A lot has happened since I was in Israel, and I'll write about it eventually, but for now I want to share some videos from our trip in January. Listen for these sounds: pure talent, praising, praying, youth, Holy Sepulchre bells, tour guide/Muslim call to prayer/the singing of Vietnamese Christians, the wind, happy children, "air raid," and "get in here, you guys."
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Hear Jerusalem Moan: Galilee
We started off from Jerusalem by driving through the West Bank, where we saw many Arab farmers and many gated communities. Along with lots of fruits and grains, they grow cactus there, in big, long rows. When they grow bananas, they wrap different bunches in different colored bags so that they ripen at different rates and they can increase their profit.. We stopped at Beth-Shean and saw the tel and the valley and sang in the Roman ampitheater. Soon we were entering the area where Jesus had spent most of his time, and we recognized more street signs, like "Migdal Junction," Mary Magdelene's place. We saw a zodiac on the floor of a synogogue from the Byzantine era. We made several archeological diversions on our way to the Sea of Galilee. Finally we saw the lake and Mt. Hermon, big and white, on the other side. We pulled into our kibbutz with plenty of time to read, talk, journal, play, explore, and shop in the little grocery store.
The next day we talked about the Beattitudes on the hill where Jesus said them, we talked about Jesus eating fish on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, we talked about Jesus speaking at the synagogue in the ruins of Capernaum, and we road a boat across the Sea of Galilee. That day three people in our group got baptized in the Jordan, and we saw nine peacocks in a tree at our kibbutz. The next day we went through the mine fields up to the Golan Heights, stopping at a national park where we talked about the lame man being lowered through the ceiling and how Jesus brushed the dirt clods out of his own hair and forgave all the man's sins. We saw Syria and Lebanon and Israel and the battlefields between them. We also drove through a town that had been hit with a missile the day before. The next day we went up on the Mount of Megiddo and talked about the past and the future. And we went up on Mt. Carmel, the site of my favorite Bible story. It was so clear we could see Mt. Hermon and a glimpse of the Meditteranean Sea.
On Saturday night Ryan and I looked through all 1,306 photos I took in Israel. It took a long time. When he saw all the pictures I took of Mt. Hermon, he knew what I was talking about. I was talking about a place I want to go back to.
I signed up to go to Israel because I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and yet the whole time I was there, I felt like I would be back someday. This feeling heightened as we rode north into the region of the Sea of Galilee. If I lived in Israel, that's where I'd live. There are green fields and green mountains and a big lake that called a sea and way up in the north there is a mountain that looks like a big white chunk of home. Everywhere I go I want to go back, so why do I keep going new places?
Next year in Jerusalem! I'd like to say that with confidence, but I'm not stupid. Next year probably student teaching in Latin America. Next summer at Mt. Rainier! We all have places we hope for and people we long to see. Someday maybe I'll go back to Israel.
We had to go back to Tel Aviv that night because we had to go back to Chicago. After supper, five of us went out to have a goodbye-and-goodnight snack, but then Emily said "pass it" to three kids playing soccer in the park, and we ended up playing with them in the dark on the side of the hill for an hour and a half and their dads came and served us refreshments but we still had our own snacks so we went out to the shore of the Mediterranean to enjoy and by that time we decided to stay out all night, since we would have to get up at 3:30 to catch the plane. We enjoyed every last minute we had in Israel before we took off for our home on another shore. I can still hear Jerusalem moan.
The next day we talked about the Beattitudes on the hill where Jesus said them, we talked about Jesus eating fish on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, we talked about Jesus speaking at the synagogue in the ruins of Capernaum, and we road a boat across the Sea of Galilee. That day three people in our group got baptized in the Jordan, and we saw nine peacocks in a tree at our kibbutz. The next day we went through the mine fields up to the Golan Heights, stopping at a national park where we talked about the lame man being lowered through the ceiling and how Jesus brushed the dirt clods out of his own hair and forgave all the man's sins. We saw Syria and Lebanon and Israel and the battlefields between them. We also drove through a town that had been hit with a missile the day before. The next day we went up on the Mount of Megiddo and talked about the past and the future. And we went up on Mt. Carmel, the site of my favorite Bible story. It was so clear we could see Mt. Hermon and a glimpse of the Meditteranean Sea.
On Saturday night Ryan and I looked through all 1,306 photos I took in Israel. It took a long time. When he saw all the pictures I took of Mt. Hermon, he knew what I was talking about. I was talking about a place I want to go back to.
I signed up to go to Israel because I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and yet the whole time I was there, I felt like I would be back someday. This feeling heightened as we rode north into the region of the Sea of Galilee. If I lived in Israel, that's where I'd live. There are green fields and green mountains and a big lake that called a sea and way up in the north there is a mountain that looks like a big white chunk of home. Everywhere I go I want to go back, so why do I keep going new places?
Next year in Jerusalem! I'd like to say that with confidence, but I'm not stupid. Next year probably student teaching in Latin America. Next summer at Mt. Rainier! We all have places we hope for and people we long to see. Someday maybe I'll go back to Israel.
We had to go back to Tel Aviv that night because we had to go back to Chicago. After supper, five of us went out to have a goodbye-and-goodnight snack, but then Emily said "pass it" to three kids playing soccer in the park, and we ended up playing with them in the dark on the side of the hill for an hour and a half and their dads came and served us refreshments but we still had our own snacks so we went out to the shore of the Mediterranean to enjoy and by that time we decided to stay out all night, since we would have to get up at 3:30 to catch the plane. We enjoyed every last minute we had in Israel before we took off for our home on another shore. I can still hear Jerusalem moan.
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