The road to Jericho

I wasn’t sure, until I was back at home for a few weeks, but the highlight of my trip (if I had to pick one) was walking the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Actual miles between the two cities are reported to be between 15 and 17. We probably only walked the last 3 or 4, but that was plenty to get a flavor for what the trip must have been like two thousand years ago. It was on this part of the trip that I felt most like I had stepped into the shoes of one of the disciples of Jesus.

This first picture is where we broke into the trail which ended in Jericho.

Looking at it, I can’t help but remember Jesus’ admonition in Matthew 7:13 to “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”

The road was, indeed, broad at this point, but it quickly got much narrower.

Below is an example of what the trail really looked like for much of the way.

On the left was the mountain wall...

On the right side--way down below--was a wadi (or creek bed) full of rushing water.

Something that surprised me was finding a Bedouin shepherd grazing a flock of goats. I would have otherwise reported that the place was devoid of vegetation...

but in fact, upon closer inspection, not only was there grass to graze on, but also flowers.

You can see how we were spread out along the trail. It was pretty much impossible to "bunch up".

[just a side note] The woman in the photo above with the brown shirt and walking stick spent 15 years in a wheel chair unable to walk. I was privileged to hear her story of recovery. It was amazing.

Just to prove I was really there!!!

Another really interesting thing to see along this trail was a number of hermitages. A hermitage, for the uninitiated, is simply a place where a hermit lives. In the middle ages, literally hundreds of religious hermits used the natural caves in this area to make places for themselves where they could live and pray and keep themselves unspoiled by the world. Any that we saw, were long since abandoned.

How they accessed these places is a mystery to me, but if you wanted to be alone...well, this would get you there.

The picture below shows a place that was used to store supplies.

Below is another hermitage that looks a little more accessible.

Can you see it? It's almost dead center in this picture.

Finally, below you will see two pictures of an ancient sheep fold or sheep pen. If you don't know what you're looking for, it's hard to see, but, again, it's close to the center of the picture and it is circular in shape. Shepherds would build these places and herd the sheep (or goats) into them at night. Then the shepherd would lay down across the opening, insuring that the sheep didn't get out and that preditors and thieves didn't get in.

Here's a closer picture.



In the gospel of John, chapter 10, Jesus uses the sheep fold as an amazing  metaphor. It's probably one of the most tender and loving passages in all of the gospels and the more you know about sheep and shepherds, the more meaningful it becomes. Just imagine laying down and becoming a human "gate" for your sheep.

OK, so one more picture...this is a picture that was taken almost at the end of our walk. In the distance, you can see the city of Jericho between the two mountains. I was tired and a little sore at this point, but I can honestly say, I really didn't want it to end. It was an amazing day.

We had a bit of an unplanned adventure at the end of the walk. In years past, because of the dry conditions, groups would get back to the bus by walking across the dry creek bed. Well, this year with all the rain, the creek bed was not dry, but full of rushing water. Fortunately, a small group of Bedoudin boys came to our rescue and farther down the trail they showed us a foot bridge that we could use to cross the wadi and get back to the bus. I know some of my fellow travelers got pictures of this and, if I ever get a hold of one, I'll include it. I just remember it being very narrow and very scarey.  

Flora, Fauna and Food

One of the things that is interesting, when you travel to a foreign country, is the differences (or similarities, I suppose) in vegetation, animals and food. I love all three, so I tried to capture some of each.

Mid-march is spring in Israel, the way it is for most of us and (landscape permitting) there were flowers everywhere.

Below are the first efforts of an unknown species of tree warming up to spring weather.

Of course, everyone likes flowers and Israel does not disappoint.

 

I was not expecting to see much in the way of wildlife, so when we were in Capernaum, I was delighted when a family of Rock Hyrax decided to sun themselves on the ruins.

I consider myself a “birder” and define that as someone who has a little bit more than a casual interest in birds, so I did my best to take as many pictures of the different species as I could find. One thing though that became immediately apparent was that picture taking was going to take a backseat to trying to absorb the sights, smells and story of the Holy Land with my mind and my five senses. For some, I’m guessing that a camera becomes an extension of their own eyes, but for me, it acts as a filter of some kind. Maybe barrier is more accurate a word. Instead of just letting the sights and sounds wash over me, I think (however briefly) about composition and focus.

Most of the pictures I did get were taken on the fly. If I had limited myself to each time Marlin said, “OK, we’ll stop here for a minute or two and you can take some pictures”, I wouldn’t have a tenth of the 577 pictures, I actually got. I’m just guessing, but I would say that he’s not the “photographer” of the family.

