If you know me well, you have for sure heard that I don’t like doctors…

I don’t like going to them, I don’t like their offices, and I don’t like the nurses.  Ironically, I don’t mind dentists, dermatologists, chiropractors, and podiatrists; but general practicioners, eye doctors (hehehehe…even more ironic is that I work at a optometrist office), and physical therapists creep me out.

This semester I have been reminded of yet another reason I don’t like them.  Forgive me for using this blog as my soapbox for complaining, but I think that this is worth noting.

The second thing most anyone would know about me is that I am always hungry. I am like an eating machine, and yet I still struggle with bouts of what I call “low sugar,” where I feel dizzy, nauseous, jittery, moody, and an unusual craving of sugar (I have no sweet tooth whatsoever other times).

I was first told about hypoglycemia in 7^th grade by a friend’s dad who overheard my symptoms, but I never thought much of it. To me, it just equated: my body went through food fast, so I needed to eat more. I finally approached my doctor about this after seven years (yes, I did just say 7) of wrestling with this phenomenon myself and after experiencing a rather severe bout my spring semester of freshman year in college. When I asked him if it was possible I had hypoglycemia, I was told “that everyone nowadays thinks they’re coming down with hypoglycemia or diabetes” and was sent on my way.

I was disappointed in general with how I was treated as a patient (but after all, I’m not a big fan of doctors anyway, remember?); and unfortunately, I believed my doctor and avoided thinking or dealing with the symptoms for a season.  This has only prolonged the problem.

Recently, because of both an increase in symptoms as well as a study I was doing on yeast infections, I began to look into hypoglycemia again (some doctors say the two are related) only to find my answer for both studies in what I knew all along: hypoglycemia.

I took a quiz on www.hypoglycemia.org to help determine whether or not you have the “disease,” and here are my results:

Other research I have done confirm the symptoms I have had for the last 8 years now have been and still are hypoglycemia: (these are taken from www.hypoglycemia.org and www.edocrineweb.com)

Some of the symptoms of hypoglycemia are:

The Classic Symptoms

• Polyphagia (frequently hungry)
• Polyuria (frequently urinating)
• Polydipsia (frequently thirsty)

Other Symptoms Might Include

• Weight loss
• Poor wound healing (cuts, scrapes, etc.)
• Dry mouth
• Dry or itchy skin
• Recurrent infections such as yeast infections, groin rash, or external ear infections (swimmers ear)

While thankfully I haven’t had all of the symptoms listed here, I have exhibited a good number of them – maybe I can blame bad test scores on forgetfulness and mental confusion … LOL – and am thankful to finally be able to understand the reasons behind them.

Looking back and reading what I’ve compiled here, this all seems so dramatic and scary and life-changing. Well, it’s not really. It is in once sense, in that I’m altering my diet as much as is possible here at school. I’m supposed to limit certain foods and focus on others and be sure to eat breakfast (Yeah, I know, Mom and Dad, you’ve been telling me that all along) and have six meals a day (won’t complain there). We’ll see how practical that is in a cafeteria that serves almost complete carb meals, doesn’t have a convenient breakfast schedule, and definitely isn’t conducive nor cheap enough for six meals a day. I’m not sure how this is going to work, but the last few weeks I have tried to experiment with certain aspects of this plan, and I have consistently felt better.

If you’re interested, this site was really helpful in explaining the whole diet to me: http://www.gicare.com/Diets/hypoglycemia.aspx

So, here I go, stepping out without doctors and diagnoses and am adjusting accordingly. Hopefully, this will prove to be successful.

So, it’s the 2nd week of classes,…. and I’m feeling like I’m about to die.  Okay, that’s overdramatic, but I am feeling a tad bit overwhelmed.  Or maybe just tired.  I can’t tell.

I know I love a busy schedule, but I’m beginning to wonder if it’s too much:

I’m taking 16 units:

• Persuasion
• Editing
• Econ and Society
• Christian Theology II
• Preparation for Global Missions

The Preparation for Global Missions class is just that, a preparatory class for the trip I’ll be co-leading to South Africa this summer.  It’ll be great, but there’s a lot of out-of-class involvement including team outings, meetings, a retreat, and numerous fundraisers.

I am still working 18.75 hrs/week at the admissions office.  It’s a great job with great coworkers and a wonderful atmosphere, but it not only requires a lot of time and effort, but also after-hr work hours.  View Weekend and Presidential Scholarship dinner are both coming up and I’ll be there late in the evening and early in the morning on top of school to make those events happen.   I got a second job too.   I’ve just become the official TMC Baseball statistician.  My work hours range from 0-12 hrs/week.  It is definitely the ideal job, and as much as it is another responsibility, it is more fun than work and, praise God, still helps pay the bills.

I’m also on student leadership staff here (assistant resident advisor) and trying be involved in the lives of the girls on my wing.  So far so good… but small groups haven’t started up yet.  I meet weekly with my the women’s dean here at the school.  Not only is she a great friend, but a humble and wise counselor.  It’s great and totally worth the time and effort.  I’ve recently started working in the nursery at church too.  It’s not additional time because I’m already there, but the additional effort contributes to my feeling of numerous responsibilities.  I love the kids – they’re 2-3 yr-olds!

To add to the list, I’m the head of The Crew, the baseball fan club here at school.  We have our big Opening Day Ceremony, which of course I’m planning (along with some AMAZING help from my friends and my coleader Lynnsey).  As if that weren’t enough, somehow I’m editor of MasterMinds, the school newspaper, which is trying to not only restart after a long furlow but expand, change, and otherwise completely revolutionize our past “newsletter.”

Well, homework is supposed to fit in there somewhere, as is running (yeah, a new hobby I’ve picked up), talking to family, doing some personal writing and reading (Yay! I finally bought Story by Robert McFee!), and sleeping.   Sleeping.  What is that?

It’s only the end of January.  Wow.

P.S.  I still somehow manage to have fun.  Thank God.  I think I might go crazy if I didn’t. =)

Did you ever have something you wanted to say, but you can’t say it.  I’ve run across that a lot in my lifetime.  My mind moves faster than my lips, and I’m left with a hole in my tongue from trying to keep in the words that are bursting through my lips.  Then, other days the words seem all lodged inside, trying to force themselves out but to no avail… no words can truly capture what you’re trying to say.

Alot is on my mind – good stuff, sad stuff, prayerful stuff – but nothing on my tongue.
I feel thoughtful and quiet tonight.

Life here at school is different than all my years past. Some of my closest friends either graduated or didn’t come back, and it’s amazing how much their absence makes a difference. Classes are different this year too, as I have no class with Doc Simons and my first class ever with Jesse Negron. Church is good, as always, reminding me of why I love life here in California.

School is going well. It’s a really different schedule this semester, one that keeps me on my toes in regards to homework. This is definitely a semester for learning time-management as most of my classes have long-term assignments (ones not due ‘til late in the semester or the end). This requires me to manage my time well now when homework is a little “lighter” so that I won’t be buried after Thanksgiving. It’s been good. I have a 400+ page book for New Testament that I have dissected in 27-pg regiments to be religiously followed every week. If I don’t stay on top of things I’m going to regret it later.

For my Interpersonal Communication class, we have to do 28 days of journaling our every “interpersonal communication,” which basically means any communication that reveals part of the deeper person of the one of the participants. We have to journal every night, which is pretty hard when my night doesn’t end ‘til about 1 am. I’m normally pretty tired by then and not really in the mood to spend a half-hour writing down conversations I definitely don’t remember word-for-word. I’ve tried to make it fun for Tuck, my prof, by making it funny or calling it “Confessions to Tuck” or doing all sorts of ridiculousness within my “journals.” I think in some ways I’ve enjoyed it too much; in other ways, I’ve just wanted it to be done. Ah, the paradoxes of college homework.

SLS is going well. Again, it’s a good learning semester. I’m trying to really have service and pursuit of the girls be on my mind regularly, which is hard to do when I’m trying to balance everything with work and school. It’s been really humbling to work alongside Valinda again this year. She’s so awesome! It’s been so neat to grow in not only our working relationship but our friendship too. Even though we’ve known each other since my freshman year (she was my ARA my freshman year and my RA two years in a row – we’ve never been on separate wings since I’ve been here), we’ve just been developing a close friendship this year. It’s been so cool, as we’ve even already worked through some communication issues and have had a really cool time of meeting together to pray for our girls, discuss plans for the wing, and just check up on each other’s lives.

Esther. She’s a whole subject in and of herself. How is that I didn’t get to know this girl that well last year? She is so amazing, constantly encouraging others to run after the Lord, consistently putting others before herself in a manner that convicts me, joining Valinda and I in pursuing the girls on the wing in a way that pushes me to do the same, making me smile with all the similarities we have, and keeping me laughing constantly with all her crazy antics.

It’s so good to be back at COC. Seriously. It’s nice to be sitting under teaching where you leave feeling like you had a spanking every Sunday. It’s nice to be challenged spiritually in that way. The last few weeks have been really good; this past week’s address putting aside the lusts of the flesh and the “sin that so easily entangles us” – except that he didn’t actually use that passage. That one just comes to mind a lot.

Work is going well. I’m loving it. We have so much fun, and it’s really nice to be working in a Christian environment. I remember during one of my first days at work, Hollie Gorsh, my boss’s boss, came and gave me a hug. I was so stunned; then I had to remember that I was working with believers. It’s been very nice! It’s a little strange, I have to say, trying to hop into a well-oiled system and be both useful and needed. I’m learning to be creative, unselfish, and humble. Ah…all good lessons.

I’m pretty exhausted, so I’m gonna head to bed. I just want you all to know I miss you all.

‘Night!

P.S. The following pictures were taken by Josh Telle, a student here at school. I was helping him and Esther with a school photography project. (www.joshuatelle.com).

