Jordan!!

Here are the pictures from my week in Jordan! I am doing serious summarizing here, but here's a quick run-down of the trip:

The scenery was amazing.

 

We saw where Moses was told not to enter the promised land. He was then translated from this spot.

So mannequins. . . ? It's creepy. They are everywhere. It's really awkward when you bump into someone, apologize, and then have a heart attack when you realize they are fake. . .

Oh, Petra!! It's my new favorite hiking place in the world. The pictures don't do it justice. We hiked for hours and still didn't see all the tombs. There were dozens!! 

 I rode a camel and died. Coolest thing ever. He was way nice and so cute! We're friends.

 Shopping in Amman! There wasn't much there, but they did have the best chocolate in the world. No joke. I'm pretty sure I refer to everything as "the best" or "my favorite," but I'm not kidding. I love the Middle East.

 

The temple of Hercules at the Amman Citadel. Incredible.

Jerash! An amazing ancient city. Temples, theaters, pillars. . .

 So I thought I was in Jordan? . . . Turned out to be Greece/Rome. Amazing!

And the grand finale. . . The River Jordan. As always, such a humble place for such a grand event in Christ's life. 

Jordan Teaser

I'm back after an amazing week in Jordan!! I had no internet so I'm behind on my posts. Until I have time to post everything, here are a few pictures from Petra and Jerash! 

Service Project

On Fridays it is busy in the city because of the incoming Sabbath. For our protection, we stay inside the center until 3 pm. This afternoon we had opportunity to make school kits for children in need. The Jerusalem Center makes 15,000 school kits and 15,000 hygiene kits a year! The kits go all over Israel and neighboring countries.

 We had so much fun! We blasted music in the garage and had an assembly line/dance party.

 We made 1,500 school kits in an hour and a half!

I spent the rest of the day working on the mural for the elementary school. I have it all planned out and ready to go! I'm so excited to start painting. On Monday we head to Jordan for a week, so we will start the mural after.

Jericho Field Trip

"The walls will tumble,
The walls will crumble. . .

One more mile to Jericho!"

I've had Hillary Duff's song "Jericho" stuck in my head all week. I don't even remember the real lyrics. . . Anyway, I went to Jericho today! We drove down into the Judean Wilderness-- 1,300 feet below sea level!

It turns out, there are a lot of Bible stories in Jericho, so get ready for a lot of history. . .

Coming in at 10,000 B.C, it is the oldest city in the world. I can't even imagine how old that really is.

The original Jericho is obviously ruins, but there are still some pieces left. These adorable dogs were just chillin' on the tel!

Below is a neolithic tower that is really really old. It was a lot bigger than the picture makes it look. I can't imagine how they built structures so large and so sturdy to last thousands of years.

We then saw the city wall. This wall was built after the children of Israel came and destroyed it, but if you look carefully in the bottom left of the picture there is a pile of mud and inside is light redish bricks. They believe this pile fell off the original wall, possibly when the walls came down in the story found in Joshua 6.

This is Elisha's Spring, or the Spring of Jericho. In 2 Kings 2:21 Elisha heals the waters at the source, which is right here in this picture. It's one of the few places in the bible where we know exactly where the story took place! This spring is the reason anyone could settle in the harsh desert of Jericho.

In Luke 19: 4-6 Zacchæus climbs a sycamore tree to see Christ. This is a Sycamore tree in Jericho.

Matthew 2:19-- Herod dies. In the center of the picture is the ruins of Herod's winter palace. He died here. In the top left there is a mountain. This is the traditional spot for the Mt. of Temptation as found in Matthew 4:8-10. 

And finally, my most favorite spot of the day-- The Road to Jericho. This has been my favorite view so far. It was gorgeous! This is traditionally where the story of the Good Samaritan would have taken place. It is also the road Christ traveled on between Jerusalem and Jericho. The Mt. of Temptation is just behind the camera, so he would have been fasting for 40 days and night in this terrain.

Under the Center

 We toured under the center. The building is terraced into the hill, so beneath it is a concrete hill and maze. It was really steep and dark, so I was more focused on not hitting my head than taking pictures.

 At the end was a large room where past students all signed their names. I added mine to the mix! I didn't recognize any names. There were too many . . .

Mural Prep

As a tradition and service to the community, we are painting a mural in the local elementary school! I have been asked to design it! I am honored and so excited for this project. We went to the school and looked at previous designs.

The school is covered in murals! It is beautiful. I have a lot to live up to. Here is my space:

It's small, but it is right in the entryway. They asked for me to include flowers in the design. My specialty! I've already started planning. More to come!

Nagev Field Trip

We went to the Nagev Desert! Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are from here. We started at a Bedouin weaving factory. The women showed us how they make yarn and weave blankets. They gave us a drink that had lots of herbs in it. It was really strong, but thankfully Nick finished my drink for me. It felt like "The Other Side of Heaven" when they give him the gross drink but he doesn't want to offend the people so he acts like it tastes good.

We then visited Beersheba. Abraham left Beersheba to sacrifice Isaac at Mt. Moriah (Mt. Moriah is where Dome of the Rock and the temple mount are now located). In this picture you can see the ruins of a government city around his time. It was amazing to see the rooms and layout of everything! (Notice how green it is. . . winter is the rainy season. In summer this will be a brown desert)

The people built a huge water system deep into the hill to bring water into the city. We walked down the well and into huge caves underground!

The next site was Tel Arad. A tel is basically the ruins of an ancient city. This tel was of a Caananite city and a satelitte temple. Jerusalem was the main temple, but other areas had smaller temples. This city was from 3,000 BC!!

We saw the Holy of Holies for this temple. The temple was decommissioned by the Romans and buried, but archaeologists found and uncovered it.