Of the dozen or so species that I actually saw while in Israel, I only managed to capture four on camera. The one above is a hooded crow. The first one below is a turtle dove and the second one I have not yet been able to identify. And, of course, how could I not take a picture of a native sparrow that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 10:31 saying, “Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

And then an unexpected aspect of animal life in Israel, especially in the old city of Jerusalem, was the amazing number of feral cats. Cats were everywhere and when I asked about them, I was told that at one time they were considered a nuisance and so they were killed off (as much as possible) and very shortly after that, the rat population exploded. It’s a well-known fact that cats are much preferred by most people (my young Buffalo cousins to the contrary) and so the cats were encouraged once again and while I saw many of them, I saw nary a rat.

The cat directly above was eating some canned cat food that some cat lover had just dumped in the middle of the walkway for any cat to find (or tourist to walk in, I suppose).

 

Finally, I have to comment about the food. I admit that I was all psyched up to actually lose weight on this trip because I thought I wouldn’t be able to find anything that I liked to eat. Oh boy was I wrong! The food was amazing. Sure, there was meat and eggs and dairy (yogurt to die for), but the fruits and vegetables were out of this world. And the ways in which they prepared them, kept me coming back for more. I must have eaten my weight in eggplant. There were fresh figs and dates and several varieties of olives. I could go on, but I am already missing the food so much, I would just make myself hungrier. I wish now that I had thought to take a picture of the tables of food that were served at the hotel where we stayed in Jerusalem. That would have given you a more accurate idea, but sadly the only picture I took was a lunch stop in some nameless place.

These were just the vegetable dishes that were served. The meat and pitas, etc. were served from a different table. And remember, this was an average lunch stop. These people weren't necessarily trying to impress.

I wish these blog postings were coming faster for you, but as you know, I'm back in the States and playing catch up with my "real" life. I will post something on facebook each time I update this blog. I think that will work for most of you.

Shalom/Salaam

 

Only two days left

Today we went to the Temple Mount.

The picture below was taken on Tuesday when we were on the Mount of Olives. The Temple is in the background. There was quite a wind and it had kicked up a considerable amount of dust. That's why there appears to be a haze in the background.

I did this mostly to prove that, yes, I really am here.

We also went to the Wailing Wall.

I'll say more about those two places later, but the pictures you are really going to want to see are the ones I took when we visited a Palestinian refuge camp in Bethleham. I'll try to download one tonight and the rest when I get back.

 I wish I was faster at resizing the photos so that they would upload quickly, but I'm not. We have a 6 a.m. wake up call and I should get up 1/2 hour before that, so I have to quit for now.

Pictures--maybe

I'm going to try to post a few pictures. This is a picture of the ruins of Herod's palace at Caesarea on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. The large area in the center with the water is where his swimming pool once was.

This is one of the elaborate mosaics on the floor (at or near) the Roman bath at Herod's palace. [this is especially for my mosaic loving friend, Karen]

 This is a bird that is about the size of a crow and probably as common [this is especially for my bird loving friend, Norma]

I'm too tired to continue. More pictures tomorrow...maybe.

Extra thoughts

I'm going to add to this page from time to time as I think of things that have no good place chronologically.

Caesaria-this is where we toured on the first "official" day of the trip just after we had picked up the main group from the airport.

I was amazed to find that Jerusalem was not the "go to" city in Israel 2000 years ago. Jerusalem was where the Temple was located, to be sure, but the real place to be was Caesaria. Jerusalem was hot and dusty. Caesaria was cool and cosmopolitan. Caesaria was the place of government. Jerusalem was the religious center full of people who had a range of ideas about how things ought to be.

You could almost feel the ghost of Herod the Great wandering the ruins with us, still so proud of all that he had created there. Echos of Roman soldiers and the clatter horses hooves seemed to linger the air. Here is where the Apostle Paul appealed his case to Caesar and set the course of his life toward Rome.

The waves of the Mediterranean sea make their way relentlessly across the remaining ruins of the walls of Herod's palace and swiming pool. What a sight it all must have been when at it's hey day. Phillip, the evangelist, lived in Caesaria and this was also the place where Cornelius, the centurion, and his whole family was saved when Peter presented the gospel to them.

OK. Bedtime. More later.

Oh, for one more night in Nazareth

This is the post that "once was lost, but now is found" (insider Christian joke). Anyway I think I wrote it on Wednesday the 14th.

