Hello Everyone. As you can see it has been a while since I have posted here. I have been busy with school and church and so forth. Perhaps in the future I will find the post-Israel focus for the blog and begin writting for it again. Until then it will likely lie dormant for a bit longer.

As an update I will be graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in May and am currently beginning my job search in the Presbyterian Church. I look forward to discerning God's will and to finding the place he has called me to.

The pictures above and below are from a recent afternoon that Sarah and I spent in Rockport which is just a ten minute drive from my house in Gloucester. It was a sunny but cold day so we jumped between restaruants and shops to keep warm...

The Arbel Pass - A narrow point next to the Sea of Galilee on the major route from Egypt and the Mediterranean coast of Israel to the lands in the north including Damascus and Assyria.

Your thwarts in pieces, Your mooring rope cut


Ancient Assyrian Poetry


Translated by Erica Reiner

Why are you adrift, like a boat, in the midst of the river,


Your thwarts in pieces, your mooring rope cut?


Your face covered, you cross the river of the Inner City.


How could I not be adrift, how could my mooring rope not be cut?


The day I bore the fruit, how happy I was,


Happy was I, happy my husband.


The day of my going into labor, my face became darkened,


The day of my giving birth, my eyes became clouded.


With open hands I prayed to Beletili:


You too have borne a child, save my life!


Hearing this Beletili veiled her face.


‘Why do you keep praying to me?’


My husband who loved me uttered a cry,


Why do you take from me the wife in whom I rejoice?


I loved her for years on end.


All those many days I was with my husband,


I lived with him who was my lover.


Death came creeping into my bedroom:


It drove me from my house,


It tore me from my husband,


It set my feet into a land of darkness.

It is very difficult to date this text closer than about 2000-1000 BC. This is roughly the age of the patriarchs, Abraham and the stories of Genesis. It is written in Cuneiform script on a clay tablet that has survived to this day. I have taken the liberty to smooth out several of the textual problems that were left un-translated in the original publication. Unlike much Babylonian literature that was copied over and over in an anthology of sorts there is only one known copy of this work. Therefore this poem is particularly interesting as the honest plea of one who has known one of the most painful of all life experiences.

In the Assyrian/Babylonian culture a ship coming to port was a common metaphor for a child that was about to be born. Hence the thwarts and mooring rope language of the initial lines would have been a clear indication of the subject and tragedy of the poem.

The gripping nature of this elegy gives us a window into the minds of those that came before us. People familiar with death and tragedy, love and joy. There is something in the human soul that transcends time and culture. We are a people seeking for the answers to life’s hard questions wondering in our most painful hour why we have been treated as we are. The woman in this writing prays to Beletili a god of childbirth. It is stunning when the goddess who has borne children herself turns her back on her and allows her to fade into the darkness. I praise the Living God that he has revealed himself to us and that he never turns his back on us. Though in this world we will face trouble, perhaps the same exact fate of this woman, we know that Christ never turns his back on us and that he listens and cares for us in the midst of trouble. He is always faithful and always just. When we eventually fall victim to the struggles of this world we will rest in Him forever. How wrenching it is to know that many people in our world today still do not know the hope and the peace that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. What must we do to reach them so that they do not go to the earth grasping at what is false?

~Though you have not seen him you love him; and even though you do not see him now you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:8-9

Hey everyone! I figured that I should make one last post from Israel. I have had a great experience and have been extremely blessed by the program and how so many people continue to encourage and support me as I prepare for ministry. Here is a picture from a while back when we were in Petra. Here is what I am up to for the next few weeks. Tomorrow morning I will take my last final exam and on Friday morning I leave on a bus for Egypt where I will spend a week seeing Mt. Sinai, Cairo and the temples in Luxor. When I return I will spend a week volunteering at a Christian ministry in Nazareth called Nazareth Village. It is a reenactment village that allows tourists to see and experience what life in the first century would have been like. I am not exactly sure what I will be doing but it will probably involve some type of maintenance on the buildings and grounds. After a week in Nazareth I will return to the States and begin work as a Chaplain at Cook Forest and Clear Creek State Parks in Pennsylvania. I will also be taking a few classes over the summer and doing a lot of studying and sermon preparation as I will be giving a message each Sunday in the two different parks. Thank you all for reading along with me. I will probably still post thoughts and pictures here from time to time so you may want to stop back in a month or so.

Grace and Peace to all of you!

Jordan Bedouin Experience

This past weekend I was in Jordan learning about the desert Bedouin way of life that was lived by the patriarchs. The place is a gorgeous desert environment that is a nature reserve called Wadi Rum. This picture was taken from the visitor's center before we really got started. The mountain is called the Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Although sometimes stubborn the camels can be a lot of fun.

We rode little Toyota trucks back to the site.

When we first arrived we found out that a baby goat had been born just ten minutes before. This is her first attempt at standing up.

The next order of business was dinner. This poor fella was the chosen beast.

Here is the same sheep about twenty minutes later. I will spare you the pictures in between. I have to admit the slaughter was pretty dramatic with a knife to the throat.

Dinner was cooked in a below ground steel drum. A wood fire was built in the bottom with lots of coals the food was loaded in and in two and a half hours it was all done.

After the rice goes the sheep.

A blanket keeps the sand out.

The sand keeps the heat in. In the desert wood is often hard to come by so fuel conserving cooking methods like this are important.

Some women making flat bread in the traditional way. They stretch out the dough like a pizza crust and then throw it on this hot steel dome. They are really good at the whole process, turning the dough with their bare hands and not burning themselves.

A view of the desert from high in the cliffs.

Sunset at Wadi Rum.

A Bedouin breakfast of olives, goat cheese and flat bread.