]]> http://threelilsisters.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/life-in-california-jr-year-is-here-and-flying-by-fast/feed/ 1 threelilsisters http://threelilsisters.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/my-plans-for-next-school-year-are-only-half-final/ http://threelilsisters.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/my-plans-for-next-school-year-are-only-half-final/#comments Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:19:44 +0000 Ashley http://threelilsisters.wordpress.com/?p=98 ]]>

There’s so much to write about. Once again…. and homework still calls, and my 10-pg paper remains unwritten, and my test tomorrow un-studied for, and my books unread, and my laundry still dirty (then again….what’s new? Lol); but I find once again that sometimes I need to step back and allow myself to think. I’m so busy taking classes and studying and reading and writing and typing and yes, laughing and goofing off, that sometimes I don’t allow myself the time to sit down, think, pray, feel homesick, and cry. I’m not crying, but today I’m really missing my family. I’m not consumed and unable to function – I took a final today, I laughed, I ate, and I worked steadily on homework – but I thought a lot about home, about my family, about how much I can’t wait to see them. Maybe it’s because I heard the song “Follow Love” by FFH and that always makes me think of when I left for college, maybe it’s ‘cause I’m tired, maybe it’s ‘cause I texted/IM’ed with my Dad today while he was at work and that always makes it worse…… or maybe it’s just ‘cause I’ve been away from my family since January 19th, and as much as I love Israel and wouldn’t trade these last few weeks for anything, I’m also dying to see my family. Actually, I don’t need an excuse. I miss them… period.
Jumping back in time a little, hehe…I have a lot of catching up to do. That last thing I wrote about was Jordan. Oi vey! I’ll try to keep it short.
Since Jordan, life at the moshav has seemed a lot more luxurious. How can an unheated building with ants and bugs, cold floors, crowded living space, and dirty laundry (hm…I’m sensing a trend…I should throw a load in) feel like luxury? I don’t know. lol…. Actually, Jordan taught me a lot, and it’s been neat to come back here to try to apply it all and then think ahead to home, where I’m sure it’ll be even more of an adjustment.
So much has happened since the last time I wrote that I’m going to try to condense it into the most important/memorable events. Here we go:
Our visit to the Hassidic synagogue – On Saturday, March 15th, we all went to the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem for Shabbat service. We were the first semester to have this opportunity, and I have to say it is a memory I will cherish. We couldn’t read or understand the Hebrew. We couldn’t find where we were in the weekly Torah reading. We didn’t know what was going on, but it was so neat to sit and to observe.
We made a scene coming in. =) Someone had told Randy that there was a spot on the top floor where all of us (guys and girls) could sit together and watch. So, we made our way upstairs to the third floor. We piled out in to the “sanctuary” area only to find our whole group including about 17 guys in the ONLY WOMEN area. Hehehehe… Everyone, even those on the first floor, was staring up at us. Lol…oh well. The guys left quickly and returned to the all men’s section on the first floor, and the service went with no more further disruptions than normal. I say “than normal” because of what the service was like for us on the third floor. I have to say I understand now why the men and women are separated – the ladies are SO distracting. They stand and sit at different times than each other (it depends on where you are in your prayers, so some people pray faster than others), they talk all throughout the service, they come late and leave early, they suffer from hot flashes and take jackets on and off, and at random times throughout the service they get up and force their way through another random aisle on the other side of the balcony to pray, read, and of course, talk there. How distracting!!
Purim – Purim is the Jewish holiday celebrating and honoring Esther for her bravery in coming before Artexerxes and saving the Jewish people from extinction at the hand of Haman. To celebrate this holiday, the people dress up in costumes, have a party, read Esther, and do various things at the mention of the main characters’ names (Haman – hiss, clang keys, drown it out; Mordecai – cheer; Esther – whistle or “ooh” and “aah”). We planned to do the same, so over the course of the week leading up Purim we set about making our costumes. But where do 32 students in a foreign country get an assortment of costumes for costume party they knew nothing about before? Canada! Canada is our “Salvation Army” on the moshav. This small room is filled with various clothes that have been donated by people on the moshav, and which is open for anyone to come and take clothes, shoes, accessories, etc. for free. Before Purim, there’d been a few of us who’d visited there, but when Purim came, that became our haven. It would take too long to describe everyone’s costumes or what exactly they used. We could write a book on how to make costumes out of literally nothing. Let’s just say part of my costume consisted of two pieces of wood and a plastic rim (like one found on a milk container except 4 times bigger), duck tape, hair ties, and a Sharpie marker. Jared was king of the costume world. Using random clothes’ pieces, cut-up sweaters, a strap to a purse, part of jogging pants, tea, fake blood, matches, a scarf, and makeup, he created a whole, completely legit Jack Sparrow costume!! It was amazing! Tiffany also made a really ingenious costume. Using safety pins and three huge, yellow raincoats, she created a yellow ball gown and went as Belle from Beauty in the Beast…and looked gorgeous! I went as Rogue from the X-Men (by this time I’m sure you’ve seen pictures) and made my costume by using various items (dress pants and gloves) from other people and tailoring my own leather-like jacket from Canada. It was so fun! Never have I felt so successfully creative! My 4-H leader would be proud. lol
Easter – Easter in Israel was interesting. Everyone told me it would be awesome. Everyone said that it would be so “once-in-a-lifetime”. I guess it was in one sense. When will I be in Jerusalem again on the day when Jesus rose from the dead? Probably not for a long time if at all. However, Easter in Jerusalem, or in Israel for that matter, was a lot different than I thought. I’m living in a Jewish culture. A Jewish and Muslim culture. Yes, there are Christians here, but for the most part, Israel is not a nation that honors or recognizes (as a whole nation) many holidays except those on the Jewish or Muslim calendars… and even then, they only recognize them in their little areas of the Old City and personally. Personally. That’s the key word for this past Easter. I had to celebrate it personally. I’m so used to being in the United States, where everyone celebrates Easter (even if only as a holiday where we all get lots of candy, dye hard-boiled eggs, and color everything in pink, yellow, and green). Here in Israel life never skipped a beat. We went to a “sunrise” service at the supposed place where Jesus rose (which isn’t accurate) and sang worship songs and praised the Lord (a great thing, indeed), but after that, we returned to the moshav, where we all went our separate ways and worked on homework or goofed off as we would any other Sunday. Any other Sunday. I never thought I would say that about Easter! This strange phenomenon left me convicted that even if the whole nation didn’t celebrate Christ’s resurrection, I must celebrate personally and show the Lord that I am grateful.
Work Day – Work day was so much fun. I got to cook again  except this time with Stephanie Schlegel, one of the faculty wives…but more about that later. I was part of Bill’s Bums, one of three groups of us students doing work around the moshav, and my group spent the day at the Schlegel’s house painting their new basement addition. For the last 13 years, the family has been living in a two-bedroom house with one bathroom, a livingroom, and a kitchen. That’s it. That doesn’t so bad for a small family, but the Schlegels have four kids: Rachel (13), Zach (11), Isaiah (8), and Eitan (4). It was crowded. Thank the Lord, after a long wait, they were able to build an addition consisting of four rooms – a family room, a bathroom, and two bedrooms – added as a basement level. On work day we helped sand the walls and paint. After every work day, we have a cook-out/barbecue and watch a movie to relax for the evening. That night Stephanie was in charge of making the dough for the Druze-style pita we would be making individually over an open fire that night. (The Druze are a small sect of religious people – they have their own religion – that live in the Galilee area), so Noel, Karen, and I got to help her make the dough. That was so much fun! (I’m bringing the recipe home so we can make ‘em!)
Galilee – I could take a whole note for this one. In fact, I could probably write a couple of notes on this one. =) We began our trip at 8am, as always, boarding the bus and driving north in Israel to the Sharon Plain. I could list off all the cities we visited but honestly, I know for myself, they will mean nothing unless I spent numerous pages describing all of them – something I can’t do ‘cause I have to pack for Egypt and get ready for Shabbat and chapel and wow, I should clean my room.
Our trip began on Saturday and as well as doing a lot of driving, we visited HaAretz Museum (where I got to see a postal museum! =) ) and Caesarea Maritime, where Cornelius, the Roman written about in Acts 10-11, lived, and where Paul faced Felix, Festus, and Agrippa. It was gorgeous there, and one of my favorite places on the whole trip! We stayed that night on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea at Dor. We had little bungalows about 100 feet off the sand and the food was absolutely the best I’ve had since my own mom’s cooking.
Sunday was spent running around like crazy, driving from site to site and learning more than I think is possible to retain about the Jezreel Valley. We began the day at Mt. Carmel where Elijah called down fire from heaven and God demonstrated His power over that of the false god Baal. That was amazing to think about as I sat there. We then went to Megiddo. Megiddo is one of those places I feel like I never knew existed before IBEX, yet it’s such a key place in the history and future of the church. In the Old Testament, Joshua conquered the Canaanites there and King Josiah was killed by an Egyptian pharaoh; in the New Testament, we learned that Megiddo will be the meeting point of all the forces of the antichrist in Armageddon (Rev. 16:12-16). WOW!
We also went to En Harod (where God whittled down Gideon’s men to 300), drove through Cana (where Jesus changed water into wine), and Mt. Arbel (where Jesus retreated to pray). We climbed down Mt. Arbel, which was really fun! I felt at home doing some free climbing – finally! – even if we did have hand-holds. I had to laugh because I was more comfortable climbing down the mountain than I was walking down the gravel, sloped road at the base of the mountain. I don’t have great foot-eye coordination off the mountain-side. =)
That’s when I decided that we should fake an injury. I recruited Noel to join me in my plot. A sprained ankle seemed like a reasonable injury for our current terrain, so with a little “assistance” from me, she hobbled down to meet the group that had already made it to the bottom. I have to say as much as we felt guilty for this, it was neat to see how the guys in our group responded to her “injury” with sincere gentlemanly action. =) John and Praus ran up to help, and eventually she was scooped off her feet to avoid rough terrain and keep her off her “sore” ankle. Hehehehe…I was dying inside. Call me awful, call me cruel, but it was hilarious to us… especially after halfway through our antics, we had her switch which foot was injured just to see if anyone noticed. No one did.  lol
Noel later got reprimanded by our resident nurse for faking an injury, an event I felt bad about because it was truly my idea. Oops.
That night and for the rest of the nights that week, we stayed right on the Sea of Galilee. Honestly, I had an amazing little house with beds for 7 people (even though there were only 3 of us in the house), a whole room to myself, a gorgeous view of the Sea, and about a 30 second walk – no joke – to the water itself. Amazing. =) … and I thought living on the moshav was luxury? I had no idea. I’d forgotten what luxury was. To be honest, I more love looking back at our time in Galilee than I think I did while I was there. That may sound weird because it really was an awesome set-up. The food was good, the rooms were great, the water was awesome, the sun was bright (I ended up so burnt by the end of the week), and the room service was wonderful (clean sheets and towels every day!). However, I realized while I was there how easy it is to slip back into normal life and to forget the lessons of Negev, to forget the lessons I learn daily when I’m in need, when I’m uncomfortable, and when I’m out of my comfort zone.
I like being stretched. That may look foreign – it feels strange to type it. Maybe this will work better: En Gev on the Sea of Galilee lacked most of the aspects of what I love about IBEX. I do have to say it was a time of great growing in my friendship with one of my current roommates Lindy (who is an amazing girl!) and it was an awesome opportunity to live on the Sea of Galilee and go to all those Biblical sites; but there were fewer trials and fewer needs. In some ways, it was a good test-run to see how I will be when I go home. Has IBEX really changed me permanently? Have I allowed the Lord to penetrate my heart with these lessons or merely my head? Have I really learned from my circumstances or just dealt with them because I have no choice? I guess my time at home will determine those answers.
On Monday, we visited the Golan Heights and various places there: Caesarea Philippi, Baniyas Waterfall, Quneitra, and Hazor. I can’t say much about those places, ‘cause I really have to go to sleep now (I’m leaving in 5 hours for Egypt!!!) but look them up. Hazor is one of the few places the Israelites burned when they took over Canaan, and Quneitra overlooks Syria and from there we could see the Damascas Road where Paul was converted!!! So neat!
Tuesday was spent near the Sea of Galilee learning about Jesus and His ministry there. We went to Bethsaida (home of Peter, Philip, and Andrew and where Jesus healed the blind man proving that He was the Messiah), the Mount of the Beatitudes, Tabgha (where Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him), Nazareth, Tiberias (built by Herod Antipas in AD 20). Then we took a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee, pausing in the center to read of when Christ calmed the storm with a word, and ate dinner at a nice restaurant. Some people got “St. Peter’s fish” but a lot of us got pizza or pasta. *cough* I was one of them, although I tasted Deborah’s fish, and it wasn’t so bad. That night we listened to a speaker tell us about life on kibbutz. A kibbutz is a socialistically run community where no one owns anything personally – they all share thing for the common good – and until the 1970s, even the children were raised by the community. It’s a strange thing, honestly; and according to the other people in the audience I had the most questions. It puzzled me why anyone would not want to live in a capitalist society.
Wednesday we had a regional hike that wasn’t too bad. We thought we were going to do an all-water hike, where you have to swim through a canyon, etc., but Wednesday turned out to be a just a little too chilly. Instead we walked a nice hike and returned to the beach early for a relaxing time of Frisbee, swimming, and goofing off on the beach. =)
Thursday was my Life of Christ hike. We discussed Jesus’ Great Galilean ministry, which was really neat because that’s what we’d been studying in our classwork. Seeing the places for myself definitely makes it all make sense! In the afternoon, Modern Israel had a field trip, but since it was optional for me, and they were only going to learn more about kibbutz living and the first kibbutz in Israel (and we know how I feel about that… lol), I decided to play on the beach! I did some homework, had a mud/sand fight with the Schlegel boys; played football; got even more sunburned; and went sailing with Rachel Schlegel ‘til Whit and Peter capsized our boat, sent our orange peels floating into the Sea, and ran us along a buoy line that eventually covered us in thousands of squirmy, brown-green worms! UGH. LOL…we had fun, but I have to say, I’ve never dove out of a boat so fast! Lol
On Friday, we had a regional hike that, again, wasn’t too long. We went to just a few places, but it was so much fun. We hiked through the Bet Netofa Valley, which Jonah used to flee to Joppa, walked to Cana (where Jesus turned water into wine and later healed the son of the Roman centurion in Capernaum), and hiked into the caves where the historian Josephus hid and was eventually captured by the Roman general Vespasian. We spent the afternoon goofing off, and I spent mine relaxing in doors to give my sunburned skin a break. I was pretty burned.
On Saturday, we packed up and got ready to head back to the moshav. We had a good amount of sites to hit first, but we would be heading back to Yad HaShmonah when we were finished. We started off with a 45-minute trolley ride (which they called a train and by doing so, got our hopes up…stink..lol) around the En Gev kibbutz. That was fun. We got to see an ostrich and an ostrich egg, a banana grove, and cows they milk three times a day and from which they get 60 gals of milk per day! Then we went to Yardenit, the mouth of the Jordan River where two of our girls Chelsea and Shelsy were baptized!  That was neat! They each shared their testimonies with us, we all sang a few of their favorite songs, and Randy baptized them. The last two stops we made were at Belvoir (where we saw remains of a Crusader fort) and Beit Shan (where Saul and Jonathan were pinned to the walls after their deaths at Mt. Gilboa). A funny thing happened at Beit Shan: we were looking around at the different structures when we noticed a random scraggly tree on top of a nearby hill. I looked up and declared just as randomly, “and that’s the tree where Judas hanged himself.” Randy began talking about the area where we sat and finished it up by saying, “You see that scraggly tree up there? That’s where Judas hanged himself.” My jaw dropped to the ground! I had totally been joking!! He went on to explain that that claim, of course, is wrong because it’s no where near Jerusalem. Still. Quite random.
I’m off to bed for a few hours then off to Egypt for 9 days with one backpack on my back with all I should need. Need. That’s the key word. I wanted stretching and learning through discomfort and lack…here we go!!! =) It should be great!

