Adventures of a Jellybean

  Well folks... we did it! Two weeks late, but this is it: The Final Blog post! Thank you so much for tagging along.  Our last day was spent at only one location: The Israel Museum  There was so much to see it was almost overwhelming. As I mentioned a few posts ago, the Dead Sea scrolls are not kept at Qumran, but here at the museum! Some of the scrolls are replicas, but I was fortunate enough to see a few original manuscripts as well as some extracts from the Aleppo Codex. Unfortunately, one is not permitted to take photographs inside the "Shrine of the Book" which is the section where the scrolls are kept. The museum also has a scale model which is a reconstruction of the old city of Jerusalem. This was very useful for mentally placing everything I had seen. My favourite part of the museum however, were the exhibitions through Biblical history. I was able to view artefacts from the time of the Philistines, Cananites, Babylonians and Romans' time in Israel. That is-- und...

Greetings, He is Risen! I began my Easter Sunday by waking up at 5am and waiting in a long line to attend an Easter service at the garden tomb. For those of you who are curious; Pastor Nicky Gumbel gave the sermon. There were people from all over the globe gathered to worship and celebrate Jesus's resurrection and it was truly wonderful to be a part of.  We then walked back to the hotel to enjoy breakfast before setting out to visit the Old city of Jerusalem/David's city. We watched a 3D video which was very helpful in understanding what the original city looked like. At this first site, we had the opportunity to journey through Hezekiah's water tunnel. Since this tunnel is very narrow and also has a waist-high water level, I decided to give this experience a miss.  We then walked through a graveyard to reach the Golden gate. Some of the Old Testament mentions this as the gate through which the Messiah will enter. Christians believe Jesus has passed through the gate, and th...

  Keren's log: April 8th First stop: Mt of Olives This area is actually not one specific hill, but rather a group of hills. Today, they host a great view of the modern city of Jerusalem and the Golden dome/Temple Mound. Our group gathered at a lookout area to take a group photo and read the account of Jesus traveling into Jerusalem on what is known as Palm Sunday.  Stop #2: Church of the Holy Sepulchre This church claims to be built on the site of Jesus' crucifixion. While I am not convinced of this, it was an interesting experience. The architecture of the church is quite beautiful, but I felt somehow out of place in an ornately decorated church. Inside the church is a flat stone perhaps a little bigger than an average dining table upon which people were placing souvenir crosses, prayer beads and other items. Their belief is that these items will absorb some "holiness" which they can transport back to their home countries to keep. This was a somewhat saddening thing ...

  Hello again,  As I write this, I am at home in Stellenbosch with a cold having arrived back in the country yesterday afternoon. However, since I did promise to keep you in the loop on my travels and because I want to be able to record the memories for myself, I plan to attempt to continue the tale of my travels.  Keren's log: Day 6, April 7th We began our day with a hike up to David's streams which is a very beautiful national park. It is believed that it was within these mountains David hid from Saul who was trying to kill him. The waterfall there is very beautiful and there is plenty of birdlife and ibex too to enjoy. Our tour group then journeyed to Masada, which is home to ruins of another of Herod's palaces. In 72 AD however, it was used as the home of a rebel group who attempted to withstand Roman invasion. The Jewish rebel groups stayed in the besieged palace while for two long years the Romans built a ramp to invade the palace and wipe out the remaining Jews. Ac...

We have now passed the halfway mark of the tour (at least in the blog posts, in reality I head home tomorrow), thanks for tagging along virtually! Thursday April 6th was spent exploring the town of Bethlehem and visiting the Herodian palace. I would also like to chat some more about Palestine in this post since this is where Bethlehem is located and tensions run high there. I have learned so much about its history in such a short time, and really appreciated being able to spend some time there. I would like to dedicate this post to my new friends there and will share more of their stories later.  Bethlehem Manger Square The whole point of visiting the square for most people is to visit the various churches which each claim that theirs is built on the exact spot of Christ's birthplace. One even contains a very old silver star which people bend to kiss. Since I 1) Do not believe that these places pinpoint Jesus' birthplace and 2) Am not a fan of incense-- I gave these churches a ...

  Greetings and Salutations! This post relates to April 5th because I have fallen behind (apologies!)  Gan Hashlosha National Park Our first stop was at a stunning natural spring site which has since been enlarged. It is considered one of the most beautiful places in Israel and I have to agree! The water here remains around 27 degrees Celsius all year round and is home to some very friendly fish (safe to say my feet were sufficiently nibbled).  The Jordan River It is known that Jesus was baptised along the banks of the Jordan river although not precisely where along the river. Nevertheless, there is a site which is believed to be the spot and our group visited the spot and read the account mentioned in Luke chapter 3. The site itself was not as inetersting to me, but importantly it looked directly across to the Jordanian border. In fact, the Jordanians have their own "Holy site" about 2 meters across the river and Israeli soldiers are stationed at one half of the site to ...

Shalom and As-salaam Alaikum!  At the moment I have just arrived in Bethlehem and have been in more of the Palestinian areas today, which is why I think it appropriate to greet you in both Hebrew and Arabic. But more on that later. I have a major Education Policies project brewing which has delayed my blogging and so I have two days worth of adventures to catch you all up on! Let me start with April 4th first in this post and reserve another for what I have been up to today.  To warn you though, yesterday our tour group stopped in five different areas so this could easily become a longer post. You are more than welcome to simply skip to the pictures.  Tel Hazor National Park We stopped at a cool excavation site which has been found to contain over twenty ancient cities. Items of particular interest include Solomon's Gate and another water system shaft created by King Ahab in 9th century BC. How the workforce carved steps down into the rock without power tools amazes me. S...

Keren's Log: Stardate 3 April 20:47   Welcome back everyone!  Today, I spent some time in the Nazareth YMCA village. This was created by a Scottish organisation "The Nazareth Trust" who run a hospital in the town. The village is an open-air museum and a miniature replica of what the village Jesus grew up in may have looked like. The synagogue, houses and olive press were built by referencing historical texts for accuracy. I was in history-student heaven! Volunteers from the organisation dress in costume and perform certain everyday tasks of common trades at the time. During my time in the village, I watched a potter at work, a woman using a weaving loom to make cloaks from wool, a carpenter, a shepherd and a farmer. It was truly a privilege to visit and leave with a much clearer picture of what life looked like between 2AD and 35AD. To the team of tour guides and volunteers at Nazareth YMCA, I applaud your hard work and dedication to preserving historical sites and s...

  Hello everyone, By popular request, I will be attempting to keep you all relatively up to date with my travels and adventures in Israel. Please bear with me because I am new to this and also have an assignment I need to work on while I am away (hooray). The purpose of this blog is mostly to experiment with something new, so your suggestions are very welcome 😊 So without further ado- Here is the summary of the journey so far! First stop: Istanbul Turkey (The airport terminal 1 April) I have very little to say about the airport other than to say that it is huge! Because the stop was so long, I also ended up working on my project at 5am. While I realise for some of you students this is a norm, I cannot say I enjoyed the experience.  I have attached a photo from the flight over. I would also like to praise and thank Turkish airlines for their amazing hospitality- they have an animated Signed safety video for the Deaf which is definitely something I have never seen before. Where...