Jericho

This past Monday, January 17, we took the students to Jericho. I know that my previous blog was from today, January 20! You're lucky I'm posting January events in the month of January! :)
Anyway, this is what the top of Tel Jericho looks like. The weather forecast had been for rain. You can imagine how this would have been when wet. It turned out to be the most beautiful day, ever!! Perfect weather for field trip.
We read the story of Joshua sending spies into the land; and of course, the story of the walls of Jericho falling! It was awesome. This is looking at the mountains across from the Tel. This may be the Mount of Temptation. If not the exact spot, pretty close. Up on the side of the mountain is a monastery.

Here is a close-up of the monastery.

This is the bottom part of an ancient tower on the city.

This is a view of modern-day Jericho from ancient Jericho.

Our next stop was Elisha's Spring. In the parking lot, just outside the entrance were these two produce stands. I loved the colors and the man cleaning the pavement. Looks yummy, doesn't it?

This was where we parked the buses and had a potty stop. :)

We are standing in front of a lovely fountain/pond at the entrance to Elisha's Spring.

We are standing on this paving stone:

Here is Elisha's Spring. It is a lovely place.

Here we are - the 2 sets of Jacksons. John and Christine are the doctors and the housing service couple for the Center. They are terrific! We call them Doctor John and Doctor Christine since there are already a Brother/Doctor and Sister Jackson. Too confusing!

Remember the story of the man named Zacchaeus? He heard that Jesus was coming to his town and he wanted to see him. He was short and the crowd was big, so he climbed up into a tree in order to see Jesus. Jesus saw HIM and told him to come down because he (Jesus) was going to eat at the man's house that day. Well, here's the tree:

Third stop: One of Herod's palaces. We didn't have time to go down and up the other side to actually visit the site. We just viewed it across the Wadi. Herod married a Hasmonean Princess who had a younger brother. Herod was afraid that when the boy grew older he would be a threat to Herod's reign, so he had him drowned in the pools at this palace.

Herod was a beast, wasn't he???? What you cannot see is behind this hill in the background. there is an old Roman theater and a hippodrome. Here is the story associated with the hippodrome:

Herod was dying and knew that no one would mourn for him when he was gone. So, he ordered his minnions, the minute he died, to round up the most well-known people from all around the country. They were to take them to the hippodrome and kill them all so that there would be counrty-wide mourning at, but not for, Herod's death.

I wonder what Herod is doing now???

It was a great day! Maybe I enjoyed it so much, because I was sick last semester when they went to Jericho, so this was fresh for me!

Our own desert monastery field trip

Today Kent and I went on our own field trip. We tried to visit 2 desert monasteries. Both are located in an Israeli settlement on the West Bank. We spent about 30 minutes driving around trying to find one of them. We were finally successful, only to find that you have to call ahead in order to get into the site. :) Oh, well, we'll go back.
We were successful in finding the other. This first picture is me (or maybe a really old monk) sitting on the wall of one of the "cells" where the monks lived.
This is a view of the monastery and the surrounding area. It is now in the middle of an industrial park! The shed to the left, right by the wall of the monastery, is full of artifacts.

This is an old staircase going up to what would have been a second floor.

This is the crypt underneath the monastery. There was actually a chain across the entrance. But, . . . . .

Inside, looking out.

This was on the upper level. They believe it is the dining area. What you see is a long bench and a low table.

Also, up above is the remains for a church. This mosaic floor is from a 5th century refurbishing.

This is one of the nicest underground cisterns we've ever seen! It could hold up to 3,000 cubic meters of water. I stayed up here.

Kent went down in.

We had a fun little get-away! I drive, he navigates and most of the time we don't get lost! Or at least not too much.

First Winter semester field trip

We also went to the Augusta Victoria Hospital. It is on the street right behind the Center on the Mount of Olives. They have a tower there, that I didn't go up, that gives the students a great view. While half of the class went up the tower, Kent taught the rest of us about churches. What to look for, what it means etc. It was great!! After both halves were done with everything we did some singing.

This first field trip is called "Jerusalem overlook". Which is what we do. We take the students to several high spots and let them see what Jerusalem looks like and where things are in relation to each other. This place is called Nabi Samwel [Prophet Samuel]. This picture is deceiving because 1. it is of fall semester's students 2. the weather was much colder on January 10th. When we left the Center the sun was shining which fools people into thinking that it will be warm. It isn't. And the wind was blowing. And we were on top of high places. I was surprised at how many students were not dressed for the weather. I think they will be next time. :) This is a mosque built over a synagogue at Nabi Samwel. The synagogue is still in use.

This is a crusader horse trough on Nabi Samwel

This is a crusader water gutter on Nabi Samwel

That is a Jewish man going to the synagogue to pray.

What you are looking at is a tel - the ancient city of Gideon. Where Joshua commanded the sun and the moon to stand still so that he could win his battle.

This is called the Benjamin Plateau:

This picture is to show you what is pretty typical in Jerusalem. In the foreground is a small Palestinian village. In the close background, with the tall buildings and reddish roofs, is the Jewish settlement.

See the two radio towers on top of the hill. Just to the left of those is the remains of a Jordanian palace. It used to be in Jordan. We are looking at this across the valley on Nabi Samwel.