PS. *blink*…. I must be tired…. Nothing’s coming.

P.P.S. I registered for classes the other day. I’m taking 15 units next semester: New Testament I, Christian Theology I, Intro to Philosophy, Directing I, and Interpersonal Communications. They should be good classes, and as you might guess, I’m really looking forward to Directing. =) On another note, I didn’t get the job to be the on-campus IBEX secretary. I was kinda disappointed, but Noel, one of the other girls here, got the job. I’m really happy for her. We find out about SLS (Servant Leadership Staff) as school on Monday (but, of course, I’ll be in Egypt without internet access), so I guess we’ll find out if I’m an RA or SDR or ARA…. Lol..too many acronyms. =) God’s in control. I’m learning that more and more.

Finally! =)  I don’t know about you, but I’ve been dying to write (I hope you’ve been dying to read.)  I guess I need to manage my time better so I can do this more often.  It comes down to priorities (Doesn’t it, Mom =) ?)  So, here, I go.

Before I go on to write about Jordan, I have to recall something I wrote during our Land and Bible trip to the Negev.  At one point in our travels, we stopped in the Wilderness of Paran.  There we all got off the bus, which was shut down to aid in the silence, and split up and went off to find a place to sit and spend some time reading Deuteronomy 8.  My friend Steve who had been here last semester told me this was one of the most life-changing parts.  I don’t know how I forgot this when I was writing before, but this was such a key, insightful time for me.  I read over Deuteronomy 8, then went on to journal some thoughts: (You might want to read over the passage to know what I’m talking about.)

When I look back at the times in my life that have been what I would consider times in the wilderness, I can agree with Deuteronomy 8.  Everything that God has done/allowed has been with a purpose and that often being to allow me to see Him even just that much clearer.

Vs. 7 – His plans for my future are good!  He is planning for my future abundance – IN HIM!  O, self, do not forget where you’ve come from or what you’ve experienced; do not forget your own unworthiness and God’s mercy.  Keep Him ever before you so that when God brings you to the fruitful, peaceful place, you will not forget Him.

Remember, O soul, how He allowed you to know nothingness, emptiness, hunger, pain, fear, thirst, and loneliness so that you could truly know how He fulfills all your needs.

What a sad and horrifying thought!  Verses 19-20 talk about what would happen if I turned from the Lord.  I would be destroyed.  Honestly though, reading that, all I can see is the pain that would cause Him.  He’s given me so much – He’s shown me so much of Who He is.  How could I deny Him?  How could I hurt the One Who has only ever shown love to me?  Yet I do, don’t I?  Every time I show no interest in loving or getting to know Him, every time I choose myself over Him, my own will over his divine plan.

This all gets very wordy, very much like I seek to somehow be profound…. I’m sick of revolutionary moments with no lasting change.  I‘m sick not really caring, of lying to myself, of propping myself up to look alive and eager when my heart is not in it as it should be.  Lord, give me the heart to love You first and foremost.

            Jordan added to this heartfelt cry to go deeper with the Lord by taking the lack of luxury we have here in Israel to a completely different and deeper level.  We couldn’t drink our tap water.  We couldn’t always use the bathroom for a lack of toilet paper, and when we could, the bathrooms were “squatty-potties” or they reeked.  The bus reeked too, as the bathroom we “conveniently” had there had not been emptied since who knows when and the smell only grew worse with each passing day.  We were parched.  Neither the restaurants nor the hotels provided water with meals – it’s a scarcity in such a dry land – and we were often too cheap to buy more than a cup-worth for each person.  We couldn’t eat.  The stomach flu that ravaged a good number of us stole our appetites, drained our fluids, and replaced it all with nausea and weakness.  We couldn’t stop for that.  The trip went on, the hiking too, and we made it work.  We had to.  We got blisters.  We got cuts.  We got bruises, and we ached.  We continued walking and although right now, to you, this trip may seem like the last thing we could ever enjoy doing, I can honestly say we would all look back on this time with fond and pleasant memories.

            Yes, it hurt.  Growing often does.  You can tell when a child is growing because of growing pains.  In the same way, Jordan stretched us in new ways that challenged us individually in areas we needed to grow in.  They were growing pains.

            For myself, it’s when I’m taken from the luxuries of what I would normally call necessities, when I’m taken from my normal state of health that I so easily take for granted, and when I’m thrown into situations where I lack the essentials – just some decent food, a drink of water, a real shower – that I’m forced to acknowledge my priorities or lack thereof.

Day One: We began our trip to Jordan in Israel at the edge of the Red Sea in Eilat.  We packed up our bags, loaded the bus still wet from snorkeling, and headed to the border.  After a good long wait and a trip through customs, where the guard stopped Tiffany just to flirt with her, we made to the other side, where we split into taxis, and enjoyed an exciting trip to the mouth of Petra and to the Edom Hotel.  When I say “exciting,” I mean “completely foreign.”  Randomly, as we drove the hour plus to the hotel, we’d see the other taxis from our group pulling over to the side of the highway and everyone piling out and piling back into a different taxi.  We stopped at a gas station, and after Bill haggling for a cheaper price, boarded 10 people into an 8-person bus.  The taxi driver’s wife was there and rode with us.  She wore a complete berkah so even the tiny slit just for her eyes was covered and the front of her face was easily mistaken for the back of her head.  However, when the taxi began to move, the cloth was moved away and pinned back so her whole face was showing.  Our taxi driver insisted on blasting his music and to our surprise, his wife danced (as much as you can sitting down).  Bill remarked later that he’d never seen such an affection Muslim couple.  It was rather interesting, rather foreign, and rather confusing.  An hour later, with our hotel.

Although we weren’t with an official guide, we dropped off our bags and went to Petra, where we spent a few hours walking around, experiencing a little bit of Jordan and Arabic-speaking people (amongst a great number of tourists like ourselves) and gazing in wonder at the temple fasod and the “monastery.”

Although we didn’t talk then about Petra and its historical particulars, Petra was the Nabatean capital.  Carved from the rock, this place formed a wonderful defense against attempted invasions as the rock bottle-necked into what is called the Siq (crack), not allowing for an army, no matter how large, to make its way to the center of the capital except by slow and almost single-file walking through twisting corridors of no quick retreat.

