The night before we left to come back to America, IBEX tradition holds that every student must sign the ”IBEX wall.” This wall is located down in the Miklat (the IBEX bomb shelter). It was truly a momentous occasion. We found our good friend Rachelle Willis’ signature on the wall, and decided to sign our names next to hers. She was an inspiration to Melinda and I (Jennifer) for coming to IBEX, so we thought it would be appropriate to sign by her name.

Doing the deed...

Signing our names on the wall...

Forever stamped in history...

Our names...on the IBEX wall

Our names among many...

All the names from every IBEXer...

 The next morning was our last day in Israel. We were sad to be leaving Israel and what had been our “home” for 3 1/2 months, but happy to be going back to the USA to see our families. We definitely miss many things from Israel…but there really is no place quite like home.

Our last day in Israel

We loved our time in the Holy Land!

 We left the Tel Aviv airport at around 11 pm on Dec. 13th and landed 12 hours “later” at the airport in Newark, New Jersey at about 6 am in the morning on Dec. 14th. It was a very weird 12 hours…when we got off the plane to go to our next flight…the sun was just rising. It felt like lunch time to us. It was probably the longest “night” any of us had been through. Needless to say, we were thrilled to be back in America!

Sunrise at Newark, NJ Airport

 We continued our travels, which included another 6 hour plane ride, and finally landed at LAX. After 24 hours of traveling we were tired, but so excited to see our families! We all went to In-N-Out were we enjoyed eating a non kosher cheeseburger! Our first taste of real American food since Aug. 30th (airplane food does not count).

With our families at In-N-Out

Yay for siblings!

...We missed them!

All together again after 3 1/2 months

 I’m at a loss as to how I should end this post, and essentially, this blog about our time in Israel…my heart is so full of what I learned and how God showed himself so faithful to us. The Lord used this semester abroad experience to help us learn more of life’s many lessons. We not only learned more about God and His Word, but we learned about living in another country and how life isn’t as easy as maybe it is in America. We learned a lot about trusting God and resting in His peace even when life gets challenging. There is so much more I could say…

One more thing…my experiences and the things I learned were made even better by my too amazing friends Melinda and Brigitte! I’m so glad we went to IBEX together! Sharing a room together, studying together, helping each other, learning together, laughing together, traveling together, going on walks together, doing just about everything together…I’m so thankful for you both! My life in Israel is connected with you guys…my memories will always have you both in them. We became like sisters…I love you Melinda and Brigitte!

The best of friends

 “There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you , O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.” Psalm 86:8-12

Soli De Gloria – All Glory be to God!

Brigitte

The Birthday girls

They started out as friends...

...now they're not so sure...

...now they aren't friends...

...now they make up and are friends...yay!

Awww...

 Then Brigitte wanted to go on a little “hike”…it was more like a walk through bushes. Oh well, good memories anyway.

Sneaking through the underbrush...

That night all of IBEX got together to celebrate Brigitte and Ashleigh’s birthdays.  So we all gathered ’round for cake and such in the Miklat.

Celebration in the Miklat

Eating cake

Emily being...Emily

 For those that don’t know…the Miklat is our bomb shelter…also known as student life hangout.

After the festivities were over, we went back to our room to watch Brigitte open her presents.

Opening presents...woohoo!

Trying to figure out her brother's note...

She loved her new sweater!

All the presents from her family...

All in all, the day was GREAT! Now if we could just be with our families…only 12 more days to go! Yay!

Path on the Acropolis

Ancient theater

The Parthenon

 The Parthenon in all its reconstructed (and reconstructing!) glory!! It was amazing to get to see the Parthenon!

Rachel, Christina, Brigitte, Melinda

Taken by a nice English speaking dude

 Of course by the end of the trip, anyone who spoke English was a nice person! We met so many interesting people and discovered that as a whole the Greek people are quite friendly and helpful. They can even be helpful when they don’t speak English…but of course when they are jabbering directions in Greek it isn’t all that helpful! But it was a blessing that for the most part it was not difficult to find someone who spoke English and could help us figure out what we needed to know.

