What a great couple of days! On Sunday we got up and went to the
Commodore Hotel for breakfast. Julianne and I had gone by the other day to
check them out to see if any of our friends would want to stay there. They
invited us to bring the family to breakfast. So we did. We had a great time.
Each child got an omelet made to order, and got cereal and all sorts of other
things. They seemed to really enjoy it. We had a great time together.
Then we drove out to Kiryat Yearim to meet the Fellows and Lilly
family. The church we wanted to go to was closed, but we enjoyed the beautiful
area a little. Then we walked across to the nearby hill, just as Phil and I
had, and we walked all around it. It was a beautiful day, the flowers were out,
and it was just wonderful to be with friends and be in a beautiful place. It
couldn’t have been better.
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| A Poppy from Kiryat Jearim |
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| The view from Kiryat Jearim, where the ark was kept |
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| Birds and flowers on a beautiful day |
From there we went to the Latrun tank museum. This is a really
cool place with all sorts of real tanks that Israel either used or captured
during their various wars. They let the kids climb all over a number of them,
and they seemed to have a great time. It was just fun to be able to let them
run a bit wild and enjoy themselves. They all had a great time together and it
was so wonderful to just see them enjoy each other so much.
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| Tashara and Alexia on a tank at Latrun |
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| The kids on a Latrun tank |
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| Kaleb on a tank |
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| The family (except Julianne, who was taking the picture) on a tank at Latrun |
We then stopped at Abu Gosh to get my favorite shwarma. Except
that they only served falafel. So we got a big dinner together as a family and
again really enjoyed it. Everyone was having fun with each other and everyone
was very flexible and just rolled with the punches. It was fantastic.
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| Our family going to the restaurant |
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| Here we are in the restuarant |
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| what a great spread! |
When we got home we got the kids all squared away, then Julianne
and I went shopping. We tried to get all stocked up so that we won’t have to go
shopping often so that we can save on miles so that I can use the miles to go
get scuba certified later this month. We bought a ton of stuff and had fun
together. When that was over I packed for Jordan and we watched a movie with
the kids. All in all it was a very pleasant evening.
I didn’t sleep super well the next night, but it wasn’t too
terrible either. I got up early and got ready for my trip and made breakfast
for everyone. As soon as it was done I grabbed my bags and off I went. I was
able to get everything on the bus and running in short order, and we all left
even just a few minutes before we were scheduled to. The border crossing went
really well, it was quicker than I have seen it. We met our guide, Mahmoud,
whom I really like. We went up to Nebo, and it was beautiful. The weather was
as clear as I have ever seen it. We could see some of the buildings of
Jerusalem, and we could see Amman. We went over the story of Moses and his
seeing the Promised Land from there, his renewal of the covenant with Israel,
and his translation at the site. We talked about the prophecies of Balaam. We
went over the story of the fiery serpents and the brass serpent, and spoke of
how that typifies the Savior. It was a pretty nice time.
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| My class at Mount Nebo |
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| The Plains of Moab in the Jordan Valley as seen from Mount Nebo |
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| The Plains of Moab and the Jordan Valley as seen from Mount Nebo |
From there we went to a nice lunch. It took way, way too much
time. But it was nice. From there we did the church of Madaba, which was also
nice. Then we drove to Machaerus, where David Whitchurch gave a great lesson on
John the Baptist, who was beheaded there. It was again a beautiful view, and we
had a great time.
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| Students hiking up Machaerus |
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| Students listening on Machaerus |
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| The sun setting on the Dead Sea as seen from Machaerus |
On the bus I taught them about the exodus and about the battles
between Israel and Mesha, king of Moab, especially as we went past Dibon. We
also went to Machaerus, the spot where John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod
Antipas, and probably beheaded. I was pleased to see that though twice the age
of most the students, I still outhiked all of them, getting to the steep top
more quickly and less out of breath than everyone else. David Whitchurch did a
very nice devotional for us there. Then it was off on our long drive. Our new
guide, Mahmoud, is fantastic, and we asked him to tell us all sorts of things
about his culture and country as we went. He is from Petra and had some great
stories to tell us about that place.
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| David Whitchurch, Mahmoud and I at Machaerus |
We got into Petra very late, and it hotel is only adequate, and I
am tired, but on the whole it has been a fantastic couple of days!
