting up really early to cross the border into Egypt and climb Mt. Sinai, so this may be kind of short.

I can't even remember what we did yesterday...the days are so long and start to run together. There were lots of underground caves. First was an old huge cistern at the old Israelite city Bet-Shemesh. Lots of spiderwebs and frogs. Eww.

Then we drove around a lot looking at hills that used to be cities. Then we drove to another hill that used to be a city, but from this one we could overlook the Elah Valley to the spot where David fought Goliath. So we read that story overlooking the valley:

Then we went to the coolest place EVER and I have no idea where we were. It was a park with these tiny tunnels underground that were used in the 2nd Jewish revolt. The tunnels are pretty tight:

It was pitch black in there. After crawling slightly downhill for awhile, balancing your flashlight and wishing you had knee pads, you are spit out into this weird cave, also pitch black:

Apparently it was used for raising pidgeons! SICK...I would not want to be anywhere near this room if it were full of pidgeons.

To exit, you had the choice of going back the way you came, or scaling this wall:

The thing is, after you've climbed this wall, you have to fit through another tunnel, even tinier. In fact, I wish I had a picture, but I don't, because pretty much only your body fits in the tunnel. You have to lie on your back and shimmy your way through (still pitch black!), and it curves up until it finally opens up, at which point you still have to pull yourself out because you can't bend your knees. Jorge sat in there and coached those of us who attempted to crawl out what is called the "birth canal."

I really like tunnels and caves. :)

I think we saw some more stuff yesterday, but they paled in comparison to this. Today we saw some more hills that used to be cities (I really am more interested than I sound here...slightly), and then went to a factory where they make Dead Sea products. This was the best part of the day. :)

Ok, oh yes, tomorrow is a big day...border crossing, 3 hour drive, 4-5 hour hike, 3 hour drive, border crossing. Kim gets to ride a camel because of a medical condition, but I'm looking forward to the exertion. Good night!

On the road again...

Looking out into the Judean Wilderness from the Herodium

Herodium

It's my third post of the day, can you tell we had a day off today? We spent the morning out, it started drizzling around 2 as we ran home, and spent the afternoon in our room eating Israeli nutella and chocolate biscuit cookies. It's pouring tonight, which is fun, especially since we are inside. :)

I did well on my quiz this morning. :) Ask me anything about regions and routes throughout central Israel.

Tomorrow morning we head out for the Southern region of Israel for a 5 day trip, to places like Beth Shemesh, Eilat, the Negev, Masada, the Dead Sea, En Gedi, and Qumran. We are in a different hotel almost every night so I don't know how internet access will be. (Which is actually nice, since keeping up this thing takes forever!) This next leg of the trip is supposed to be pretty fun and less academic. Lots of fun things to do like crawl through little tunnels (there are lots of tunnels in Israel!) and snorkel. I hate snorkeling. :)


I'm looking at all my stuff spread out all over my hotel room from the last week and realizing I have to have it all back in my suitcase, eat breakfast, and drag all my stuff down 5 floors of stairs by tomorrow morning at 7:30. It's almost 9pm, so I'm going to start doing that. Shalom :)

What exactly does one do when encountering Jesus' birth place?

Smile? Look somber? Sing for joy?

I am a little bit tired of seeing these big cathedrals built over locations that are possibly places that Jesus was born, laid in a manger, wept, preached, crucified, buried, etc. etc. The locations are significant, and I'm excited to be in the vicinity of these events, but personally I would get more out of seeing ruins or even a spot with nothing there than an ornate (almost gawdy) church with altars and shrines. We visited the upper room a couple days ago (or a possible location of it) and when we walked in I was disappointed to see the high arches and marble carvings and stained glass windows. I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't eat with his disciples in this church. Oh well. We still had a meaningful visit. I hope I don't sound ungrateful. :) Here's me yesterday touching the star where people believe Jesus was actually born. The manger location is steps away, marked with a lovely gold, red velvet and bejeweled baby's bed with a creepy porcelain baby inside. The church is huge; 1/3 Catholic, 1/3 Greek Orthodox and 1/3 Armenian. Two of those groups have joint ownership of the birth place and the other one owns the manger. The places are meaningful, the decor is not.

