It's about time that I go into detail about the things I saw and did in Israel. The past week and a half was a whirlwind of sights, sounds, and experiences. I am in the process of uploading hundreds of pictures to photobucket (the link in the margin of this page). They are a jumbled mess, but I will do my best to organize and label them soon.
We began in Tel Aviv, the modern city built on Jaffa. That hotel was kind of icky, but the view of the Mediterranean from our window was nice. Luckily, this was just a place to land after all of our flights. We stayed next in Haifa, where from our hotel on Mt. Carmel I told you we could see Lebanon from the rooftop terrace. The ocean, the mountains, and the city were beautiful at night. I touched a little on the Bahai Hanging Gardens. Down the center are stairs leading up one of Haifa's slopes. They go up to a dome, then up some more to a few balconies and the gates. The gardens surrounding this are incredible. From the top, you can see the dazzling colors of the garden, the city skyline, and the ocean.
I talked about Caesarea, Nazareth, and Capurnaum. Later, we visited the Mount of Beatitudes. Israelis know how to plant a garden. There was, of course, a church built there. from the balcony, we looked down the slope at hundreds of banana trees and then down to the Sea of Galilee. The trees gave us a reference point to imagine 5,000+ people listening to Jesus teach. Inside the church, was a visiting group of nuns (will you throw rocks if I call them Asian?). As we looked around the small, round room that made up the sanctuary, the nuns began to sing. Caught off gaurd, we all sat and listened. It was a beautiful moment.
All of these places were in Galilee. To complete my description of this region, I can't forget the Sea of Galilee. Here is another excerpt from my journal:
I knew that it was the place where Jesus calmed the storm and walked on water. I knew it was the place that the disciples had fished without success until Jesus told them to try again on the other side. I knew that there was not a giant church on top. While we were taking the boat ride, I kept hoping that a great big storm would come up. I wanted to see what the disciples saw when they were so afraid. We always look at them with such superior attitudes. This week, I had an experience that showed me how similar to them I am.
Our first night in Tel Aviv, my roommates and I awoke in the middle of the night to a loud fight in the next room. We heard shouting in Hebrew and broken English and objects hitting the wall. I do not exaggerate when I say I have never been so afraid. (Nighttime does things to you. I was pretty convinced that those were the things you heard before you were stolen by terrorists.) I felt confused and vulnerable. I imagine that I felt similar to how the disciples felt that day on the boat. Why wasn't Jesus doing anything?
Also similar to the disciples, the episode looked very different in the light. The next morning showed us that even gently closing the cabinets in our room made a loud noise, the same noise that had sounded like a person being shoved against the wall the night before. What had been so terrifying seemed silly.
In this situation, I saw that I have never had any reason to be afraid. My life is easy. I didn't have any room to expect more faith out of the disciples when I had never had to exercise my own. Being in this unfomfortable place and seeing the circumstances Jesus and his disciples would have encountered stretches me. The stories from growing up are changing. They confront me abruptly and challenge whether I will continue to see them as stories or if I accept them as truth and fact. I am not yet ready to process what I've seen. I really need to reflect.
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