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.