Valley of Elah and the Goliaths in our Lives

While not exactly Goliath, Ramzi was a close substitute.      Today we visited Lachish (the site of a famous siege by the Assyrian king Sennacherib), Beth Shemesh (associated with Samson), Azekah, the Elah Valley, and the echoic Bell Caves (really cool caves that people would live in to escape from the heat as well […]

Egypt Finale: Mount Sinai

     In my last post, I promised that I would try to say more about my experience on Mt. Sinai. Here is my delicate attempt to articulate what happened. In all honesty, I am a little hesitant to share what happened to me, as I’ve always thought revelation to be something intensely personal that […]

Egypt: Summary

Take one part major trip with no time and little internet, add delay for picture gathering off of 80 cameras, mix in 3 mid-terms = I will not be writing much about my Egypt trip!  Alas!  But let it be known that it was amazing, and the sights really were legendary.  And I didn’t get […]

Egypt, The Prelude: A Broken Heart yet Content in Spirit

     The time was 5:00am.  I had just woken up for the trip I was most excited for of the entire BYU-Jerusalem program: our group was going to EGYPT!!!  It would be a full week trip, and I was prepared: I planned for the heat of the desert, the cold of our 2am mountain […]

Oldest Place on Earth and the Christ’s Fasting in the Wilderness

Today I went to the oldest known man-made structure in the history of the world (the tower dates back to 8000 BC!).  It is located in Jericho, an oasis in the middle of the desert.  There’s a spring there that provides water, and it’s very green (in complete contrast to the surrounding area).  A lot […]

Garden Tomb

The entire center took a field trip today to the Garden Tomb.  A small group I was with read verses from the last chapters of John, we all took a tour of the Garden, went inside the tomb, and then sang hymns and reflected on the resurrection.  I was blown away by the level of […]

Bringing in Shabbat at the Western Wall

Today I participated in my first Sabbath (referred to as “Shabbat”) ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.  Saturday is the Holy Day in Judaism, and it really is a day “set apart”.  It begins at Friday at sundown, and the whole Jewish part of the city shuts down–they don’t drive cars, they don’t light […]

Dome of the Rock. Temple Mount. Most Recognizable Spot in Jerusalem

The Dome was erected in 692, and is the oldest existing Islamic building in the world, but the spot is sacred for both Muslims and Jews.  It is built at Mt. Moriah at the very spot where it is believed that Abraham offered up his son to be sacrificed (In Muslim tradition, Abraham offered up […]

Shalom Chaverim! (Hello Friends!)

Just minutes ago, I was in my first Hebrew class ever.  It was so awesome!!  We learned how Hebrew not only consistently follows its rules, but is also mathematically sound and completely logical.  Every consonant has a vowel associated with it (except for the last letter) and they are simply found under the consonant.  There are no […]

Early Excursions

Today is Saturday.  But it was also… Sunday.  We observe the Sabbath day on Saturday in the Holy Land.  I still don’t understand all the reasons why—partly it is because of the Church and wanting to jive with government policy stuff.  But it is also because everything closes—there would not be much to do anyway. […]