One last time

Hello to all you blog readers,

I thought I would give one last reflection on behalf of the group, now that we have been back for about 4 weeks. We are all still processing what we have experienced, and will continue to for many more months to come. All of us have found this trip to be a very valuable experience in which we learned immensly about ourselves, the world and god and how the three tie together. For each of us the journey made a different effect, but for everyone it was one that will never be forgotten. Thank you to all of you who supported us through this trip, whether it was through finacial aid or just by reading this blog. It is because of you that this trip has been able to happen. We would also like to thank all the leaders who took the time to organize this trip and all those who came with us. I think I did all these thank yous before in the last blog I sent, but they are really important and we are all very thankfull to everyone. We all now have tonnes of stories to share, whether it be funny stories, like Ben getting bird droppings on him, or more serious and deep stories about the present day conflict, or even stories about what expereinces have really shapped us. Though the trip itself is over, the journey has just begun, for we must now share our stories with all of you, and pass on our wisdom and insight from what we have seen to all who will listen. This trip has changed us, now it is our turn to change the world. None of us are really sure how this is all going to play out. We can't create peace in the Middle East single handed. All we know is we need to do something. And we plan to start by sharing our stories with you. In the coming months we will be traveling to a lot of churchs to share our stories, as well we hope to have evenings where we show pictures and of course more stories. If you are interested in us coming and doing a presentation for you or your community, you can contact the Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (MCEC) by phone ( 1-800-206-9356) or by email (mcec@mcec.ca). Or even if you just want to have a one on one discussion with any of us over coffee or over email or something, we would all be happy to talk to you, we all have lots to talk about.

Thank you once again to all who have helped out

Untill next time

Peace

Derek Alton

It's still not over

As we've said, a lot of the work and understanding of this trip is and will be ongoing--there's a lot for us to unpack from the experiences of the last three weeks. Since many of us are at home it will be easier to relate what we've seen in person. However, we plan to post a couple more times to this blog some of the things that have been important to us, so don't delete the address from your bookmarks yet!

--Mike

Last day in Israel (tear)

Hello everyone back home, hope you have all been well.

Well today is our last day here in Israel, it's hard to imagine. It has been an awesome trip and time has just flown by. Now the next couple months will be spent processing what we have seen, heard and experienced. Everyone has been affected dramatically by this trip. It has shaped the way we think and perceive things, opened our eyes to the complexity of the conflict here and has shaped how we see the bible and our faith.

Pretty much this has been an awesome life changing trip.

To recap what we have done over the past couple days:

Two days ago we hiked to Jericho. This was an intense hike through a desert and canyon. It was several hours of intense heat. I have never drank so much water before. We hiked along cliffs with a couple hundred foot drop just a few feet away. I definitely got reacquainted with my fear of heights, and I have never been so happy to get to the bus. We then visited the old site of Jericho. At this site we saw really old walls--the oldest walls in the world--and a tower that is even older: at least 6000 years. A bunch of us ran around the old city of Jericho (to be honest, I don't know how, seeing how tired we all were after the hike but we did it). Oh and in spite of the story in the Bible where Joshua and the Israelties trash Jericho, that wall is still standing. If you want the full story, though, you will have to talk to us when we get back. I am really proud of everyone for surviving that day, it was quite something.

What we did yesterday, on Friday:

We spent time visiting Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum here in Jerusalem. It was quite a moving experience, hard to explain properly. You really have to be there to feel what it means. I guess that is really how the whole trip was, it can't be explained easily in a short space. That evening we celebated the coming of the Sabbath (Friday night to Saturday night) and had a ceremonial Shabbat dinner to wrap it up. The Sabbath, the practice of a day of rest for God, is a lost art I feel in western society. It is really important to have a day off to relax and recuperate, to reevaluate where you are in life and where you are going, to take time to be with family. In our rushing society we never take the time to slow down and do that. And because of this people are losing touch with themselves, causing major problems with stress and stress related illnesses.

Today we are packing up, relaxing and seeing some last bits of Jerusalem before we fly home. Not everyone is going directly home right now. There is a group going to Turkey for a week and a few others are doing further travel as well.

As for the rest of us we are all heading home tonight and will be arriving at 6:20 in Pearson Airport Toronto. Anyone who feels like getting up that early to welcome us home is free to do so.

