JC playground

When the Center realized that they would need to remodel some apartments to provide housing for the 2 faculty families and their 11 children, they also built a playground. Here are some pics:
This is Amanda Judd, age 6, helping clean the slide! She is so dang cute!!! This is her little sister, Emily, with the curly hair and their friend, Sabrina Muhlestein. Also, dang cute!!

When the fall students arrived we decided to have a committee of artists paint some of the walls around the inside of the playground. I wish I had pics of the finished project but here is the work in progress: This will eventually be a painting of the skyline that we see from the Center balconies. The woman kneeling is Jill Judd, one of the faculty wives. She was in charge of this project.

Here is some of the crew, getting ready to paint:

More detail:

The mural to the right is an Old City shop. Offerings of fruit, candy, nuts, & grains.

Memories of our trip to Egypt:

These are 2 of the faculty kids - Lisa Judd and BJ Muhlestein

This turns into a beautiful underwater scene. Kent tried to convince them they should put SpongeBob in. He lost.

The students had lots of fun doing this. There were a few who even stayed up the night before they flew home so that they could finish their mural.

President's reception

I just realized I never told you about this. Back in December Kent and I got an invitation to attend a reception at the President's residence. It was a reception for all religious leaders in Jerusalem. I'm not really sure why we were invited, rather than the Branch President or the JC Administrator but . . . .
The Center provided transportation for us - a taxi dropped us off and then picked us up when we were finished. Many of the people there knew each other and spent time visiting and eating from the buffet provided. We wandered around the grounds and did stop to talk to one person that we actually knew. Rabbi Rosen. He used to be the Jewish culture teacher here at the Center. We had a nice, but short, visit with him. Then they called us all into a meeting room. The men below are all of the heads of the different churches here. Each one gave a short speech. The concluding speaker was the President himself, he is the man third from the left. It was an interesting experience. Not particularly fun, but interesting.
When the President entered and left the room, we were asked to stand. Oh, yea, there was also a musical number by a local musician. It was very good. He reminded me of a hippi.
Anyway, that was our morning at the President's. :)

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.

End of Semester

On the last Saturday of the semester we held a fireside about the Last Supper. The committee for "special events" set up a scene of what the Last Supper might have looked like. This was the backdrop for the program.

First, one of our faculty introduced the program and gave a wonderful overview of this significant event. Outside, the wind was blowing harder than I've ever seen it, here. It was howling and wailing around the building. At first I was afraid that it would be a distraction from the program. But, I think it actually added something to the spirit of that evening.

The rest of the program was readings from the scriptural account of the Last Supper. What Christ did and taught of His mission.

In between we had some musical numbers.

After the last scripture was read, Kent gave an awesome talk on where Christ actually went to "prepare a place" for us. We then had some reverent organ music playing while we had a few minutes to ponder. It was a wonderful evening!

The following week, we went on 2 fieldtrips that followed the last 2 days of Jesus' life. [Monday, Dec. 13 the Tuesday, Dec. 14] We visited Lazarus' tomb and went to Bethpage where he began his triumphal entry. The first day was freezing cold, so windy you could hardly walk, and pouring rain. Most of the students felt that it actually made the trip more memorable!

Of course these walks included the Garden of Gethsemane, walking the Via Dola Rosa and the Garden Tomb. It was a wonderful way to end a wonderful semester.

The last 2 evenings, during dinner, [14 and 15] we had an open mike. Most of it was very fun. I read a poem that I had written about Kent that included a standard joke he had been using all semester! It got a laugh. We also had a memories night -- showing slides of all of our field trips and activities etc. [ 15th] Each of the faculty was asked to share their favorite memories. Kent and I sang a duet - "Devoted to You" and then he shared some memories.

We went to bed that night and got up at 2:30 am to see the first bus load off. It was very sad to say goodbye and watch them drive away! The second group left that evening at 6:00 pm. This was even more difficult because the faculty kids were there and they were all crying!! I am glad that we had such a great bunch of students so that we WERE sad they were leaving, but . . . . .

That next Saturday, [18th] which is the Sabbath here, remember, we had a branch activity after church. Nowhere but here, could you do this activity! We drove to Shepherd's Field and had a Christmas program and some cookies. Wow!! And to make it even better, just as we were gathering to begin, a flock of sheep rumbled through complete with a shepherd. :) It was a really wonderful end to a Sabbath.

Ok, I've blathered enough.

My Birthday

Right after breakfast, Kent and I drove to a Nature Reserve/National Park called En Gedi. It is about an hours drive south from Jerusalem. Of course, since we drive in and out of the west bank, it usually takes longer returning to Jerusalem than it does leaving. The first entertainment for the day was:
We came to a strip of highway with shops and camels for tourists, along both sides. There was also a traffic sign that said "Watch for incoming vehicles". Right after we passed the sign a camel loped across the road in front of us! Oh, we wished we'd had the camera out!!!!
The first half of our day in En Gedi was spent wandering up and down Wadi David. It is called Wadi David because En Gedi is where David hid in a cave from Saul. This was at the end of the walk -- beautiful, huh?
There were several bus loads of school girls there. They, of course, took every advantage to soak themselves and their classmates (actually, I think their teacher started it) in another waterfall like the one above. That was a lot of fun to watch. They would also break into song or chants as they walked along -- sounded like girls' camp! Teenage girls are the same all over the world.

After our walk we had lunch in the pavilion by the gate and loved watching the birds and feeding them part of our apple. You know us and birds!

This is called a Hyrax. We saw several of these all along the way on both walks. Pretty cute.

Our second walk was up and down Wadi Agurot. It is called Wadi Agurot, because the Agurots lived here. . . . Just kidding! I have no idea why it is called that! There were parts of this trail where you could either continue on the dry path or walk in the river. It was very lovely and we enjoyed watching others get wet as we stayed on the dry trail. Here are some views:

We were flown over several times by F16s. Usually 3 or 4 together.

Sorry, this isn't a very good picture but the animal in this is called an ibex. We saw many of these. Some of them standing on their hind legs and eating from acacia trees. One of the males that we saw had big curved horns that would have been as long as his body, if they were straightened out!

When we got home, I was tired and took a nap. Suddenly there was a soft knock on the door and I opened to find no one there. But, on the floor in front of the door was a plate of cookies and our net of Christmas lights was covered with birthday pictures from the children that live in the Center. It was such a sweet surprise! I called out "Thank you" in case they were still around and then closed the door.

A few minutes later I could hear whispering and then a chorus of "Happy Birthday" outside my door. I opened it again and there were all of the children. They all showed me which pictures they had colored and the littler ones even gave me a hug. It was so fun!!!!!

Plate of cookies:

After dinner we went up to the student lounge and watched "It's a Wonderful Life" with some of the families here. It was a perfect birthday!!!