free day in Jerusalem

Druids

Went to a mosque in Hebron this morning; this is a huge Palestinian city now, in the West Bank, but because of the tensions it is very run down and desolate. It looks like a war zone; shops are all closed and boarded up, buildings are in bad shape. Here and there you see people scattering around. Our bus stopped for awhile as we waited for permission from the military to go to a certain location and some kids came out and started a soccer game with some of the guys in our group. Eventually word came back that we could not go ahead, because there was no one available to escort us with weapons, and we did not have any of our own, so we couldn't go (that will teach me to leave my uzi at home). Hebron is only recently open for tourists to come; before it was too dangerous. It is not excavated yet, but it is where the cave of Machpelah is located (read Genesis 23), and there is a huge structure built by Herod that stands over where the cave is supposed to be. Currently one side of that structure is a Jewish synagoge, and the other side is a mosque. Both sides have very heavy security to enter. This pic is the "head coverings" they required the women to wear, that really resemble druid capes, don't you think?

More tomorrow; I'm tired, kinda sick, and we have a quiz in the morning that I need to study for. (Don't get me started on my opinion of having quizzes in Israel.)

P.S. It still hasn't rained! Blue skies and pleasant temps today. :)

Wednesday

If you can't tell from the pictures, we have had GREAT weather. It's really unseasonable, as January is the rainiest month of the year here! We've been really thankful. I heard a rumor that it's supposed to start raining tomorrow afternoon, but I'm praying it will hold out a little longer.

Today was a good day. We started up on the Mount of Olives (I took the picture in the post below at the church Dominus Flevit (The Lord wept) over Jerusalem. It's been really significant to read the passages about Jesus' laments over this city who did not recognize him while looking over it as it is now: Jewish and Muslim, most of whom still do not recognize him. We visited an Anglican site of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection later today (the Garden Tomb; probably not the true location) and there were signs that said "Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem." The tensions in this city are so palpable, in a city that is one of the most significant holy places for multiple religions.

Thousands of tombs dating over centuries face the East Gate where many believe the Messiah will return through.

Later on this afternoon we were able to visit the Holocaust Museum here, Yad VeShem. It takes hours to go through it; we had less than 2. I could have easily taken another hour, although it becomes exhausting to watch the videos, see the pictures, and read. The thing that struck me most was a model of the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

Also went to the Archaelogical Museum of Jerusalem, on the SW corner of the temple mount. You can see the original market street stones that date back to the 1st century, and things from all different periods: some Byzantine houses (pic below) with huge cisterns below them, Ottoman walls, a Crusader fortress, and Arabic palaces.

We ran into this little Arab man and his donkey, which he pretty much shoved in our faces and made us kiss (please note Kim's stylin' '80s headband)...

On a completely shallow note, my flat iron fried despite our converter and when I see pictures of me with straight hair I mourn my loss. :(

I prefer this view :)

it's the new year...and most of us slept through it

We all said happy new year to each other this morning at 10am, when it was midnight in L.A. I think we were somewhere out in the middle of nowhere looking at the ruins of some wall that some king built after defeating some city. Really memorable. :)

Last night a few of us went up on the roof of our hotel to see (if there were any) fireworks. There were a few here and there, enough for us to believe something important was happening. And then someone started lighting some on the street right below us, that was exciting! We managed to dodge all the sparks, and took in a great evening view of Jerusalem. Turns out most of our group slept through it from sheer exhaustion; I fell asleep at 8 and woke up after 11. I was planning on going back to bed but we figured we'd see what was going on up there.

