Shootings, Tombs, and Dead Guys

Okay! I'm off for a week-long trip to Turkey tomorrow (I'm praying that the Ben Gurion airport is better than JFK), so I think that you all deserve a life update before I leave.

We're currently on a sort of lockdown in the Jerusalem Center right now--yesterday was the day that Israel became a recognized nation, so there was a little bit of "conflict" in the city... Don't worry, though--everyone loves "The Mormons," and we're not in danger in our 8-story fortress. I'm not worried, and you shouldn't be either. It has been interesting though to go to sleep to the sounds of gunshots and cheers and stuff like that. Not exactly the same stuff that I'm used to in Georgia.

This past week has been fantastic! We went on our Jericho field trip on Monday--it included a trip to the Judean wilderness (the place where the parable of the Good Samaritan took place, as well as maybe the place where Elijah had ravens feed him meat, and also the place where Jesus was tempted), Elisha's spring (the water source of Jericho, and the place where Elisha healed the bitter water after Elijah was taken up into Heaven), as well as the actual wall of Jericho. It was an amazing trip where the scriptures just made much more sense. There was virtually nothing in the wilderness, and the stories of the Good Samaritan and the temptation of Jesus became so much more meaningful there. Plus the ruins of the wall were awesome--apparently, archeologists identified the wall as from the Middle Bronze Era (but Joshua was from the Late Bronze period), so they didn't think that the story of Joshua's wall actually existed. But, it's quite possible that the people of Joshua's time just had a really old wall (that's the way it is now in Jerusalem, at any rate), and it just fell down in the Late Bronze Era! There's Late Bronze pottery mixed in with the wall, so it's quite possible. Oh, we also visited one of Herod's palaces. It was actually surprisingly intact--there's an entire bath area that's still stuck together. The picture doesn't do it justice as to how cool I thought it was, but here you go.

In the desert

Bedouin settlement

Zaccheus' tree (the man found in the gospel of Luke who climbed the tree who could see the Savior)

Blowing the horns at Jericho

At the excavation site in Jericho

The still-intact bath at Herod's winter palace.

Just in case you aren't keeping up with the Israeli calendar, last Tuesday was Israeli National Independence Day. Almost all of the kids in the Jerusalem Center went to West Jerusalem on Monday night (since the celebration went from sundown to sundown) to party it up with the Jews. It was awesome--it totally reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve. This next picture will cause some embarrassment, but I think it's necessary to put it on:

I was low on shekels, but I really wanted some ice cream. Two of my group members, a certain Morgan and Tyson, also wanted some, so we decided to go with the 4 shekel menu at McDonald's. Not wanting to seem like uncultured neanderthals for eating, Morgan and Tyson refused to be in the picture with me. But this blog post gives verbal evidence that they were there sinning with me (even though it's not documented by pictures). There was also a great [but brief] fireworks show at the end, that was [most likely] worth freezing for (it was so cold outside!). It's a good thing that security wasn't there to see how close all of us were sitting next to each other, since PDA isn't allowed in Jerusalem... Anyway, here's a shot of the fireworks:

Hmmm, a little blurry... Bummer.

I also went to Tomb of the Kings (that sketchy place I was talking about in my last post)! Finally. I am happy to report that was just as cool I was expecting/hoping. Sketchy green door, sketchy boarded up hole that we had to crawl into... it was awesome. I told my mom afterwards that she didn't have to worry, since "there weren't any dead people." Apparently it wasn't the most comforting statement I've ever made. Here's a picture of all of us in one of the chambers:

Hands-down one of the coolest places I've been to in the city.

We went to another cave (Zedekiyah's Cave, to be exact), but it was decidedly less cool than Tomb of the Kings. Which is strange, since it served as the quarry for King Solomon, so it's definitely legitimate. I wonder if all US historical sites are going to be extremely dull since they happened at least 1500 years after most of the places that I'm seeing while I'm here.

Last main item of business is the Garden Tomb--I went there on Thursday. Although this is not the actual site where Jesus was crucified and then lain in the tomb before He was resurrected, it's probably pretty close by. The rock formation outside of the tomb (Golgotha) really does look like a skull--it was incredible. I've felt the Holy Ghost at different places here in the Holy Land, but I definitely felt it there the strongest--I think it's because everyone there felt a reverence and respect for the place that isn't always present in the sites that we visit... It was wonderful to be there with fellow Christians and read the biblical accounts of the Resurrection. I hope to go there often while I'm here. And when I do, I'll get some pictures--it just felt a little irreverent being a tourist while we were there for the first time.

Besides that, the main exciting event has been the whole lockdown-and-shooting thing. Although we're about to have hopefully 40+ students play an epic game of Hide and Go Seek in an eight-story building, so I'm betting that will be something worth remembering as well. Prepare yourselves for another novel-of-a-blog-post next week... Turkey is going to be amazing and filled to the brim wtih adventures. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures for you all! Take care, and stay out of the way of bombs. Oh wait, that's me.

Becca