Bethlehem

It SNOWED IN UTAH! I can't explain my excitement each year when I watch the snow fall for the first time. It's always a dance in the snow for me... I missed it this year. It's ok though, because i'm here... In the Holy Land. It's unreal even now 2 months into my stay.

So we went to Bethlehem today! No big deal. It was incredible. Way fun, way busy, but not an exhausting day.

I would have to say today was probably in the top ten of best days of my life, but I kinda feel like that every day. 

It started out with g-chat. What a beautiful thing. I got to call to Janelley.  Our bus was even late so I could talk to her longer! That was most definitely Heavenly Fathers doing. I got to hear Devin's voice and it made me want to be sitting on the beautiful Hawaii beach with them.

My bus buddy today was Jordan. He's a BYU Iderhoan! We 'idahoans' are pretty tight here. (tonight byu I people all ended up on the same table by chance and we planned out our Sunday Hot Chocolate/Stadium singing... when we're in the snow again. Yipee!)

On our way to Bethlehem Brother Muhlestein was talking about this Separation Wall between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. It really is a 20 minute drive (because of traffic) around 5 miles away from us. He really put it in perspective. He lives in Lindon with all of his family living in Payson and Orem. So if Orem and Lindon were waring against one another. This war was seriously putting your family in danger every day and it was so hard for you to see them go through so much persecution from the Orem-ites. They put a separation wall between Lindon and Orem. He works at BYU in provo and can't go to work, can't see his siblings anymore. That's exactly how it is for these people. It hit me hard. This separation wall is a big deal. It now keeps them so safe and secure, but keeps them away from the world in a big way.

 We hopped off the bus and saw sheep. Yep, this is Bethlehem.

-We had a very biased lecture by a professor from Bethlehem University. That was... Interesting. We have been warned multiple times since by teachers to learn more about the issue and create our own opinion. Mostly, be open minded.

-Next we headed to Bethlehem university and got to talk to the students! That was my favorite because they are so wonderfully friendly. They're normal people just like me. Duh, right? It's so hard to think that when we have the language barrier and such dramatic culture difference. 

This chapel was inherited by the University in 1893. The university used to be a secondary school and was established as a University in 1973. This chapel "Chapel of the Divine Christ"  is for those that are religious to come worship every Friday. It has a lot of representation of Christs childhood and the innocence he lived.

The stained glass windows all theme around Christs life and his teachings. The ceiling was painted with the history of the world. It started with Adam and eve until Christs reign.

This school is Catholic that the Muslims feel comfortable to attend with about 70% muslim and 30% Christian. We had a pannell of people that would answer questions for us about anything. They have all sorts of majors and bachelor programs with about 3,000 students. I thought it was so interesting how the Christians and Muslims were such great friends, they didn't care at all what religion you belonged to. It made me think.. "Why in the world can't Jews and Muslims act the same?" Too much history. Too much animosity.  They are forbidden to marry out of their culture, which i found interesting. They will be disowned by their parents and have friends that have been, because of their decisions to marry outside of their religion. 

There were 70% girls and 30% boys because most boys are shipped abroad to other countries for education and girls always stay with their family until they are married. Something that would be hard for me. Our society is so different.

Blast to the past? Yep.

 Our wonderful Islam professor... what an interesting man.

We were ravenous and headed to "The Tent." What an absolute blast. It literally was a massive tent that we ate under. They brought out about 10 plates of things for us to try with delicious warm wheat pitas. We gobbled the food up and they brought more. Fries, meat loafs and chicken in a new spice. One thing i've noticed here... there is a very massive plethora of spices for food. I like it. Actually, I'm learning to like it.

Church of the Natvitiy

Church of the Nativity is the oldest continuously functioning Christian church on the earth. Because it has been contiuously used, they had loads of scaffolding when we arrived. Dr. Chadwick said in his 30 years of visiting the sight he has never seen it as busy as it was for us. Aparently the Palestinian president arrived in Bethlehem that morning and had closed down the whole city for the majority of the day. There were three cruise ships docked and planning on seeing this sight, all of them got into town at 4:00, naturally the same time we did. It was a bit chaotic when we were in there. We waited for about 2 hours and moved about 100 feet. Got severely yelled at once, but it was still a really great experience. We got to stand in line for about 20 minutes for a one-stalled bathroom and no toilet paper. It was super hilarious. We started talking to some British ladies that were a hoot, and loved our silly jokes (especially Lindseys laugh). I feel like we bonded with class mates standing in line for so long, and we get to bond even more... about 60 more hours of field trips the rest of the semester!

