I'm back

Sorry for the absence of any blogs over the past week. We have been staying busy, although not quite at the frenetic pace that we were going at when we first got here. We have taken several opportunities to explore Jerusalem, both the old and new city. The best way to learn a city is to get lost in it, especially in one that is as small is Jerusalem :) For a point of reference as to how small this city really is (area-wise), picture a town half the area of Edmond, but with 10 times the population (700,000+). Lots of fun to wander around in.

One of the cool things we have gotten to witness this past week is the celebration of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. This holiday commemorates the day Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. The timing of Shavuot is linked to Passover, as it occurs 50 days afterward. It also traditionally marks the end of the wheat harvest. Dairy is traditionally consumed as part of the Shavuot celebration. In observation of Shavuot, beginning at sundown, Jewish families will stay up all night studying the Torah. They will read the book of Ruth in the early morning hours, and then they will go to the Western Wall around 2 AM, give or take. There they will study, sing prayers and praises, and pray amongst themselves. At sunrise they (in theory) all stop their seperate prayers and recite the 18 blessings in unison. In practice, there are so many different groups present at the wall that it is impossible for them all to be on the exact same schedule, but it is still a very cool practice. It has certainly caused me to reflect on how seriously they take their theological studies and religious holidays in comparison to the evangelical Christian culture from which I come. This is the tip of the iceberg of some of the issues I have been dealing with here, but that is another post(s) entirely.Among our other activities and outings:
We have taken part of several church services, lectures, and shabbat dinners and have been blessed to get to know some of the Christian community here.

We had our own Shavuot picnic (grilled cheese pitas, mmm...) in the Gehenna Valley. The Gehenna was where garbage was burned in ancient times, and is the metaphorical entrance to hell and/or the afterlife. The word gehenna is used in scripture to refer to hell. Thus, we can now say we have dined in hell. On a related note, it is watered daily and is quite green. Also pictured here is Adria, one of our awesome roomies for the duration of our stay in Jerusalem. (On another related note, our hosts saw the rare occurence of snow in Jerusalem this winter and Vern is now fond of saying he has seen hell frozen over. I will spare you any further jokes.) We also hiked up the Mount of Olives and explored the Church of all Nations, the traditional Garden of Gethsemane, the Church of Mary Magdalene, Dominus Flevit, the Tomb of the Prophets, and the saw the phenomenal view of Jerusalem from the top. Some more pictures and thoughts to come on that.

Took the bus and spent a day exploring Masada and the Dead Sea. Again, more pictures and thoughts to come later.

Took the Arab bus and crossed into the West Bank to visit Bethlehem. Security was stringent, but not a big problem for those of us with US passports :) On a related note, some of the graffiti art on the dividing wall between Jerusalem and the West Bank is pretty amazing.Somewhere in there, Vern gave us a tour and lesson at St. Annes.

Yesterday we visited Yad Vashem, the holocaust museum and memorial. It is a well done museum, and very thought provoking. We were all somewhat somber for a while after leaving there.

Today we are taking it pretty easy. Everything is closed for shabbat, so we have taken the opportunity to sleep in and get caught up on some stuff (like blogging). I have some other things to attend to now, but will try to update again in the near future.

Until then,
Alexander