This Past Week

So, I intended to post on this almost daily. However, I fiddled around with the video blog for too long trying to get it to work, and I ended up not posting anything. So, I will give a run down of what we did this week by day, then give some general thoughts.

Monday: Toured Jerusalem- we did a general run through of the old city of Jerusalem. As we walked through, we talked about the intricacies of having a city so fully grounded in three different religions. We talked about how the religions (Jewish, Christian, Muslim) in the city are like trees planted near each other. Although the 3 trees grow separately and are their own identities, they are so old that their branches in some place being to intertwine. (This is not to say that they mix doctrines or that they are becoming one mega super religion. But rather their histories and understanding of the land are beginning to become complex and difficult to untangle.) Similarly, if their branches are becoming intertwined, their roots are becoming a warped mess, so much so that it would be nearly impossible to remove one tree without nearly destroying the other two. But as it is, they survive, and except for a few isolated instances they get along just fine. And it's true, almost every spot in the old city is a holy or historical spot for one of the religions, and at times two or three of the religions. Such as the upper room. It is what we as Christians consider to be the place of the last supper. The Muslims turned it into a mosque at one point, and the Jewish people remember King David's grave there. All three have a vested interest in this spot, and removing one would damage the stability of the entire city. Also, saw the church of the Holy Sepulcher I went to the Western Wall after.

Tuesday- We did another walk through of the Old City, this time focusing on the Old Testament. We saw walls that were supposedly the original walls that Hezekiah put up to repel the invading Assyrian army. Next, we saw the original City of David. It is on the eastern hill in Jerusalem (we have learned a ton about geology and geography and how it affects our understanding of the Bible... see below). We walked Hezekiah's tunnel, which is an extremely small and cramped route for the passage of water from the Gihon spring to be brought into the city. We also saw the pool of Siloam, where Christ sent the man who was born blind to wash his eyes and be healed.

Wednesday: We started out going to the Temple Mount. Here we saw the Dome of the Rock, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Furthermore, I believe this to be the place where Solomon built the Temple, and thus, the place where God's divine presence dwelt during OT times. After, we went to the place of the original street in Jerusalem. A place where Christ would have most certainly walked. Wow. Then we went to the steps which originally went up to the temple. These would be steps that Jesus walked and also possibly the steps where the Pentecost happened. Finally, we ended up at the Pools of Bethesda and Church of Ann (Mother of Mary). Here is the place where Christ healed the man born lame.

Thursday: This was the first of our 2 11-hour days during the week. We saw the Mt. of Olives, and had our first glimpse into the wasteland beyond Jerusalem. We went to the Church in the Garden of Gethsemane. Here I saw the rock that marks the place where Christ cried blood. From here, we went to the Herodian (Herod's palace south of Jerusalem). That dude was rich beyond belief. After, we went to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and saw the place where Christ was supposed to be born. We also met with Palestinian Christians and talked about how they feel about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was interesting.

Friday: Our second 11 hour day. We traveled into the wasteland. "Wow, it is desolate out here", was my first thought. There is practically no vegetation and even less water. It was hot, and there was very little shade. It brought new meaning to the words "Valley of the Shadow of Death". Furthermore, come to find out, this area was part of the "promise land" which God gave to the Israelites. So much for a prosperity gospel. We went down to Jericho and talked about how we reconcile the fact that we have text and geography pointing to a place where Jericho should be, but we have no archeological remains of the walls (or any part for that matter) of Jericho that Joshua knocked down. We then finally left the hot area of the rift valley. We continued to look at the northern approaches to Jerusalem, here is where seeing and studying opens up great amounts of the Bible. We looked at places that were around Jerusalem and how the borders were constantly in flux. Knowing where these cities are, and who the players and kingdoms are, opens up great understanding of the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles.