 

 In front of yet another temple on top of the Acropolis…

Jennifer in the Parthenon

Dog at Parthenon

 During our first day in Athens, we quickly discovered that dogs run rampant in the streets! If Israel has lots of stray cats (which it does), then Greece is its rival in stray dogs! We also noticed that a vast majority of the dogs are big dogs…we’re not exactly sure why small dogs and medium dogs don’t really end up as strays in Athens. Another unique feature about these dogs was that most of them did indeed have collars. One man called them wild dogs but in reality they were very nice dogs and not aggressive at all…unless they happened to be chasing cars. One dog in particular seemed to be inviting cars and motorcycles to just run all over him! It made for a most distressing walk since the dog insisted on following us and we did not want to see a dog pancake right in front of our eyes!

Jennifer

 Jennifer standing on the Acropolis with the city of Athens behind her.

Poseidon

Once we realized dogs are everywhere in Athens, we decided it was time to start naming them. So what do you name dogs when you’re wandering around Greece? Obviously you name them after gods from Greek mythology…which is exactly what we did. The above dog, Poseidon, was one of the cutest dogs we found (at least according to Melinda). 

Athena

 It’s only appropriate to name a dog after Athena when you are on the Acropolis and within eyesight of the Parthenon.

Hercules

Theater of Dionysius

 

Climbing up to Mars Hill

 On our second day in Athens, we set out to find Mars Hill, also known as Aeropagus Hill. This is the location where Paul preached a sermon to the Athenians about the unknown God. While sitting on top of Mars Hill, we took a few minutes to sing some songs and read the biblical account in Acts. Just like all of the places we’ve seen in Israel, the account of Paul’s sermon came alive in a new way as we sat where he preached it.

Statue on a building

 Greece is a city of stray dogs to be sure…but it is also a city of statues. This one, I assume, is of Athena.

National Library of Greece

 We wanted to visit the National Library of Greece…but unfortunately it was closed the first day we went there. But not to waste the situation in which we found ourselves, we took some time to take some pictures in front of the library. The curvy staircase, pillars, and sculptors made from some great pictures!

Brigitte, Melinda, Christina

Rachel in Athens

 While in Athens, we stayed in a nice hotel called Hotel Byron. It was within walking distance of the Acropolis and a nearby metro station. A definite benefit is that Hotel Byron also has free wireless. If you ever go to Athens, we would recommend Hotel Byron.

Waiting for a train in Athens...

We spent a great deal of our time in Greece in train station waiting for trains or riding in trains. In the above picture, we are preparing for our first train ride of the whole trip…from Athens to Corinth.

Temple of Apollos and Acrocorinth

Temple of Apollos and AcrocorinthAcrocorinth is on top of the rocky hill behind the temple. Acrocorinth was a fortress that offered protection to the city of ancient Corinth. On our second day in Corinth we hiked up to Acrocorinth.

In ancient Corinth

 

Acrocorinth

Christina

 

Brigitte

Leaving Acrocorinth

After leaving Acrocorinth, we headed back to the train station and went to Pyrgos. From there we were able to take a day trip to Olympia and then on the following day we went down to the southern part of the Peloponese and visited Kalamata, a coastal town. But those pictures will have to wait for another time.

One thing that struck me while in Galilee was the realness of Jesus having been there. Of him actually living here on earth and coming to die for us…it was a sobering thought, especially while being at places like Nazareth or Capernaum, places where Jesus lived. It’s hard to believe he came to earth because of wretched sinners like us.

Because we’re already a little behind, this post will be mostly pictures from each of our field trip days, I probably won’t say a lot about everything…there’s just too much!

Day 1:

We traveled along the coastal plain stopping at Aphek and then Caesarea Maritime. Aphek was a major city controlled by the Philistines during the reign of King Saul. Caesarea Maritime was a city built up by Herod the Great and was also where he built his harbor.

Fortress at Aphek

Amazing fortress

Battle reenactment

Ampitheater at Caesarea

Meghan sang a song to test the acoustics

Immense theater!

Caesarea Maritime

 Bill showed us an arena where races and other such things would have taken place…some of the students decided to have some races of their own.

The girls racing

Coming into the final stretch

The guys racing

The HUGE arena!