We didn’t discuss the Biblical stories involved with Petra, but later I read that it is known that some people believe Petra to be the location of Old Testament Sela.  This is only based upon the root of the word “Sela” which means, “rock” or “cliff” and with that reasoning, it could just as easily be placed somewhere else.

I really liked Petra.  This seems like an obvious reply to such a well-known historical location that most tourists seek to visit.  However, in honesty, it wasn’t the rocks that made me enjoy our time there.  It wasn’t the temple fasod or the monastery, although both were amazing works of architecture that boggle my imagination.  It wasn’t the Siq, which towered high above with reddish rocks that made it a photographer’s paradise.  I loved the culture that spilled into the canyon and followed us up the path, offering us rides on carts, donkeys, and camels for only one dinar; that asked us to buy postcards as they held them in their teeth and snuffed in their runny noses; that sat selling goods they couldn’t even name yet or tried to talk to us as their ripped pants fell off their tiny bodies; that sat on the edge of the road in the dirt as if the area was not dirty and rocky but a nice patio where they could sit and enjoy their hookah; that fought training a stubborn donkey to walk on in obedience to commands; that stared and spoke about us and to us in their rolling Jordanian language; that chased runaway donkeys barefoot across the rocks and dirt and down the stairs we labored upon.  Suddenly, I was learning how uncomplicated life really was once removed from our advanced technology, materialistic pursuits, and perfection-minded and germ-conscious societies.

Our hotel stay went well.  Although we ran into a minor complication with one of the girls’ rooms’ sliding door not locking and a man in the lobby showing too much interest in finding out which room those girls were in (Jared and John took that room instead), we were able to enjoy a peaceful evening.  We watched Indiana Jones (the one dealing with Petra, of course) that night – it was my first time ever (okay, go ahead…laugh) – and I laughed all the way through.  Somehow I had thought that the Indiana Jones movies, no matter how unrealistic I was expecting them to be, were atleast supposed to be serious.  I was wrong, and I got a good number of laughs from watching the ridiculous movie.  My favorite part is when Indiana and his dad are tied back-to-back and going around and around on the rotating door between a room engulfed in flames and a group of armed Nazis working on a secret mission.  Classic.

Day Two:   There’s a lot I could say here about the exact course we took – the King’s Highway – and why that was key to the narrative of the Israelite’s trek to the Promised Land.  However, to most of you, that would be nothing more than a boring recitation of facts, so I shall spare you that drudgery.  The best parts are often the least academic anyway. =)

We stopped at multiple places throughout the day but some of my favorite memories (minus the smell, of course) were the moments we spent on the bus.  The view was amazing.  As we slid through the Jordanian towns, we passed open-air markets selling fresh vegetables, good fruit, and raw meat hanging with the head, tail, and even some fur still intact.  *gulp*  Welcome to a third-world country.  We made our stops along the way, read the Bible passages, and felt the personal excitement of walking in the shoes of the patriarchs, of Ruth and Naomi, and of the millions of other Israelite people rescued from Egypt and now headed to the Promised Land.  We stopped for pizza.  What a joke!  LOL…. Okay, it was okay.  Not really.  To me, as a part-Italian girl raised in New York, the pizza was awful, but it was a nice break from the kosher life we’d been living (I had chicken on my pizza.)  I ate only a little bit, then fed my second stomach (Jared).  

Some of my favorite stops that day were Bozrah, capital of Edom (directly mentioned in Psalm 60:6-12, Deut. 2:13-15, and Numbers 21:11-12); Bab Edh-drha, where we talked about Abraham and Lot’s separation as each chose an area of land to call their own (Gen. 13:10-12); the Arnon Canyon Mouth, a short stop just to take pictures; and last but not least, the Wadi Zarka Ma’in.  There we hiked up the river in the warm water that came from Herod’s hot springs at Callirhoe.  That was quite the experience, as ‘The Three Musketeers” (…even though there were four of us…) (Corey, Clara, Rachel, and I) climbed rocks, jumped from place to place, and trudged through mud to avoid getting too wet.

            We stayed at the Black Iris Hotel that night, and it was a rather interesting experience.  We arrived at the hotel in shorts, having come directly from the hot springs; however, from the moment we walked into the hotel, it was clear that our dress needed to change.  I had forgotten to grab my bathing suit and towel in the bottom, storage area of the bus, so Peter and I ran out to grab it.  As Rachel later said, I should have just sent Peter or one of the other guys.  I’ve never felt so vulnerable in shorts and a t-shirt.  Apparently I have hot knees!  LOL…just kidding.  I was wearing long basketball shorts, so I strategically made them longer – suddenly ghetto shorts didn’t seem so bad – but nothing kept the eyes of the Arab men from looking me up and down like I was some sort of merchandise.  Gross.

We had chapel that night in my room.  That sounds strange but let me explain.  Rachel, Noel, Clara, and I shared a room.  First of all, let me describe this room.  We had four beds.  That was a plus.  However, we had full-length mirrors on one wall, and somehow I don’t feel like the paper-thin curtains did much to conceal what happened within our room.  We had a bathroom, but the shower head had no way to hook to the wall, so you had to hold it up above yourself to get wet.  I was third to shower, and the hot water was gone by the time I got there, so I enjoyed a refreshingly cold shower…. with no bathroom light.  That decided to die right before I turned the water on.  So, with the door (which was really just an accordion-style separation-thing) cracked and freezing water, I experienced another “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto” moment.  Another adjustment: no electronic device we had for drying, curling, or straightening of our hair was worth risking to see if the power current in Jordan was the same in Israel (which is double the power of those in the US).  Thus began our weekend of reprioritization, humility, and focusing on the internal rather than the external.  I’m telling you; when you come to a place where fixing the external is either pointless or impossible (we felt like it was both), it’s much easier to narrow in the root of a lot of prideful, vain, and self-conceited motives behind our actions.  Suddenly, all you can see if your intention because the circumstance that makes you uncomfortable is unfixable and your attitude must either rise above the situation or dwell on it.

            Back to chapel in my room.  Because our room was big enough to house four people, we had a lot of space for the 20 people in our group to merely sit and do chapel (We also had a balcony outside we could have used if need be.)  Bill spoke to us, and one of my most fond memories is turning out the lights and letting Jared (who’s a little camera-shy when doing serious stuff but not when he’s being ridiculous) and Deborah (who has an angelic voice) to serenade us with solos.

            Day Three:  We were packing up in the morning when Clara made a discovery.  My bathing suit and shorts, which I’d hung on the thick balcony the night before had been blown off the wall and onto a smaller roof.  I thought they were both lost.  However, by hanging out the window and using a lamp (yeah..don’t ask), Corey thankfully was able to retrieve them.  From the hotel, we went to the Madaba Plateau, stopping first at Machaerus.  There we read the account of John the Baptist being beheaded (found in Mark 6:14-29, Matt. 14:1-12, and Luke 9:7-9) as well as acted it out.   This was hilarious.  Bill asked who wanted to reenact the scene, so I offered to play Herodias, Herod’s evil wife.  Bill chose Corey to be Herod, and I picked Clara to be my daughter Salome.  John Glass was, of course, John the Baptist.  We laughed a lot, and afterward, for a long time, Clara, Rachel, and I enjoyed calling me “Mother,” Clara “daughter,” and Rachel ”the Nabatean woman” (the Nabatean princess and Herod’s wife before his adultery with Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife – Wow!  What a soap opera!) 

We made a good number of other stops along the way including Dibon where discussed the Mesha Stele, which was found there in 1868, and Mt. Nebo, where Corey read to Chelsea about the pools of Heshbon from Song of Songs 7:4.

We took a walk that night from our hotel as we waited for dinner (in Jordan, we ate dinner around 7pm every night).  I remember specifically that Noel and I did not want to go.  Of course, we did; but honestly, I wasn’t sure I could make it the full 2-mile walk to our destination without getting sick.  I was so hungry, so thirsty, exhausted, and nauseous, but we figured we’d give it a shot.  We walked towards the Ammon Citadel, but we didn’t make it.  The walk was longer than we thought, and after a quick bit of shopping for a cheap Coke, the group turned and headed back.  We almost got lost (I actually wasn’t lost!  I knew where we were! Lol) and overall enjoyed a pleasant walk back, during which we passed a high-security, White House-looking building (about which the security would only tell us it was “government”), during which we almost got to go inside a mosque (but didn’t…rats!), and during which Peter and I had a deep discussion on the random topic of the moment (I leave it out to protect the innocent).  In case you didn’t know, Peter and I butt heads a little and enjoy pushing each other’s buttons – bad combo…lol.

Day Four: Day four began where the night before had attempted to reach: the Amman Citadel.  Ammon was the capital for the Ammonite people and is a present-day museum.  This citadel is remembered as the place where Uriah the Hittite was sent by David to his death after David and Bathsheba committed adultery.  There I read 2 Samuel 11 for the group, and we discussed how David’s sin resulted in more deaths than just that of Uriah and David’s baby.  It resulted in the many deaths of Israelites soldiers who were also serving with Uriah.

            From Amman, we entered the region of Gilead and continued to the city of Jerash.  At Jerash, we looked at and discussed the temple of the false god Artemis, goddess of nature and hunting.  Called Diana by the Romans, her deity was threatened by the true authority and deity of Christ.  There, we paused at the oval piazza, walked down the South Colonnade Street, looked at the cathedral and the Nymphaeum, and went into the sanctuary of Artemis.  We finished off our visit by sitting in the amphitheater and listening to bagpipes and drums.

            Sukkot, also called Deir All, was another key point in our travels.  Here we discussed various events including what is found in Genesis 33:1-17, when Jacob and Esau are reunited.  Jacob built booths there – thus the name “Sukkot” – and Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh built an altar there as a memorial in order to remind future generation of the part the Jews living on this side of the Jordan had as chosen people          We attempted to travel to Penuel/Mahanaim but ran into some trouble with a narrow road, an unhappy bus driver, and a lot of water under the bridge (literally) over which we needed to pass.  Proceeding from there on foot to the edge of the stream, we paused and read Genesis 32 about Jacob wrestling the Angel of the Lord as well as acted it out (with Bill as the angel and Corey as Jacob).

From here, we proceeded to the Jordan/Israel border crossing, where after two-plus hours, we made it safely back into the country of Israel.  We went through customs and passport control rather quickly, actually, but for some reason, we sat on the bus (or rather, goofed off on the bus) for two hours while yet only 50 feet from being inside Israel and on our way back to Yad HaShmonah, still 2 hours south of the border. 