Close Geography of Jerusalem: It is built on 2 hills. The hills of Jerusalem (named the western and eastern hills) are separated by a valley (today merely a dip in elevation) named the central valley. On either side of Jerusalem's hills are two valleys. The Hinnom valley is to the West and after that the ground rises into the Watershed ridge. The Kidron Valley is to the east and rises to the Mt. of Olives. To the south, the Valleys combine and the Watershed Ridge curves around. The North is the weak point. This helps us understand many things in scripture. For example, when David in Psalm 121 says "I lift my eyes up to the hill, where shall my help come from? My help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth." Understanding the nature of Jerusalem's solitude and the way the City is cut off from friends, helps understand the place of despair and faith that David writes. Furthermore, in Psalm 125 David says that as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people forever. Understanding the geography of Jerusalem helps greatly in understanding the theology built into the text. Furthermore, the Solomon's temple, a great and powerful temple was built on the high spot of the city, which was the north. This helps explain the importance of the Temple being so mighty and well fortified... It was part of the protection of the city.

I have much more to say, but I do have a test this afternoon on everything I just wrote, so I should study. But I will try and be better about posting soon.

The Legendary Old City

Monday was our first walkthrough of the old city. WOW. It was such a unique experience. We first went through a 4 hour lecture on why geography is important to our reading the text of the Bible. Here are some thoughts:

1.) Upper Room- I didn't realize that the first place we went was considered to be the place of the last supper. It was that mundane. However, there were some interesting tid bits about the area. For 1, it had the 3 major religions all tied up in this one room. The room was originally thought to be the place of the last supper. Then, the Jews placed David's tomb to be there. Finally, the Muslims took control of the room and turned it into a Mosque. Eventually, the state took it over, and it is now open from the public. Little side note, from the roof of this building, I saw the wall that separates Israel from the West Bank. It is quite imposing.

2.) The Western Wall- We saw it early in the afternoon and didn't even walk down to it. We looked at it from a distance. It is one of the biggest structures that I've seen. And to think that it was made out of rock by men, WOW. What's even crazier is when I try and think of the grandiosity of the city of Jerusalem back in Solomon's time, when all the walls were like that, and the Temple was in place. (Yes, I realize that these walls were built more around Jesus' time.... but the idea still applies.) That would be one of the most impressive, if not THE most impressive structure of it's time... Especially since the structure is mind blowing now when we have buildings like the Sears Tower or Empire State Building. We left the wall pretty quickly. But once we had finished out walk, two of the girls in the group convinced me to join them, and we walked down to the wall. They both had to pray on the women's side. I threw on a Yarmulka and went to the men's side. Even thought I am not Jewish, the experience was quiet intense. Here I was at the Western Wall. I prayed for Unity among God's people, and for peace in Israel. I figured those were appropriate things to pray for at that particular location.

3.) Lastly, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I'd never really thought about it before this trip. This place is considered to be both the place of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It houses 7 different churches. The smell of incense that wafts over you as you walk in is both entices you to continue in and awakens you to the reverent nature of the church. We are spending some time with one of the Fathers there, after it closes later this week. I'm excited to see it more in-depth and better understand exactly where everything is.

Other than that, life in Jerusalem is good. I'll keep you posted.

I'm an Idiot....

I've done this before. I travel on one of these long summer trips, (yes.... ANOTHER Youth Hostel Ministry comparison... get over it, It was probably the most formative experience of my personal experience) and I freak out when I get off the first plane. I did that during YHM. London was such a scary place in my opinion. I felt as if I were being constantly judged or stereotyped. In addition to this, the thought "WHAT AM I DOING HERE?!?!?!" went through my mind. This happened again as I arrived in Rome for a transfer flight. However, I do have a distinct memory of stepping off the plan onto the stairs and having the sun rising and a nice breeze and just feeling the Peace of God flow over me. No other description. I proceeded to still freak. I slept some on the second plane. And we got into Israel. WOW! This place is amazing. It is such a surreal feeling to be here. We are right on the edge of the Old City, right near the Joffa gate for a reference point. We didn't go in today. But we will tomorrow. I'm excited. I will write more about everything that's going on when I get a chance.

