My last post. This whole experience has been absolutely incredible, and I feel privileged to have been able to do something like this. As this week draws to an end I feel the weight of finals crashing down on me. My schedule is one of little grace throwing 3 major exams at me on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I have been studying intensely for these exams, and I find myself being reminded that my best is what I can give.
I was given an amazing opportunity to escape "the cave"( which is also the downstairs classroom) and enjoy the old city one last time. A friend and I went to some of the sites we've visited throughout the semester such as: the western wall, the Holy Sepulchre, and other places. I have been studying all day everyday since last Thursday, so I am getting burned out on studying.
I thought that it would be appropriate if I gave a semi-reflection of the experience. I don't want to give too much since this kind of thing is done more effectively in person, but here we go. This opportunity was one that I had not by any means expected or anticipate, but God brought me here. I wasn't sure why, but I know now, and I'm sure glad that I was able to spend 3 months living here. I have met some amazing people that have taught me alot about myself, and about God, and I appreciated that. I was challenged academically, to a certain extent beyond my abilities, and though it has been stressful at times I have appreciated it. I have been given the chance to study some material that has enlightened me to new ideas and ways of reading the Bible, and I have been able to grow in my walk with God.
Anyways, more in depth reflection when I get back, and I look forward very much to returning home. Thank you for investing time in reading this, I hope you have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing.

wow, the adventures that I have been able to embark on in Israel. The last field study that we were on was to Jordan. This was an amazing place, both beautiful and historical. First of all, Jordan had very few Biblical sites, but many ruins of Ancient Greco-Roman cities. We went to places like Pella, and Gedara, Gerash...all very beautiful places, and I learned much there. My Highlight however was Petra. Petra being the cities which is carved from the faces of cliffs, the most famous being from Indiana Jones the last crusade. Needless to say, Jordan was amazing. Now I find myself with 2 weeks left fighting to enjoy every ounce of this trip. As I write this I am lucky enough to be staying at the Sea of Galilee, one more quick blast through the country. My friend Tom and I have been spending the day touring the country with a rental car, and filming a video for Tom's ministry which is scripture (memorized) spoken across the Holy Land. So we have been filming Tom as he quotes scripture, whole chapters and books, it's incredible, and traveling to amazing places. We continue tomorrow before returning to Jerusalem, and the last week of class. Anyways, This is what I have been doing for about a week now, and I promise to write about my adventures through the next week, take care

Today was an exceptionally special day, and I was able to do something I'll never be able to do again. In my Archaeology class we got the opportunity to spend the day at Lachish. Our professor is Dr. Gabriel Barkay who is one of the most famous Archaeologists and well known for his discoveries. Dr. Barkay is probably the most intelligent man that I have ever met. He spent 15 dedicated to excavating Lachish which is longer than I have been in school, kind of a weird thought. Anyways, we spent the entire day observing the various pieces to the site and it was really cool.
We started at the bottom of the site, and to be hones it was brutal, we sat in the dirt, on rocky ground for almost 2 hours while he lectured on the History of Research on Lachish, and the History of Excavation at Lachish. So after a couple hours at the bottom, we finally began moving to the site itself. As we moved up he showed us the different layers to the walls of the city, which part was original and what had been built up later. There was a distinct painted line on the build of the wall indicating where the original wall stopped. Moving farther up the site we came to the gate to the city which was pretty cool, we could see the sewer system dug into the ground, and what remained of towers at the entrance to the city. What was really cool was seeing how the mud brick had been preserved from fire destruction. The city was destroyed and then burned, but the fire hardened some of the mud brick in the wall which remained in tact. We spend alot of time learning about the layers to the excavation. for instance, there was a palace at the high point of the city, the lowest layer was layer A, then layer B, and then what we could see was layer C. For each of these layers a palace existed for a period of time before being destroyed.
Another cool spot we got to see was a well that was excavated. The well was actually completely covered before it was found, which is kind of scary considering it was 45 meters deep (hopefully no one fell in while digging it up). The well was discovered in the 1930's during a British excavation. It was later, about 1970, that Dr. Barkay began his excavation of the site. The coolest part of the day was hearing the little tid bits from Dr. Barkay and all the stories he had to tell.
All in all I was very happy with how the day went, and am thinking of going for my P.H.D with all the information that I learned today, well not yet but maybe some day.

