Field Trip Day part 1

So I am a few days behind so I will start off with Sunday which was a free day for us so we set off to the town! During the morning we meandered around the old city just absorbing the culture. We made our way to the Armenian Quarter and we found a new church! It is a Franciscan church. This church was gorgeous and had the largest crucifix that I have ever seen. Then today we went on a field trip to that same church and we found out that Orson Hyde stayed here when he was dedicating this land and had carved his name into the door. cool huh?

We arrived at the perfect time because we got to see a baptism! 

The next stop was at another church that was actually closed but the security guard allowed us to go in (the perks of being mormon). So we had our own time within the church and then we saw a staircase going down so we had to check it out. It was pretty spooky because there was no lights so we had to just use our cameras. We found out that it was the catacombs. pretty eery but way cool.

Afterwards we headed over to West Jerusalem and we saw a protest happening. There were all these people in tents and mini houses. They were protesting the high living prices.

So we kind have a slogan at the JC and it is "Never Stop Exploring" we say it all the time. While we were at the North Face store in the Mamilla we found out that it is also their slogan so we picked up a ton of cards that said it and we carry it around with us. 

This is our "Never stop Exploring" look

That night we went out to eat on Ben Yehuda street, there are always street musicians and we always have to stop and dance so this is my friend Adam, breaking it down for us.

We went Israeli dancing that night and then played games in the park. We were out for 12 hours! So exhausting but amazing. 

The next day we went on a field trip around Jerusalem. The first stop was at the Burnt House, which was a ancient house that was owned by wealthy Sadducees. 

One of my favorite things that we went to was the archaeological park that contained some of the original stairs and gates. This was a cool experience because we know that Christ was at these steps and at these exact gates.

The story where Christ was tempted by Satan at the Pinnacle of the temple. Well this is the Pinnacle and the next picture is the actual stone where the trumpeter stood. 

This is the ancient market area. Possible location of Christ yelling at the vendors?

The last days in the Galilee

 Like I said before on the last day on our Galilee adventure we drove down the coast and we made our way to Haifa. Emily and I are posing in front of the Bahai'i Gardens. These are one of the prettiest gardens that I have ever been to. unfortunately they were locked on the day we went so you should google it to get a good picture of them. But the gardens were produced by the Bahai'i religion and they believe that all religions bring you to God. So this garden represents all the major world religions, sadly they do not accept Mormonism and it is pretty much the only religion that they think is wrong so we don't have a section dedicated to us but thats ok, it was beautiful.

 The next stop was at the Haifa cemetery where we got to see the grave markers for the first missionaries in the latter days that came to the state of Israel. This was a very spiritual and special experience for us. We learned about two men who gave up everything; their families, education, and work to go on missions to the Haifa area. Sadly both of them died of diseases while serving but they were the ones who started missionary work here! Today this is a HUGE deal and part of the reason why I am allowed to be here in Jerusalem. When the government tries to tell us that we are a new religion and that we came out of no where we can show them these head stones and prove that we have been around since the 1800's. I am so grateful for those men and the sacrifices that they made so I can be here today.

 The next stop was at Caesarea. This was an ancient biblical town where Herod the Great lived and named it Caesarea after Augustus Caeser. There is a large hippodrome where they had chariot races, large pools, and large theater. It was so gorgeous because it was right on the ocean and the cool breeze just felt so nice. This was one of the nicest ancient Roman cities that I have ever been to. We saw one of the dungeons or prisons where Paul was most likely imprisoned.

 The rest of the pictures are just some extra fun pictures. There are a few other places that I went and I have not posted about and I will just have to skim over...sorry.  One of the days we went floating down the river Jordan and I think that was the highlight of my trip! We just got these large rafts that fit like 6 people. The beginning we stayed calm and floated down but then things got physical. Some one flipped me out of the boat and war broke out. We spent the next two hours floating down finding all of the rafts from our groups and laying siege on them. The river was only a few feet deep so nothing bad happened but it was soooooo much fun! We named our boat USS Democracy and we had our own wolf cry and secret signs. It got intense.

