Hello Everyone - Thank you so much for all of your prayers, posts and encouragement. I am having a great time and learning so much that I can't even begin to share it all with you. Here are just a few pictures and highlights from our field study on Saturday. I will see what I can do about getting some pics of the school and explaining a bit about where I am living since I have not done that yet. Grace and Peace to each of you!
The public lobby to the Gold domed Russian Orthodox Church located on the Mount of Olives posted earlier.
The place where the Garden of Gethsemane is remembered. These ancient Olive trees are well over 1000 years old but are not the same trees Jesus sat under when he prayed before the crucifixion. When the temple was destroyed in 70AD the Romans cut every tree to use as wood to burn the Temple. The limestone temple was destroyed with heat from the burning wood that disintegrated the rock. 39Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." 41He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." 43An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Luke 22:39-44
The church that accompanies the Olive trees above memorializes Jesus' weeping in the garden before the Crucifixion. The windows of the church are made out of thick alabaster stone so that very little light shines through and the church is constantly dark. This is a picture of one of the windows from the inside at midday. 
This is the view East from the top of the Mount of Olives away from Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives is an important dividing line between generally inhabitable land and generally uninhabitable land. The rock type changes suddenly from a solid limestone bedrock to a near useless chalk hundreds of feet thick. On just the other side of this hill every piece of ground is used where here shepherds are the only ones who find a home. Modern technology has somewhat bridged the gap as you can see a highway and a tunnel to the right and a small community as well but soon settlement becomes even more sparse. The land is somewhat green in the winter but turns completely brown and unable to support any crops in the summer. Without solid rock layers there are few natural aquifers below the surface and therefore little opportunity for wells or springs.
One of several side by side ancient threshing floors at Bethlehem. It is believed that the surface of the rock would not be much smoother than you see it here. Farmers would bring their harvested grain, stalk and all up to the threshing floor of exposed bedrock and use animals to drag boards with sharp rocks in them (known as a threshing sledge) over the grain, cutting it apart and separating the wheat from the stalk. The grain would then be swept up and the kernels of wheat separated from the chaff by throwing it into the air. This might be the place where Ruth met Boaz in the night as the men would always sleep with their grain to protect it from thieves during the harvest. 22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. Ruth 1:22...
1 One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for? 2 Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. 3 Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do." Ruth 3:1-4
The finest example of Iron Age masonry in all of Israel - Impressed?This is believed to be the remains of Hezekiah's palace about two and a half miles south of Jerusalem. The wall was constructed without mortar with a kind of tongue and groove puzzle piece design that held it together.
6 comments:
What's up, Justin? Hey. How are things there in the OC right now? I've been reading the news reports... it's never a good thing when the idf is out in force on the temple mount. Give us the insider's view (and what Dr. Wright might be saying bout all this).
Since you ask - So far Dr. Wright has been downplaying the significance of these past few days as something that will blow over but I guess we will have to see. On Saturday we were on the mount of Olives and there was a riot/demonstration there that we were able to avoid. They were throwing rocks and had drug a roll off dumpster into the street and lit it on fire. At the same time we could see black smoke coming from in front of Damascus Gate where someone had set some tires on fire. The day before everyone stayed out of the city because we knew that there was going to be something and that is when 300 IDF had to storm the temple mount. Demonstrators on the top of the mount were throwing rocks and (I forget what you call them) bottles with fuel and rag wicks off the top of the temple mount.
As far as an inside perspective it is almost completely a created excuse to cause problems and to help unify the Palestinians against Israel instead of fighting each other. The work on the ramp has been going on for almost a year with the creation of a temporary walk way and plans for the excavations and construction of a new ramp. The excavations and construction have nothing to do with the preservation of the holy sights on top of the mount. There is an archeologist who is making public statements against the construction and the media makes it look like he is siding with the Palestinian groups but he is really just upset because the new walkway will put concrete pillars in an archeological site outside the mount. The hypocrisy of the complaints is that the Muslims just completed an illegal underground mosque in the southeastern corner of the temple mount that did damage the side walls of the Holy site and forced the wall to be repaired. The new concrete in the wall on the south is visible and the construction scaffolding is still in place for the repairs on the Eastern side. Lord willing things will calm back down but only time will tell.
i believe that would be a "molotov cocktail" that you are refering to. generally speaking, they are just as dangerous to the thrower as the receiver.
don't know what happened to my comments that I wrote on yesterday.....my guess is technology is only as good as the person operating the computer! Another snow day here in PA, lots of ice at our house (>1"). What's the temp in Isreal? Pictures are great.
Thanks for the vocab Clay - hopefully I won't have much more need for the names of various explosive devices!
Susie - Bummer that your posts got lost...I don't now what could have happened but the site has glitched for me a couple of times so that may have happened to you...
Justin, My name is Linda Moorhouse and I teach a Sunday School Class at CCUPC. Your Aunt Susan is a member of the class, and was kind enough to share your blog site with us.
What a wonderful job you are doing keeping your family and friends up to speed with what you are experiencing. Your pictures and commentary are awesome! To be able to see first hand, places where Jesus and the Apostles walked and taught truly brings what we have only been able to read about, to real life. Thank you for sharing, and stay safe. We will keep you in our prayers.
Post a Comment