5/19

temperature forcast today--upper 90's. once again and most likely for the remainder of our trip, our classes and days in the field will be relentlessly warm. although stopping only four times today, we visited several locations--mount of olives, dominous flevit, a franscican shrine and an ancient neocropolis, garden of gethsemane, church of all nations, a vineyard, the herodium, bethlehem, church of the nativity, peace center, and a jerusalem lookout.

sitting on the mount of olives in the cool of the morning, viewing the temple mount, dr. c. presented to us people's attraction to jerusalem. why did people come here. it's off the major road, actually out of the way. jerusalem, only 15 acres in size with a population of 1500, when david made it his capital seems rather insignificant. the significance lies in the presence of God in the city. God resided in the temple, making the city almost like eden when God walked among His beloved. hoards of people swarmed to this city, and they have ever since. the most striking part of the lecture was the explanation of God's presence up until now. dr. c. read various passages, beginning in genesis. God's presence moved from Eden, to the tabernacle, to the temple...but the temple was destroyed by the babylonians (many debate whether or not it even reappeared in the second temple). the presence of God was gone, until the presence was made flesh...in the person of His son. when that temple was destroyed, the presence began to dwell in the temple of every believer--with Jesus Christ our high priest. the most gripping thought--one day, when the new heaven and earth appear, God's presence will once again dwell among His people, personally. in five minutes we traced God's presence from genesis to revelation...and the experience was chilling.

after visiting the dominous flevit church and viewing the tombs there, we went to what is believed to be the garden of gethsemane (john, you are right.. it is very peaceful). dr. c didn't lecture here, but rather let us wander the garden. still cool in the morning air, the quietness allows your heart and mind to reflect on the moment. dr. c gave us some time to just wander the small grounds and pray or read if we wanted. ending the peaceful moment we went to head across the street to the church of all nations, but the garden keeper had wandered off and we were locked in. eventually he returned and we crossed the street to the church built to commemorate the events of the garden as christ prayed before being captured by the jews.

we picnicked at the herodium, herod's fortress/palace south of jerusalem. as we climbed the hill across the remains of the 200 stairs herod had placed on the side of his mountain, we felt the intense heat of the day. the thermometer on dr. c's camera bag read well over 100 degrees. the pride and bigotry of herod was seen as we looked over what remained of this site. we could see the swimming pool that he once had (we wished they had recreated that site) for which he had water carried in from the aqueducts. he had towers and guest rooms, bath houses and royal apartments all decorated with the opulence of a roman official. on may 8th, professor ehud netzer of hebrew university announced his discovery of herod's gravesite on the side of the fortress. the remarkable tidbit about this site is that herod built all of it. there was no mountain. herod built walls and then placed "the earth" on it as a hebrew archeologist explained to us.

our last stop was bethelehem, the birthplace of christ. we went to the church of the nativity and the peace center.. more monumental churches. aside from the buildings, jenni and i began to contemplate the plight of the people. everywhere we go we are approached by beggars and peddlars hoping to make some money from the "rich americans." poverty here is in stark contrast to the states. in most cases, in the u.s. a person can find a job. but here..bethlehem has lost her grip on the economy. the intifada has made lasting impressions on this small village keeping tourists away and leaving many of its people in want.

we stopped at the lookout to review...to pick out what we can recognize on the horizon. today was our last class before our first exam on monday. i hope we are catching more than just a sunburn.

---emby

hopefully you all aren't getting too bored with the tomes we are writing about our experiences. we are trying to condense all we see and learn and make it as fun for you as for us. we really love hearing your comments and getting emails. thanks so much to everyone keeping in contact... and just for reading.