Petra was incredible. We got there pretty quickly, right as it
opened. It was a bit chilly. Mahmoud was an incredible guide. It was wonderful
to have someone who grew up in Petra to teach us about it. He spent his youth
climbing these hills, looking for certain plants for his parents to use, etc.
He taught us very well about all of it. At the same time he kept us moving
along quickly. No one was ahead of us, we had a fully unobstructed view with no
one to get in our pictures. This has never happened to me before. We had so, so
much fun. The students especially loved it when I played Indiana Jones as we walked
along.
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| Hiking up the Sikh, or Canyon of the Crescent Moon at Petra |
When we got to the treasury/Kazneh/hiding spot of the holy grail,
we gave everyone free time. I asked Mahmoud for some ideas of someplace to go
that I had never gone before. He gave me an idea I really liked. First I went
to the high place, some 800 steps up. I love that place, and found it
beautiful. I was pleased to find again that I could hike it as well or better
than anyone around me. This trip has been good for my health.
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| First view of the Treasury, or Kazneh, at Petra |
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| The Treasury, or Kazneh, at Petra |
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| My class in front of the treasury at Petra |
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| Me in front of the Treasury at Petra |
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| The tomb of Aaron near Petra |
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| My students at the High Place of Sacrifice at Petra |
After lunch I showed several students the great temple built by
Aretas IV, which is probably the structure most similar in shape and time to
the temple Herod built. I enjoyed heling them understand what they were seeing
and visualizing Herod’s temple. What fun!
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| The holy of holies in the Aretas IV temple at Petra |
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| Some of my students on top of the temple of Aretas IV in Petra |
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| The altar of sacrifice at the temple of Aretas IV in Petra, which is contemporary with Herod's temple and his altar |
Then we hiked out and got on the bus. In total I did a little over
12 miles today, with gains and drops of elevation over 1000 feet several times.
It was a great day. I am pleased that I have never felt stiff or sore from it.
Sadly, when it was time to leave a few students didn’t make it to
the bus when they should. I went to get them, and as I yelled across the way to
them I got some sand or something stuck in my throat, which must have irritated
my vocal cords, causing them to swell, and soon I couldn’t talk at all. Since
this was our four hour drive, and since it can get long for the students, I had
been planning on doing some stories with them. Alas I couldn’t. Instead I just
took a bit of a nap, and graded some papers, and listened to some music. When
we got into the hotel (a very nice hotel), I skipped dinner and just went to
bed.
I should say that on the bus ride I did manage to squeak out a
little bit of an explanation of the Exodus route. After leaving the Sinai area
the Israelites came through the area we were traveling in. I talked them
through the route a bit and think I helped them get a feel for how it worked
and how we are traveling somewhat along that route. Mahmoud talked to me about
one day tracing that route ourselves. I am pretty excited about his idea. I
would love to get some funding and he and I get in some four wheel drives and
try to figure out exactly how the Israelites went. Mahmoud has done this kind
of thing before tracing Abraham’s route, and I think he would be great to do it
with. I hope to make that happen one day.
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| The area around Petra which is an area that Israel would have likely traveled during the Exodus |
The next morning I woke up and felt pretty good. My voice
was mostly back. It just kept getting stronger as the day went by, and by
mid-day I was pretty much at full voice strength. I was touched to learn that
my students had prayed for my voice, and that one of them even went out and
bought me some throat lozenges. That is very touching.
We got going with a good, early start. We taught them a bit
about the Gilead area as we first got into it. Then we stopped at the Jabbok
River. It was just a bit windy and chilly, but largely it was pretty nice. I
did a devotional there. It was interesting to do it because usually I do this
with my New Testament class, but this time I was with my Old Testament class,
and we have already gone over Jacob’s wrestle with an angel in class. So this
was a bit of a repeat. I said mostly the same things, talking about how Jacob
was so afraid for his family, and how much he was putting God first, and how
this was a true Abrahamic Sacrifice for him, and how important it is for all of
us to put God first, and how when we do it will lead us to God, just as it
seemed to take Jacob to God there as he wrestled the angel. I felt like I did an
okay job, but I also felt like it was not my most powerful teaching because I
was trying to figure out what I had said in class and make it a bit new but
still teach the most important stuff. I felt pretty good about it, but not
great. Afterwards I gave them some time to think and read and write, and then
we called them all in and sang Nearer My God to Thee, which has some great
imagery from Jacob’s life in it. As we got on the bus, a number of students
told me how much they were touched by what we talked about. Throughout the next
two days I would have a steady trickle of students who would continue to come
tell me that same thing. I guess the Spirit taught them what they needed,
regardless of how well I did.