Yesterday we visited the Temple Mount, had our lectures and firehose of information, and as soon as we began walking around the guards came and kicked us out; they were closed. (They close at 10 in the morning!) It's really interesting up there; the Jews controlled access at the Western Wall, which is the only place we were allowed to enter. But up on top, the Muslims are in control. It is 35 acres, 1/6 of the entire Old City. Herod extended the walls to their current measurements in 20 BC. The Dome of the Rock was built in 691 AD. The whole Temple Mount is wide open, like a huge central park; it's not unusual to see kids kicking a soccer ball around or a family picnicking there.

Everyone keeps trying to speak to me in Hebrew; they think I'm from Israel. (I guess that happens wherever I go...maybe it wouldn't in Africa.) Also, this is fabulous...everyone always wishes us "Merry Christmas" everywhere--maybe because that is just an English phrase they know? Today as we crossed a checkpoint into the West Bank we were wished a "Merry Christmas" by the Palestinian police. Excellent! Does this happen in July too?

All for now; bed for me. Feels like we went all over Israel today in our bus (not so much; only a bit to the west and back to the east, to Jericho). Tomorrow we are going to the Mount of Olives and around the area, so lots more walking. A guy with a pedometer said we have been walking up to 10 miles some days. Thank goodness for good shoes.

So far...

Wow, they really weren't kidding when they advised us to "practice walking." It's not the walking that hurts, it's being on your feet from 8am until 6pm every day, and then again most nights. It's Sunday evening; since arriving on Friday night we have had walking "tours" of the Old City, all the gates, around all the walls, through the surrounding valleys, been in all four quarters (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Armenian), seen different things like the Via Dolorosa, St. Anne's Cathedral (the birthplace of Mary and where the pool from John 5 is located), the probable site of Golgatha (Church of the Holy Sepulchre), the City of David (not in the walled Old City of Jerusalem), Hezekiah's Tunnel, the Siloam Pool, and the Western Wall. Not to mention the lectures and different tour programs and models about Jerusalem through the centuries and how many times it has been conquered and changed hands.

Western Wall

The weather has been great; a little chilly but beautiful, blue skies & sunny. Last night we went to the Western Wall (aka the Wailing Wall) and took a tour of the wall underground (only a small fraction of it is showing; most of it is encompassed by the Muslim quarter, where the Arabs have built their houses into the wall. Beneath what is visible, the wall goes 40 feet down). The largest rock that Herod used was 40 feet long, 10 feet high, and 12 feet deep, weighing 600 tons, and no one knows how they were able to move it there...no equipment that we have in existence today would be able to move it. (Jamie I remember you telling me about this after your trip, it was fun to see it!) :) Tomorrow I think we are hitting the temple mount and some other things in the Jerusalem area before heading out to surrounding areas for day trips until we leave to go south on Saturday.

Kim & I around midnight at the western wall

Here are some pics around town: the Dome of the Rock (which we'll see better tomorrow); some houses in the City of David, which is now an Arab village; a model of the walled city during the 2nd Temple Period (Herod's temple mount; 539 BC - 70 AD); and some candles in St. Anne's Cathedral...

This afternoon we went into Hezekiah's Tunnel. I was expecting it to be a lot colder, but it was fine, and it was kinda fun in there! It was built to bring water into the city from a spring outside the wall. They started chiseling from separate ends, and it gets pretty windy and zigzaggy in the middle; it's a wonder the two crews ever found each other under the mountain! It's over 580 yards and takes about 30-40 minutes to get through. At some points it's shallow water, other times up to your thighs; it's pretty narrow through the whole thing, and you are stooping over in areas, and in other areas the ceiling is really high. Oh, and it's pitch black in there! This is one of the coolest thing we've done so far (in two days!).

Kim getting a little deeper

Some of the ladies in our group after emerging from the tunnel

Making friends...

...friends with guns. There are more...with different soldiers...maybe I will make a collage. :)

we made it...

Shrine at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

This will be short...I haven't slept since 6 hours on Wednesday night. We made it safe and sound this afternoon, and we're now at our hotel in Jerusalem (we're ten hours ahead of the west coast). They drove us through the West Bank on the way here; the highway was completely blocked off from Palestinian villages with tall walls and barbed-wire fences, so they really have no access to highways, Jerusalem, or anyplace in Israel in a timely manner. We learned how to tell the difference between the flat-roofed houses of Arab villages and the red slate rooves of the Jewish villages.