The building housed three different churches:  Greek orthodox, Armenian church and Catholic churches. They were beautiful, but all three were there with much conflict. Originally this building was an 8-sided basilica. This style was only built for buildings directly related to Christs life. It got damaged in 339 AD and was remodeled into the form of a cross after 529 AD.The decorations of the place were very old, but beautiful from antiquity.

We were shuffled along as we squished into the actual 'cave' Christ was born. It was really amazing to see the actual place. I STOOD there! We had about 30 seconds of chaos inside, but we saw where his manger laid and the place he was born. The actual place of his birth there was a 14 point star (which actually started a war) with a hole in the middle to touch the actual ground underneath. We practically ran out of there to make it to the bus. Running to the bus I talked to a bunch of people about what they thought of the experience. Most were very bothered how people have made such a massive deal of this and built a huge church on top. The hustle and bustle angered many of them. Mom had warned me a head of time of this. I was so grateful because I could focus on what we were seeing instead of the circumstance we were in. On the bus ride home we got stuck in traffic to pass the separation wall. We actually drove through it this time, as before we didn't... i'm not sure why. It was a weird feeling passing from one place to the next that some have such animosity towards each other. We've been studying these issues so much lately, and I'm trying to create an opinion on it from the little information I know.

-It was our last field trip with Brother Muhlestein. I am really really REALLY going to miss him.

1. Name 3 OT figures who were buried or born near or in Bethlehem? Rachel, Naomi’s husband, and David. 

2. Which OT prophet foretold the Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem? Micah
3. Explain who Constantine was and what he built in the 4th century?  Roman Emperor built a shrine-basilicas
4. Who was Jerome? most learned of early Christianity’s Latin Fathers.  Made a translation of the Bible into common Latin from original manuscripts.
5. who built the existing Nativity Church? Emperor Justinian built a new cross-shaped basilica 

Yad Vashem

This was  a much different field trip than most... 

This museum is dedicated to the Holocaust. I am so grateful that they have these kind of things just to make sure history does NOT repeat itself. What a humbling and morbid experience.

Above us says something in Hebrew. We got to go with our Jewish teacher and it made it THAT much more realistic!

This is the pillar of heroism.

The things that I really, really enjoyed was a Kids orphanage Janusz Korkzac with the actually shoes of the people. That was heart wrenching.

·       What does the name Yad Vashem mean and where is the name derived?

     “A name and a memorial” from Isaiah 56:5 “a monument and a name”

·       How is the Museum of the Holocaust organized and what is the intent of the exhibitions?

    It’s organized into 10 exhibition halls, each hall focuses on different periods of the holocaust beginning with Hitler’s rise to power in pre-war Germany and the culminating horrors of Nazi death camps.

·       What is The Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Law passed by the Israeli Knesset in 1953?   Commemorates the righteous Gentiles (non-jews), who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Hezekiahs Tunnel & City of David

This field trip was a BLAST! The city of David (1000 BC) is so rich with history. I love being here and standing in the exact places that these great rulers i've learned about all my life have lived, reigned, fought, and experienced life. I have definitely grown a great appreciation for Archeologists and historians that preserve such wonderful cities for people like me to enjoy.  This map is the relation from the Old City Of Jerusalem and City of David in the bottom right corner.

We didn't really know what to expect for this field trip, and headed out to the buses. They dropped us off in front of the Temple Mount Excavation. Wow, this is quite a task and beautiful one at that. This is for certain where Christ used the gate often because it lead up to the Temple Mount where he often gave sermons.

We walked down to the gates of the city with a massive gold harp that was used when David met with Saul. (1 Samuel 16:23) They herded us into a theater where we got cool 3-D glasses as we watched a pretty epic movie, "The City Of David: Where it all began". It was surprisingly well done, and the main character looked quite like Dr. Chadwick with Spanish accent (which Dr. Chadwick acted out in class the following day).

City of David/Area G
1. where is the city of david located and what lies north, sound, east and west of it?
south of the temple mount on a small ridge surrounded by mt. moriah on the north, east is the kidron valley, south is the hinnom valley and west is the tyropoeon valley.
2. who was the first israelite king to conquer jerusalem? who was his son?
David and then Solomon

We walked on top of the theater to the look out of the valleys surrounding the area. The Kidron valley on the east, Tyropoean to the west, and Hinnom valley to the south. This was a gorgeous look out.

