Thursday, October 28, 2004

Today we went to a Memorial and to a Museum. The first was the Holocaust musuem. It is called the Yad Vashem Memorial and it is on the top of the Mount of Remembrance. Names are very important here. If I remember rightly, Yad vashem means a monument and a name. It is from the 56th chapter of Isaiah. Take the time to read verses 1-8 and see what you think. After the Memorial, we went to the Israel Museum. There I saw artifacts from the time of David and before. The other students and I walked a lot and we talked a lot.

Even though we were looking at items and ideas from 60 years ago and from over 3000 years ago, the events of today were very present. Two issues occured that caused concern for myself and fellow students. First, the mother of our instructor (Henry Carse), who has been very ill, has taken a turn for the worse. She is expected to die soon, so Henry will leave us to be with her. He leaves tomorrow morning. Please pray for him and his mother. Her name is Mary. Secondly, Mr. Arafat has become seriously ill. This is a major issue in Israel and the Occuppied Territories. The Palestinians themselves are concerned about what would happen should he die. The anxiety level here has increased greatly. Pray that this war torn part of the world will be surprised by calm transitions and hopeful directions.

Keep praying, I'll keep writing

Ralph+

October 29, 2004

We had an early start today. The Canon went off at 4:30 a.m. to call the Muslims to begin their day of fasting in this season of Ramadan. It is a startling experience to have such a large number of people and such a large geographical area be focused on worship and honoring God. I don't see God in the way that they do, but they do have an impressive call to worship. By 5:30 I was eating breakfast and by 6:30, my classmates and substitute guide were on our way into the Judean Wilderness. In the first picture, you can see Brother Timothy sharing a reflection with us. You see the wilderness (desert) in the background. His talking was interupted by a flock of sheep and goats belonging to and joined by Bedouins. That is the second picture you see. THey came within 4-6 feet of us on their way to the mountainside in the picture.

In the wilderness, it rains an average of four to five days per year. Guess what happened today?! We could not make it to our second destination for fear of flash flooding. We saw some flash flooding of rainwater rushing down the mountain slopes. If we had not turned back, I would have spent a night or two in an unexpected place.

From there, we went to the Dead Sea and I took a swim. It was more of a float. The Dead Sea is more than 30% salt and minerals. We all looked like bobbers in the water! It was raining off and on and foggy much of the morning and afternoon. On a clear day, you can look across the Dead Sea and see the mountains of Moab in Jordan. I'll show you pictures when I get home.

Our last stop was Qumran. That is the picture of the cave you see. In 1947, clay jars were found that contained parts of the Bible from the time of Christ. These are the oldest parts of the Bible in existence. We were able to see the stone of the place where a religious group lived at the time of Jesus and where they hid sacred texts to keep them safe from the Romans. It worked.

At supper tonight, folks in my class found some altar guild type candles and put them on a cake for me. They gave me a little taste of home.

Tomorrow we go back to the Old City.