We glimpsed the Dome of the Rock as we drove to our hotel in Old City Jerusalem near sunset. We dropped off our bags at our hotel and walked through the windy alleys to change some money and ended up at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is thought to be built on Golgatha, where Jesus was crucified. Tomorrow we'll go more inside the walls and gates and temple and all that. I'm so tired! :)

procrastination station

I'm back in LA for less than 24 hours. Christmas was jolly, it even snowed. Here Lindy and I ran outside for about a minute. It didn't stick though. Now begins the fun adventure of repacking my suitcase, for farther destinations this time. Tomorrow at this time I'll be sitting on a plane waiting to take off on a direct flight from LAX to Tel Aviv! And I'll be sitting on that plane for the following 13 hours.

So I am blogging, emailing, and I'll go for a run...I HATE packing. I usually need someone in the room with me to just sit there and make sure I am staying on task. Almost everyone is out of town, so I shall forge ahead on my own this time. After I make a few phone calls...

28-year-old ornament

Merry Christmas

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

To be honest, it is easier for me to find meaning in Easter than Christmas. It's easier for me to look past the bunnies and chocolate to the resurrection of Christ, than it is for me to pay no attention to Christmas trees, carols, cookies and gifts (oh, the gifts).

Especially this Christmas as my family learns to adjust to new traditions amidst separations and changes, the reason we're all together is sometimes easy to overlook.

In light of looking more directly toward Grace, its meaning, its implications, and its Creator and Giver, Christmas is a reminder of the great lengths God went to, the great Grace he extended, to reconcile to himself those who were undeserving and frankly incapable of understanding his gift.

When it is a question of a sinner He does not merely stand still, open his arms and say, "Come hither"; no, He stands there and waits, as the father of the lost son waited, rather He does not stand and wait, He goes forth to seek, as the shepherd sought the lost sheep, as thewoman sought the lost coin. He goes - yet no, He has gone, but infinitely farther than any shepherd or any woman, He went, in sooth, the infinitely long way from being God to becoming man, and that way He went in search of sinners. --Soren Kierkegaard

quote of the day

"I do all my glove and scarf shopping in England."
-Mom

go seahawks :)

listening to the rain

I'm home...Seattle home that is. It's pouring rain at the moment and I am inside in my pjs sipping cider with nothing to do today but wrap presents and see about getting some form of exercise at some point. :)

Mom and I went shopping last night for a lot of those last minute detail things for Israel. I leave on Thursday! It feels like I lost Christmas somewhere in between school and packing lists and international travel warnings (our professors are very good [err, obsessive] at updating us on any little detail that pertains to traveling, Israel, our trip, or anything that has to do with anyone who ever went anywhere). I'll have a day to pack when I get back to LA then we're off.

My sister and brother-in-law are staying here with my mom right now while they're in transition with some job stuff. It's fun having them around! They're gone for the weekend to Portland to see his family, so I will have some much-needed forced relaxation for a few days. I have friends to see, but once I get here and I don't have to do anything, it's so hard to want to make the calls and give up coveted do-nothing time! I'll get around to it, I guess. My supply of friends up here has dwindled over the years; it's hard to maintain lots of friendships when only in town for a few days at a time, and when usually I want to spend those days with family. But there are some left. :)

My sister has all her presents wrapped and under the tree...in skull paper. :) She made it herself (this pic is with my cell phone so not too clear). Silly girl.

the boss

A few months ago I switched over to the youth (jr. high, high school, college) departments at work. With that transition came a new boss...it's a good change I think. Keeps me on my toes.

It must be the end of the year.

Uh...ummm....letting off some steam at a Christmas party this weekend...