I would like to take this time to really thank everyone who has been apart of this whole trip. Thank you everyone who was part of the organization of this trip, taking a dream and turning it into a reality. Thank you to all who have supported us with prayers and money and just general support: it has meant so much to all of us and made it possible for us all to go. Thank you to all who have been reading our blog, we hope that it has been interesting. Thank you to all our leaders on this trip, Ellie, Allan, Jaimie, hiker Dave and of course Linford (he just has so much energy) for all the work that they have put into this trip, making everything run smoothly and making this trip absolutely awesome. And I would personally like to thank everyone who came with us. All the young adults are what made it. There was great chemistry with everyone, I have made tonnes of awesome new friends and strengthened my relationships with old ones.

See you all soon.

Peace,

Derek Alton

Day 16: A Whirlwind History Lesson

The past two days in Jerusalem have been great. We have had free time to roam the city, exploring the most ancient and holy places of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The Old City is one of the most fascinating places I have visited with its narrow streets and vendors selling their wares.

The 4:00 am call to prayers came and went this morning without any stirring from my bed. I was sound asleep, which is saying something considering the minaret from a mosque is quite literally outside our room. We met our tour guide for the day at 8:00. His name is Jarred and he is a Jew that immigrated from New Hamshire 12 years ago when he was in his early twenties. It's easy to tell his love for the land, particularly the city of Jerusalem by the enthusiasm and passion with which he speaks.

Our first stop today was the City of David, a few hundred metres to the south of the Old City. The City of David, as we learned was the original "Old City" as it was the place conquered by David and his army. There are currently houses built where the City once stood, but there have been ongoing excavations on the national park land for 100 years. One of the discoveries made was Hezekiah's Tunnel which is an underground passage made to transport water from the spring on the east side of the city to the collecting pools on the south west side. It was at these pools that Jesus told the blind man to wash the mud from his eyes. We walked through the tunnel which is about 800 metres long (1200 cubits to the Biblical scholar). The spring continues to feed the passage today so we were wading through mid-calf deep water. Most of the way the roof was about 6 feet high, give or take and the width was just enough to make my shoulders rub against the walls from time to time.

Our next stop was the excavations at the base of the Temple Mount. Before the Six Days War in 1967, a large part of the base of the Temple was buried under many metres of earth. We were able to sit on the large stone staircase that leads up to the main entrance. The south-west corner of the wall is where some scholars believe that Jesus was tempted by Satan.

Our final visit was to the Tower of David which is on the west side of the Old City by the Jaffa Gate. Oddly enough the tower wasn't even built when David was King. Jarred explained that travelers coming in the gate saw the tower and assumed that it must have been made by the great King David. The tower offered a great view of the Old City as well as a comprehenssive museum on the history of Jeusalem and its significance to Islam, Chrisianity and Judaism. Today was jam packed with history and as Linford put it, "4000 years crammed into 7 hours."

Tomorrow we look forward to a float on the Dead Sea and a closer look at the zealots.

P.S. We lost our memory card reader and so we can't post pictures at the moment.

Blog by: Ben
Pictures by: ?

Day 14: Arrival in Jerusalem

I am sitting at a computer terminal in the old city of Jerusalem. I can see people walking past and colourful wares in the narrow streets that crisscross this place. It is amazing the amount of people selling, places to buy, and the feeling of age that is here. There is a lot to explore, and since it's all bounded by a big wall, you can never get terribly lost. Leastways, if you're lost you're probably not far away from where you would like to be. We arrived today around noon, and entered the city through St. Steven's gate, one of the many named gates. We are staying at a convent that is itself a maze of rooftop terraces and arched stone staircases.

The last three days have been among the most engaging and stretching of our trip. Staying near Bethlehem in Beit Sahour let us see those most famous christian sites, the Church of the Nativity (the place of Jesus' birth) and the Shepherds' fields, where the shepherds heard the angels singing. But we also got a tour of the wall that divides Bethlehem from Jerusalem, and spoke with many people who told us stories of their lives here. I won't go into detail about it here, but it gave us a lot to think about.

We also visited the city of Hebron, where the tomb of the Patriarchs is located. That's where Abraham, Sarah, and other important forefathers of both the Jewish and Arabic peoples are buried. It is probably the tensest place in the area, but we passed through without incident.

I think each of us has been impressed by the warmth and hospitality of our hosts here. It really has been special to stay with families here and learn from them. I learned some useful arabic words and the alphabet! It will take a lot more to actually read it, though.

