Jarom in Jerusalem: Galilee Day 11 and after!

Hey if you’re reading my blog posts for Galilee you’ll want to start on the first day which is several days down.

Last Day, Day 11- On the last day we first went to Mount Carmel where Elijah had his contest with the Priests of Baal. (1 Kings 18:17-40). We then went to Haifa to a scenic view over some Bahia Gardens. Then we went down to a graveyard where two members and two missionaries were buried for the 19^th century. The missionaries’ stories were very touching, one leaving his family to go on a mission, the other leaving an education, both passing away on the soil here when the place was called Palestine. The two members were German immigrants waiting for the second coming. When the church was trying to get permission to build in the Holy Land they had some issues since the Israeli government is very wary of new religions. Since the graves were there it showed the church had been there as well. Sometimes this story gets told wrong, so members need to know as my teacher said, it was “absolutely necessary that those graves were there but not the only thing that influenced the decision (to allow the church) by far.” Then we went to Caesarea Maritime, or just known as Caesarea in the New Testament. We watched a movie, went to a theatre with modern seats, went to what was a governor’s palace where Paul would have been tried (Acts 25:11-12 also Acts 25:23 it was cool to know I was standing in the place where it happened!), a hippodrome where Bar Kokba was executed, also where Jewish leaders were nearly killed by Herod before Christ’s time. They had refused to allow the Roman Eagle in the temple so Herod put them in the hippodrome and ordered to have them killed. They bore their necks as a sign they were willing to die. Herod was impressed so didn’t kill them, but still would be reprimanded by Rome for not finding a more diplomatic solution. It’s part of the background for Christ’s day. What did it smell like when those people were being tried? Like salt and the sea because the palace and hippodrome were right by the sea! The palace, in fact, jutted out into the sea. North of the hippodrome was where the soldiers lived and where the Centurion who “feared God” (meaning he believed in Jehovah but was not a Jew) was the first gentile covert (Acts 10). There was also a place where a Roman temple had been, later a Byzantine church, then a mosque, and finally a Crusader church. There were also arches that would have been where boats docked and unloaded. Cool place! Finally, we went to the beach where there were Roman aqueducts and neat places to take pictures! Finally, exhausted, we went back to the Jerusalem Center. I was super tired and could not have done another day of field tripping.

Just to finish up the week, on Friday we had a midterm at 1 PM, so I spent the whole morning studying. Then in the afternoon some of us went to get ice cream at “crash corner” near the Jerusalem Center, then walked to some of the overlooks of Jerusalem, and checked out some old burial caves. Today, Saturday, I went to Choir, Church, and have been doing this most of today! Also I had an interview with the District President of Israel (he talked about the need to separate Political Israeli Zionism and Spiritual Zionism), and went to a little “Sabbath poetry club” that a student came up with. We read poems we made up. Everyone had to read one. I made one up while there. It went “Free-verse… reverse… fast forward, rewind, pause, stop… puts scratches on the VHS of my life.” Don’t think about that one too hard. Oh well ADIOS!!!!!