Yad Vashem

Today our IBEX group went into Jerusalem and visited Yad Vahsem, which is the memorial museum for the Holocaust here in Israel. I have been to several other Holocaust museums and memorials, but this was the most powerful. I was struck again by the unbelievable human cruelty and depravity that was displayed so evidently by the Holocaust. It also caused me to think if I would have done anything about the slaughter of the Jews if I had lived in that time. Up until now I had not thought about it very seriously, but rather had assumed that I would resist the Nazis and help the Jews, after all I am a good person right? However, now I realize even more the motivations and hesitancies of the common people and why they did nothing. They were comfortable with their posessions and were scared of what would happen to them. Some people even outright hated the Jews. If I were not a Christian I can honestly say that I might not have done anything because I to would be too scared as to what would happen to me. This scared me and caused me to realize just how selfish and depraved that I am. I also believe that what one of our professors, Bill, said was true and really hit a chord with me. He said that God is not to blame for what happened because God is good at all times. Then why did this happen? His explanation is that God removed His hand of restraint for that time so that we would be able to see what happens when mankind rejects God. I can only praise God that He has not completely abandoned us and left us to our own ways. I don’t believe that mankind would ever have made it as far as we have today without God protecting us and showing grace every second of every day to us. Another powerful symbol was the Children’s memorial. To think that 1.5 million children were murdered simply because of their race is mind boggling. I don’t understand how people could do such a thing to innocent children. What kind of hatred and coldness would drive a person to do such a thing? All I could think of was my little sister Rachel being one of those children and what that would feel like to know that she was murdered cruelly. Then I realized that each of those children had people just like me who loved each child and mourned for their death. That was incredibly difficult and painful to grasp. All in all the trip to Yad Vashem today helped me to grasp better the pain and the suffering that the Jewish people went through in the Holocaust and still are dealing with today. It also helped me to see even better why the state of Israel is absolutely essential for the Jewish people. They have no where else to go. The people of Europe murdered their families and everywhere else they are persecuted and face anti-Semitism of all sorts. How are they to trust these people again? I always knew that you had understand the Holocaust in order to understand the Jewish way of thinking today, but now I feel as though I am able to see the world a little bit better through their eyes.

Sitting on the shore of the Red Sea

Negev Pictures

Dead Sea Mud


Abby and I on top of Masada


The Tabernacle

Negev Pictures

At the Boardwalk in Eilat


Jamie and I at Tel-Arad


Abby and I at Beer-sheva

Negev Trip

So I recently got back from a four day trip to the region of the Negev desert. We left on Wednesday early in the morning. We went first to Qumran where the dead sea scrolls were found. While we were there we were able to hike up to one of the caves that the scrolls were found in. From there we went to En gedi to get an overview of the land. We then went to the Dead sea where we went swimming. It was amazing how much you float and how bad the water tastes. We got to smear the mud there all over us. After a quick shower and a sprint back to the bus to make it on time, we drove to Masada where most of us hiked up the snake trail to the top. It was a very hard hike, but the view from the top was completely worth it. We spent a couple of hours on top looking at all the different Herodian ruins that were there. We then went to Arad where we stayed at a youth hostel for the night, we had some free time after we had dinner so a bunch of us walked down to the mall in the city and I had the most amazing ice cream of all time, it was supposed to be butterscotch, but it didn't really taste like it. The next day we went to ancient Arad where we walked on streets that were 5,500 years old, it was amazing. We then went to Beer-Sheva where Abraham dug a well and planted a tree and did various other things. We also went to Sde Boqer where David Ben-Gurion (the first prime minister of Israel) lived for a while and then died. At the end of the day we went to Oboda/Avdat which was on the Nabatean Spice route. It was super cool because there were tombs all over the place and we got to climb around in the tombs and explore. We then went to Maktesh Ramon where we stayed the night in another hostel. We had chapel that night on a wooden overhang on the cliff. On Friday we went down into the Maktesh to a caravanseri where the Nabateans would have stopped on their way from Yemen to Gaza, bringing the frankencinse. While we were there, Uncle Randy burned some frankencinse for us so we would know what it smelled like. From there we went to the middle of the wilderness of Paran where we all got off the bus and walked a ways away by ourselves and read Deuteronomy 8 and meditated on what it means. It is so encouraging to see how real to life the Bible is becoming to me. It was also amazing to see the love and care of the Lord for His people even while they were being punished by wandering in the wilderness. I can also say that I can not look down on the Israelites for their complaining because I would have been the head of the complaining committee. The wilderness is nothing but dry, brown rocks, heat and flies. It is definitely barren and a great place for the Lord to humble His people and teach them that it is Him and Him alone that sustains and cares for them. Once we were all back on the bus we had lunch and then went to the Haibar Nature Reserve where we were able to see all sorts of snakes (cobras and vipers) and different kinds of animals. I saw hyenas and bats in real life for the first time, it was really cool. We then went to the valley of Timnah where we saw the true to life model of the Tabernacle. It is incredible how much the symbolism in the Tabernacle points to Christ, I had never realized it before. After that we climbed all over various rock formations in the valley and then drove to Eilat. We had free time that night so Abby, Jamie, Emily, Michelle and I went to the boardwalk on the Red Sea and did some shopping. We also sat on the beach of the Red Sea and skipped rocks on the surface. On Saturday we were able to sleep in for a little bit and then went down to the Red Sea where we went snorkeling in a coral reef. It was so cool, I saw all different kinds of fish, the water was incredibly blue and very clear, we could see for a long way. We had lunch at Pizza Hut and then drove back to the Moshav, which took us about 4 hours. The bus ride was fun because we had an open mic session where we heard some stand up comedy, various family stories and dancing up and down the center aisle of the bus to Queen. All in all it was a great trip, the Lord taught me a lot about myself, Himself and about the land of Israel. Praise the Lord that He is faithful to teach me even through my hardness of heart. So, that is the sum of the trip, for now we have a few days of classes. On wednesday we are going to Yad Vashem which is the Holocaust memorial here in Israel, it should be very powerful. Thanks for sticking with my scattered thoughts and memories, I will post pictures of the trip soon.