Losing My Mind, Vol. 2, Issue 17


So, that Monday night appt. that I have every week? The one where I locked my keys in my car twice last month. The same one I've had every single week, same time, same place, for the last 9 months. I missed that meeting tonight. Wasn't even a blip on my radar. Wouldn't have even known I'd missed it if not for the concerned message on my voicemail that came later on. Wow. No big deal, you say. Ah, but I don't miss things. I am (anally, some might say) aware of my schedule and what is going on around me. I am a responsible adult who follows through.

Unless it's at the end of a semester in the middle of Christmas season when I have a trip home looming and an international trip planned immediately afterward. (Last year around this time I forgot to turn in my Joshua curriculum to my independent study professor...that curriculum that my whole grade was based upon. Whoopsies! I remembered it on my flight to Seattle. Thankfully he took it over email and we all lived happily ever after...)

I'm just saying...lots on my mind + lack of sleep = decrease in effective brain function.

To change the subject a bit, the other day I was laying on my bedroom floor and found myself face to face with my carpet. You know the kind...old apartment carpet. The kind where other people's stains come back up about a month after you've moved in.

It got me thinking about how we see ourselves. Seems it's a constant struggle not to liken ourselves to that old carpet. No matter how much you clean it or what you do to it, it's still a dirty old carpet. Likewise, no matter how much "cleaning" or how many good things we do, eventually those old "stains" come out and still remain the things that we define ourselves by. To take the metaphor to utter ridiculousness, it's a challenge to really grasp the fact that we've been made "new carpet" ... ok I'm done with that one. But this seems to be a theme in my thinking lately: grace, sin, and taking them both seriously. More later maybe.

And for the record, our carpet is really not that bad...just one faint largish stain in the living room that looks like someone spilled juice a long time ago or something.

little lindy lauren

Little sister turns 26 today!

Lindy & Nate in the Safeco Field dugout in Seattle last spring

I am
done with school for the semester.
done with my Christmas shopping.
done with work. (Ok, I wish. 4 more days and then I'm off for a month!)
exhausted.

On a side note, I love being 28!

On another side note, I ran last night, an easy 3 miles, for the first time since The Fracture. All is well. I feel my rib, but it's not pain. Enough slacking off now! :)

Only in Southern California

.....do I see an ice cream truck. In December. In what some may even call cold(ish) weather. (I'm wearing a sweater anyway, because the AC in the office is cold.) And yes, it was playing Christmas music.

Luke's emphasis on social activism :)

At the Getty...yet another random picture to make blog seem more enticing

You're going to think I've gone totally off the social gospel deep end after reading this post. (Or not. I hope not. I haven't. I just keep learning things that are contributing to my conviction that we - evangelicals - do not pay enough attention to this area.)

So I just finished project #2, a "biblical theology on community and leadership in the local church." That was a mouthful. The project was even more complicated. Anyway, I just spent a lot of time in the "outreach" section in Luke and Acts, and our Dr. Luke seems to have had quite an emphasis on helping the poor! I've identified three values: Association, Advocacy, and Giving (can anyone think of an "A" word for "giving"???) ...

Association: spending time with sinners and the needy. Jesus did it. The disciples did it. From eating with Zaccheus, to spending time and healing the sick and demoralized, to showing concern for needy widows, Jesus made this a priority. (Really if you've spent any time studying the life of Christ you've recognized this.) Peter and John healed a crippled beggar; Philip talked with the Ethiopian eunuch; Peter interacted with a paralytic, a widow, a tanner (who was by definition ceremonially unclean), and Gentiles. (I don't feel like typing out references, but I can give them to you if you want.) Point: Jesus and his disciples spent a large amount of time associating with sinners, poor, marginalized. Do we? We can't love them or tell them anything (the gospel!) if we don't, and words are better received from those who have established themselves in relationship and service to those they wish to reach.

Advocacy: defending and upholding the cause of the poor. God is concerned for the poor: see the Sermon on the Mount (Luke's version, especially 6:20-21); the poor are the focus of God's banquet (14:15-24); the Messiah was identified by his concern for the poor (7:18-23); God focuses on ministry to the poor (16:19-31). We cannot highlight this emphasis in Scripture enough, and this is only from Luke! We must advocate for the poor and marginalized who are unable to do so for themselves. This includes working to change laws and social structures that foster disparity and raising awareness on social justice issues.

