A Blog from Dave Holmberg- from Israel
LATEST ENTRY
Saturday: We got up early and headed out for our three days in Galilee. First stop was at Caesarea Maritima, the ruins of Herod's seaside city and harbor. The city was the capital of Judea and was a bustling port. Herod constructed a man made harbor to accommodate shipping and to place his palace on a man made peninsula jutting into the Mediteranian. It is said that Paul launched some of his missionary work from that port. On the site are also Byzantine, Muslim and Crusader ruins as the port was taken over through the centuries by these groups. After Caesarea, we were off to Nazareth - to the Basilica of the Annunciation, built over the childhood home of Mary and site of the Annunciation. The church was constructed in the late '60s (1960s) and contains depictions of Mary from numerous countries - maybe 30 or 40. Nazareth is a bustling city now, not the small village it was in Jesus' day and we were there on Saturday, a day when it is at its most crowded. From here we went to Raineh - a smaller Palestinian community - to visit an Episcopal church and to meet its priest and members of its youth group. The Olympia diocese has a relationship with this church and it was a chance for them to catch up with old acquaintances and for us to meet a fairly forgotten group - Palestinian Christians, living in Israel (not in Palestinian territories). Three of the four Palestinian youth with us for our trip go to the parish we visited. That evening, we checked into our hotel - the Pilgerhaus, right on the Sea of Galilee. We were all able to swim in the Sea and, in the evening, chartered a boat for an evening boat cruise, complete with DJ and dancing for the group. Today, the group really seemed to gel as one - barriers have disappeared.
Sunday: Off to Capernaum, a seaside town mentioned as the home of Peter, Andrew, James and John. It is where Jesus went, from Nazareth, to spread his ministry. There are some beautiful ruins from Jesus time including the home of Peter (actually his Mother in Law's home but Peter lived there). Today, we really started to feel like we were walking in the path of Jesus. This started in Capernaum and then continued on our next visit up to Banias/Caesarea Philippi - ruins on the banks of the Jordan. We stopped along the way by a beautiful waterfall and then continued to the mountaintop retreat of Harod's son Philippi. Banias comes from the word Pan and the site was, originally, built as a shrine/temple to the God Pan. Later, Philippi constructed a city there as the seat of his kingdom. Jesus and the disciples visited here - the site where Jesus asked his disciples "who do you say that I am?" This was a beautiful site and we could all envision Jesus and his disciples retreating here for discussion, revitalization, etc. When we returned to our hotel, we had the opportunity to baptize one of the kids in our group - Emily, from Washington. We had a service on the banks of the Sea of Galilee and the baptism was an immersion baptism in the sea. All of us were in the sea. For many of the kids, this was the most moving of the events we've had here. As we conducted the baptism, we looked off to the north and realized that we were looking at the site of Jesus' sermon on the mount. Moving for all.
Monday: We checked out of Pilgerhaus and went off to Mount Tabor - to the Basilica of the Transfiguration - where, Jesus was transfigured and Moses and Elijah appeared to the disciples. We were unable to climb Mount Tabor due to the conditions of the trail so we put our trust in cab drivers to get us to the top. Let's just call that a thrill ride and leave it at that. There we had a Eucharist and wandered the grounds. We stopped, on the way back to Jeruselam, at Beth Shean - an amazing set of ruins of 20 civilizations. Beautiful ruins but extraordinarily hot We returned to the college in mid-afternoon to some much needed free time. All of us felt closer to Jesus after our time in Galilee, walking where he walked, being on the Sea of Galilee, participating in the baptism, etc.
PREVIOUS ENTRY
Thursday: This was a powerful day for us as a group. In the morning, we visited the Dome of the Rock, on the Temple Mount and then the Western Wall. Within feet of each other (through various security check points) both the Muslim faith and the Jewish faith have two of their holiest places. Although we had dressed modestly, as instructed, prior to our day, as we passed through security into the dome area, the women and girls in our group were asked to cover even further. Most donned scarves to cover themselves to adhere to the modesty required of women of Islam in this holy place. While this was a bit jarring - to have security guards stopping you and signaling or shouting at you to cover up - the girls all handled this with grace. We were struck by the peacefulness of the place, the holiness of the place. Once you pass through the security check point, the hustle and bustle of the Old City is gone. In its place is quiet, peace, contemplation and worship. We had a chance to walk around the mosque but were not able to go inside. Nobody outside the Muslim faith has been allowed inside since 2000 - when Ariel Sharon visited the area with his troops in an event that led to the second intifada. However, just being in the vicinity was powerful.
The Temple Mount's Western Wall (Wailing Wall) is one of the holiest sites for the Jewish faith. We left the Dome and passed through another security checkpoint to reach the wall. Here, we were able to walk up and touch the wall with our Jewish brothers and sisters and were able to see people in prayer, boys being bar mitzvahed and groups of all faiths coming to experience this holy place. Women and men worship in separate sections of the wall which made the bar mitzvahs an interesting spectacle. Boys and men are on one side performing the rite - right up against the barrier separating men from women. Women are standing on chairs from their side of the wall, looking over the partition to see, and participate in the service. While the Dome was peaceful and quiet. The Western Wall was abuzz. Many of us wrote down prayers and stuck them in the wall's crevices - as many before us have done.
Later, we went on to the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount to go through a museum focused on the Southern Wall Excavations - efforts to uncover more information about the history of this place. We finished our day by going through Hezekiah's Tunnel to the Pool of Siloam (where Jesus is said to have sent a blind man to heal himself). Hezekiah's Tunnel was the aquifer that brought the water into the ancient City of David. This was a dark, underground walk through the water - a refreshing and fun way to close things out.