OK. I have limited energy and limited computer battery time, but here goes...

The last two days have been rainy. Actually the last several months in Israel have been rainy and that has been a tremendous blessing for the country which has been experiencing a drought for the last eight years...but it cramps your style a little when you are touring "the land". However, for the most part, we have been coping well.

Today we hiked up Mt. Arbel. It's a small mountain (too tired to come up with a better term) that over looks the Sea of Galilee. The view was amazing and for the first time I really felt like I was in a place where Jesus was. Nothing mystical, but I could just imagine Him walking the pass between the mountains in order to make His way down to the the villages along the lake shore.

Rain had turned the clay terrain to the worst kind of mud and my wonderful hiking boots with the really gnarly treads filled instantly with about 5 lbs of muck in each. Everyone did their best to help everyone else and as a result, no one fell and the only damage was easily rinsed away when we got back down the mountain. We had time to just sit and take in the sights and take pictures of the flora and fauna and, if you are reading this, I prayed for you specifically.

After our mountain top experience we also visited the Mount of Beatitudes where we read Matthew 5-7. We went to the Church of Multiplication, a few miles down the road, and Marlin gave a really insightful teaching on Mark 6:30-44. From there we visited Peter's Primacy and were able to get as "close" to the Sea of Galilee as we wanted. I (praise the Lord) had remembered my little plastic bottle and so I scooped up some of the Sea to bring home with me.

We ended the day at Capernaum, which towards the end of His life, was basically Jesus' home base and the home of Simon Peter. We saw some rock badgers crawling around the ruins and I was able to take pictures of a couple of different species of birds.

Saint Patrick's day in Israel

The pace of this trip is unlike anything I have ever experienced before. I feel like I’m holding on by my fingertips.

I had an amazing blog entry for Wednesday night and while I was typing the last sentence, the computer shut down and I lost it all. Last night there was no internet connection. My phone says the SD card is damaged, so technology is working against me.

It is almost impossible to tell what day it is without looking at the tour schedule. The disorientation is acute. I will start with what we did today and try to work backwards to catch you up. I want you to know that it is also vital for me to maintain this blog. It is my only hope to be able to remember some of the finer points of this once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Today we walked the road to Jericho. Unless something else tops it, this might be the highlight of the trip. It was so cool to walk on the same path that Jesus and the Disciples and travelers for centuries have traversed going from Jerusalem to Jericho. The closest landscape that I can compare it to is the Grand Canyon. But add to that Bedouins, herds of goats and sheep, and the occasional donkey and you still have to be here to understand it. The wild flowers that defy the elements to grow there punctuate the barren rocks with colors beyond description. I take as many pictures as I can trying to capture what my mind can barely process.

The biggest “adventure” of the walk came at the end when, because of the plentiful amount of rain this spring, the usual egress to where our bus waited was cut off and we had to get help from one of the Bedouin boys to find an alternate way to cross a wadi  that for years has been dry.

Our teacher, Marlin Vis, is amazing. He’s a tall, lean man with the energy of a guy half his age. He is forceful and direct yet humble in a way I have rarely experienced. His passion and love for this land and its story is contagious. He teaches, but does not lecture. His wife is the tender side of him. Her attention to detail is part of what is making this trip run so smoothly. They make a beautiful team.

After the Jericho walk (which took about 3 hours), we visited the city briefly and did a little shopping, then we went to Qumran where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. All I could think about was how my best friend, Norma and her husband and I went to see the exhibit when it came to Grand Rapids several years ago. I had no idea then that just a few years later I would stand in the actual place where this discovery was made. It gave me a chill.

We ate lunch at a cafeteria located on the site and then set off for a spot right on the Dead Sea (about five minutes away) where we could swim. More than not being an early riser, I do not like to get wet, unless I have to. I did not swim in the Dead Sea. Many in our group did and I took pictures.

On the ride back to the hotel, as we neared Jerusalem, we stopped at several scenic over looks to try to get a sense of the geography and the positions of the different cities in relationship to each other. The temperature dropped and the wind came up and it was suddenly very chilly.

We celebrated Mary Huizen 71^st birthday with a cake at dinner tonight. What a present this day has been for her and the rest of us.

Tomorrow we are getting up at 5 a.m. in order to walk the Villa Dolorosa before the crowds get too thick. Then we come back to the hotel for breakfast and leave again to walk through Hezekiah’s tunnel. We hope to end the day with the Israel Museum…I just hope to end the day. And on that note I should get to bed.

I love you all and hope you are well.