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| My students studying at the Jabbok river as we spoke of Jacob's Peniel experience |
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| More of my students studying at the Jabbok river |
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| More of my students studying about Jacob wrestling the angel at Peniel while we were at the Jabbok River |
I was in particular sensitive to one particular girl. I
spoke about the kind of Abrahamic Sacrifice that is involved in watching a
loved one suffer and/or die and being willing to accept that in a faithful way.
I spoke of watching my father as Parkinson’s has taken away all of his
mobility. I spoke of watching how well he has handled this and that though his
life is now painful and drudgery he has not complained. As I spoke of these
things I kept watching my student whose mother died of cancer while she was
here in Jerusalem. She came to me later and spoke of how she understood what I
was talking about and how she appreciated my remarks. That comment probably
meant the most to me of all.
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| the Jabbok River, where Jacob wrestled with an angel |
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| The Jabbok River somewhere near where Jacob wrestled with an angel |
From there we went to Jerash. Again Mahmoud was magnificent.
He gave a great explanation, but not too long, and kept us moving as we went.
We were able to hear some great things about the place. It truly is a
spectacular place, with so many ruins still there. David Whitchurch gave a nice
little devotional about Abraham in that place. Then we gave everyone free time
to explore. I was going to do quite a bit of exploring, but I kept running into
people with questions, and instead I had a great time answering questions. I
love being with Phil and Andrew and the others and we had some nice
conversations. There was hardly anyone at the place (it is low tourist season),
and yet the flowers are starting to come out, so I got some great pictures. On
the whole I had a great time.
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| My students in the Hippodrome of Jerash |
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| The central plaza of Roman Jerash |
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| The temple of Zeus at Petra |
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| The area of Jerash, probably the Jershon of the Book of Abraham |
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| Columns of the Temple of Artemis at Jerash |
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| My students thinking at the Temple of Zeus at Jerash |
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| The Holy of Holies of the Temple of Artemis at Jerash |
From there we left to head into the hills of Gilead. I got a
little frustrated. When we finished our Jordan trip last time we met to
evaluate it. Not everyone, but the majority, felt that it would be worthwhile
to spend less time on some things and create a chance to stop in Gilead and
talk about the many things that happened there (Gilead is mentioned about 130
times in the Bible, and a lot of really significant things happened there).
Eran asked David to arrange things so that we could do that. David came up with
the idea of doing Gilead and stopping by Pella, a Decapolis city that tradition
holds is the city the Christians of Jerusalem fled to just before the
destruction of Jerusalem. That sounded great to all of us. But now, as we were
doing it, he was telling us that the priority was Pella, and to make sure we
had enough time there we could only spend ten or fifteen minutes in Gilead.
This is exactly the opposite of what we agreed to and what he was asked to do,
but what can we do. So we rushed through Gilead, having just a few minutes and
no time to really do it justice or to make it spiritual in any way. Still, I
feel quite satisfied that we at least did that. These students have a better
understanding of Gilead than any others of which I am aware. I am very, very
glad for that, and I think they appreciated it.
Afterwards I went back on the bus to answer a question one
of the students had asked earlier when I didn’t have time to answer. I got
stopped on the way and was asked about the Book of Abraham. As I tried to give
a simple, short answer, suddenly the isle was filled with people who tried to
crowd around and hear the answer. It was quickly apparent that more people
wanted to talk about it than could hear me in that kind of a situation. So I
went back up and got on my little transmitter again and told them that those
who wanted to listen could, but that most should just visit and talk. Soon
everyone was listening. I tried to give an explanation that wasn’t too detailed
or complicated, but that also taught important principles. I feel like it went
pretty well.
The problem is that I am sure I ended up talking too long on
both stories. I don’t feel comfortable with that, but sometimes it just happens
that way. At least it helped with a long drive.
After we finally got back and had dinner I got on skype and
talked with Brett Nielsen. He has been helping me set up a fundraising
organization that is designed to help with our excavation. He has put in
countless hours for free, and has just been incredible and wonderful in helping
us. I am so very, very grateful. We are close to launching the thing, and we
had a really useful skype meeting and I think things are going very well. I am
so happy about this and so grateful for what he is doing.