Wow, it's been a while since I've written a post (I'm sorry). As we approach the last leg of the semester, it is getting pretty busy. We had a four day field study to Galilee followed by an exam this morning. Hebrew is getting pretty tough now that we're dealing with verbs and translating whole phrases, and this weekend will be focused almost completely on Archaeology. So, it the midst of all the craziness, I am still able to have some down time.
Alright, down to business, the four day field study. We started our trip off with a lengthy, but exciting, visit to Caesarea which is on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. Caesarea was a city built by Herod the great and was done extravagantly. We spend time looking at an old theater, we walked out to the port, we walked into the sea a little, and saw an amazing palace. Caesarea was a great visit...BUT, the day turned sour when I had an accident. We visited this aquaduct that Herod built which was about 20 feet tall. So we all climbed up and took pictures on it, which was fun. But, after taking pictures I decided to get a picture of me jumping off it from a lower part which was about 12-15 feet. As I jumped a rock followed me so when I landed it landed right on my head, leaving a nice gash. After loosing alot of blood and cleaning out the wound, we discovered that the injury was not as bad as it could have been, praise God. Later that day we visited Hazor which was really cool, and some of the valleys surrounding the area. The bus rides were really tiring especially since we had lectures at each site, and then had to hop on the bus for the next site. That night we stayed at a hostel at Ein Gev which is on the coast of the sea of Galilee. Let me just say, we ate like Kings that night with cooked Chicken, potatoes, carrots and lots of desert. To add to the mix, I was able to sit in a bar/lounge and watch soccer which was great. It was really warm being next to the sea, and sitting outside later that night was great. Looking across the sea at night was nice because all we could see was the city lights from Damascus, and some of the other cities.
The next morning we got to eat a great breakfast, and with real coffee (enough said, my morning was great). From there we hopped on the bus and headed to Dan. Dan was different than I expected, it was beautiful and kinda reminded me of home. There was really nice walking trails to the site, fresh water rivers, creeks, and nice big trees. Not just that, but the site itself was really cool. The best part of Dan was seeing a complete building that was still intact from the ancient times, and it was huge. Day 2 was spent visitng some more sites, but day 3 is the best of all.
The start of day 3 couldn't be any better, I mean this was the best day I have had in Israel yet. We got to sleep in, that was great, I drank real coffee with expresso, wow, and then we got a boat ride on the sea of Galilee. Could this day get any better. Well, yes it could, and it did get better. Anyways, on this boat we went out to near the middle and viewed the horizon line and pointed out some important information. The boat ride was great because it was warm, alittle windy, but bright and beautiful. After getting off the boat we went to the city of Capernaum, where Jesus lived, worked, and ministered for a period of time. Capernaum was another city on the coast, and here there was a synagogue with a base made of Basalt rock. The Basalt base was the original base exisitng in Jesus say, other features has been rebuilt. After Capernaum we went to Beniass where there was an old synagogue where Jesus would have taught. It was here that I got the chance to sit in the seat of Authority in the synagogue (the original seat), this is where Jesus would have taught from, very cool. Finally, we went to the cliffs of Arbel. There we got to climb down and see caves that we carved out in this side of the cliffs.
Day 4 was a good day too, we saw Beit Shan, Nazareth, and went swimming. Nazareth was cool, but not what I expected, it was really dense and you could not really distinguish the old city that would have exisited in Ancient times. Beit Shan was great to, it was the most complete city that I got to see, and so I really got a sense of what cities may have looked like back then.
Well, I've taken way to much of your time, hope you enjoyed reading, and enjoy some of the pictures.

So, Wow It's been a while since my last post, sorry to all you dedicated followers. I've been busy with classes and independent adventures; however, since it's been a while I have tons to talk about, so grab a coffee cause you might be reading a while.
So, I got back from our last field study and had literally no time to relax before the stress of homework and class jumped on my shoulders. I had an exam in my Physical Settings class, a Mid Term exam in Hebrew, and an exam coming this Thursday in Rabbinical thought and Literature; needless to say, the times are getting busy here. The week went pretty well considering how much work I had to do; however, time went by pretty slow as much of my homework was not as enjoyable, or appealing as homework usually is.
Thursday was cookie night, and it was fantastic. You know that cookie night is coming when you wake up Thursday morning and smell the sweet aroma coming from Dr. Wright's home at JUC. The thought of cookie night was in my head all day. After dinner some friends and I played the game loaded questions, which is a good game to get to know other people better, and it was a good time.
After playing loaded questions cookie night finally arrived and we hung out on the JUC roof, ate cookies and watched fireworks being shot from the Old city, it was beautiful. I had been looking forward to the weekend because there was nothing to do, no field studies, no homework...the perfect weekend. So I took advantage and went on an Independent adventure. Friday after class I went hiking to the Mount of olives. I brought water and extra Pita bread I was ready to go. Well, friday was hotter than ever so my water bottle, which held about a litre, was gone in like 30 minutes. I was about half way to the mount of olives when I ran out of water, and I still had to climb it, not good. So I stuggled up the mountain, enjoyed the view and began walking to a small shop to get water. As I approached this small shop (looking like I had spent the last week in the desert -sweaty-stinky-dehydrated) the shop owner came to meet me and said "you look hungry my friend". I looked at this guy like he was crazy and said "no I'm thirst, give me water". So I bought water (sweet nector from heaven) and drank like all of it immediately. This was my first day of the weekend.
Saturday I did the same thing, went hiking, but I began at the garden tomb. This is the other site believed to be the place of Christ's burial. It was very nice, but Archaeological evidence disproves any idea of this being Christ's grave. I spent the rest of the day hiking through the New, and old city. Saturday night I went to the Hynom valley where there is an old Archaeological site and put my Indiana Jones on. I began kicking some dirt around just curiously trying to see if I could find anything. Well, I found tons of broken pottery, but that's nothing special. I went further in the site then and found some tombs, so I dug a little bit there, and I found something, something that is of some serious value. Anyways you'll have to wait til I get home to see it. The rest of my weekend was good to........alright I'll tell you what I found since you're getting edgy in your chair wondering what I could have stumbled across. I found a stone about the size of half your palm. The stone is special however, it's made from a special type of rock and has been shaped into a cutting or shaping tool probably used by people from the Bronze age. I showed Dr. Wright my find when I got back to JUC and he confirmed what I originally thought, it was indeed shaped and used long ago. So...I got lucky and found something that turned out to be pretty cool. It's not the Arc of the covenant, but, well I'm still working on that one.
This weekend coming up is the second last field study and we're going to galilee so I'm pretty pumped. Nothing much else going on here till then, but I will be sure to record all my adventures for you so that you can read back home in the cold of what's becoming winter...while I'm enjoying 30 degree weather..ok I'll quit rubbing it in...until next time , Shalom.

