PETRA

Petra is most famous for the "Treasury" which is shown in the 3rd Indiana Jones movie. Although the movies might spark your interest as to what is inside, it might be a let down to know that it is actually just a large room cut into the stone and was built as a tomb. It is about a 1 1/2 mile walk into the Treasury so this is where our Petra visit began. It was a beautiful morning and a beautiful site.
We had a good time playing with our shadow.

Our tour guide had us line up with our heads down as we walked forward and when he finally told us to look up, this is what we saw...(if only pictures could capture the reality of it!)

Steven and I sporting our Arab head scarves. Katie, Monica, Me, and Elise. These girls are awesome and I love spending time with them. It is no longer strange to see camels everywhere we go...

or cats! There are cats everywhere.

We spent part of the day climbing up hundreds of steps to the top of a couple of mountains. This one was the way up to the High Place.

This is the view all over Petra.

After 800 steps this is the Monastery that we saw at the top on one of the surrounding mountains...

From the Monastery it was a short walk to "the end of the world." I am not quite sure what they meant by that but I followed the path anyways.

I guess this is what they call the end of the world. It was a little disappointing. Okay, not really. Although I don't really enjoy hiking the view always seems to be worth the climb!

Jordan was a wonderful place to visit. If you can see this map you will see the places that I was able to experience. Stay tuned for my upcoming adventures from the top sites in Jordan being: Jerash, Amman, and Petra.

Mount Nebo
Our first stop in Jordan was at Mount Nebo where Moses saw the promised land but was not able to proceed. It was from this mount where Moses was translated. It was a beautiful lookout and we could see the Dead Sea, Jericho, Jordan River Valley, and the road leading to Jerusalem.

Shawbak Castle
Roman fortress built along the Kings Highway.

BACK FROM JORDAN!
I spent the past 4 days in Jordan. This is a wonderful country and I loved it. Tomorrow I will try to post some pictures from the places we visited.

Gummies!
One of the favorite treats among the students here is gummies. There are shops all over the city that have gummies sitting out like this. It doesn't seem very sanitary but I just try to forget where I got them before I get back to the center and then they taste really good!

Happy Father's Day!

A day in Bible Life

Our field trip last week was to a place called Neot Kedumim. This is a biblical landscape preserve where we were able to learn about the land and customs of the people during bible times.

Shepherding 101...

My favorite part of the day was when we were able to practice our shepherding skills. Our tour guide split us into 3 teams and then the challenge was on. Each group had to get the sheep into one circle, keep them there for 30 sec. then take them around the outside of another circle and finish with all of them in a third circle. It was so funny to watch! My group had the advantage of going last so of course we won! The first group took 9 minutes and we took 5. After the excitement was over we had a great lesson on leadership. You can learn a lot about how to be a good leader be following the example of a shepherd. No wonder the great leaders of the bible grew up as shepherds in the fields.

This is my friend Carie Crawl. This is who I spent most nights playing volleyball with. I am very grateful that they have a gym here. I love playing volleyball until 11pm every night I can!

Anyone miss Camping? The smell of campfire was surprisingly a wonderful treat. I have never been much of a camper but have always loved the smell of campfire and I felt like I was back home for a few moments while we ate lunch and made pita. The pita was wonderful but I think that after the summer is over I will have eaten enough pita to last me a lifetime! Torah Scrolls: At the end of our tour a Torah scribe taught us about Torah scribes. A scribe and make about one Torah per year and a scroll will generally cost around $25,000.

Sunday June 14, 2009


Sunday morning I attended a 6:30 a.m. Latin Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This was my first experience with mass and what better place to attend than here. After growing up in Idaho where my only real exposure to other faiths was attending one Luteran church service with a friend during high school, I feel like I have been submerged in a pool of differing beliefs and practices. I have loved learning about the domonite religions of this area and have a new appreciation and understanding for people.



Every Sunday night the BYU-Jerusalem Center hosts a concert that is free for the community to enjoy. The center draws in some of the best musicians in Israel. This past Sunday night the Israeli Stage Orchestra performed. It was a wonderful performance and the audience didn't want them to stop. It is wonderful to have the opportunity to gather with members of the community to enjoy beautiful music. I sat next to a man who told me that he comes almost every week. The BYU-Jerusalem Center is doing wonderful things and I love being a part of it.

A WEEK FULL OF EVENTS!
Sorry for the delay in an update from the Holy Land. It was a busy week which made it difficult to get this blog post up. So here is the rundown on this past week. Enjoy!