Mount of Corruption- where Solomon built temples to other Gods for his wives to worship at. It was also corrupted because of the hundreds of tombs built into the walls.

An example of the tombs built in the walls. The city got to packed so they just built on top of the tombs, then built on top of the houses and kept on building!

Stepped stone structure that held up the hill that Davids palace was on.

We also walked through a place that had a bunch of really cool Byzantine walls on top of this wall. 

Video about Brother Chadwick and Muhlestein talking about how David saw Bathsheba on her roof. I WAS THERE! wow. So cool.We didn't have enough time to load it on so it'll come later.

We also found some toilets! Dr. chadwick called it  Lehi's Loo. (Its the rock with the hole in the back)

We had about 2 minutes crammed up against a gate to get into Hezekiahs tunnel and I thought, "Let's take ugly face pictures" This is the result.

Justin sportin the Jelly shoes that Dr. Kristine let him borrow and Austin lovin the shorty short shorts.

Dr. Chady explaining how Hezekiah's tunnel was made (Make sure to listen closely at 0:22 Amy's popular "Fail" shows up)

Amy, Myself, Cherysh and Jamie headin down!

We got to the "Cyclopian architecture" for the massive Jebusite tower that was at the beginning of the Gihon Springs. Solomon was make king at this exact same spot.

 Gihon Water System
1. name jerusalems original water supply.
gihon spring
2. describe the water system based on that the above (original water supply). (tell when it was engineered, what it consisted of, how water fetchers accessed it, and where the entry was located.)
1800 bc. consisted of an extension of the upper tunnel beyond warrens shaft, a man made pool fed by a channel from the gihon spring, and two large towers, one over the spring and one flanking the pool. water fetchers entered the present entrance to warrens shaft, which was inside both the 18th century bc canaanite city wall and the 8th century bc israelite addition to it. they proceeded down the upper tunnel to a platform above the pool. from the platform they lowered containers into the pool and drew up water.
3. explain why king hezekiah created a new tunnel. tell whom he expected to attack, when and what the tunnel connected to on both ends.
he safeguarded jerusalems water supply in preparation for the assyrian siege in 701 bc. the gihon springs to the pool of siloam.
4. what miracle did jesus perform in this area? name the specific location.
jesus healed a blind man at the pool of siloam. 

Maybe its  possible to drown in it? What do you think?

Off to the right and down you can see the Gihon spring waaaay down. 

Cherysh, Amy, Jordan, Jamie, Justin, Megan, Chris, Raylynn and Zane

One of the smallest parts of the tunnel. Doesn't look that small on cherysh because she's a shrimp.

The very end of the tunnel! From back to front Austin, Justin, Jamie, Jordan, Amy and Cherysh.
This part of the tunnel looks really tall because when they started digging they were too high so had to cut down much more. There were parts where we have to bend over quite a lot. We had lunch with the Muhlesteins right before leaving and they said that 14 years before when they had been the water had been up to their chest, so we were a little nervous until we found out it was just above our knees.

At the end of the tunnel!

Awky

A place where the pots were placed after gathering water from the Pool of Siloam which is to the left of us.

In front of the Pool of Siloam. This is the place that Christ, "Spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, Wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by the interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing" (John 9:6-7)

To get back to the top of the city we walked the stairs that were made by King Agrippa right before the siege. They uncovered this stairway this past year, so it was neat to be able to walk up something so "new".

 Jamie, Amy, Cherysh, Myself and Chelsea

When we got towards the end of the cave there was a an inscription sticking out of the wall. Cool little surprise. It tells the tale of the cave.  The tunnel was built at the time of King Hezekiah about 2,700 years ago. It reads "This is the story of the cutting through: While the stone cutters were swinging their axes, each toward his fellow, and while there were yet three cubits to be pierced through they heard the voice of a man calling to his fellow, for there was a fissure on the right- and on the day of the piercing through, the stone cutters struck through, each to meet his fellow, axe against axe; then ran to water from the spring to the pool for twelve hundred cubits, and a hundred cubits was the height of the rock above the head of the stone cutters."

What I saw: 

  The original inscription

This spring was to be an aqueduct to provide Jerusalem with water as the Assyrians were about to attack the city. They were in a rush to get this accomplished and you could see the hacking of where they took the rock out. They actually missed each other in the middle and you can't see it much in this picture, but i'll get better ones from my teacher in a couple weeks!
It was a windy one indeed!

Pretty much, we saw 2,000 years of history today. No big deal.