J-Ru Adventures: Goliath, Herod, and Temple Steps

Wow, it feels like we got back from Galilee yesterday almost, and now it’s already time to head out to Jordan!! We leave tomorrow morning and we will be there for four days. Anyway, this week we had a lot of class and a lot of little field trips too. A big group of us went to the Via Dolorosa and went through all of the Stations of the Cross with some monks on Friday (July 16th). We had church on Saturday again, and then on Sunday a group of us went out onto the rooftops of Jerusalem to see the city. We tried to go to the Church of John the Baptist (they have what they say is a part of his actual skull), but unfortunately it was closed. We did some shopping too and I got these really goofy things called genie pants that everyone gets that are these silky pant things that are pretty much like a skirt, but it is all connected at the bottom. It’s really weird, but they are really comfortable and good lounging pants.

Shopping in the Old City

I thought these cigarette boxes were funny

Then on Monday (19th) we went to Tel el-Safi (or Tel Tsafit) which is Gath, one of the five cities of the Philistines where the ark was kept for a while and where Goliath was born. Then a bunch of us went to a few other places. First we went to Castel which is a bunker area from the 1948 war. After that we went and had lunch at an Elvis diner, but most of us didn’t actually eat there. It was funny. Then we went to the Church of St. Mary of the Resurrection which is a possible site of the road to Emmaus which Christ walked after he was resurrected (Luke 24:12-32). Then we went to Ein Kerem to go to the Church of John the Baptist which they believe is the place he was born (Luke 1:57). After that, we walked by a well of Mary on our way to the Visitation Church which commemorates Mary visiting her cousin Elisabeth (Luke 1:39-55). It also had a rock which they say is where John the Baptist was hid when Herod was slaying the children two years old and younger. They were all nice churches and it was a good experience and fun day.

Oh, and on the field trip I hurt my hand climbing a fence to get out of the bunker place. I was climbing over the fence, and had a guy come and grab my foot and help me down, but I accidentally kicked him in the face with my other foot, so he kind of dropped/threw me and I kind of jumped off and ended up falling onto the ground (from fairly high up). I am fine, but I did cut up my hand and I’m forming a pretty awesome bruise on my booty. :)

Gath excavations

Castel bunkers

Ashley + Climbing = ...

My ashy shoe mark on the guy's face that I kicked

Elvis Diner statue

Church of St. John the Baptist & traditional birthplace

Church of the Visitation

On Tuesday we went into the Old City again just to hang out and do some shopping. It was funny because one of my friends wanted some earrings from a shop, but there was a miscommunication on the bargaining and the price, so in order to get the price she wanted, the shop owner wanted me to take a picture with him. He really liked my eyes or something kinda creepy like that. Anyway, sooooo I ended up doing it, cuz I didn’t really care. Then he was joking about how he was going to look at it every night and stuff. Then as we were leaving he asked if I was single, so we told him that I had a fiancé back home (we always either say we are married or have fiancés or something so they don’t bother us as much, haha). Anyway, then he was like “Oh no! I thought you were single! I’m sorry...” etc, and then he showed me that he deleted the picture and everything and it was funny.

On Wednesday (July 21st), we had another field trip day. It was a good day because it was just about Christian Jerusalem, so we just went to the Old City and went to a bunch of the different sites. First we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, so that was nice to be able to go through with our teacher who actually knows about all of the history of it. Then we went to St. Andrews church to see the remains of the Herodian arches that they say were part of the judgment gate that Christ walked through, even though they are actually from after that time. Then we tried to go to another Armenian church, but it was closed, so we just looked at the outside courtyard. Then we went to Christ’s Church which is a Messianic Judaism church. After that we went to the Church of St. Mark which is supposedly the house of St. Marks (John’s) mother Mary. It is a traditional site of the Last Supper (upper room, even though it is actually in a basement), and where the spirit was poured out and the twelve apostles were filled with the Holy Ghost on Pentecost (Acts 2). Then we went to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, which is actually still in use today. The view of the city from the tower there was amazing. After that we were free to do whatever we wanted, so I went to get shawarima with some friends and then did a little bit of shopping for olive wood gifts.

Crazy shopkeeper guy

Church of St. Mark

Jerusalem

On Thursday we had class and then a small group of us went to the Russian Orthodox Convent of St. Mary Magdalene. It is an awesome church with cool gold domes in the Russian style. That afternoon we had a class field trip, so we went to the Herodian which is a fortress build by Herod the Great. This is one of the places where Herod might have been when Christ was born and/or when he gave the decree to have all of the babies age two and under killed. It was pretty sweet, and we got to see the tomb area of Herod the Great too. Then we went to the shepherds’ fields overlooking Bethlehem and got to explore there for a bit. I went to a watchtower there and stuff and it was pretty neat. Then we had a Christmas program there in the fields. It was a good little nativity program complete with shepherds, wise men, and everything. Oh, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but every Friday we aren’t allowed to go out into the Old City or East Jerusalem until 3PM, so we make humanitarian aid kits for people in the Gaza Strip and other places. It is pretty neat to be able to do that, and we have made over 10,000 kits this summer.

Russian Orthodox Convent of St. Mary Magdalene

The Herodian

Tomb of Herod

Shepherds' fields Christmas Program and Bethlehem

Making humanitarian aid kits

Today was a great day. We had a good half day field trip into the city to do Herodian Jerusalem. It started at the Western Wall. We went down the Kotel Tunnel which goes underneath the Muslim part of Jerusalem along the Western Wall. It was neat to see it. There used to be bridges going over the valley from the city over to the Western Wall of the temple mount, so we got to see the ruins of those underneath the current city. Then we went to the Burnt House Museum which shows a house that was burned when the Romans destroyed the city and the temple in 70 AD. After that we went to the Wohl Archaeological Museum which has ruins from more Jewish homes that were burned and destroyed by the Romans. Most of them had mikvahs (baths for ritual cleansing), so they were probably priestly homes. Finally we went to the Davidson Archaeological Park on the southwestern part of the temple mount. We saw ruins from the original gates of the temple mount (this corner is probably the "pinnacle of the temple" corner - Luke 4:9) as well as the southern double and triple gates along with stairs that Christ most definitely would have walked on. Neil Armstrong went there once and he said "It means more to me to stand on these steps than to stand on the moon." It was a neat experience. Anyway, that was my last week or so. I am so excited to go to Jordan tomorrow!!

The Burnt House