In the last few weeks I have found myself falling in love with this land and the people in it.
After a welcomed week of free travel where a group of 4 of us spent half a week in Istanbul, took a 14 hour night bus ride to the sea coast town of Kas (pronounced Kash, like your at the doctor saying "aaah"), and spent the remaining days hiking, playing in the Mediterranean, and reading we flew back into Israel for our last week in Jerusalem.
Previously we had spent 2 weeks at Jerusalem University College just next to the old city. Now we were going to be living in the Old City in the Muslim quarter in a convent called Ecce Homo. The convent is from the mid 1800's and marks the spot where tradition says Jesus was presented to the people after his flogging and Pilate said "behold the man" John 19:5. It was a beautiful place right next to the Temple Mount plaza. We spent large chunks of our free time sitting in the sun on the large roof patio area.
Our academic time was spent learning more about the Jewish religion and culture and learning 10 hours of Hebrew. We can now kind of sound out most things written in Hebrew... kind of.
There were many highlights for me that week. Just a snapshot,
Going to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) for Friday night Shabbot service. There I walked amid large crowds of religious Jews praying and singing and dancing. Rarely have I seen people so excited to worship!
Given an assignment to trace Jesus' last night in small groups or alone. We started at the traditional place of the Last Supper and traced the story through the crucifixion reading the account from Luke along the way. I think my favorite site was Peter in Gallicantu, the place where Peter denied Jesus. I was there in a lull in the crowd so I spent time sitting on the spacious chapel contemplating the story. I was reminded by a sermon I heard once on the look that Jesus gave Peter (Luke 22:61). What look did Jesus give? What look does Jesus give me when I am guilty?
Saturday evening worship. Our worship committee planned a little service in the Ecce Homo chapel. In it I got to lead my first communion, and we had an unplanned hymn sing that lasted half an hour. What a beautiful place to sing!
I also enjoyed the Sunday church service at a church in Jerusalem. Yes it was mostly full of western mission workers, but it was still a group from all over the world brought together to praise God and bring light and hope to a work so often full of violence and unrest. As we sang in the old stone hall, people from across the world, my eyes began to well with tears.
I also must admit that one small highlight was getting the courage to talk to this nice girl who was volunteering at the convent. Long story short, she was very cute, and French, and it took me all week to actually talk to her. Unfortunately it was 15 minutes before we walked out the door... so I didn't get to know her that well... but at least I talked to her! :P
This last week we have been living on a Kibbutz north of Nazareth. A kibbutz is kind of like an intentional community, but with more private ownership. Our time has mostly been spent hearing lectures about contemporary issues in Israel, including the election that just happened March 16.
One talk that stood out was a lady that "pranked" us by pretending to be an ultra orthodox Jewish woman who then proceeded to act out different stories along the conflict spectrum. For me it was a good way of taking everything we had learned and seeing it all at once. And the actress was really funny :)
Next stop, Nazareth and the Jesus Trail.