John and I had a lot of fun at the border crossing.  We were sitting on the bus on the Jordanian side – you first go through Jordanian passport control, etc., then the same thing on the Israeli side about 250 feet away – when John asked me if I’d try something.  The guard, fully armed with some sort of automatic, was making his way down the aisle checking passports.  Quickly, right before he got to us, John and I switched passports.  I was in the aisle seat, so the guard took “mine” first.  He flipped through the pages to get to the identification/picture page, looked at it, looked at me and John, then chuckled and handing John his, took mine from John and checked it.  He proceeded down the aisle still chuckling at our antic.  That went well on the Jordanian side, but we were warned against doing it on the Israeli side where things are much different and security is tight and unwavering.  When we finally got through all the checkpoints, we said goodbye to our plush, reeking bus and hopped onto a cramped bus that fit exactly twenty of us and left some luggage sitting in the aisles between the small rows.  We had a great ride back, as Corey, Praus, and I discussed our families and our various upbringings (Cornelius “Corey” is Russian, and Praus is Brazilian) and as John and Bill joined us in playing “Two Truths and A Lie.”  My favorite round was when I said something to the affect of “I’ve trained racehorses,” “My relative was killed by the mafia,” and “I have a tattoo.”  There was quite the discussion on this one as each argued that various ones seemed improbable.  Praus said, “There is no way Miss Bricks has a tattoo.”  John thought that at first but was then convinced by the other two that that was actually a possibility.  He eventually decided that the lie was the death of my relative by the mafia.  His reasoning: how did I know?  Corey and Bill decided that I did have a tattoo and chose one of the other options as my lie.  Unfortunately, I don’t remember which ones (I think the racehorse “fact” was from another round actually, but…)  I had a lot of fun with that one…. Which is the lie?  You tell me.

Arriving back at Yad HaShmonah around 9:30pm, we ate dinner in the reception – it was so good to see good rice, schnitzel, and cucumber/tomato salad. Scattered around the floor, filthy from our travels and not bothering to even wash our hands, we dove in, and as I looked around I began to notice how much this trip had really changed us all.  There we were, still dressed in the same clothes we’d worn a few days ago and a few days before that and pulled crumpled from our bag that morning; donning the same sandals we’d worn every day through mud, water, and dust, the blood from our blister joining the other stains there; our hair in dire need of a washing; our hands dirty and gross yet handling the food we now ate; ourselves, scattered around, sitting on the dirty floor – it seemed clean to us in comparison – amidst bugs and ants and random spiders we would have avoided before, leaning against tables, walls, each other; exhausted yet perky and smiling.

As perhaps you are beginning to see, Jordan was an amazing trip, about which I had heard much from former-IBEX’ers and during which I learned more than I ever could have anticipated.  Throughout the trip, God allowed me to learn not just more information about Biblical events and characters but also about my own life and His amazing character.  Various times I was tired, sick, thirsty, and hot; but we went on as if unaffected by our circumstances.  It was amazing to see firsthand what one can put up with when one must, but it was also neat to learn what is important – truly important – versus that which we might consider necessities but which we can truly live without.  Accommodations, food, clothing, medicine, cleanliness – it all takes on a new light after our trip to Jordan, as we personally dissected it all to discover what is eternal and what is not.  Suddenly, lines of “I’d never do that,” “I could never live that way,” or “that’s disgusting” were left behind, replaced by a overall desire for common comfort, needs met, teamwork, and corporate growth.  Besides the individual passages we studied at the actual locations of the events, verses like 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for thee”, have come to mean something a little more personal after this trip, during which I was reminded of just how perfectly God’s promises fulfilled all needs.  Called “stretching” by multiple members of the Regional class, the Jordan trip confirmed for me once again the Truth of the Bible and helped me refocus on what is truly important and focus on the heart instead of the exterior.

P.S.  In case you didn’t already know, maps in Israel are East-oriented.  In other words, as our maps in the US would be held so North is facing up or ahead of us, in Israel, we hold the map so East is facing forward.  We’re all used to it now, so that it’s hard to even look at an Israeli map if it’s not facing that direction.  My mind has adjusted to the “move right on the map = going south” instead of going East as we would in the States.  I only hope this directionally challenged mind of mine will fix itself when I return the US, so I won’t think we’re going west from Syracuse to Binghamton.  Oi Vey!

I know this is long overdue. Sorry it’s taken me long! Things have been crazy busy with working on a week’s worth of homework on top of my normal week’s work as a reality of our trip to Jordan… but enough about that. =)
A few Tuesday’s ago, (wow, I am far behind), we all boarded the bus early and proceeded south to the Negev. Unfortunately, because this was so long ago, I don’t feel like this is going to be very good, but please hang in there with me. =)
We headed south and stopped at Qumran, where the Dead Scrolls were found in 1947 in one of the many caves there. We first took a tour through a museum there, then went and climbed up into some of the caves and took lots of pictures. =)
From there, we went to the Ahava factory. Ahava is a company that takes the salt and mud from the Dead Sea and create wonderful products for the skin. The salt, water, adn mud from the sea make wonderful, healing cosmetics that unfortunately, cost and arm and a leg. It’s at a place like this that you realize how limited your budge is. =) We did have fun though, making our way through the store trying out samples. The guys were the funniest, of course, as they put on lotion and facial crème with anti-aging qualities. Lol
From here, we went to lunch at the Dead Sea itself. We only had about 50 minutes to eat lunch and swim, so most of us didn’t actually swim; but those who did – mostly the guys – were ridiculous as they dunked their whole bodies and ran yelling off to the showers to wash off their skin from the stinging water in their eyes and on their faces. Lunch was great, though, as we had tuna sandwiches/peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (a delicacy here for us..lol), Pringles, apples/oranges, and a candy bar (eaten thankfully by my 2nd stomach =). )
Boarding the bus again, we headed off to Masada! Masada was really cool! Perhaps you’ve watched the BBC movie Masada that retells the Roman besiege of the mountain held by a small group of rebelling Jews. (We watched that movie the night before we left for the Negev, and it was neat to go to where that historical event happened.) In case you don’t know the event that happened there, let me explain: in 73 AD, three years after the destruction of the temple by Titus, the Jews were besieged there by the Romans for three years. The Romans, in an attempt to conquer them, built a huge ramp up the side of the mountain using both labor by the Roman soldiers themselves and Jewish slaves. When they finally reached the top, they rolled their siege ramp up the ramp and ramped the walls of the fortress. To protect against the ramming, the Jews built an extra-fortified wall by creating another wall of wood within the wall the stone to absorb the shock of the ram. That worked to protect against the ram, so that there was still a wall after the rock had been obliterated; but did not protect them against the fire that the Romans set to it. The Lord was good and for a large part of the time, He shifted the wind to turn against and ignite the ram itself. However, that did not last long, and at one point, the Jews knew they had one evening left before the Romans entered into their fortress. As only a few hundred people, they had no choice but to either fight and die or sneak off during the night. Either way, they felt they would be humiliated and defeated before the Romans. So, that night, under the direction of their leader Eliazar ben Zakkai, all the Jewish men killed their families then drew lots to see who would kill the men. Ten men killed all the men, then one man, Eliazar, killed the rest of them and finally, himself. The next day, when the Romans came in, they found them all dead, and although it was a victory in one sense, the Jewish were victorious in that they would not subject themselves to the rulership of the Romans. I disagree with the Jewish thought, of course, that suicide was the solution, but it was an interesting and very sad event.
Masada is 300 ft above sea level, which doesn’t seem so tall when you write it down as a number, but walking up the side is quite the hike. The record time it has taken an IBEX student was 15 min for Matt Wright’s brother David and 20 minutes for one of my wingmates back at school Michelle Harbour. It took me about 40 minutes because I was just walking along and talking with John, and Lindy and Clara would have beaten the record if they’d raced officially, but we all just had fun and took pictures and yes, sweat and paused for breath. LOL… wow, writing it all down like this makes us all sound like a group of wimps, but it was quite the hike. John and I decided not to stop much – if at all – because it only makes it harder to start up again. We were quite happy to reach the top. =) Some of us, including Randy and Phyllis and Molly who had a sprained ankle, took a cable car up instead of climbing.
Once on top, we looked around at the remains of the fortress, looked down at the areas where the Romans were camped, and eventually made our way down the Roman ramp looking at remains of the wood from the Jewish fortified wall. Quite the experience. =)
We went to Arad next. There are actually three Arad, – Biblical Tel Arad, a modern Arad, and another Arad (just to make things more confusing – not really, I just don’t remember much about the 3rd one). Tel Arad is important to our study of the Land and the Bible because of an archaeological finds there – a 4-room, Israelite house; an Israelite fortress dating to 2000 BC (the time of David); a fake temple – and the fact that here was the earliest record of an actual town. Here the Israelites were opposed by the king of Arad on their way to the Promised Land (Numbers 21:1-3, 33:40).
We stayed at a youth hostel that night. We were a little worried when we saw a large group of Arab higschoolers arrive that we wouldn’t get any sleep that night, but in all honesty, it turned out to be a great night of crazy fun and lots of great memories. Why do I say that? Lol…well…. I’ll get to that in a little bit.
After a dinner of chicken (what else?) and corn schnitzel (like a chicken nugget …. with not chicken), we walked around downtown Arad which was more dead than any area we’d been to so far. There wasn’t much to do – or so we thought at first – as we had the hardest time finding a coffee shop. At one point, we thought we’d found one and it turned out to be a bar (Thanks, Sara!). Rats. We did end up finding some really cool multi-colored pillars on which we took tons of pictures, so that was nice. Other people did end up finding an ice cream/coffee shop, so that part of the night did end up being a success.
Returning back to the youth hostel, we were surprised to hear a ton of loud music coming from a lounge area on the hostel “campus.” It was the group of Arab teenagers having a “dance.” I say dance with quotations because as we began to see, Arabs don’t know how to dance. They’re dancing is more like freestyling – okay, side note, I DON’T know how to dance, so maybe I shouldn’t talk =) – with no real dance moves, just a lot of clapping, arm movement, and even a barking sort of noise. After a while of watching from a distance, they came out and asked us to come in. It was the most hilarious thing! We sat and watched, then clapped with them, then showed them some moves – Daniel did the worm across the floor as well as did a one-armed cartwheel, the guys did the “icebox” move (not even really a dance move), Praus lifted Matt onto his shoulder copying what the Arab boys did with a younger boy in their group, Whit jumped off Daniel and dove into the arms of a group of our guys, and we showed them how to do a swing dance move. The kids were ecstatic, and we all had a lot of laughs. I got to talk to a young Muslim girl – arg…I can’t remember her name – and I exchanged emails with her. It seems like it could be a really neat opportunity to keep in contact with her.
On Wednesday, we went and saw a huge well. LOL..what a way to start the day. I just was looking at my pictures, though, and I loved this well for this reason: 400 ft. deep, this well was surrounded by a fence to make sure no one fell in. Randy threw a few rocks into it, and we listened and waited a good few seconds before it hit the bottom. I loved it. I have to say – sorry, Mom =) – it was one of those places I would have loved to “go” to the bottom of, so I could see if I could climb out and what it would be like to sit at the bottom and try to get out of.
We sat at a temple to a false god there in Arad and discussed the events there. We also saw and talked about the temple we saw there to the true God. As much as the intentions of the people who made it may have been good, the Bible commands that no temple was to be built outside of Jerusalem. Therefore, the men of Arad were in sin when they built it.
After another short ride on the bus and a surprise stop at McDonald’s where Randy treated us to a coffee or ice cream (I had my first whole McFlurry ever), we arrived at Beersheva where we donned dorky construction hats according to the rules (and we never figured out why we had to wear them) and looked at another altar there that was built to God against the rules of the covenant and acted out a sacrifice.
After this we got to go Ben Gurion’s kibutz hut, where he lived the latter end of his life after retiring from being the first prime minister of Israel. Everything there was left just as it was the day he died, and there we saw his 5000-book library, just one fifth of the books he owned (the other 20,000 are in Tel-Aviv).
Following this, we went hiking in Nahal Zin, the southern border to the Promised Land. This was a neat hike through a gorgeous valley and up the side of the mountain. We met a large crowd on the way up, so we had a very long wait to actually get up to the top. So, what happens when you’re stuck somewhere with nothing to do but wait? Sing! As we waited over 40 minutes to get up, we enjoyed a wonderful serenade by Matt, Whit, Daniel, Jared, John, and Praus. It was hilarious, and our fellow travelers, Arabs and Israelis, enjoyed it as well. =)
For the rest of the day we learned about the Nabatean Spice Route, took pictures on a fake camel caravan, goofed off at an old Crusader church, and spent the night at a small hotel where an American CBS reporter (I forget which one) was staying that night as well.
Thursday was a lot of fun as well. We made a good number of stops, my favorites being Hai Bar, an Israeli zoo (we saw hyenas, caracal, bats, jackels, porcupines, ostriches, etc) and the model of the tabernacle, a full-scale model (we listened to a Messianic Jewish lady tell us about it). We stayed at a really nice, 6-floor hotel that night – it was quite fancy compared to anything else I’ve seen in Israel.
I forgot to mention a key point here that definitely added to the excitement of the trip – I had the stomach flu. Actually, a few of us had it. We couldn’t eat much at all, and every time we tried to do something really active – hm…Isn’t that what we were doing all day? – we felt like we were going to barf or pass out. As time went on, it just got worse and worse until I could only eat a few forkfuls at meals.
After dinner (or lack thereof), Randy, Phyllis, Rachel, and I took a walk down to the Boardwalk. It felt like I was in a resort or something, the area busy with tourists and shops and even a small carnival area where you could be slingshot into the air (Daniel and Tiffany did that). Our first stop was the Eilat Mall, where I bought some granola bars for an IBEX-alumnus friend back at school. Then, we went to Aroma, the Israelite version of Starbucks (there are no Starbucks in Israel), and Randy treated us to a drink (I got an iced coffee…mmm!)
Friday was our final day in the Negev, and we started the day by going snorkeling in the Red Sea. =) Swimming in the sea was cool (in more ways than one) but I have to say I wasn’t too impressed with snorkeling. Perhaps it was because I was still wrestling with my cough and couldn’t breathe right; perhaps it was due to the few mouthfuls of water I accidentally breathed in; or perhaps it was because of the waves that were constantly moving us about. Either way, snorkeling was fun in that we got to see coral, all sorts of fish, and jellyfish; but I would have rather left the snorkel itself onshore and just used the goggles. Students in regional studies class got to snorkel first, and after about a half hour, we got out, got dried off, and proceeded to the Jordanian border.
I’m going to finish this blog here. I’ll write the next one soon, but I don’t want to bore you with any more this time as I fear I’ll lose some people. I don’t feel like I’ve done a great job capturing just how cool this trip was. It can’t be captured in a blog, no matter how long, and definitely, it’s one of those moments when I’m at a loss for words to describe it all. However, it could also be that I’m having a hard time remembering it because it’s been so long since the trip and I was sick so I know I missed a lot of it mentally. All of that plays into this post, so forgive me if I just bored you to death. =)
Until next time, …. L’Chaim! (to life!)