The Beginning

In the words of Bilbo Baggins, "It's dangerous business, Frodo, going out your front door. You step into the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." As I embark on this great journey, I can't help but feel as if I have been preparing for this for at least a year (and I didn't even realize it.) And I don't just mean the actual going and seeing. Because in all honesty, that's what I figured this trip would be about. The great tour of the land. But God has really brought about some interesting changes in my life. So this post is to describe the two fold preparation God has been doing in me to prepare me for this trip.

1.) God has prepared me to handle travel. This one seems pretty obvious. I did YHM. That's a ton of traveling. This 6 weeks should be a breeze. However, there is a deeper part of this trip that God has prepared me for through YHM. That is uncertainty. I am really good at adjusting. Coming to college was a big adjustment. I did plenty fine. Sure I miss my family, but I love being here. Even the parts that I don't love can be worked around. But I think I adjusted fine because I knew what was coming. Doing Wheaton Passage (2 1/2 weeks of canoeing/backpacking) helped me understand the limits of my ability to adjust to situations. I do great when I know what's coming. However, when I don't... I can psych myself out. I could have easily done that on this trip. Sure, we have an Itinerary. But that is vague at best. However, I am prepared for this. I've had to deal with worse, and I survived. On YHM, the only Itinerary we had was what city to be in on what day. I was in a group of 4. Much less support. 10 times less actually. This will be a great trip. Just gotta go with the flow.

2.) God has used this past year to help me get over my "Great Prejudice". What was my great prejudice you might ask? Well, mainly it was against theology. I know right! A good Wheaton student like me not liking theology? Unheard of! Well, it's true. Last summer, I went on YHM hoping to love people to Jesus. Which, don't get me wrong, is a great way of going about stuff but definitely not sufficient a lot of the time. And I found myself in situations where I wanted to get into conversations and explain my faith to others, but I didn't have the words to do so. Nor did I have the wisdom to think through that kind of thing before. The Office of Christian Outreach did a great job of preparing me. I did a poor job of preparing myself. Even when I came back from YHM, I had an aversion to theology. I think it was because I do not see myself as a deep intellectual thinker, and I considered theology to be a deep intellectual task. And I do not like to feel incompetent. So that is why I avoided theology. Then, second semester, I had to take my Christian Thought class. Basically it was theology 101. Well, come to find out, I enjoy talking about stuff like that. I loved learning about it. And then came this week. This week, I spent 3 1/2 hours a morning talking about theology. A lot of it was review. But I did learn a lot of new information: mainly about the Orthodox Church and their beliefs, and the Catholic Church and it's belief. Quite interesting. In the past year, God has taken me from not really thinking about Theology, to not really liking theology, to loving theology. Crazy how He does stuff like that.

On a side note, one thing that I found out this week was that I had a pretty narrow view of Christianity. In the past, I considered "Christian" (what I now understand as Protestants), "Catholic", and "Orthodox" to be three completely separate faiths. However, after taking my theology classes, I understand now that we are three different parts of the "Christian faith." (Maybe this fact doesn't come as a shocker to you. But to me it was a !LIGHTBULB! moment.) Yes, we disagree on some doctrine, even some major doctrine. However, we hold much in common. We should be looking at these similarities more, like the similarity that we all follow Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Son of God. Yes, that looks different for each of our traditions. But the church is supposed to be the unified body of Christ. And for that reason, it is the one thing that we should fight hardest for in this world. So, now I go to sleep. Tomorrow: Exam and Flight.

This is just the beginning.....

Return to Class

So, today I returned to class after only a week of break. It was a long day to say the least. Woke up early, and joined my fellow Holy Land participants for breakfast. Headed over for a morning of Theology. But first, we talked about the early church. But not the parts you probably just thought of. We talked about the Early Eastern Church. Still not the parts you'd think of. Like Far East. Starting from Turkey, to Syria, Iraq, and on all the way to China. It was interesting. Global church means something very different now. Then we began to talk about theology. We did the basic discussion on what is theology. Then we talked about the Trinity. It was quite interesting, but still felt repetitive because of my earlier class on Christian Doctrine. Then we had a break for lunch. Then all afternoon was Old Testament. However, it was more about Hermeneutics than anything else. Quite interesting. However, I was dozing off at the beginning and end. Finally, we got out of class. I now plan on taking a break, and then hitting the books this evening. Got some work to do now so that I am not doing it in Israel. No Pics as of yet, since we are just sitting around Wheaton. Those will come later. Hopefully I will be posting stuff every few days while I am on the trip. So, check back early and often.

