From Jerusalem to the Dead Sea
This was a truly remarkable day. We packed up our belongings early and walked to the Old City by 8 am. As we entered the Jaffa Gate, a sudden rain shower sent us scurrying to the covered streets of the Christian Quarter. We had breakfast with Loren McGrail, a United Church of Christ missionary serving in East Jerusalem. Loren is employed by the YWCA, and her ministry is with Palestinian women. We spent almost two hours learning about her work and hearing her first-hand perspective on Israeli/Palestinian relations. Our brief time and our observations in Jerusalem and Bethlehem sparked lots of questions. We were grateful for the time spent with Loren and for the advocacy work she is doing.
On the road between Jerusalem and Jericho (the setting for Jesus' parable of The Good Samaritan), we detoured up a winding road through the Judean hills. Our destination was St. George's Eastern Orthodox Monastery, an ancient stone structure clinging to the side of a cliff. We walked a steep path to the bottom of a gorge and then up to the monastery. A large group of Ethiopian Christians was also visiting. A strong wind was blowing, and their colorful, flowing garments flapped in the breeze as they hiked. Inside the monastery, gold cases hold the bones and skulls of martyred monks from the sixth century, as well as the entire withered body of a monk dressed up and preserved in a glass box. Grotesque, but kind of awesome, too! While we were at the monastery, I prayed for the group from St. Stephens-Bethlehem UCC that visited the Abbey of the Genesee south of Rochester today.
We entered the West Bank and inadvertantly drove through a Palestinian Refugee Camp on the way to Jericho. The poverty evident there was staggering. In Jericho itself, we stopped by the sycamore tree said to be the one Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus over the crowds of people taller than him. I climbed that tree twenty-six years ago, but now it's behind a fence and I just took a picture of it. A man nearby made fresh-squeezed orange juice for us and gave us a bunch of bananas in return for a donation to an orphanage. We wanted to take the aerial car up to the Mount of Temptation, but the wind and rain required at least 20 riders to stabilize the car. No one else seemed to be around, so we decided not to wait.
The highlight of the day was visiting the traditional site of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River. When we arrived, no one else was there and we ate our pita sandwiches and fruit beside the narrow, muddy stream. Within minutes, several groups of visitors began to arrive and take their place along the river bank. Two were from African countries, and they gravitated to either end of the baptism area. One group playfully dipped their feet into the river. The other engaged in a formal worship service with chanting and the full immersion baptism of several members. In the middle, an Italian group donned baptismal robes and stood knee-deep as they prayed in unison and crossed themselves. Nearby but across the river in Jordan, twenty Korean Christians sang Gospel songs in English. It was pretty amazing, and we felt blessed to be there.
The Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea, just a few miles south of the baptism site. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth, almost 1,400 feet below sea level. In the late afternoon, it's a luminous blue with the mountains of Jordan providing a rose-colored backdrop. I had forgotten how stunning it is. We stopped to tour Qumran, an archeological site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discoved by Bedouin shepherds. From there, we followed the western shore of the Dead Sea to Ein Gede. The group that was baptized by immersion in the Jordan earlier had gotten there ahead of us and was now playing and floating in the notoriously buoyant sea.
Passing Masada (which we will visit tomorrow), we climbed up the steep incline of the Judean desert hills to the town of Arad. We had reserved a studio apartment several months ago, but we found out on arrival that it had been rented to someone else. The alternate, tiny room offered to us for our two nights in Arad wasn't what we needed. The manager made arrangements with a friend for us to rent an apartment from her instead. We were invited to join her and her husband for soup and some very strong homemade ouzo. They are Russian Jews, and they also invited a couple visiting from Russia. Despite language challenges, we enjoyed great converstation and much laughter with them before retiring to our own quarters for the night. Whew! A very full day!
This was a truly remarkable day. We packed up our belongings early and walked to the Old City by 8 am. As we entered the Jaffa Gate, a sudden rain shower sent us scurrying to the covered streets of the Christian Quarter. We had breakfast with Loren McGrail, a United Church of Christ missionary serving in East Jerusalem. Loren is employed by the YWCA, and her ministry is with Palestinian women. We spent almost two hours learning about her work and hearing her first-hand perspective on Israeli/Palestinian relations. Our brief time and our observations in Jerusalem and Bethlehem sparked lots of questions. We were grateful for the time spent with Loren and for the advocacy work she is doing.
On the road between Jerusalem and Jericho (the setting for Jesus' parable of The Good Samaritan), we detoured up a winding road through the Judean hills. Our destination was St. George's Eastern Orthodox Monastery, an ancient stone structure clinging to the side of a cliff. We walked a steep path to the bottom of a gorge and then up to the monastery. A large group of Ethiopian Christians was also visiting. A strong wind was blowing, and their colorful, flowing garments flapped in the breeze as they hiked. Inside the monastery, gold cases hold the bones and skulls of martyred monks from the sixth century, as well as the entire withered body of a monk dressed up and preserved in a glass box. Grotesque, but kind of awesome, too! While we were at the monastery, I prayed for the group from St. Stephens-Bethlehem UCC that visited the Abbey of the Genesee south of Rochester today.
We entered the West Bank and inadvertantly drove through a Palestinian Refugee Camp on the way to Jericho. The poverty evident there was staggering. In Jericho itself, we stopped by the sycamore tree said to be the one Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus over the crowds of people taller than him. I climbed that tree twenty-six years ago, but now it's behind a fence and I just took a picture of it. A man nearby made fresh-squeezed orange juice for us and gave us a bunch of bananas in return for a donation to an orphanage. We wanted to take the aerial car up to the Mount of Temptation, but the wind and rain required at least 20 riders to stabilize the car. No one else seemed to be around, so we decided not to wait.
The highlight of the day was visiting the traditional site of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River. When we arrived, no one else was there and we ate our pita sandwiches and fruit beside the narrow, muddy stream. Within minutes, several groups of visitors began to arrive and take their place along the river bank. Two were from African countries, and they gravitated to either end of the baptism area. One group playfully dipped their feet into the river. The other engaged in a formal worship service with chanting and the full immersion baptism of several members. In the middle, an Italian group donned baptismal robes and stood knee-deep as they prayed in unison and crossed themselves. Nearby but across the river in Jordan, twenty Korean Christians sang Gospel songs in English. It was pretty amazing, and we felt blessed to be there.
The Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea, just a few miles south of the baptism site. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth, almost 1,400 feet below sea level. In the late afternoon, it's a luminous blue with the mountains of Jordan providing a rose-colored backdrop. I had forgotten how stunning it is. We stopped to tour Qumran, an archeological site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discoved by Bedouin shepherds. From there, we followed the western shore of the Dead Sea to Ein Gede. The group that was baptized by immersion in the Jordan earlier had gotten there ahead of us and was now playing and floating in the notoriously buoyant sea.
Passing Masada (which we will visit tomorrow), we climbed up the steep incline of the Judean desert hills to the town of Arad. We had reserved a studio apartment several months ago, but we found out on arrival that it had been rented to someone else. The alternate, tiny room offered to us for our two nights in Arad wasn't what we needed. The manager made arrangements with a friend for us to rent an apartment from her instead. We were invited to join her and her husband for soup and some very strong homemade ouzo. They are Russian Jews, and they also invited a couple visiting from Russia. Despite language challenges, we enjoyed great converstation and much laughter with them before retiring to our own quarters for the night. Whew! A very full day!