P.S. I’ve been able to Skype with my family on Sunday afternoons (for them – Sunday around midnight for me), and it’s been quite a big blessing. Even if my webcam is funky and doesn’t always work, it’s such a welcome treat to see and talk to my family. =D Love you, guys!!!!!

P.P.S. As I eluded to in my note, I’m thankfully over my cough! Finally!

P.P.P.S. Random comment: I’ve discovered I’m not a very patient person. SURPRISE!!! lol. Anyway, I’ve been noticing, I’d much rather jog somewhere than walk. I was thinking about that this afternoon as I jogged somewhere that that’s how I am about life, always rushing to the next stage, not taking enough time to smell the flowers in each time. One day this time in my life will be passed and will I look back and regret that I ran through it instead of took the time to enjoy the place God had planted me at that time? May I not ruin my time on earth rushing ahead of God’s perfect timing. May I be completely content and wholly satisfied to “bloom where [I've] been planted.”

In response to an unspoken (but implied ) request by one of my readers (why do I feel like I’m writing an article?) I’m writing an update that is theoretically supposed to be shorter than the last few I’ve written. Actually, to be completely honest, I’m more writing this now because tomorrow morning we leave for a 6-day trip that, combined with all I will write here, will result in a note that NO ONE would read because of its ridiculous length. I have to say thank you right now, though, to those of you who do read this. I hope it’s all making sense and not boring you. If they’re anything you want me to talk about regarding Israel let me know. I don’t want to be too repetitious but would like to keep these interesting. 
Last Thursday night, as I mentioned in my last note, Cassandra, Savannah (instead of Jenessa), Lacey, and I worked in the moshav restaurant. We began in the kitchen for Ammi “polishing” then Lacey and I were moved to serving in the conference room for Karami. After a while Lacey moved back to helping in the kitchen and I continued to work in the conference room with an Israeli girl name Gi’reet (well, that’s how you say it). Karami kept forgetting that I didn’t speak Hebrew so after a few reminders, I just gave up and tried understanding what he meant by the few words I do know and learning as I went. It was lots of fun, and after finishing serving, tearing down, and resetting everything for a 60+ person banquet the following day, I returned to the kitchen to clean up from the bereat (circumcision) celebration going on there and reset everything for breakfast the next day. It was a big celebration, and after a lot of hard work we finished it off by enjoy some of the great dessert out back. John Glass came and enjoyed it too (Nice timing, John. Don’t work; just come for the food. Lol) Oh, and we got to wear the cool aprons while we served. We felt rather official. Lol They finally let us go around 11:30pm after which time I went straight to the miklat to study for my Land and Bible quiz in the morning. After a while, I fell asleep there listening to the others there studying the information I needed to know, and I actually did pretty well on the quiz. Yay!
On Friday, we had morning classes then packed up and drove an hour and a half to En Gedi and the Dead Sea! There we set up camp, which basically consisted of a 15’ x 15’ tarp on which we sandwiched our sleeping bags together so each person got about a foot and a half of sleeping space. Then we all changed and went swimming in the Dead Sea!!! It is simply amazing! It really is just like I heard – I did float! In fact, it’s like wearing floating devices on your limbs so that it’s hard to pull your feet under water, hard to maneuver, and hard to walk. It tastes awful! I resisted the dare to lick the water (sorry, Corey!), but I did accidentally get some in my mouth – ick! Some people got it in their eyes and they either had to rush out to rinse off in the shower or cry it out.
After floating around for a while, we went over to the mudpits where we covered ourselves in the black Dead Sea mud. The mud is very smooth and supposed to be very healthy for your skin. Whit was the best in that all of his body including his lips, ears, and eyelids were covered and his blonde hair stood out against the black. Jared looked like Superman in his Venom outfit, and Corey gave himself a big nose, big biceps, and a gross beer belly with a deep belly button. Amazingly it wasn’t hard to get the mud off. We climbed back into the Dead Sea (and blackened the water) then rinsed off in the powerful, cold, outdoor showers.
We returned to camp wet and smelling like salt to enjoy our bag-dinners of a turkey/cheese sandwich, chips, an orange, pretzels, and cookies. Very soon after the guy started the bonfire, which we all gathered around, for the sun was going down and the temperature dropping.
Praus led us in some worship songs for about 45 minutes, during which time we competed with the other campers in the area who insisted on blasting their Arab and/or Hebrew music from the stereos in their trucks. Abner then led us in a short talk which resulted in his sending us out in small groups to find a quiet place and either spend some time in prayer as a group or split off and spend time alone. My group (Jared, Molly, John, Noel, and I) headed off towards the shore and decided on splitting up, so I spent about 20 minutes sitting, thinking, and praying on the literal shores of the Dead Sea. It was an opportunity of a lifetime.
To be honest, it was a powerful time of silence. I prayed a lot. I desired God to speak to me. I desire to hear His voice, to hear something profound, and to be powerfully convicted, torn with the Truth, or overflowing with joy. No. Not now. There was only silence.
I prayed. I searched my heart for some hidden sin. I poured out my heart before the Lord. Did you ever feel your prayers bounce off the ceiling? Imagine now a ceiling so close that the words can barely leave your lips. Such was my time there.
I remembered 1 Kings 19:11-12, which says ‘So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD ” And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.” I listened for His still small voice, His gentle blowing. I longed for it. He didn’t speak. He was silent.
That kind of scared me. I desired Him, and I was sensing more than ever how much I needed him.
Noel called out that our 20 minutes was over and we should head back. I got up to go and only then did I feel as if the Lord spoke to me reminding me of Psalm 42:1, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God” and how awful life would be had He not saved me. I could barely stand 20 minutes of His silence let alone living my whole lifetime removed from Him. Even now as I write this I remember when Jesus was on the cross and the Father turned His face away. Talk about scary!
When we returned to the campfire, Abner spoke on using the time we have in the dessert to honestly evaluate our walks with the Lord. He shared a personal story of a friend who walked away from the Lord and challenged us to stop lying to ourselves about where we are with God and to look honestly at ourselves to see where our desires really are. Are you noticing a pattern too? =) The more I learn the more I realize how little I desire God as I should now “deceitfully wicked” my heart is. More and more I see how I live out the first part of Psalm 37:4 (“Delight yourself in the Lord…”) and how merciful God is in blessing me despite my lack of merit.
We sang a few more songs then enjoyed some cookies and milk (mmhm).
Speaking of cookies and sweet things, this is sort of a side note, but I don’t have much of a sweet tooth – never really have. I’d much rather something salty or spicy. Yes, I like chocolate but rarely do I have it. As a result, every time one of the faculty gives us sweets – “post quiz treat” or Bible study goodies – I end up giving it to one of the guys. Finally Jared came up to me and said, “Ashley, we need to make a pact.” Lol….therefore, pretty much any sweets I don’t want, Jared gets. Lol. Back to Friday night…
Afer cookies and milk, a small group of gather on the sleeping bags and talked about our plans for the next year and listened to Abner tell us his two biggest mistakes in life: “not going to DisneyLand his freshman year” (long story – it had a lot of repercussions) and “not marrying Johanna earlier” (they had almost a full year engagement!).
Around 11:30, we hit the sack and were up by 6:30am – the sun rises early over the Dead Sea. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast, packed up, and headed off on our hike.
We hiked up the mountains next to the Dead Sea, a steep mountain that led us up to the spring at En Gedi where David stopped while fleeing from King Saul. Abner spoke to us about the conditions when he was running, and we spent some time reading Psalm 63. We didn’t appreciate the spring as much as David would have because the weather when we hiked was perfect while it was scorching hot when David ran from Saul. Even last semester’s IBEX’ers understood his plight better as they climbed the mountain in 100-degree temperatures.
We continued to hike over the cliffs and along the edge of the mountains on our way to the dry canyon pass. However, the canyon was so full of water (flash floods are a problem in the wadis – valleys – in Israel) we couldn’t make it through, so we turned around and found another way to our destination, Nahal David, where we enjoyed swimming, climbing up waterfalls, and jumping into the natural pools. Actually, I didn’t personally swim. After all, who would have been taking pictures?
A random fact from Israel – not too random actually ‘cause it’s what we had for lunch following our time at the waterfalls – is that turkey is called pastrami here. There’s another name for bologna too, but I can’t remember it right now. After lunch we headed back to Yad HaShmonah.
Sunday was our free day. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do – go to Tel-Aviv, go back to the claustrophobic caves at Maresheth-Gath, etc. – and eventually gathered a group (Molly, Noel, Jared, James, Karen, and myself) who decided to go to Jerusalem, eat a falafel, then spend the afternoon doing homework at Christ’s Church. We did, and it was a lot of fun that ended with a crazy and very memorable bus ride back. The bus driver was going to drop us off at the wrong place, so Jared talked to him and he agreed we could get off a later point. Then the driver proceeded to step on the gas and whip around this hill-community without doing much slowing down. Molly made a comment: “We’re gonna go flying off this mountain” just before he hit a speedbump without slowing down. The older lady on my left went flying a good foot and a half into the air not holding onto anything, and I’m sure I flew up too – I just don’t know how much. I collapsed against the window dying laughing and even the driver was laughing. He was ridiculous!
I could go on… there’s always more. However, it’s 1:36am, and I have to be up at 6:30 (arg..) so I should go.

