Day 13: En Gedi, Qumran

Next we traveled to a nature preserve called En Gedi which is the place in the Bible where David found Kind Saul in a cave (during the time when Saul was pursuing him to kill him for jealousy). David could have killed Saul while he slept in the cave, but instead he cut a piece of his robe, crossed the valley and called out to Saul and told him that he spared his life, and to leave him alone!

We hiked for a period of time, very hot, but worth the hike, we came upon King David’s falls which is a beautiful waterfall. We also came upon a creature, Cheryl Zales was able to feed him a little snack.

We then traveled to Qumran, which is the home of the Essene’s, a hermit people who separated themselves waiting for Armageddon in the time around the birth of Christ. They kept meticulous records and had much of the Old Testament on scrolls…when they died out, no one discovered these scrolls until the 1940’s and they found them intact. The picture of the cave shows where many of them were originally discovered!

We then had lunch and headed for Tel Aviv, and our hotel for the night…it was an hour and a half drive, but it was interrupted by a stop to watch Cheryl Zales go for a camel ride…hilarious!

Tonight we have our farewell dinner, good byes and then it’s early rising for our trip back. What a blessing this trip has been, the group has really done well together and we pray for safe travels back home…thank you all for your prayers as we travel and we’ll see you back in the “Brook”!

Blessings,

P. Mark

Day 13: Masada

Today is May 27 and we leave our hotel on the Dead Sea and move our way North to some of the sights along the way. The first stop is Masada, the scene of a powerful story from around 70 AD. As you probably know, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD as a crack down on the Jewish Zealots who were threatening the authority of the Romans.

After Jerusalem fell, many of the Zealots went down South to Masada, which was built by Herod as a kind of “winter home” in the desert. It also was built as a fortress so that if anyone ever threatened Herod, he’d have a place to hide out…it was quite a place in it’s day!

Well, if you’ve seen the movie, the Romans had to build a ramp to get to the city, it only took 8 months to build! Once they got into the city, the Zealots decided to take matters into their own hands and they all committed suicide so that the Romans couldn’t enslave them.

We got a cable car ride over...glad we didn't have to walk, some other people did walk, one guy just laid down after he got there because he was so worn out...not good!

Really interesting how they utilized the water in cisterns…today was the hottest day of our trip, so we got the full experience!

Next was En Gedi…

Day 12: Dead Sea

Well, when we arrived at our hotel on Wednesday afternoon, we realized we were staying at a nice hotel, right on the Dead Sea!!! There is a group of Hotel's called Leanardo that sit together, and they over look the Dead Sea. What we came to find out is that the main part of the Dead Sea is up North a little and what we are seeing is the excavating part where they harvest all the minerals, but it still looks really cool, as you can see from the pictures!

Today (Thursday) we left for a jeep tour of the desert. It was lead by a company that does this kind of thing, and they take us around to different parts of the desert and explain some of the geological and historical aspects of the region.

Such as, did you know that in Jesus' time, salt and gold were worth the same in money? Soldiers in the Roman army would be paid in salt, it's where the word "salary" comes from. Also, there are over 500 different forms of salt...well, if salt were worth what gold is today, this region would literally be a gold mine, salt is everywhere in this region!

We trekked through in these 5 passenger jeeps, which was a lot of fun as the terrain was a bit crazy at times. We stopped in the area that is traditionally known as the place where Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt. We listened to the story inside this cave, because it is a natural air conditioner and goes deep into the mountain, like 6 miles...we only went about 20 feet.:)

If you remember, God warned Lot and his family to leave Sodom and Gomorrah before he destroyed those places for their wicked ways, and he warned them not to even look back, but Lot's wife longed for the place she lived and so she looked back. As a result, she turned into the material of the region...salt and the picture you see is traditionally the rock the attribute to the pillar of salt that was Lot's wife...probably not, but it makes an interesting story!

We had lunch under a huge Acacia tree, which are enormous trees that are perfect for the desert. They are able to grow without much water and their roots systems are 3 times the size of their branches, so they go down deep.

We then came back the hotel and decided to just relax for the remainder of the day. Some took advantage of the services of the hotel, like having fish eat the dead skin off of your feet!!!! I put a video clip showing some of our women having this done...weird!!!

We will have a full day tomorrow, Friday, as we tour En Getti, Qumran, and Massada before returning to Tel Aviv for our final night before flying out early Saturday morning...

More on that hopefully tomorrow...

Day 11: Bedouin Community

Today is Wednesday, May 25 we leave our hotel (Harmony Hotel) of the past 5 days in Jerusalem to head South, to the Dead Sea area, on our way we visit a Bedouin Community...

We had the privilege of meeting with Sara and Huda today, who are Bedouin women, but are part of an organization within the Bedouin community aimed at helping the women in this culture get more education and have a stronger stand in their community.

Bedouins, traditionally, have been nomadic people, living in tents and moving where ever their herds have needed to go. But in recent history, they have become settlers because life is changing in the world and they don’t have to move as they once did.

This community is a settled community. They live in homes, not tents, although their buildings are still fairly open by our standards. This place of education for women came about because 4 women, back in 1986 decided they wanted an education…as you can imagine, they faced some pretty severe persecution from the status quo, but have prevailed to become a place where many women now gain a strong education.

When we arrived, we were greeted with Bedouin coffee…serious hair growing coffee…and then they talked about community life. A Bedouin man can have up to 4 wives…so Paula and I donned wedding garb, as well as Vicki from our group…don’t worry, one wife is enough for me!:)

We then talked about the work these women do in wool making crafts like the making of rugs. They showed how they make the yarn from the wool…we met some of the sheep that are in their herd, very cool!

We then had lunch and talked about how far these women have come in realizing their own basic human rights and how they are educated. Many of them have now gone to the universities and many of them have better educations than Bedouin men.

They make beautiful, handcrafted embroidery items which funds their organization helping them to receive the education they desire…

After lunch we set off for an hour and a half drive to our next hotel, the Leonardo Hotel on the Dead Sea...the Dead Sea is 1300 feet below sea level and is the lowest place on earth...can't wait to show you this hotel...very cool...

Talk to you soon...

Day10: Later that day...

On our way back from the Holocaust museum, we stopped at a market where the locals shop. Groceries, clothes, bread and other items surrounded two streets each about 3 blocks long. So we went exploring, intending not to buy anything, but found some amazing spices, and nuts, chocolate and so forth…okay we needed some comfort food after all we had been through in the morning!

We got back to the hotel and met with a Palestinian named Faris, who came to share his side of the story in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Very nice man, he is a Muslim and shared what he thought the stumbling blocks of peace…namely, the Israeli settlements, where Israelis have settled in areas of the West Bank and have basically said, “God gave us this land, so we can live where ever we want…” Also, the barrier walls erected by Israel around the border which dip distinctly into the 1967 boundaries…then the insistence that Jerusalem is the Capitol of Israel.

Very interesting, directly after we met with Faris, Prime Minister Netanyahu gave his speech to our Congress about his perspective on the situation…Truly from my stand point, the only area that I think will be a barrier to peace will be the issue of Jerusalem, I think the other points are negotiable on both sides…also that the Palestinians forsake their connection to Hamas and Hezbollah…

We’ll see what happens…but very cool to be here right when all these things are going on! We will continue to pray for the peace of this nation…

More tomorrow…