Brigitte with the harbor behind her

Jennifer and Melinda with Caesarea behind them

 We also got to see the water system for the ancient city. The very gradual slope of the aqueduct was amazing!

Roman Aqueduct

Standing under the aqueduct

Day 2:

We traveled up from the coastal plain over the Mt. Carmel mountain range and into the Jezreel Valley. This area is the lower Galilee. We went to several cities here, including: Megiddo, Jokneam, Jezreel, Harod (spring), and Nazareth.

Our friend Angela representing the "Angel" on a 1st Century tomb near Megiddo

Michelle and Melinda with the Jezreel Valley behind them

Drinking from the Harod Spring like Gideon's men

The city of Nazareth

Jennifer on the Nazareth ridge

Day 3:

Along the Nazareth ridge we stopped at Cana where Jesus performed his 1st miracle, and at Sephoris the Roman capitol of Galilee during Jesus’ younger years. Bill also took us up to the Arbel cliffs where we got our first glimpse of the Sea of Galilee. We then hiked down into the Arbel canyon.

An amazing mosaic at Sephoris

Our first glimpse of the Sea of Galilee from the top of the Arbel cliffs

Hiking on the cliffs of Arbel

Self portrait with the Arbel Canyon behind us

Walking along the side of the cliffs

The Arbel cliffs

The sun setting over the Sea of Galilee

Lots of tourists come here...hence the sign attempting to eliminate any confusion about the place

Ruins of Capernaum

A spring between Capernaum and Tabgha

Outlet of the spring into the Sea

Tabgha

A 1st Century boat that was found buried in the Sea of Galilee...it took 10 years to treat and restore it!

The ruins of Corazim

Luke reading an account from Matthew so we could see how far Jesus' voice would carry

Dusk over the Sea of Galilee and the city lights of Tiberias

Brigitte holding Mt. Hermon on her head

The stream flowing through Tel Dan

Walking through the trees to get to Tel Dan

Melinda next to a waterfall

We all loved Tel Dan!

Brigitte in front of a pillar at Caesarea Philippi

Nimrod's Fortress on Mt. Hermon

Standing on the wall of Nimrod's Fortress

Jumping off the wall...

We ended the day with a bonfire on the beach

At "Shalom" point

Our faithful teacher Abner

Balance is the key...

Balancing act

Ooooh...tricky

We were having way too much fun on the pillars

Hiking down from Susita

Our boat

Enjoying the boat ride

Chillin' on the boat

Melinda

Brigitte

Jennifer

All together

Preparing to jump...

...jumping/falling...

...completion of goal

Hiking

 So, for the inner tubing we had to blow up our own inner tubes. Most of us had no problem blowing ours up…except maybe Melinda. She couldn’t get it to blow up, so David offered to blow it up for her. After many minutes of blowing he realized there was a hole in the tube.

No hands!

Brigitte blowing up her inner tube

David blowing up Melinda's tube for her

Very concentrated blowing

Trying to fit the inner tubes on the bus...they were everywhere

 I don’t have any pictures of our actual inner tubing experience…because water and cameras DO NOT go together. But floating down the Jordan river was probably one of the most fun things we had done the whole trip. I have just one word of advice: try to stay in the inner tube while floating down river…it is more conducive to enjoying the experience.

We then came back to the kibbutz to spend our final few hours of the day by the Sea of Galilee.

The beach

 Our friend Rachel found a slider turtle in the Sea…it was pretty cool!

Melinda liked the turtle

Our last time in the Sea of Galilee

Isaiah Shlegel in a raft

The beautiful shore

The last sunset we saw over the Sea of Galilee

 Day 8:

For the most part, this day was just spent traveling back to the moshav. We made a few short stops and then continued on our way.

Rachel, Brigitte, and Jennifer standing in front of their bungalow

We finished the SATMM!

 In some ways the end of this field trip gave us a sense of accomplishment in that we had seen and learned so much about the land of Israel. We went through the entire Satellite map manual of Israel and we are now quite familiar with the geography of the land.  We were also a bit sad because this marked the end of our Land and Bible class with Bill. Bill has taught us all so much this semester, we were sad to think that we had no more field trips with him.

