Benjamin Allotment; Nebi Samwil and Jericho

Nebi Samwil- Prophet Samuel
This is traditionally where Samuel was buried even though we know it is not. There is a mosque here where people "pray" to him as Saul saw Samuel when he went to a witch. It's really sad. In reality, the Bible says that Samuel was born and died in Ramah and this is not Ramah. Nebi Samwil is the place where Solomon asked for wisdom! This is on a hill overlooking a green plain. Bill spoke and then had Bryant pray for wisdom for the group and future which was very meaningful.

From this hill we could see Gibeah of Saul, where the Levite and his concubine stayed in Judges 19 and they were disrespected and the concubine was killed. It was as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah but God spared the Benjaminites, the tribe where Paul would later come from.

Gibeah of Saul

Then we stopped at a quick lookout place. 

Then we went to the Wadi Quilt where we saw the cliffs of Mickmash and Geba, where Jonathan and his servant climbed to defeat the Philistines. In order to go to this place we had to take the long way to avoid dangerous arab cities. I am thankful for Bill and Benj who care for our safety and know where and where not to go. We were also in the Western Bank at this time. 

Anyway, the cliffs were steep and it is poppy season and the red ones are so beautiful!

the cliffs in the background

normal :) Walking at random places

Jericho, next stop!
It is amazing how quickly the geography changes here! It went from green hills to Egyptian looking brown mounds that turned into an extremely curvy road down to the flat lands of Jericho to the dead sea.

Jericho is just a tiny little tel surrounded by the modern city. It is very understandable why the Israelites could walk around it quickly. 

that mound is the old city Jericho

We saw the retaining wall that still stood and parts of the mud brick wall that fell out at a slant that only the Lord could be the cause of. It was really neat to see the evidence and remains!

mud brick wall

Jericho felt so hot! It was probably around 80F. Jen and I road a camel!!! It was crazy! It was bumpy and hard and getting up felt like we were gunna slide off but it was hilarious and I laughed practically the whole time! When it walks you really rock back and forth. It was a short ride for 10 sheckles. Dani took these great pictures for us. 

Then we went outside of Jericho, to the second Jericho which means Jesus was going out of Herod's Jericho into the residential Jericho. It was here where Jesus healed Bartimaeus. While Bill was talking 3 Arab boys quickly appeared from no where and a couple more followed and I felt super uncomfortable. We were warned earlier that this could happen and the guys are so good to us. The boys would get closer and closer and so the men so graciously put themselves in between us and the boys. A boy started coming at the girls and Bryant pushed him out of the way and was ready to fight ha ha. They are good protectors :)

Then we saw a sycamore tree

Lastly we went to the Ascent of Adumim where we could look out over the Judean Wilderness which was beautiful as the sun was setting and there were flowers left from the rain. Bill read Isaiah 40 to us to understand the context Isaiah was writing in.

 Isaiah 40:1-8 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” A voice says, “Cry!"  And I said,“What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Then we took pictures and just looked at the wilderness

and if you look closely there are our adventurous Kansas guys

Benjamin Allotment; Beth Horon Ridge Route

I believe this one was taken by Chris Cummings

We started at "Emmaus." Emmaus means spring and there are many springs around this area so we don't know which exactly is the city of Emmaus. This one was over 100 miles away from Jerusalem rather than seven like Luke 24:13 says. Abu Gosh, the neighboring town of Yad Hasmona (where I live), is a very good possibility. The place we stopped at was a plain rocky field where you could imagine a road with two men walking when another appeared.

On the way back to the bus we stopped at a couple of beautiful almond trees and got a few pictures and talked about Aaron's staff and how God caused it to bud and how God showed Jeremiah an almond branch as a symbol of His diligence to keep His word.

Then we drove through Gezer, whose king tried to help Lachish fight Joshua. Gezer was also the dowry that was given to Solomon for marrying Pharoah's daughter. Then we parked at a gas station and hiked up to a telephone tower on a hill where we could look down on the Beth horon Ridge route overlooking the valley. It was beautiful! Rocky yet green hills with blue sky. The weather was beautiful with the sun and clouds but there was some pretty heavy wind chills. Walking up the road we saw a shepard with his goats, sheep, and a donkey.

taken by Dani McNally http://www.danimcnally.com 

 The Beth Horon Ridge Route and Aijalon Valley was where Joshua and his men went to help Gibeon, the people group who tricked the Israelites to make a treaty with them for protection, fight against the Amorites. Here the Lord caused the sun to stand still and sent hailstones that hit the Amorites with such precision, missing the Israelites. God was showing His perfect target practice. J The philistines also fled on this route 3 different times 1. Samuel 2. Saul and Jonathan 3. David.

reenacting the hailstones falling on the Amorites :)

My Kind of Group

2/10 Free day! FINALLY!!!!!