Sunday: The Biblical Zoo

The zoo made for a relaxing break from our studies and busy days on field trips. I had forgot how much I love going to the zoo. There were hundreds of young kids there on field trips and I quickly realized that adults don't generally go to the zoo without kids. We didn't really care though...we are kids and who doesn't love animals! We are in bible land so of course there was a noah's ark!Part of the zoo experience was a 3D movie about bugs. It was fun to watch but i might have got a little bit more out of it if I understood Hebrew.
Monday: City of David and Hezekiah's Tunnel

Just a quick history lesson on the City of David...

The origional City of David is located south of the Temple Mount on a small ridge. King David conquered this city (called Jebus) and made it the capital where he and Solomon ruled over the Twelve Tribes of Isreal. The city of Jerusalem grew to the northwest and the City of David remained an important section until the Babylonians destroyed the temple (that Solomon built) in 587 BC.

The Gihon springs provides water to the city. This water system was changed from its origional engineering by Hezekiah in efforts to protect against the Assyrian siege. Part of our field trip was walking through Hezekiah's tunnel. This field trip just moved up to the top of my favorites list. It might be because we were walking though water in the dark and the it wasn't hot! This is a great contrast to our regular outings in the heat of the sun, hiking up mounds of dirt, or should I say tels. For your information a tel is an archeological dig. Don't get me wrong, I love tels but I struggle to keep each mound of dirt straight in my head. I love it all but water is always a bonus around here. (below is Jane and I making our way though the tunnel) You can tell how deep the water was at the begining where we got in. Most of the way, the water level was below my knee.Part way through the tunnel we turned off our flashlights and slowly felt our way along. Ashley and I pretended to be scared. Of course I was just acting though, remember that I loved the tunnel!Meet Ashley Bradshaw! Ashley is a dancer if you can't tell. She recently switched her major from dance and plans to apply for the nursing program. After we made our way toward the light and out of the tunnel we had fun taking some pictures while we waited for everyone to make it through.The tunnel carried water about 1/3 of a mile from the spring to the Siloam Pool. The pool was inside the city wall so no water escaped the fortified city. This pool was still used in the New Testament era and below you can see some of the remains of this pool. You can read about what happend here by reading in John 9. Jesus cured a blind man by having him wash in the pool of Siloam. It is a great lesson about spiritual blindness.

Wednesday: Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. The name means "a name and a memorial" taken from Isaiah 56:5. After an orientation by our teacher Mr. Yarden we went on a 3 hour guided tour through the museum. It was packed with people which made it difficult to really see all of the exibits but it was very interesting to follow the history of the holocaust. I think this will be a place that I will need to return to with a small group so that I can explore the exibits more closely. One thing I found interesting was that at the exit of the museum you come out looking at a land where modern Jews now live. Our guide made the point that although this was a great tragedy, we need to look to the future and the future is full of hope. I think that is important to remember.



Thursday: Seder Dinner
Our Judaism teacher led us in a wonderful Seder Dinner. All of the students got involved in preparing and performing. I was lucky enough to help prepare the floral arrangements for the head table. We took a taxi into town and picked out some flowers and then came back to the center and went to work. I had almost forgotten how much I love playing with flowers. I knew my floral design class would pay off!

These are my new running buddies. Katie and Lisa are two of my best friends here and I love hanging out with them. Last week we decided to start running. It is our new goal to go every morning and so far we are 3 for 3. I am sure that you have heard that every road in Jerusalem is uphill. I am here to tell you that it is true, especially when you are running. I am yet to find a flat road in this city! Jerusalem is beautiful in the morning and that makes it worth running up the hills.
Friday: Orson Hyde Park and Gethsemane



Photo shoot...by Friday afternoon everyone ready to get out of the center. We decided to walk over to the Garden of Gethsemane. We went through Orson Hyde Park and decided to take a few photos. Lisa loves the timer on her camera because it takes three pictures in a row. If you can't tell, we had a great time with that feature!


Those seen below: Heather, Jena, Kyle, Jane, and Lisa


This picture is a sample of the boy to girl ratio here at the center. There are 19 boys and 60 girls. The boys are great to follow girls around to various shops and escort us on our various outings. I don't think they really mind it too much! Of the 20 pictures we took I think this was the only normal one we got. The Garden of Gethsemane

This shows a little different point of view of the city. I liked that you can kind of see the temple mount from this view and see how big it is.

After little trip out of the center, we had to get back to the center to get ready for Synogogue. I attended a reformed Jewish Synagogue. I spent most of my time trying to figure out where we were in the reading. Once again it would have been helpful to know Hebrew! The rabbi was very welcoming to us and pointed out what page they were on every now and again. After the service he answered questions and showed us some Torah Scrolls. It was a wonderful way to welcome in Shavuot.