Friday: We spent the morning at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. This was opened within the last decade (after the US Holocaust Museum). We walked through exhibits outlining the Nazi atrocities of WWII and came to understand the struggles of the Jewish people - both during the war and since, as they try to establish and maintain the Jewish state. This was a similar experience to the US Holocaust Museum. Both places use architecture both to (intentionally) disorient you and to pull you through the various exhibits, pulling you through the chronology of the period. The Yad Vashem walks you through the struggles of the Jewish people country by country more carefully than the US Museum - with voices and videos showing Jews in each country - so you get a sense of how the Polish, the German, the Dutch, the North African, etc., Jews were treated in some ways similarly but in some ways differently. Very powerful.
After a break back at the college to clear our heads, we moved on to the Mount of Olives - the place where Jesus wept over Israel and the place he came to pray after he had been betrayed. We visited both the Church of Dominus Flavit and Gethsemane along the way and we walked the path Jesus walked on Palm Sunday. We also, again, in keeping with the course's efforts to pull us to the current time, saw the new barriers that are being constructed to delineate Jewish and Palestinian sections of the country. This is work that started a few years ago. It is highly controversial both within Israel and within the global community. The barrier cuts through neighborhoods and will, if completed, run roughly 425-450 miles across the country - on a line and of a design that was largely defined by the Israeli military with the intention of protecting its people. In many ways it looks like a scar running across neighborhoods - a 30 foot barbed wire topped concrete structure that will run for hundreds of miles.
We are off to Galilee today and for the next three days.
FIRST ENTRY
It has been a busy and enlightening trip so far and have done many things.
Sunday: Thanks to Gary's planning, we arrived a day ahead of the rest of the course attendees - attendees from Newfoundland, New York and Washington and were able both to get acclimated to the time change (8 hours ahead) and to wander the Old City of Jerusalem on our own. Dinner in the evening as a group. Then, a couple of us wandered into the Dutch Consulate's World Cup party and watched the first 1/2 of the world cup with the Dutch. Second half back at the college - bed by midnight (end of game) and then we were pretty much acclimated.
Monday: The other course members joined us. In addition to the folks from North America, we were joined by four Palestinian Christian youth - one boy and three girls. The Washington group has a relationship with a Palestinian Christian church giving us the opportunity to start to both what it means to be Christian in Israel (less than 2% of the population is Christian) and also what it means to be Palestinian, living under Israeli rule or control.
Tuesday: The course began in earnest with a trip to Bethlehem. On the way, we visited the Herodian (one of Herod's palaces and, some think, the site of his burial) - setting up a discussion about Herod's kingdom vs. the kingdom of God, helping us to get a sense of the place and the politics at the time of Jesus. In Bethlehem, we went to the Shepherds' field - where the shepherds heard of Jesus' birth. Then, we took the path the shepherds would have taken up to the Church of the Nativity to view the place of Jesus birth. After spending some time there with fellow pilgrims from around the world, it was off to a visit to and tour of the Deheisheh refugee camp - a place set up in '48 housing 12,000 displaced Palestinian people today. In our evening debrief, many people thought that this visit was the most powerful of our visits - both from a positive perspective (meeting people of the camp, including some of the camp's children, seeing the cultural center that has been set up, feeling the hope of the people there) and from a negative perspective (understanding the restrictions, the impact of Israeli rule, the tight living conditions, etc). On our drive, we also saw Israeli settlements on the West Bank - learned to identify their distinctive red roofed dwellings, came to understand word "settlement" and seeing how they start with mobile facilities and then grow into permanent housing, supported - via preferential water rights, etc., by the Israeli government. We were also stopped at an Israeli checkpoint and delayed while they reviewed our agenda and talked with the course director about our purpose in travelling through what was, officially, Palestinian territory.
We finished our day's travels in the Negev Desert with an evening camping out with the Bedouin people. We came to understand the life, values and music of the Bedouin people and understood the tradition of Bedouin hospitality. All 46 of us were in one big tent for the evening and slept with varying degrees of success. One of the interesting things about this course has been the intentional effort to help us understand this place at the time of Jesus and also to understand this complex place today. I am certain that our youth will be able to understand this place, and put the news of today into a personal context when they return to their normal lives.
Wednesday: Off to Masada - another of Herod's palaces and the site of an important first century Israeli uprising - ending in a siege by the Roman army. The Masada used to be where troops in the Israeli army were inducted and continues, for some Israelis, to be an important touchstone and reminder of who the Israeli people are - their struggles, their fight for a homeland, etc. We also went to Qumran to see the site where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in the 40s - venturing into the cave, understanding the importance of this discovery and, again, coming to understand the time when they were written and hidden away. We cooled off at the end of the day by floating in the Dead Sea and covering ourselves in Dead Sea mud. In the evening, we were joined by Israeli youth and a Rabbi - again, in an effort to bring us an understanding of life in Israel today in addition to understanding life centuries ago. We broke into small groups (groups of 8-10 course attendees and 2 Israeli youth). To me, and to others, we came away with some optimism that the youth of today might hold the key for peace in this region. They had an open mindedness and a cultural tolerance that, frankly, the Rabbi seemed to lack. The kids in the group were most struck by the Israeli mandatory army service - the fact that the youth all seemed to be looking forward to joining the army when they graduated (and most had just finished their high school studies on the day we met). The days of mandatory service in the US are now 35+ years behind us - ancient history.
|