Have a wonderful day, and Lord willing, the next time I’ll be writing will be about our trip to Masada, the Negev, Eilat, and Jordan!!!!!!! =)

PS. Regarding the title, that says it all. They really are great.

To be honest, writing all of this seems a little overwhelming right now. Well, “overwhelming” is not quite the word, but I feel like I have a lot to catch up on! I’m not saying I don’t want to write – what I would give for a day with no homework and free time to sit and write! – but when I look at my list of homework I should be doing – studying for my Land and Bible quiz on Friday, reading out of my two textbooks for Life of Christ, working on my Regional Explorations reading or report which is work 10% of my grade – I feel guilty sitting here and doing what I love.

I’m going to do it anyway because in the future I want to remember what I did here.

Let me start way back at last Tuesday.
Tuesday morning was Bible study. I love it. We look forward to it and rejoice at its coming. We’re discussing faith.. I think I’ve told you this before. Oh, well.  It’s worth saying again. It’s great!
[I’m really looking forward to breakfast, by the way…]
Tuesday evening was Mug and Muffin night with Becky and the IBEX wives. We ate muffins, monkey bread, and scones and had a nice little “girl talk.” Basically, the ladies opened themselves up to discuss the topics girls want to discuss but find it awkward to ask about. My favorite part was actually after the meeting when Shelsy and I got to hang out and talk to Stephanie Schlegel (one of the wives) about some deeper questions.
Funny story: When Chelsea first heard about the event, she thought it was called “Mug and MuTTin.” A few days later, she found out she was wrong. lol

[Caitlin: I know…701 BC, Sennacherib defeated Assyria.
Ashley: No.
Caitlin: Sennacherib defeated Babylon.
Ashley: No. … 701 BC, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, conquered King Hezekiah at Lachish. In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered King Zedekiah of at Lachish]
I have to say right now that it was after 11 sometime when that conversation above happened, and I include it for the chuckles that you may (or may not) have. We laughed; we roared actually.

On a more somber note, last Wednesday, we went to Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum. I have to say it was the most sobering event of the trip. As we walked through the museum amidst Jewish people, watching footage, seeing pictures, and looking at recovered personal effects, I felt so much sorrow. Perhaps it’s because I’m known as one of the few of us IBEX’ers who actually have a Jewish background, perhaps it’s because I’m living amongst Jewish people, perhaps it’s because Israel is more than “some other country” to me now – I don’t know why exactly, but walking through Yad Vashem, I felt the offense against the Jewish people during the Holocaust so personally! I’ve never felt the hurt as a result of the event that I felt last Wednesday. At one point, I ran across a wall with the pictures and names of various Nazi officials, and I had to walk away. Did I feel a bitterness towards them for what they did? No. Did I hate? No, but I hurt. My heart ached, and looking at them left me wondering in disbelief how one human could do it to another. We then moved into a different part of Yad Vashem, into The Children’s Memorial. Inside, the room was completely dark with only electric candles lit for every child killed in the Holocaust. There were millions of candles. Over loud speakers, came a voice naming off the children’s names, their age at their death, and their place of origin. Before we’d entered, Randy had told us to note one name of our choice and hang onto it as we stood in the memorial. He said it would help us feel it more personally. I chose Abraham-Isaac Fastag, who was from Anvers, Belgium, and died at the age of 14. I also looked up Bricks in the database and found numerous Bryks, Briks, and Brycks in places such as Lodz, Kielce, and Lubin, Poland.
When we boarded the bus to go to lunch, then Yad HaShmonah, Randy gave us a little time to share our thoughts with him and the other students. Corey began with a quote he saw at the end that summed it up for him: “Not quite living but not quite dead.” (I’m quoting that from memory so that may be a little off.) I followed him and shared with them what God was showing me. My heart was broken. I ached for the people, the Jewish people, the innocent, the men forced to live like dogs, for Abraham-Isaac Fastag. Yet, I found myself reminded – reminded or learning? – of how much sadder it was to be the person, the people, who committed these atrocious acts. I was angry with them, but in fact, my heart should also break for them. It did, as I realized how sad they were and how deceived. After that, I spent a little time, silent and crying for both the victims and the perpetrators. That night, we watched Schindler’s List together in the miklat, and once again, we were reminded of the precious value of just one life.
We ate lunch at a large, 3-story mall. Randy gave us 20 shekels each. It wasn’t much but it got me a falafel that I could hardly finish it was so big and with one extra shekel, a bottle of water. Rachel and I spent some time talking and walking around the mall. I found something I want to get you, Dad.
From all I can remember, Thursday was a normal day – classes, homework, and random other tasks I can actually do because I don’ t have any afternoon classes. One of those tasks was cleaning the miklat. This is somewhat a frustrating task, as no matter how much I clean that place, it is constantly producing record amounts of dust-bunnies and dust-pans’ worth of dirt.
Friday morning we arrived at Regional Studies class all ready for our hike only to find that Bill had a pinched nerve in his back that kept him from being able to walk and move correctly let alone hike. So, instead, he sent us on our individual, student-led hikes. We split up into small groups and divided up the available hikes. My group included Praus, Whit, Lindy, and myself. We originally wanted the hike that had numerous caves on it, but another group claimed it and we were “stuck” going to Ein Limon (Lemon Spring). (Can you really be “stuck” hiking anywhere in Israel?! It’s Israel!). I have to laugh thinking about this hike because none of us four are great with directions. In fact, Lindy and I told the guys right at the beginning of our trip that we were both awful at directions, so we had to depend on them. They weren’t too worried, but you should have seen Lindy and I packing our backpacks, joking that we should take an inflatable blanket, a roadflare, and other things we’d need if we were caught out on the trail after dark. =)
We thought we were doing pretty well as we walked our first 15 min walk to Abu Gosh. There we were supposed to find the old police station and make a right there. The guys were supposed to have listened while Bill gave us directions to this location, but as it turned out, none of us remembered much except that we had to take a right and another right (the second right being hard to find) and eventually we would come to the highway and an underpass underneath it. We had to call Bill. After all, none of us can read Hebrew. =) We all try and a few of us are better at the aleph-bet than others of us (myself being part of the “others of us”). Lol We all felt kinda stupid calling him after 15 minutes, but after that, things went a lot better. We proceeded through the underpass, found a nice place to eat lunch, and dangled Lindy over the edge of the cliff to retrieve two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches Praus dropped over the edge and which were now dangling from a barbed-wire fence that hugged the face of the drop-off. (She accidentally dropped them further down, but it was okay because they were more easily retrieved that way.)
As we went on, we faced numerous forks in the road, walked through someone’s yard; climbed around in an abandoned/under-constructi

So, some may say that I should be working on homework, but honestly, I’m getting frustrated every evening when I want to update my blog or write to my family and I can’t because I’m about to fall asleep walking back to my room and getting more than 6 hours of sleep with this awful cough before getting up at 7am is a slightly more prudent.

It’s been a week since my last update, so here we go:

Tuesday….
Hang on, I have to look back at my calendar.

Tuesday was Jewish Thought and Culture….all four hours of it. It’s an interesting class – don’t get me wrong. *I pause to look over my shoulder. My prof is sitting about 10 ft from me*  It is interesting; however, it is also long and some of it I already know from learning some basic Jewish traditions with my dad.

Who knows what we did Tuesday night. Probably homework.

Wednesday was a ton of fun. We took an Arab bus early in the morning from Yad HaShmonah past Jerusalem into Benjamin, the West Bank. I say “Arab” because we normally take an Israeli bus but we were going into Palestinian territory and we wanted to avoid as many rocks getting thrown at our bus as possible. Lol…more on that to come.

