day 4

Dear caroline and jenny,

           I'm finally all caught up! This morning, our first stop was at Masada. Not knowing anything about it, I had no idea what to expect. We started driving and the farther we drove, the farther into the middle of nowhere we got. Now I was starting to see what I originally thought all of Israel looked like. Dirt. There was an occasional bush, tumbleweed, or tree but other than that, nothing but dirt.

Like I said, allllll dirt

            Masada was really cool because its all giant mountains that are all dirt. There was a cable car that took us to the top of the mountain and they had lots of preserved tiles, mosaics, and rooms.

Here is a little bit of tile in one of the rooms with me and Sus

            En Gedi was our next adventure. We pull up and it looks just like Masada, in the middle of nowhere with LOTS of dirt. There were a few more trees and bushes, but not much.  We hiked a little bit and got to the lower waterfall to find a bunch of girls in the water with their clothes on screaming and jumping around…interesting. Our stop at En Gedi was very short partly because there wasn’t much to see and we were hungry and hot.

I don't think those girls were thinking because they had to keep hiking after this...

            It was real hot and we were all glad to get back on the bus to cool off. We didn’t know what the weather was going to be like, so we had on layers just in case but most of us had on jeans. Not a good thing to wear in the heat. Qumran was next on the list. This is the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. There were random caves in the side of the dirt cliffs/mountains. This is the cave that is ‘supposedly’ where David was but we have no way of knowing that for sure. 

            After lunch we went to the beach at the Dead Sea. Coolest thing I have ever experienced. I’m sure you guys know, but there is so much salt in the water that nothing can grow in it or live in it. The bottom of the Sea is all black mud, it looks really nasty but it is really good for your skin. The bottom of the Sea is all mud and shells. At one point I sank down to my knees in the mud. When you get in the Sea, you sit like you are in a reclining chair and float with your arms and feet in the air!

It looks gross but it was so cool!

            On the way back to our hotel, we drove through Jericho. It made me a little sad because everything looked so poor and dirty..We went up to an overlook and we saw a camel and the most precious children on the planet. They kept waving and asking me to take their picture. Med gave me a few one dollar bills to give them and they swarmed me when they saw what I had. One of the smallest girls there jumped off a 9 foot wall just to get $1..It was so sad but they were just so excited that it brought a smile to my face. Scott told me afterwards that I can never go on a mission trip and help kids because I will come home with all of them..

We had a very packed day with lots of walking but we got back to the hotel surprisingly early! Oh I forgot to mention, we are now staying in Jerusalem at an actual hotel. Tonight, I got a ring with 1 Corinthians 13:13 carved into it! I got it sized for my ring finger, kind of like a promise ring I guess? And we went on this one street with lots of shops and had so much fun! You two would absolutely adore all the people I’m on this trip with! They are quite the handful, but I love them all like my family! 

day 3

Dear caroline and jenny,

            Sorry I’m so behind of my posts..we have been real busy! Alright, so this morning we started off the day in Nazareth. We drove to the top of a mountain, the Precipice, for some readings. This was never mentioned in the Old Testament but it was the hometown of Jesus and it’s where he grew up. I would love to live there if I got that view everyday!

           View from the Precipice

            We were on the mountain for a while and then we went to Meggido. This was a big city back in the day and it was the main trade route. It has 20 layers of civilization and when the city was destroyed, they just rebuilt it on top of the old city.

            Mt. Carmel was next on the list. This is a mountain range that was the symbol of beauty and fruitfulness. This mountain overlooks the Jezreel Valley and it slopes towards the Mediterranean Sea. The view from the top of the monastery we were in, was amazing.

            That stop was short and to the point and then we got moving again. Our next break was at Caesarea. This city was originally built by King Herod but it was dedicated to Caesar, hence the name Caesarea..It is a huge place so we went to the water aqueducts first. This was really cool and it carried water from Mt. Carmel all the way to Caesarea.

            We walked a little further and got to the main part of Caesarea. There is a great big amphitheater where they still have lots of concerts and performances from various groups. Like many of the other places, they had lots of rooms that were partially restored and partially reconstructed to form the whole picture. While we were here, we saw at least 10 stray cats..There was a couple restaurants here and one of them had outside tables. There was a couple at an outside table with about 5 cats sitting under the table and the people were just feeding them. It was so gross.

            On our way to the hotel, we passed the ‘downtown’ area of Jerusalem and by then, it was dark out and the city was all lit up with bright lights. The city looked spectacular. We passed a certain area at an overlook and we could see the Dome of the Rock because all the lights were reflecting off of it. I don’t think I have seen a more beautiful city at night.

The Dome of the Rock is in the middle in all the middle of all those lights

            At the hotel that night, there was a wedding reception with lots and lots of flowers. When the workers were cleaning it up, Janet (a girl in our group) asked the man if those flowers were for us, and he gave them to us! It was hilarious because we didn’t think he would actually give them to us! 

day 2

Dear caroline and jenny,

            Last night was kind of rough. After I wrote a little, I went straight to bed and it was around 9.40 or so. Around 5.45 or so we got ready and packed our bag for the day and went to breakfast at 6.15. We walked around the kibbutz for a few minutes until they opened the doors for breakfast. It was beautiful. It was warm and the sun was rising over the Sea of Galilee. Absolutely breathtaking.  