In any case, you should all know that we are all having a great time! There's still one week of excitement and learning ahead of us. We'll keep you posted about what we're up doing from day to day. Tomorrow I believe we're continuing to explore Jerusalem.

--Mike Turman

Tiberias to Beit Sahour and Bethlehem

The Tiberias YMCA (our last stop) was right on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. We took full advantage of this, and went swimming!














Yesterday we left Tiberias to go to Bethlehem. We drove south from the Sea of Galilee through the northern part of the West Bank - the Judean Wilderness. We could see how the landscape got drier and drier as we came south. We made a brief stop, where we saw the camel parked next to the bus!















Our drive to Bethlehem took us through Jerusalem, and we got our first look at the famous view.














Going through the checkpoint to enter Bethlehem from Jerusalem, we were interested to see the large signs saying "peace be with you" and "Jerusalem and Bethlehem - love and peace" on the Israeli side of the wall. Today we spent time along the Palestinian side. Here, the walls had messages that said things like "walls don't bring peace" and "fear builds walls". It was really hard to understand how two people can live right next to each other on the same land yet be universes apart.














Yesterday afternoon, we visited Herodion. This was Herod's summer palace, and the only one of his constructions to be named after him. The ruins are on top of the man-made mountain, and there is a fascinating collection of huge water cisterns and tunnels throughout the mountain. Some of them are Herod's, and others were built during the 66 Jewish revolt against Rome.

We also visited one of Bethlehem's three refugee camps. We had a long discussion with some residents while standing in the streets. One of the neighbours brought out tea for all of us. This was beautiful hospitality.

Today, besides seeing the wall, we visited the Tent of Nations. The Tent of Nations is an organization whose goal is to work towards understanding, reconciliation, and peace between people. It was hopeful to listen to the people there. Little by little, they are making a difference. They told a story about a woman who had lived in a settlement for 9 years without realizing that she had neighbours outside the settlement. She joined in a discussion at the Tent of Nations, where she met her Palestinian neighbours, and is seeing them in a completely new way.

Our final stop for the day was the Church of the Nativity. The church was full of tourists, all wanting to see the grotto, so the line stretched across the sanctuary. The church itself was beautiful, with gold mosaics on the walls, and gold icons at the front.















We are staying with host families in Beit Sahour, which is adjacent to Bethlehem. There are pairs of us with each family. The family that we (Becky and Alison) are staying with has four daughters. We've enjoyed playing cards with them, even though we don't speak Arabic, and only the eldest can speak English.

We leave Beit Sahour and Bethlehem on Sunday, making our way to our final stop in Jerusalem.

Becky and Alison

Drawing upon literary sources and the results of the excavations, it has been possible to reconstruct a part of the town's history. The town is not mentioned in the Old Testament. Archaeological evidence demonstrates that the town came into existence in the second century BC, in the Hasmonean period. The site had no defensive wall and extended along the shore of the nearby lake (from east to west).
The cemetery zone is found 200 meters north of the synagogue, which places it beyond the inhabited area of the town. It extended 3 kilometers to Tabgha, an area which appears to have been dedicated to agriculture, judging by the many oil and grain mills which were discovered in the excavation. Fishing was also a source of income; the remains of another harbour were found to the west of that built by the Franciscans.
According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus selected this town as the center of his public ministry in Galilee after he left the small mountainous hamlet of Nazareth (Matthew 4:12-17). Capernaum has no obvious advantages over any other city in the area, so he probably chose it because it was the home of his first disciples, Simon (Peter) and Andrew. The Gospel of John suggests that Jesus' ministry was centered in a village called Cana.
No sources have been found for the belief that Capernaum was involved in the bloody Jewish revolts against the Romans, the First Jewish-Roman War (AD 66–73) or Bar Kokhba's revolt (132–135), although there is reason to believe that Josephus, one of the Jewish generals during the earlier revolt, was taken to Capernaum (which he called "Kapharnakos") after a fall from his horse in nearby Bethsaida.

On our travels we stopped to wade in the waters of the Jordan River. In this particular photo David, Becky, Kayla and Kristina are dippig their feet in this historical and biblical waterway. We also travelled to the base of the Mt. Hermon and other areas of the Golan Heights; the disputed region between Israel and Syria.
This is a photo of our wonderful and informative tour guide Linford. Here he gives a mini-lecture regarding the Canaanites at the city Tel Dan.