Our first stop was the high place of Gibeon, where we had a wonderful view of Israel! Then, we proceeded into the wilderness, and what a bus ride it was! We came to boulders in the road blocking the way up the hill, but we didn’t stop. The bus driver just went in between the boulders and wove us through the wilderness road, around crazy turns and blind curves – even around a curve that was kind of overhanging the road because the rain had washed out some of the supporting dirt under the concrete. It was amazing, and I wish I’d gotten pictures of that spot, but we made it up there safely.  Once there, we looked down over a deep rift and St. George’s Monastery. It was gorgeous and I wrote in my field report: “As a writer I love secluded places. They challenge my mind and offer silence and character that breed imagination and produce plots and characters. The land of Benjamin did just that and helped me understand in a new way the powerful purpose of God’s calling various prophets and specifically John the Baptist and His Son Jesus into the wilderness. The silence and solitude affords greater opportunity for man to hear the voice and instruction of the Lord.”

I love Israel because it doesn’t matter where you go, you always feel the affects of being in the Middle East. Even as we sat listening to Randy lecture looking down over the Benjamin wilderness with it’s cavernous valleys and it’s single visible spring, Arab salesmen waited for him to finish then proceeded to try to sell us Arab headwear, jewelry, and postcards. Everything is shekels and “you’re welcome” and “I give you good price.” 

We went to Old Testament Jericho after that. That was neat. It was amazing to walk around the remains of the city and learn how small the city really was. I’ve always thought Jericho was huge – all the Sunday school pictures showed it as huge! – but in actuality, it only took us 12 minutes to walk around the base of it. It was neat even then to think about the Israelites walking around the oldest fortified city in the world and even as we blew our small, souvenir shofars (horns) to meditate on the power of God tearing down the whole city. We then stopped and sat and listened as Randy clarified a few things and shared with us a few other Biblical events that happened there as well, one of them being Zaccheus and the sycamore tree.

There were cats there in Jericho…and puppies too. There are cats all over Israel actually – I think I’ve seen about fifty cats since I’ve been here – but the puppies were the first I’ve seen. There was a whole litter, and Lindy, our animal lover, was tempted to go see them closer (they were stuck up in a crag of the rocks about 50 ft from where we were walking).

We had lunch in Bethlehem (great lunch stuff that Becky (IBEX staff) put together for us including a sandwich, an apple, chips/crackers, carrots, and some sort of dessert) and some of us bought falafel for only 5 shekels (great deal!). We then walked around and looked at the shops, bartered and bought various souvenirs. I didn’t buy but I went bartering with a few of the girls Shelsy and Danise and we had a few laughs regarding the way the shopkeeper tried to sell us his items: “I give it to you for half price, because I need the money” and “My mother hand-sewed this” and “I give you good deal because you are good people”….. “What is your name?” lol…. Honestly, so far, Bethlehem is one of my favorite places in Israel. Honestly, there is a church over the spot where archeologists think Jesus was born, so you completely lose the historical, authentic feel that you would have looking at it without candles, incense, and masses going on behind you. However, the city itself was really neat to walk around in and observe. It is a less-friendly city than Jerusalem and less safe, but I liked it just the same.

They drive crazily in Bethlehem. Actually, let me rephrase that. They drive crazily in Israel. The streets are narrow, and the drivers seemingly inexperienced, so you have to watch your back and your neighbors’ backs so you don’t end up run over.  Don’t worry; it’s not like we’ve had any really close calls. I’ve only been pulled out of the path of an oncoming call a few times. Lol. Honestly, they are crazy but you learn to watch out for them.

After Bethlehem, we drove to the Herodion, the remains of one of Herod’s many palaces. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all ornate and amazing, but the view was. From the top of the tel (manmade hill), we could see huge portions of the country and understand why Herod would choose such a location for his palace. We ran across some huge cannon balls and went down into a cistern while there too. From there, we went to Solomon’s pools in another area off of the Way of the Patriarch’s (a general north-south pass). There we had to make sure to “mind the gap” (as Randy would say it) because it’s a rather unfriendly area where friends of IBEX have run into trouble before (someone got their car burned and rolled into the pools while they were off having a picnic). We took just a short time looking at the gorgeous pools, and I have to say, all the trees and green grass reminded me of Colorado or something (not that I’ve been there…  ). Lol – definitely not the Middle East.

Thursday, Valentines Day:
Many of you have asked if we celebrate Valentine’s Day over here. As a whole, Israel does not. However, we at IBEX did. 
Let’s just say our Valentine’s Day started on Wednesday night when one of our girls (who shall remain anonymous) made a Valentine’s for one of our guys (who has also remain anonymous) to resolve a bet she’d lost a few weeks earlier.  We were in the miklat as she made it, completely with pink and flowers and vine and hearts and a real flower on the front and lipstick kiss next to her name. She didn’t kiss it, but the one who did shall also remain anonymous – let’s just say I had to put the lipstick on him for him and it was awful. lol

On Thursday, the guys began the day with using the cheesiest pick-up lines on Rachel, our IBEX volunteer. LOL…. The lines ranged from: “Is your dad a thief? ‘cause someone stole the stars and put them in your eyes” to “If you were a McDonald’s sandwich, you’d be the McGorgeous.” The day went with about ¾ of our guys making comments like that to her until it culminated into a short skit at dinner. LOL…Rachel said it was the most memorable Valentine’s ever.

On Thursday night, we hung out in the miklat, studying together for the Land and Bible test we had on Friday morning. We studied and goofed off and even got into some really good spiritual conversations with topics ranging from drinking, whether or not darkness was created, how long a Christian can go without sinning, the possibility of Christians being jealous without sin, whether or not girls should get tattoos, the difference between academic knowledge and wisdom, did Jesus ever make a mistake and still not sin, etc. It was great. Matt initiated a lot of the conversation and it was basically he and I and Lindy and a few others I can’t remember right now.

Friday was classes. I feel like I don’t talk about classes a lot. They are great, I promise. I just don’t know how much you’d like to hear about the Byzantine period of history, and the 6 parts of the Mishnah. Let me know if you want more academic news. 

Friday night was Kabbalat Shabbat, as always. That night we had a family who moved from Washington to Israel in October with us. The husband and wife brought 10 of their 13 kids ages 28 to 3. Wow, now that’s a large family. Mr. Rojas spoke for Friday night chapel and the family sang us a few songs. They were really cool. I especially liked their 28-yr old daughter Sarah and their 25-yr old daughter Renee. They seemed pretty cool. Their younger girls were really cute too.

We went to their church on Saturday. It was interesting and definitely not the best church I’ve ever been to. The pastor talked rather generically and I think he used one verse the whole time to speak on the topic of respect and prejudice. Oh, well.

From there, we went to a non-kosher pizza place in Jerusalem, which was amazing, then walked around and bought Jewish scarves.  That is certainly a story. Savannah and I found scarves we liked. They weren’t at Shaaban’s shop, where we like to buy things because he gives IBEX a great deal, but they were what I wanted, so paying 20 shekels didn’t seem too bad to me. After all, that’s a little over $6 for a nice scarf! Well, Jared was with us, and knowing that Shaaban would have given it to me for 15 shekels (about $5) he wouldn’t have it. He told me to offer 15. I told him I had, but had been turned down yet was still willing to pay 20. He told me no. I don’t take that price. I fight for my 15 or I walk away. Inside I was thinking “but I want this one…” but I didn’t argue. When the kid shopkeeper came back, I argued for only 15 shekels but he wouldn’t listen. Finally, Jared offered for 2 for 30 shekels (still 15 each) but he wouldn’t agree. So, Jared said we should walk away. Reluctantly, we did. We were about 10 feet away when the guy agreed to two scarves for 35 shekels. Jared said I could get it (lol) so Savannah and I walked away with very cute scarves – I’m wearing mine now – and I haven’t forgotten that I need to pay you back, Jared. 

I love that aspect of this group. We are like a big family. It’s not uncommon for me to look over and someone’s wearing my sweatshirt and I’ve worn a few different people’s sweatshirts, coats, socks, etc. It all blends together after a while.

Back to bartering, life here in Israel involves a lot of bartering. On Wednesday, when we were in Bethlehem, we stopped at a store where that sold ornaments and nativity scenes and various other extremely expensive souvenirs made out of olive wood and a stone that is native to Bethlehem. I was talking to one of the sales people about something I was looking at, and John came up behind me and stood with me to make it more intimidating and help with the bartering process. We laughed afterward when he realized what he was doing in a store with set prices and no ability to barter. Lol..oh, well. I appreciated it.

On Saturday night, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we played Battle of the Sexes. It wasn’t the board game (that’s a stupid game) but our own rendition complete with guy vs. girl competitions. One of the most competitive games involved getting our whole group on a small mat and sending up one representative to get specific instructions from Bill. Then the person had to run back and give us instructions. Whichever team got the task completed first, won the match. It was hilarious and we got great pictures.  I have to say the funniest part was our outfits. The girls wanted to do something fun, so we used our scarves and wrapped up our heads like Bedouin women and all wore black shirts to match. The guys, on the other hand, went all-out. By the time they were done, two of them (Daniel and Whit) were wearing shorts too short for them and four others (Matt, Peter, Jared, and Joe) were wearing girl pants (two of which were mine and another was my roommates). It was awful and hilarious as the same time. LOL. I don’t think I ever want to see those guys in hip-huggers again. Lol

On Sunday and Monday, we did one of my favorite parts of this trip so far: excavations.
Early Sunday morning, we got up and boarded the bus for the City of David on the south east corner of Jerusalem. Once there, we worked with an archeologist and his team of 40 people digging up lots and lots of dirt, pottery, and bones. We all walked away dirty, sweaty, and sore, but honestly, it was so fun. The first day Chelsea and I worked with two Israeli guys. A-al was a 24-yr old Jewish guy, and Leo was also Israeli, but he was definitely a seeker. In fact, he wasn’t even bothered by the Muslim guy who was doing his prayers towards Mecca about 25 feet from us. He found it “fascinating” or something like that. Overall, the days there were amazing. The physical work made me realize more and more how much I like hard labor. First of all, I feel healthier. Secondly, I feel justified to sit and write in the evenings if I’ve worked hard all day. We’re allowed to go back and work there anytime we want. Of course, we’d have to put in a full day’s labor. A good number of us want to go back and work there. We loved it. I learned a lot too. I know that sounds silly but I did. Most of it had nothing to do with excavation but it is always good to learn things.

And yes, I do have a new phrase, or rather, one word that continues to stick: “Oi.” Yesterday I said it after I had to lift a really heavy bucket in the bucket line while excavating (we made a conveyor belt of people to move buckets of dirt out of the excavation area). One of the Israeli guys looked at me and said, “That was a Jewish ‘Oi!’” I explained that I say it at home. He asked if I was Jewish and I said I was on my father’s side. He laughed and then had to tell the people near him in Hebrew that I said “Oi” and that I was Jewish….random. lol

Well, I’m off for now.
I hope I didn’t bore you with my life here. =)
Until next time,
laila tov.
(good night)