                                         This is a picture of some of the rooms at the kibbutz

                                          The view of the pool and part of the Sea of Galilee

            Our first stop this morning was at Bet She’an. The whole city is in ruins, obviously, but they had it preserved and very authentic. There was a giant bathhouse, amphitheater, and church. There is a beautiful view of the Sea of Galilee from everywhere in Bet She’an.

 

                                                 Here is an overview of Bet She'an

This are some of the seats in the huge amphitheater

            Next we went to the Jordan River for baptisms. My grandpa ‘John the Baptist’ and Med, one of the other guys in charge of the trip, did the baptisms. My grandpa did mine and it was incredible. I got a little emotional just thinking about how I was being baptized in the same water as Jesus. I didn’t really think about it before, but the more I thought about it, the more amazing it was. 

Baptism :)

Long story short, the water was freezing and there were muskrats/giant rats swimming in the water. Scott also informed me after, that there were fish like 3 feet long swimming around us…wonderful, right?

                                                                          GROSS.

Next, we went on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.  The boat was very interesting looking, nothing like boats in the U.S. Our tour guide, Rouf, spoke a little bit on the boat and then Med and Don, another guy in charge, talked about all the things that Jesus did on the water and the land surrounding it.

I have lots more pictures of everything and I'll put them on facebooook!

From the Sea, we could see the land where Jesus did 90% of his teaching and miracles.  After they talked for a little while, Michaelanglo played the guitar and sang some worship songs. Then, the  guys who worked on the boat sang and played the violin for us! They were really nice and one of them was pretty cute!

            Lunch was fabulous today. The pita bread is out of this world.  It is nothing like pita bread in the states. And the hummus. Oh my goodness, SO GOOOOD. We had fish and French fries with lots of different salads. It was real good! Soda at the restaurant was $3..how ridiculous is that?

            After lunch we went to the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave his sermon on the mount. Holy cow. It was fabulous! 

The church and the view were absolutely gorgeous. 

            p.s. I have lots of pictures of random cats. You know how we have squirrels running around everywhere? Yeah welllll they have cats. EVERYWHERE. And they are all nasty and mean. A couple of them hissed at me when I tried to take pictures of them..i knew I hated cats for a reason.

ew

day 1

Dear caroline and jenny,

            We made it. Thank the Lord. That was the longest flight I have ever been on and ever care to be on. It was 12 hours non-stop from Philly to Tel Aviv.  On the way over I, of course, got stuck in one of the middle seats. Scott was on my right and Sus was on my left. Both of them took the liberty to decide that I was their pillow…so obviously I got hardly any sleep with the two of them on top of me (more Scott than mom, but still). We were served two meals on the flight. One was chicken with barbeque sauce, real nasty green beans, and seasoned potatoes. About 9 hours later, we had breakfast and we had the choice of either scrambled eggs with broccoli and potatoes or waffle sticks. Naturally I chose the waffles. I do NOT trust powered eggs on an airplane, or anywhere else for that matter.

            Enough about the plane and how wonderful the flight was…when we finally touched down in Tel Aviv, I looked out the window and was completely shocked. I am, apparently, extremely poorly educated on the Middle East because I was expecting to land somewhere like the Sahara desert. Stupid, I know. To my surprise, there was actually civilization. It looked like a normal city you would see in the U.S. There were highways, buildings, and grass! You could see a pretty big city from the airport and I’m assuming that’s like downtown Tel Aviv or something. (again, I don’t know anything about the middle east).

            After waiting probably an hour in the airport trying to get our passports stamped and finding our luggage, we finally got on a bus to the kibbutz. A kibbutz is basically a hotel but instead of a usual hotel, they are like villas. It’s a really cool place! I’ll take pictures and upload them tomorrow. I have to mention that we are riding in style, we have a Mercedes Benz bus J We get on the bus and got going to the hotel and right when our tour guide started talking, I straight up passed out. I was so exhausted from the flight I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I would wake up periodically when everyone would laugh or say something loud but I don’t think I really missed anything. Oh wait, I only missed what our agenda is for tomorrow..oops! But thankfully, Sus is basically in charge so I just got her to fill me in at the hotel.

            The food.  Dinner tonight was so good. All the food over here is healthy, fresh, and amazinggg! I had chicken, rice, carrots, fresh bread with hummus, and some different salads. I will take some pictures of all the different salads tomorrow because they are very different over here than they are at home. Needless to say, the food is great! Mom says that if we go to a certain place for lunch tomorrow, they have the best hummus and bread. So obviously I’m hoping that we go there!

            Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I don’t know hardly any details besides the fact that we have to be at breakfast by 6.30..oh and did I mention that we are 7 hours ahead of you? So I am going to be struggling tomorrow because I lost so much sleep. But anyway, first thing after breakfast, we are going to the Jordan River to get baptized! I am so excited! It’s going to be so cool and there will be lots of pictures taken so you can live vicariously through me J I’m almost 100% positive that my grandpa is doing the baptisms too, so that will be even better and make this such a special memory!

            It’s 2.37 pm your time which makes it around 9.37pm here and I’m going to sleep. I feel like an old person going to bed this early but whatever. I don’t have internet in my room at this kibbutz, so ill post this whenever I get some internet!

love yall!

-Sarah