 Tel Dan

 So when we were in Tiberias we came across these gems. They are full body jumpsuits that are neon and say "Don't Be Jel." But everyone was super jealous of them.

 We previewed these puppies at the bonfire. (They call them fire bons in Israel) The nights in Galilee were the greatest. We always stayed up way too late for our own good but it was the only time that we were not dying of heat strokes. We had bonfires. We went night swimming, hopefully my professors aren't reading this because it was against the rules. We would play games all night. Watched the woman's final soccer match. Watch movies. Just sit and share stories all night. Good times.

 While in the Galilee we made a music video called the Sea of Galilee and this was a snap shot of us singing. Watch we are the next N'sync or Backstreet boys-- girls version.

We even have a groupie! 

I feel like I just keep on saying how amazing the Galilee was, but it was! It is really sad because this experience is coming to a close but I consider the Galilee to the last hurrah! And it exceeded all expectations.

The next few days in the Galilee

 We started off the day with a  field trip to Tel Dan, which was actually a beautiful tel (I know that sounds like an oxymoron). But it is a a nature reserve so it was a gorgeous hike. You may recognize the name from the saying "from Dan to Beersheba" Well this is the Dan from the scriptures.

 There is a man named Dan in my group so he was the star of the day. In this picture everyone is worshiping his "golden calf." The reason why we are doing this is because this is the exact location of where the Sins of Jeroboam started!  Crazy that they have pinpointed the altar for the beginning of idol worshipping

Tel Dan is also on the border so it was temporarily turned into a war zone so this is was a bunker and we are doing our Charlie's angels poses.

Ceaseria-Phillipi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This is a castle that we stormed. It has no biblical reference but this was the coolest castle that I have ever been to! I loved and there was so many things to explore, that is why I love things like this in foreign countries because there are no boundaries or no off-limits. We could go to through all the underground tunnels, cisterns, and just never stop exploring.

Large water cistern

The next stop was at Chorazin which was one of the three main preaching cities of Christ. There was a large synagogue, a classic four room house, and they found the seat of Moses here. 

This picture is an example of a "mote and beam" in our eyes.

This is for you kat :)

I am not sure if any of you have seen this but it is considered as the Mona Lisa of the Middle East. It is a beautiful mosaic of an unknown woman. 

The next day we drove up along the coast and we hit a few sites like Ceaseria and Acre. 

Acre was a very large crusader city, in this picture our teachers had a sword fight. Got to love them. Muhlestein beat Judd

 We were able to make a quick pit stop at an overlook and also go to the beach. So these are just a few pictures from that.

Some more of the Galilee....

One the third field trip day we went to the Mount of Transfiguration, the car ride up there was the windiest road that I had ever been on and the driver decided to go super fast which made me even start to feel ill. But this was a beautiful church with a great over look. We had a devotional and discussed the events that occurred on the mount. (and then we confessed our sins :))

Sorry for the blurry photo but I had to do a run-in run-out photo at the Church of Nain. This is the church that commemorates when Christ raised the widow from Nain's son. This church has been closed for over five years but we found the priest that runs the church and he opened it specially for us. We were very thankful but the area had been occupied by pigeons for the past five years so it was a little smelly. But the devotional we had here was amazing and we could all feel the spirit so strong.

The next stop was at Tel Megiddo, which is the site where people think that the Armageddon will occur. Megiddo turns to Megeddon to Armageddon or something like that. It was hotter than tel here. But they did have metal chariots here so we took pictures. Like all tels there are underground tunnels that lead to the cistern storage. The bottom picture is the "crew" on our bus at the cistern. 

Ok, I am exhausted because I was out in the city for 12 hours today so I feel like I am going to pass out as I write so I am gonna go to bed and I will post again tomorrow. Sorry for the short post.

The Sea of Galilee.....

 Where do I begin...? The first day we headed off in our buses to the Galilee. The first stop was at Bet She'an this is where King Saul lived (and also where Jesus Christ Superstar was filmed, I have never seen the movie) Well, I had to be selective with my pictures so I didn't post pictures about a lot of the places but I tried to pick a few good ones.

