(I will post pictures as soon as I can!)
In all
honestly, I seriously don’t remember much about spring break besides going to
the beach with friends, getting Firestone, and having a Passover Seder with my
family. That was really cool though. We went through a symbolic Christian take
on a Jewish tradition. But that’s basically all I remember from spring break.
On to
more important things like, of I don’t know, ISRAEL!!! What the crap? It’s been
seven months already? What is happening? Anyway, Israel was great. No it was
beyond great. It was freaking fantastically unbelievably awesome! Of course it
did come with hard parts and things I regret already, and possibly will regret
the rest of my life… So since I already wrote most of the stuff I did down in
my notebook, and it would take FOREVER to write about everything I did, I’m
going to use this post to highlight the awesome moments in Israel and the not so
awesome moments in Israel.
I would
like to start this off saying that I spent 10 days in Israel and many said I
couldn’t do it, many teased me and tried to force it upon me, but I never fell
ONCE in Israel! That’s right, Hannah Pettey did NOT fall in Israel! (I did fall
off a bus in Turkey, but that doesn’t count…)
Okay so
the first day, one of the things we did was visit the Adullam caves, possibly
the ones David hid in. That was really freaky. I was crawling on my hands and
knees for like 20 minutes in a very tiny, hot, stuffy tunnel. Needless to say,
I was a little panicked at times. There
were a couple spots where I had to lay flat on my stomach and pull myself with
my arms. I had to keep pushing myself to not stop and just keep moving. If I
would have stopped, I would have had a complete melt down and no one would
really be able to help. A cool thing though was listening to Chad read Psalms
57 in one of the rooms of the tunnels. Coming out of the tunnel was one of the
best feelings ever. The rest of the day was spent exploring underground pigeon
houses, cisterns, olive presses, and singing in the Bell Caves. This was also
the day where we went to the riverbed where David chose his 5 smooth stones to
fight against Goliath and hiked in Azekah.
Day two
was mostly spent in the Wilderness of Zin. After visiting Tel Arad (where most
of the time it is 100 degrees, for us it was raining and we were all freezing),
we walked through Ein Avdat. It was a giant canyon with a spring flowing
through the middle. Rich talked about how amazing it is that all these trees
are thriving because their roots are planted in the water so they can suck up
lots of water and are sustained through the dry seasons. Something I know I
should be doing, planting my roots in God’s word so that I will be sustained
through the dry seasons. We hiked/climbed up out of the canyon and began
wandering through the desert. Not for 40 years like the Israelites, but it felt
pretty close… It’s cool to be able to actually see what it was like for them to
just wander around for 40 years until God gave them the promise land. It would
get real old REAL quick. Oh, also, we rode camels. No big deal. Back at the
hotel, we got to swim in the Dead Sea, also known as the Salt Sea due to its
high salt content (6 to 8 times more than the ocean), which was way fun, but
word to the wise: Do NOT get it in your eyes!!! I seriously thought I was going
to go blind in my right eye. Not cool.
Masada.
Probably the most excruciating thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. I
blacked out part way up the mountain, and started hyperventilating. Julian was
so awesome though. He stuck by my side the whole time and carried my stuff for
me. It probably wouldn’t be as hard if it was just trails, but I was like a
mile worth of stairs, which killed my lungs. Yay asthma. Not. I can really look
back at that and be proud though, because
there would be no way I would have been able to make it to the top seven
months ago. Seriously a God thing. Of course, I did take the gondola down
though! We also hiked in Ein Gedi and Qumran (location where the Dead Sea
Scroll were found) on the third day. This was also the day when I found out
that the Israeli money I had was too old for them to accept. Boo.
Day four
we went to the top of Mt Arbel and sat on the shore at Tabgha. We visited
Capernaum, which was really hard for me. I stood in a synagogue that Jesus
himself stood and spoke, but I was so frustrated because I couldn’t comprehend
it. I wrote a note/prayer and stuck it in the wall behind the synagogue, among
thousands of other notes. I was still really upset that I couldn’t grasp the
fact that I was stand in such an important spot in the Bible. For some reason I
thought that going to Israel and coming to these places would be like magical
and everything would somehow be super holy and whatnot, but it wasn’t. And
that’s what frustrated me. We also visited Chorazin and walked to the top of
the Mount of Beatitudes, where Kelsey (staff, not student) recited the entire
sermon on the mount speech from memory. It was really awesome.
Day 5
was a good day, going to Qatzrin, a military bunker on the boarder of Israel
and Syria, Caesarea Philippi, and Dan (the city, not the tribe). But the best
part of the day was at the end, when we drove to the Jordan River and sixteen
of my Joshua brothers and sisters were
baptized! It was really amazing to watch all of them make a public declaration
of faith in front of everyone. The sixteen included Taylor, Brandon, Mic, Hedi,
Lindsay, Ryan, Brad, Daniel, Antonio, Sharon, Lauryn, Eric, Mallory, Alex,
Julian, and Stephen.