I had the privilege of going to the synagogue ruins (an outdoor remains of a synagogue) to read my Bible, where I sat overlooking the green hills and the valley. It was so refreshing. I love doing devotions here! It is so peaceful and so meaningful with not many distractions. It is hard to stop many times!

So, as i titled this my kind of group I just want to say that I was blessed with the most amazing group! We are hysterical and super social. Let me tell you what we did today! We played tackle football guys vs girls which was super fun but as you can guess there is something to it :) We duck taped the guys feet together so that we could actually trip them. It was HILARIOUS! We sure wore them out. It was hilarious to watch and fun to play cause us girls had a chance :) Emily and I were on Ben and we took him out a couple times otherwise we just tried to block him. Justin was the quarter back and I was able to get a few runs on him when he had the ball so that was fun :) Andrew and Daniel were so shocked at how into it I got :)  ha ha At the very, i mean VERY end the guys got a touchdown :)

Afterwards Emily and I left to go do homework. We took homework down to the amphitheater but didn't end up doing it there. The amphitheater is beautiful! The bleachers are made out of rocks with a stage where the top is wood, in complete seclusion, very peaceful. We just sat there awhile and then talked about this blessing of an experience, the captivating land, the history, the fact that people lived like us, that this is where God ruled and sent his Son. Just incredible! I enjoyed it. Then we decided to go exploring down a trail. It was a lot of fun spending time with her and getting to know her.  We ended up going to the library later and doing homework and then in the evening we had a girls movie night in honor of Paige's birthday and we watched Brave :)

2/12
Our Professor came out of class during our break and was completely shocked that the group was all standing in a circle talking together. He said that is and IBEX first. Usually everyone is dispersed doing their own thing. I love this group so much! I am so privileged to get to know them! I wouldn't have gotten to know most of them if it hadn't have been for this trip. So many blessings in this group that i hope to keep in contact with for the rest of my life! Man i'm gunna miss this place a whole lot. I love it here so much.

Answer to prayer and Another Shabbot

2/7
Answer to prayer. Cheap tickets to Prague for study break!!! Super excited!

2/9 Church; Jerusalem Assembly
Jerusalem assembly is in a sketchy looking cement building that you climb up 5 sets of stairs to a nice sanctuary with many different people from all around the world. There are chairs, hard cement floors, 3 teared fans, cloth drapped over the ceiling that almost looks like toilet paper :) Meno, the pastor, starts the service in Hebrew and then translates to English. He welcomes us and then asks for prayer request. We sing some songs in Hebrew where our prof Benj leads with a few others and his wife Yael accompanies him with piano. Today I knew As the Deer and O The Deep Deep Love of Jesus. Then someone does a devotional in Hebrew and Meno translates. Then, we have the service where Meno speaks in Hebrew and Yael's dad translates. They do such a good job. You hear murmuring throughout the service but that is people translating the service into even more languages. There are so many nations represented that it is so great! We are all the body of Christ and it is such a good picture of it.

After church we were dropped off in the old city again for lunch. We went into an Armenian church (i couldn't take pictures) and that was amazing as well as super depressing!!! While in the sanctuary you couldn't have hands in your pockets or your legs cross. The men were dressed in black cape things. It started with one man singing and then two guys came in throwing incense and all the boys and men faced forward and started singing as well. It was so cultish. I wish I knew more how to explain it! I just had to look at the young boys who were tricked into thinking that this was normal cause their friends and family were all by their sides. The two guys with incense came to the pillars and tossed it at us. The building was huge! Very decorative with many pictures of JEsus and Mary. My heart hurt for those people.

Later, Jayden, Jen, and I were waiting for Ashley and Leah who stopped to look at something and as soon as Jayden turned to walk away, the shop keeper grabbed my arm, "Are you looking for a boyfriend?" "No!" "I couldn't help but notice your eyes. They are so beautiful!" I pulled away walked away not looking back. "Oh no, please! don't break my heart." Weird, I tell you, that is a good example of the shop keepers walking around in Jerusalem. I like having guys with me :)