This week was our last week in Galilee. On Monday we started our back-to-back field trip week. We started our trip by going to Mt Tabor, one of the supposed sites for the Mt of Transfiguration. It has a beautiful church and a great view of the Jezreel Valley. The church has 3 chapels, one for Christ, Moses, and Elijah. Probably the most interesting thing that happened all day, though, was definitely when we arrived at the base of the mount. We got off the bus to get into taxis up the hill and as we walked to the taxi, there was another group getting out. The tour guide was arguing with the gift shop/snack bar owner and it turned to yelling and then men had to hold them back. At one point in the fight, the owner leaps over the bar onto the tour guide and they start grappling. The group started chanting the Hail Mary in French, maybe to calm them down? We found out later than they started fighting because the guide spilled packets of sugar on the counter. After Mt Tabor, we went to Megiddo, a place you might know as Armageddon. It was the usual pile of unearthed rocks. We got to walk through a cistern, which is always fun. We ended the trip with Bet Shearim, a place with tombs of the ancient rabbis who compiled the Mishna. We saw the tomb of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and walked inside one of the large caves.
For
the last three days, both classes were together on the field trips. Tuesday, we
went to Hazor, where we saw a live dig and had a lecture from one of the
archaeologists, a BYU alumnus. We went from there to Tel Dan. Dan is in a
Nature Preserve and was called the city of seven springs because of all the
water there. It’s a beautiful area and very green; it reminded me of Colorado.
We saw a mud-brick gate that they are pretty certain that Abraham walked through
and the altar that Jeroboam built and Ahab expanded. Next was Caesarea
Philippi, where Christ asked the apostles who they thought he was. It has a
huge cliff face, which has temples for Pan, the shepherd god, cut into the
wall. Christ used this backdrop to make the point that it is the rock of the
gospel that you need to found your life on. Then we went to my first real
castle! Nimrod’s Castle is a Mamluk castle, patterned after crusader styles,
and is currently in ruins. It’s in good enough condition that you could climb
into the towers, walk the ramparts, and walk through the secret passage. It’s
probably my favorite site so far. We ended the day at an old Israeli bunker on
Mt. Bental overlooking the Syrian border.
Wednesday
started with Chorizin, an old Jewish city that showed how Hellenized the Jews
became. In the synagogue, there were Greek themes in the artwork, like medusa
carvings. Then we went to Sepphoris. It had lots of really well-preserved
mosaics and a crusader fortress. Our last stop was Acre, a crusader city on the
Mediterranean. The fortress was filled in with sand, so all the original
architecture is still there. It was really cool. I really appreciate the sites
where you stand in the room and are in awe of the architecture as opposed to
looking at a half-foot high rock wall that was magnificent 2000 years ago.
Our
last day in Galilee was on Thursday. We went to Mt Carmel, where Elijah faced
off the priests of Baal in 1 Kings 18. Then we drove to Haifa and visited the
Bahai Gardens. The Bahai faith is centered in Haifa, where their great prophet,
the Bab, is buried. The Gardens were beautifully manicured grassy terraces down
to the shrine and tomb of the Bab. We went a little ways to a Templer cemetery
(not to be confused to the Templar knights) where the first Mormon converts in
Israel and some Mormon missionaries are buried. One was a BYU student in the
1890’s and left one year short of getting his degree to go on a mission to
Israel. He died of smallpox 3 weeks before his 24th birthday. We
talked about how it’s good to die for the gospel but so much better and harder
to live for the gospel. Our last stop was Caesarea on the Mediterranean. This
is the place where Paul was imprisoned and brought before Herod Agrippa in Acts
25-26. It’s the place of the famous quote “almost thou persuadest me to be a
Christian.” We saw the palace, theater, hippodrome, and crusader remains, all
right on the shore of the Mediterranean. It was beautiful. We stopped at the
still standing aqueducts on the beach nearby and got to wade in the Sea. The
beach was pristine, much better than any of the beaches we’ve been to so far,
including Tel Aviv. We drove home to the JC after Caesarea.
On
Friday, I went with a group going souvenir shopping. I’ve got pretty much
everything I wanted at this point, but it’s always fun wandering the old city.
Saturday was church. We started our Sunday by going to mass at the Lutheran
Church of the Redeemer. We went to the Arabic service for the first half hour
and the English one for the last part. The Arabic mass looked very Catholic but
the English was totally American evangelical, complete with a woman pastor. She
and her husband are co-pastors and assigned to Jerusalem for the next couple
years. We then went to the YMCA to play the carillon bells. I did that the
first Sunday here, but the group I was with had signed up to go, so I tagged
along. Across the street is the King David Hotel, the place where important
people stay when in Jerusalem; Obama stayed there earlier this year. We went in
to see the lobby, which has a long hallway with the signatures of all the
famous people who have stayed there. Among them are Yoko Ono, Eleanor
Roosevelt, Metallica, Elizabeth Taylor, Ban Ki Moon, Nelson Mandela, the
Bushes, and, of course, Obama.
We
got lunch in West Jerusalem and on our way to the old city I saw several
wedding dresses in an upstairs window. It’s the first wedding dress store I’ve
seen in Jerusalem (I’ve seen them everywhere else we’ve gone- there were 4 in
Nazareth that we drove by) and it didn’t take much to talk my companions into
going in. I felt like a bride, it was so much fun! The rest of the afternoon
was spent doing more souvenir shopping.
That’s
my week! I hope you did at least one fun thing this week and aren’t too jealous
of my many fun things!
Love
you all!
Kelby
P.S.
Devin- you asked me about movies and I remembered that I enjoyed seeing Oz the
Great and Powerful and the Hunger Games, and I didn't see these but the Bourne Legacy and Skyfall.
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