Some of the greatest times of your life are when you can sit in silence and just experience God. This is what I experienced this past week. As I sat and read my Bible and spent time with God there was a closeness I experienced that was amazing.
This weekend was our first 3 day field study which brought us to many cool places. The first place we stopped was Sataf which is a small village outside Jerusalem. There we learned about the Hill country and what the "American Dream" would look like in Biblical Times. We saw some springs that were really cool. 2 springs to be exact that were created by Romans. One spring was in a small tunnel (kinda like Hezekiah's tunnel). We had no lights so we were walking blind into this tunnel and into a big room where the spring was, it was a terrifying experience (no it was cool), but we were really nervous walking through this tunnel. From there we went to the Phillistine Alluvial plain where we learned about Samson and the interaction with the Philistines, it was interesting. We finished our first day at Beer Sheba where we saw the remnants of an old city. We learned about its destruction as well by Romans. The new city of Beer Sheba was beautiful and reminded me of Florida, palm trees and warm nights, it was great. We also hit the mediteranian sea which was really cool. The highlight of the second day was seeing Arad and the ongoing excavation. The Archaeologists were excavating a temple there and found the Holy of Holies, but they found 2 big stones at the site which means the temple was to 2 Gods, Baal and the one true God.
Finally, the best part of the entire trip for me was Masada. Masada is a huge fortress by the dead sea built by herod the great. There were a couple palaces on Masada including a Thousand Gallon Cistern, it was huge. Masada was destroyed by the Romans, and there is a big theological debate as to the details of the destruction. I'd love to discuss the details so ask me when I get home, or back to Kuyper, it really is cool. Anyways we finished the day by Swimming in the Dead sea and David's Spring it was refreshing and a fantastic way to end a fantastic trip.

So, some friends and I decided that it would be cool to go out on a camping trip. A couple guys had planned a place to camp out and had organized the details so everything worked out nicely. So on friday after class we headed out for En Gedi and the dead sea. From JUC it was about a 45 minute hike to the bus station. Now, Friday was Yom Kippur, a Jewish Holiday, so the streets were crazy. We were walking fast trying to catch our bus weaving through crazy crowds, it was a crazy experience. When we got to the bus station I felt like I was at the airport, it was cool. We had to go through security, and there were signs showing the bus departure time and which gate to go to. Anyways, after just over 2 hours on the bus we arrived.
The beach at En Gedi was, well...there was no beach but there was a sandy or rocky camping area. The dead sea was 200 feet from where we were camping it was kinda surreal. After setting up camp we went for a swim or a "float". The water was shallow for the first 5 to 6 feet then there was a drop off. At the drop off we turned to face the shore and leaned back...and we were floating....it was so crazy! With no effort you floated feeling like you were on the clouds, but you look down and all you can see is deep water...so weird. We tried all these different positions we stood up and floated, we laid on our chest, and our back, it was cool. Now I have to say right now I had been warned that farting was unpleasent while floating, but I did anyways...not on purpose. Needless to say, my mother was right again..I regretted it.
That night was probably the best night I've had in Jerusalem. It was really warm I had my shirt off all night and it felt great. The night was a constant temperature of about 30 degress, it felt good. We met 3 guys from Israel there and they gave us stew (which was incrdible), tea, and we talked all night. It was so fun.
The next day was hiking day and it was the most beautiful place I have ever been. We hiked along a high mountain desert ridge and then entered a forest area into an oasis with waterfalls, and cold pools, green trees. The hiking day was great. We got back home Saturday night, and crashed since we were all exhausted.
This weekend coming up we have our first 3 day field study and we are going back to the dead sea, but also to Masada and around the area. Anyways, time to study hebrew so until next time.