I also finished up a few touches on an article that Paul
Evans and I have been working on. I had to stay up a bit late because it was my
responsibility that night to make sure that everyone got back into the hotel. They
did, so I went to bed. It was a good day.
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| My students listening to a lecture in Pella |
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| My students listening to a lecture in Pella |
The next morning we even got to sleep in a little bit. Then
we went to the Citadel of Amman. This is where the ancient city of Rabbath
Amman was. There we looked at some of the Roman ruins, and the temple of Hercules,
and a really cool Muslim, Ummyad building. But the biggest story there is the
story of the Israelites taking over the place under Joab and David, and the
death of Uriah the Hittite. I spoke about that for a while, and talked about
the need to not rationalize away the bad things we do that we know are wrong. I
believe it hit some students just how it needed to. I felt like it went very
well. Then, when we gave them time to explore, I walked along trails and paths
to places around the old walls and saw aspects of it I have not seen before. I
really enjoyed having just a little time to explore.
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| Mahmoud and I in the Umyyad Palace on the Citadel of Amman |
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| Walls of the Citadel of Amman |
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| More of the walls around the Citadel of Amman |
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| Remains of the Temple of Hecules (Herakles) at Amman |
Afterwards we went to the Jordan museum. I have not been
there before since last time it was raining so hard we couldn’t go in. It is a
really nice museum set up in a way that makes it so that students really learn
some history and get a lot out of it. I really enjoyed myself there.
The border crossing went fairly well. I did get pulled aside
for questions for quite a while, as did Phil. They had a hard time figuring out
what was going on with my little volunteer stamp in my passport. I think it
caused us some problems. But it worked out okay, it just took quite a while.
As a result we got home later than we had planned, but it
was okay. It was so great to see my kids as we came in. It was so good to be
with them again. We had a nice evening together and I enjoyed telling them
about the things I did and hearing about what they did. It is good to be home.
The next day was a bit busy. Julianne and I got up and went
to the Anglican School for parent/teacher conference. We saw 20 teachers while
there. It was a good experience. The teachers love our kids. They think they
are wonderful. They are doing well in every way and seem to be model citizens.
Kaleb needs to work on not just coasting by on his abilities and instead work
on stretching himself and reaching his full potential, but he is still doing
just fine, and everyone is blown away by his natural abilities. Sabrina has
grown in confidence in leaps and bounds, and is doing spectacularly well. Jacob
is also doing well, and has helped his teacher see some problems among students
in the class in a very mature way. Alexia is the greatest pleasure of a student
any of these teachers ever seem to have had, and Tashara is practically perfect
in every way. Even with all these good reports, meeting with 20 teachers is
exhausting.
When we got home from that Phil and I went to check out the
City of David. I helped him get a good feel for how it worked and where to go.
We also figured out that the way we would usually go to see part of it is
closed off. It took us a while to figure out what to do and where to go, but I
think we got it figured out. In the meantime, Julianne had driven us down
there, and just waited patiently in the car, working on her seminary lesson,
while we did that stuff.
That reminds me of what an incredible seminary teacher she
has been. She has put a lot of time and effort into the seminary lessons, and I
think is doing a fantastic job. I think she also has come to an even better
understanding of the Old Testament. She has become quite a scholar on these
things in her own right. She has been a great blessing to these seminary
students. She is so fantastic to work with in so many ways, and spends all her
time and effort blessing others, especially me and our children, but really so
many others. She is amazing!
When we got back she took the kids to do some humanitarian
aid work with the students and the Center. I got a bit of work done that I was
behind on. Then we started meeting with each of the children and going over
their reports from school. We spent over an hour doing that. It is fun, but
tiring. Then Tashara showed us what she has been learning in her U.S. History
independent study. She is doing a fantastic job. Good for her! It was so much
fun to see how much she has learned. We then had dinner with the students,
which was enjoyable (Julianne told them about her app and that became the whole
dinner conversation). Afterwards we just spent some time together as a family,
and finally I drifted off to sleep before we were done. I was so tired.
Sabbath morning was nice. I slept in just a bit. Then I got
up and called BJ. We took turns visiting with him and spoke with him on the
phone for an hour. Jacob and Sabrina in particular had fun goofing around with
him. I think he is doing well.
Then we spent a little time getting ready for church and
enjoying each other. Church was very nice, and I survived counting tithing with
our super klunky system afterwards, and then spent a little time with our
family. It is so wonderful to have a day set aside to help you remember to do
the things that are most important.
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