The Calm Before the Storm

As you can tell, I have not been good about blogging in the past week. So let's catch up. I completed all of my exams, moved out, and did a good chunk of work on YHM. The exams were just fine, and moving out took about 2 to 3 days. Then, I came home. I have spent the week here, preparing for Israel and trying to relax. However, I have not fully been able to relax this week. I have had this feeling in the back of my mind that I am not really home. I have been focusing so much on school work and this summer for the past few weeks that I overlooked my week at home. I guess I really felt that my real summer starts on Holy Lands. I might have done this to protect myself from the stress of adjusting. I didn't want to adjust from being at school to living at home to doing Holy Lands. I am good at adjusting but that would be a bit much. In addition to this, I have felt bored this past week. Not that I haven't enjoyed my time with my family. I have. But the transition from TONS of stuff to do to wide-open days is a tough one.

But this week is now past me. I leave for Wheaton tomorrow evening. Spend a few days with the family, and then a week worth of classes. Then Israel. I'm excited. Seeing the Holy Lands is going to be great. Studying and understanding what I am looking at is going to be even better. Doing this with old friends while meeting new friends! THE BEST! 6 weeks of awesome. So stoked. Be praying for me. It'll be a great summer. But I am going to miss the family, and the girlfriend. I want to focus on my time there, but also I do not want to neglect the people dearest to me. I'll post more info in terms of what's going on when. And I will be posting throughout the summer on what I am learning. Stay Classy.

Why I shouldn't be stressed about my stressful list.

So, normally I don't get stressed. It's one of the perks of being me. I take things day by day. Conquering tasks one by one, just waiting for that next time when I can just chill with people. However, this week has gotten the best of me. By all means, it shouldn't have. Yes, I have the most work due this week, and the most extra-curricular work to do as well. Let me outline it for you.

4 exams: Spanish Competency, Christian Thought (basically an intro to theology class), Abnormal Psychology, and Cognition.

24 Travel Folders for YHM to assemble: these have roughly 30-40 pages a piece and are specific by person.

1 Mega travel binder to assemble.

Several couches to find new homes for.

An apartment to clean, pack up, and move out of.

A new OCO leadership meeting to attend.

The continued search for the elusive 6th and final cabinet member I need for next year.

As well as many goodbyes to say as my senior friends transition into a new stage of life, and as I go away from my girlfriend, roommates, and friends for the next 3 months.

All that being said, it doesn't sound like that much actually. SO I'm going to stop complaining. I could have it much worse. I am so blessed to be at this awesome college that pushes me to do my best and to always be considering how I am living my life. I have a supportive family who loves me. I live in a country where I am not persecuted for my faith but have amazing opportunities to serve and love those around me. I have been to Europe in the past year, and am headed to the Middle East in mere weeks. So why am I so self-absorbed and stressed?

It's cliche, but let's blame it on the fall. I am a man. And thus, I am fallen and can't see past myself to the glory that God has put around me. Thankfully, Jesus died on the cross for me, was raised from the grave (not by any magic or mankind miracle medicine), ascended to heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit to help me get over myself. (Actually, "thankfully" seems trite and wholly insufficient for this particular emotion. However, my mind is shot, so I am going to depend on God's omniscience to understand what I mean.) That being said, the Holy Spirit has gifted me for a life of service. Add this gifting to the talents and personality which God has given me and I end with the question: How do I use my personality and gifting to live this life of service thoroughly ? Well, I could be a counselor. I could teach. I could help the mentally disabled. There are any number of things that I could do. But, in order to fully pursue a career in most of them, a college degree of some sort is required. So I should take this week, the blessing of education and friendship (aka college), and revel in the blessings God has given me.

Hopefully by doing this, I will take a difficult week and at least see it as a growing experience if not something to be enjoyed. I would encourage you to do the same.