The next stop was at the Nativity Village which was a rebuilt/  re-enacted village that was supposed to represent a typical village during the time of Christ. Not going to lie it was a little cheesy but you got to appreciate people that dress up and act like they are from the 1st century.

 The one cool thing about this place was that they had rebuilt a synagogue that was popular at this time period. We go to a bunch of tels and ruins so it is hard to imagine what it really looks like but this helped me visualize it better.

 Afterwards we went to Nazareth, the first stop was the Nazareth Synagogue where Christ preached. He came here after he was tempted by the Devil three times. It was here that he began his ministry and declared that he was the Messiah.

 The Church of the Annunciation was a church that was built to commemorate when the Angel appeared to Mary.  There was really cool artwork here because countries from around the world donated their version of the annunciation and they are hanging up around the church. This is the front facade of the church

 This is the inside of the church

 The next stop on the way there was one of my favorites, it was on top of Mt. Arbel. We had this magnificent overlook of the Galilean area. Behind me you can see Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Gnessot.  And of course the Sea of Galilee. It was super windy up there which was quite refreshing considering I had already sweated a gallon.

 The next day was our first free day. We were split into our two classes so we would switch off everyday and either have a free day or field trip day. We got the first free day. These are pictures of our resort and beach. On free days we had 3 hours of class in the morning, lunch, and then endless hours out on the beach! It was so nice to just relax on the beach and play in the water. It was the warmest water that I had ever stepped foot in. It was bathtub warm water!

 We would pull out our chairs into the water and just sit there talking. When the other class came back we had the largest chicken fight battle that I have ever been to. I am not going to lie I am really aggressive when I am in a chicken fight and I beat a lot of people. Good times.

 

The Next day we started off with a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee. So gorgeous. We stopped in the middle of the Sea and had a little devotional about when Peter walked on Water, the stormy seas and Christ sleeping, and also feeding of the 5000. It was an unreal experience to read those stories and actually be on the sea. 

Jess Sloan and I taking an engagement photo on the sea.

 This is a picture of us at the Synagogue at Capernaum. Capernaum was a great spiritual experience because there was sooo many events that happened here:
Healing Peter's mother-in-law
Raising Jairus' daughter
Man with Palsy lowered in the roof
healing the Centurion's servant
The Calling of Matthew
Christ eating with the publicans
The women who touched the hem of Christ's robe
And many many more.....
Christ preached in this exact synagogue!!!

This is us right in front of Peter's house. So this is the location of where Christ would have stayed and also where the man with Palsy was lowered down

 The rest of the day we went to other main sites where Christ spent his ministry, the main one being Chorazin. There are not any good pictures because at this point we were drenched in sweat and dying. 

The next day we had class in the morning and then we went on a hike to some waterfalls. We were right on the Syrian border edge. They were sticklers about staying on the path because it was an old mine field. living life on the edge.

 We stayed at a Kibbutz which is a community where all things are shared (think law of consecration style) but they did have a resort where we stayed. One night we got to go a restaurant. This was the sunset every night. 

 This is Gamla which is typically thought of as the "City upon the Hill" and if you are a history buff then you will appreciate that this is where Josephus lived.  It was quite the hike to the area but it was worth it.

 This is the over view from Gamla

 The next day was Shabbat, so we went to the Tiberias branch. Wow, I wished that I attended this branch every week. It was a house on the Sea with the prettiest overlook.

 Then we went to another baptismal site on the Jordan River. We got to dip our feet in the river and cool enough for awhile.

 I forgot that we went to the Mt. of Beatitudes. This was such a beautiful site, a little oasis. Everything was so green and the church was beautiful! We read the Sermon on the Mount and had a devotional. The sweetest nun came and spoke to us and it was so inspirational.

 I feel like I am skimming over so many things but I think there is only so much blog you can handle. No worries over the next few days there will be more posts.
Shabbat Shalom!