Even more pictures

Acting out the story of David and Goliath in the valley of Elah

Sunrise over the Dead sea

Crawling through caves in Moresheth Gath

More Pictures

Abby and I in Eleutheropolis

Yom Kippur- Jumping off the center divide of the main freeway

A group of us in a waterfall at En Gedi

Pictures

Jamie and I at the ancient tell of Gezer

Jen and I with some Israeli soldiers

Crazy Fun Times

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted anything so I thought it was high time that I did. However, since there has been sooo much that has been going on recently I will just recount the last three or four days which could take me a while to do anyway. So, on Thursday, October 6 we were able to take an optional field trip into Jerusalem to walk around and observe everyone getting ready for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles. It was amazing walking around a market and observing people yelling and trying to buy food for Sukkot. It is not every day that you get to hear people talking in Hebrew, Arabic, English and a variety of other languages. It was also interesting to see all the different sights, there were people selling fish, fruit, nuts and pita. The sights, sounds and smells were amazing and overwhelming. We also went to a Jewish market where everyone was buying their lulav and etrog to worship with during Sukkot. We then walked through Meash Jearim(sp?) which is possibly the most orthodox Jewish community in the world. It was an awesome night, just to see the anticipation and preparation for the holiday. On friday we had classes all day, but in the evening we were able to build an IBEX sukkah. A sukkah is a tent that is built during sukkot to remember the wilderness wanderings of the Jewish people. We had a great time building and decorating it. At one point I got to climb a date palm tree and cut off dates to put in our sukkah. I got stabbed by the tree a few times for my efforts, but it was all worth it in the end. We then had chapel that night out next to the sukkah. On saturday we went to Jerusalem assembly for shabbat services and afterward Abby, Hannah and I did some shopping in the old city of Jerusalem. It was a lot of fun and nice and relaxing, plus we got a lot of good deals : ) Sunday was an IBEX work day. All of the IBEXers were split into teams and each of us did different jobs around the moshav. The team that I was on got to go and harvest grapes in a vineyard near the moshav. It was hot, dusty and sweaty but a lot of fun. It was so neat to be able to see the illustration that Jesus gave to His disciples in John 15 right before my eyes. I am able to understand it soo much better now and when I get back if you ask me about it I will tell you all about it. It was also interesting experiencing a full day's work in a vineyard. It is definitely hard work! It wasn't all work though. Our team had to ride in the back of a truck to go to and from the vineyard and at one point, Uncle Randy's team ambushed us with water balloons and a hose as we were driving by. Needless to say, that meant war . . . At the prompting of our professor, Bill we filled up buckets and water balloons and snuck up on the other team and by a bold offensive manuver we were able to capture their hose and completely soak most of the members of the team (including uncle Randy tehe!) Once we were done with that we went back to the vineyard and completed the work day. When we were done picking grapes, we brought back what we had picked and put them in the replica of a Bible times wine press and then we all got to smash the grapes with our feet. It was soooo much fun, there was a lot of laughter and singing and dancing involved and a general good time resulted. We got quite a bit of grape juice from what we gathered, so it was rewarding as well as fun. Once everyone was cleaned up from that we all went to the park on the moshav and had a middle eastern meal where we cooked our own fresh pita bread over a fire. It was sooooo good. Once we were done eating we all loaded up in the bus and went to Jerusalem to spend the night on the roof of the Petra Youth Hostel in the old city. Todd decided that he was going to go for a "walk" and anyone that wanted to come with him could. However, Todd's "walks" include walking across Jerusalem, transversing the Kidron valley and then climbing up the Mount of Olives. In the Kidron valley there are many many tombs, and what do college students do when there are tombs, we climb all over them of course and go in the ones that we can (with our professor leading the way) At one point we climbed through a small gap between rock and the iron gate that was blocking us from seeing 1st century tombs like the one that Jesus would have been buried in. It was pretty funny watching people climb up the gate and then go headfirst through the small opening. In the end it was a long walk, but well worth it to see the view of Jerusalem at night from the top of the Mount of Olives. On our way back we stopped and got pizza in the Jewish quarter and then proceeded back to the hostel where we all collapsed into bed. In the morning we all got up at about 5:30ish to watch the sun rise over the Mount of Olives, which was absolutely beautiful. We then hit the streets of Jerusalem on a quest to find breakfast. We were not very successful, but we were able to find fresh hot pita bread (I have to admit, the pita here is amazing, I will never be able to go back to the cardboard that they call pita in the states) Once we were all filled up on pita we went to the wailing wall to observe the service that they were having for sukkot and also to see the priestly blessing that only occurs every six months. It was crazy how many people were there, when we left there were about 30,000 people there and there were more coming. Once we left there we walked all the way back to the hostel to grab our stuff and get back on the bus to come back for classes. We were all exhausted at this point and in need of a shower, but no such luck, we got back in time to go directly to class. However, it was rather humorous watching people struggle to stay awake in class, some not succeeding. At the end of our land and Bible classes we were able to taste the fruit of our grape stomping labor. Yes that is right, we got to pick and stomp grapes and then drink the grape juice that we had made (after it had been boiled of course). It was so cool! So that is what has been happening here in the past couple of days. On wednesday we leave to go to the Negev desert for 4 days which will be a lot of fun, but very tiring. Thanks for taking the time to read this, sorry it was so long and for any spelling or grammar mistakes that I have made, I don't really have time to do any proofreading right now : )