If Everyday Were Like Today

Last day out in the field, and what a way to finish! We got to sleep in a little bit, which if you know me at all, you’ll know that I was very excited about this. =) Then, we headed to the water where we finally got to ride a boat on the Sea of Galilee. First, though, we stopped by a museum to see a 2,000 year old excavated Galilean boat--like something Jesus would have ridden on.

A pretty cool archway at the entrance to the museum

What all the hubbub is about

Stewie interviewing Clay about something before getting on the boat

Our boat

The breeze and the water just felt SO amazing after a long and hard three weeks.

Don't forget to tip the crew!

Not the infamous evil eye, but definitely another Vernon Special

The mount of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5-7)

She moves like sea breeze...

Not only was the boat ride enjoyable, but it was a fantastic time of reflection. I couldn't help but think of how this was the water that Jesus walked on. This was the sea where Jesus came out to in order to teach the crowd his radical message. He came to transform this world, to bring its people from darkness into light. I look around me today, and I see the world still shrouded in darkness--especially in such a hostile land of conflict. However, Christ offers the future hope and present peace of light. Knowing that is such a resting assurance.

From the Sea of Galilee, we banked on the shores of Capernaum to visit the city Jesus adopted as his hometown since Nazareth rejected him. This was also the city where Peter's mother-in-law lived.

An ancient olive press

There were cats everywhere.

And they were hilarious.

What is going on???

Meanwhile, Aubrey is teaching as always.

And we are listening attentively (some of us more physically distracted than others, but I promise I listened!)

These tree trunks were so carved up they looked like a Harley biker's arm.

This relationship is a special one. Haha.

These two, on the other hand, put together such a stunning tour. I learned so much from you guys! Thank you so much.

I love that Aubrey encourages exploration.

I discovered this woman and her hat.

The remains of Peter's mother-in-law's home, with the octagonal structure the Byzantine church tried to build around it

From the outside, this building looked like a UFO hovering over Peter's mother-in-law's house. From the inside, the wood panels on the columns told the life of Christ, and a massive glass floor provided a view of the ruins underneath.

For lunch, we stopped at a falafel/schnitzel place at the recommendation of our bus driver, Mohamed. It was quite delicious, but it was the spitball war afterwards that is most imprinted into my memory.

All I'm saying is, Lizzy, you are a bad influence!

Dr. Blewett picked me up and almost threw me in the fountain as threatened, because we all got him with our spitballs! Yeah, I took one for the team, guys. Remember that.

Our final stop for the day was Caesarea. Here, King Herod again defied nature and built and artificial reef. Essentially, he created land where before there was only sea. It was a BEAUTIFUL Mediterranean beach, though, and lots of fun!

A massive ancient amphitheater. Interestingly, this amphitheater faced the sea so that the sun was shining at the audience during sunset. While this seems like a mistake, the builders did this purposefully because their priority was the appreciation of the sea, a body which they worshipped.

I post so many pictures of Stewie for his family's benefit. This man cracks me up, though, everyday without fail.

He recited Paul's sermon to Herod Antipas for us in the amphitheater and it was fantastic.

I think the angle of this picture defeats the whole point of jumping pictures, because none of us look like we got air. Or, maybe all of us just really are that bad at jumping. Haha.

There were lots of people fishing in the Mediterranean.

These girls have been awesome to get to know. I have definitely been blessed to have them as roommates.

So, we saw this shelf, and we really wanted to walk out to the edge of it. We had no idea how slick it would be, though.

The three brave ones: Jon, Krissy, and me. We formed a nice chain of support out there.

We almost chickened out becuase we weren't sure how strong the waves were, but I'm so glad we didn't.

This is what we were walking on out on the reef. It was kind of squishy.

AACHOO! hahaha.

These two are too fun(ny).

And on that sudden note, this concludes the Israel Historical Geography tour of 2010 for Columbia International University and Western Seminary! I learned so, so much on this trip, and I hope that through my blog posts you were able to learn and enjoy a bit, too. God has been faithful and good to teach me continuously on this trip. Three weeks seems like a long time at first, but boy, does it fly by! I'm sure it'll take me just as long, if not the rest of my life, to process through everything I learned here.

Tomorrow (Friday) is the final exam, and I'm sure the rest of the day will be spent souvenir shopping and packing. We leave Saturday night for home. I probably won't have time to post another blog post between now and then, but until next time, I wish you all God's best, and thanks for accompanying me on my journey through the Holy Land!

From the Peak to the Sea

So what’s a more exciting start to the day than climbing down a sheer cliff? Watching your dean climb down a sheer cliff. =D

I kinda look like I’m falling over, huh? Haha. That’s the Sea of Galilee behind us.

Beginning the hike to the Cliffs of Arbel

Apparently, when Herod came back to establish his authority as king of the Jews, he came down these cliffs in a basket and yanked off the resistant folk with a hook.

There’s Dean Blewett!

Hang loose! ...Or please don’t. Really.

It was a pretty normal hike the rest of the way down once we got past the cliffs.

Caves along the way

The cows of Bashan! Or, actually, a cow of Arbel, but “cows of Bashan” is just more fun to say.

After the thrilling hike down Arbel, we stopped at a reconstructed village from the 3^rd or 4^th century. However, as conservative of a culture as it was back then, very few changes were made to the village since the 1^st century. So, it was a rather accurate depiction of the type of village Jesus would have grown up in.

A tile mosaic created by some children to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the state of Israel. The three-pronged base is the traditional menorah from the Temple, rather than the solid Roman base usually depicted.

The pomegranate wasn’t ripe yet, but it had already split open. I tried it—VERY sour.

Nick is trying to pick up a roof-roller, and Jesse doesn’t want to watch. Haha. Basically, the residents would press down the mud roofs with these heavy rollers.

A hobbit squat hole =P

Inside the home

These schoolgirls were yelling at me in Hebrew to take their picture

Hello, me! =P

Stewie is such a fruit sometimes. Hahaha.

The hill where Jesus cast the demons out of the man and into the pigs that ran crazy into the Sea of Galilee.

Aubrey gave us another not-ice-cream surprise: a pit stop by the Jordan River!

Don’t worry, we didn’t go behind the barricade—just around. =P

I’m really not ordained to do this. The water did feel very nice though—not too cold, but just cool enough.

We made another stop at some ruins in Chorazin—a region VERY good for growing crops so long as you can get the rocks cleared. The remains were from the 4^th-8^th century, after the Barcoktha (sp?) Revolt when a flock of Jews fled to this city.

I’m pretty sure the sign next to the says “No Passage.” Oh well, Aubrey encourages free exploration. Haha.

Work it!

It’s difficult to stay awake on the bus, even when you have plenty of work to do.

Finally we made a swim stop in the Sea of Galilee.

Man, we’re just breaking rules left and right today, aren’t we?

Dr. Blewett getting his caffeine fix.

It’s hard to believe tomorrow is our last day out in the field!