Giving: sharing with the poor and needy. John the Baptist exhorted his listeners to share with the needy (Luke 3:7-14); the Pharisees were exhorted to share with the poor (Luke 11:39-41); Jesus recommended giving to the poor (Luke 12:33); the poor as the focus of ministry without expectation for repayment (Luke 14:12-14); the rich young ruler is exhorted to give all to the poor (Luke 18:22); Paul reminds us of Jesus’ concern for the poor (Acts 20:32-35). After meeting the needs within the body, we are also called to help the poor and needy financially.

Biblically I believe we are to care for the needs of other believers first, but we can't lay aside the clear call to care for the poor in general. Again, our emphasis on evangelism and salvation is key. But evangelicals are a long way off from a proper balance of evangelism and social justice concerns. Including myself. This all just represents recent personal convictions in this area and my attempt at a biblical, balanced perspective. :)

briefly...

1. It is the return of my ADD. It seems to only present itself when I have great amounts of work to be done. Take today, for example. I am going to sit here in front of my computer all day working on three projects that are due Wednesday. Same plan for tomorrow, and Monday night, etc. etc. Yet I am happy to get up to do anything else possible; things that I would ordinarily frown upon. Deep cleaning the bathroom. Cleaning out my closet. Cleaning out the fridge. (Why do these all involve cleaning?!)

2. I am abnormally sore today. I am trying not to do much these days because I actually did fracture my rib Thanksgiving week (well, Nick did it) and broken rib bones don't take kindly to running, twisting, laying down, breathing... I am off the pain meds but feeling sore today and I've come to the realization that last night's Indian Leg Wrestling Match with my roommate (it was more like a demonstration) involved nearly all of those frowned upon activities.

All right, it's back to my Apologetics outlines, please stop distracting me.

This is my "why."

At a great trafficking seminar on Saturday I heard a wonderful illustration: A man held up a $10 bill to the group he was addressing and asked, "How much is this worth?" The answer, of course, is $10. Then he crumpled up the bill, stomped on it, and put a small tear in it. "Now how much is it worth?" he asked. The answer is still $10.

People are the same. No matter what we do, or what is done to us, we don't lose our value as people made in the image of God.

That is really where my heart is in any kind of ministry...that people (particularly women & girls in my case) understand and realize their value and worth. More often than not it takes a great work of redemption and restoration on God's part, and it's that part that I long for in people's lives. I've seen it in my own, and I want it for others. From the high school girls in my church to the women and kids who are rescued from the very worst circumstances imaginable in a brothel or the street...all are inherently valuable because of who they are and who made them; no one ever decreases in worth. A realization and understanding of this truth empowers and restores. God is indeed in the business of redemption.

This is why I do what I do. :)

surprise in my cereal bowl

This is after the senseless drowning.

freeing the oppressed

A few weeks ago I was explaining the trafficking issues to an older, missionary gentleman and he looked at me blankly and said, "Must be a generational thing." Huh.

This isn't generational. It's a 9 billion dollar annual industry (in the U.S. alone). Modern-day slavery involves 20 to 30 million people worldwide. It's not a generational thing.

Here's what I think: Catholics have the social justice thing down. Evangelicals have the evangelism thing down. But when Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 he didn't stop at "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." He continued, "He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD."

So, yes, trafficking victims need to hear the gospel, and I believe that Jesus is the only one who can ultimately set them free and heal them. But the message will not have much of an impact if we do not address their oppression, their basic needs, their distress.

This is not a generational thing. It's a misunderstanding of a proper balance between evangelism and social justice. You can't have one without the other. It's like a plane with two wings; it can't fly with just one of them. This applies to ministry in general, I believe. A mother will not pay much attention to your words if she doesn't know how she's going to feed her child its next meal. Jesus met physical and spiritual needs. We need to do both as well.