A boat
ride across the Sea of Galilee on day 6? Um, yes please! What a great way to
start the day. As we made our way out, we were given time to reflect on
everything and just experience the Galilee. It was chilly and had rained a
little bit, when all of the sudden the sun broke through the clouds and gave me
a vivid picture of what the disciples must have seen when Jesus walked on
water. It seemed like the water was choppy
and dark everywhere except the one spot where the sun was shining a ways
from the boat. It was insane. I felt like I was just dropped right into the
middle of a Bible story. That was the moment I started getting it. Brett gave
an awesome talk on Matthew 14. He talked about how Peter was scared when he saw
the wind and cried out to Jesus and how we will see wind in our lives and be
scared but we shouldn’t hesitate to cry out for help. One thing he said that
really stuck with me was “Peter died with Sh’ma on his lips. What will be on
your lips when you die?” To finish up the boat ride, Ronen taught us a dance to
a Jewish song and we had a dance party ending with the Harlem Shake. I miss
music. The rest of the day we spent exploring Kursi, Beth She’an, and Gilboa.
The
seventh day was probably one of the best days! We went to Nazareth, Megiddo
(the site of Armageddon), and Mt. Carmel. But my favorite part was Caesarea. We
walked through the Hippodrome where they would have horse races and the giant
theater. We even got to sit in the very room where Paul gave his plea for
Christ! It was so cool to sit among the ruins and close my eye as I listened to
Sal read the Bible passage. They gave us time to go down to the water, where
Herod’s swimming pool was and we found pieces of marble washed up on the shore
years and years after the destruction of the palace. We also found pieces of
ancient pottery, sea glass, and I found a little fossil! I could have spent
days in Caesarea! The water is a really pretty teal color and getting to
explore all over the beach was one of the best moments ever!
However,
day eight was a really hard day. It started out at Yad Vashern, the holocaust
museum. There was one room dedicated to the children who died in the holocaust
that has a candle that burns in the center of the room and the room is covered
in mirrors to reflect millions of flickering candles to represent the millions
of children. You can also hear them read names of the children in several
different languages. I heard it would take years and years to go through them
all. The hardest part for me was seeing a video in which they were bull dozing
lifeless bodies into pits. That made me feel incredibly sick to my stomach. I
was in such an awful mood the rest of the day. Even when we went to the Wailing
Wall, I couldn’t shake off the funk I was in. I began to get really irritable
and closed off from everyone. I kept questioning how something like the
holocaust could be part of God’s plan. But later, someone talked to me about it
and as bad as it sounds, if the holocaust never happened, Israel would not
exist, not like it does today.
The next
day we visited David’s City in Jerusalem. We walked through Hezekiah’s Tunnel,
which was really nerve-wracking for me. It was a small tunnel filled almost
knee deep with water that was completely dark. I was near tears by the half-way
point. I started reciting the sh’ma in my head over and over to help calm
myself down enough to get out to the Pool of Siloam. But after that we went
through an underground ancient sewer that was hot and stuffy. That was worse
than Hezekiah’s Tunnel. It wasn’t a good day for me. We also went to the
Western Wall and Herodium, which was actually really cool.
The last
day of the trip, we went to Bethesda, which is where Jesus healed the invalid
who had been sick for 38 years. We sang the Doxology in St. Anne’s and then
walked to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Getting there wasn’t fun, though, as I don’t do very well in large
crowds in small streets. I was feeling nauseous and had a headache. When we got
there, I couldn’t help but think about what God thinks about it. It’s supposed
to be the sight of Jesus’s tomb but it seemed so touristy. I wondered if it
angered or saddened God to see these people rubbing clothes and crosses on the supposed
rock that Jesus was anointed on. I figured God knows the heart of each of these
people and knows their intentions. It was a very beautiful place, but a place
that was very catholic that was caused fights and hatred between churches. It
seemed everything was more about the material aspect than the spiritual aspect.
But one important thing that I heard to apply to my life was not to build a
shrine to Joshua in my heart after Joshua is over.
So,
that’s basically Israel in a nutshell. There is so much more to it though that
I can’t put into words and a lot of things that I won’t understand or realize
until later on in life. I can’t wait for that.
We flew
home (it was Sunday for like 34 hours) and Tim, Stephen, Shelby, and I stayed
at Sara’s house before driving back up to Hume. I’m glad to be back. Only 3
more weeks in the building before summer staff begins! Crazy.