The week following the Galilee trip was a whirlwind week of studying for our Land and Bible final exam and getting ready to leave for travel/study break. Travel/study break is the time when students here at IBEX get the chance to see more of the surrounding country if they choose. By leaving the country and coming back is also how we renew our 3 month visas so we can stay the additional three weeks of the semester. We chose to go to Greece for our break, so from the 15th until the 23rd we have been traveling around Greece. I would say more…but that’s for our next post.

Bust of David Ben Gurion

In David’s Ben Gurion’s living room area, there was a bust of Ben Gurion on this shelf. Also in the living room area were many gifts that had been presented to Ben Gurion as the prime minister of Israel.

Our Tour Guide

 Ben Gurion’s library was the most amazing aspect of his house! Almost the entirety of the second floor of his home housed his magnificent library. Our tour guide told us he had about 20,000 books!

The Library

Books on Philosophy...

...and Books on Oral Surgery

Chaim Wietzman's House

 Wietzman’s house was beautifully furnished.

Beautiful Spiral Staircase

Swimming Pool

 This personal swimming pool at Chaim Weitzman’s house was the first private swimming pool in the state of Israel.

Flower After Rain

While out and about on our field trip, we experienced some heavy rains. The after effects of the rain was beautiful…the flowers were gorgeous and the clouds were simply magnificent!

Brigitte

Day 1: Sunday

The first day we were excavating dirt from under the southeast corner of the Temple Mount. It was really exciting because this is the only part of the temple mount that has been excavated. No one is allowed to excavate there any more. As the story goes, some Muslims decided to take some bulldozers and take out the dirt from under the southeastern corner of the mount. Archaelogical warning #1: Don’t ever take out really old and historically significant dirt with a bulldozer. It makes archaeologists mad. These muslims apparently did not care about the dirt they were taking out. They took out all this dirt and just dumped it in the Kidron Valley nearby. Finally, some University students noticed what they were doing, and basically said “Hey, you can’t do that!” They reported it to the proper authorities, and the muslims were stopped from doing their evil deed. The archaeologists were still mad however, because they now had no reference point or dirt “layers” to help them date the items found in this special dirt. They can still find really important things and date them, it’s just a lot harder. So, they rescued the dirt from the Kidron Valley and brought it to an excavation site on the northern side of the Mount of Olives, where they are now sorting through it. This is where we spent our day.

Jennifer sifting through "rocks"

 They had three different stations set up for us to work at throughout the day. The first one was sifting through the small rocks looking for anything that basically wasn’t a rock. Some of the most common items found were: pottery, mosaic stones, bones, glass, and marble.

Jennifer and Michelle working together

Jenn and Brigitte working together

 It took us a little while to get the hang of it…let’s just say that when we started…everything looked like rocks. But by the second or third time we were able to identify some of the previously mentioned items. It was really exciting to think that we had just found a piece of pottery that was possibly two thousand years old!

Melinda found a piece of glass possibly from the bottom of a jar

The Jenns found teeth!

 Jennifer and Michelle found a tooth (root and all!) in their sifter, and a few minutes later, Jenn and Brigitte found another tooth in their sifter. It was really exciting! And kind of funny! The workers couldn’t figure out why we were so excited (probably because they find stuff like that every day).

Ancient teeth

 We were told by the archaeologist that they were both animal’s teeth. He also said the animals were herbavores (only eats plants). Jennifer thought that maybe the tooth she found was that of the donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem in the triumphal entry…but then the archaeologist said it was a little too small to be a donkey’s tooth…she was disappointed.

Byzantine Coin

 There were a few items found by us (the students) throughout the day that the archaelogist said would go to a museum. This coin was one of those items! Let’s just say that Melinda and Angela were excited since it was found in their sifter! The archaeologist thinks that the coin was from the Byzantine period.

These buckets are where we put the "good" pieces

 After we finished going through our sifter, we would take the “good” items and put them in these buckets. The leftover rocks got dumped in a wheelbarrel to be taken away. Then we would start on our next “batch.”

The second station was a HUGE pile of large items (rocks, etc.). Basically we were told to pick a spot and start sorting through it. They showed us what was worth saving and what was “throw away” material. Sometimes it was still hard to tell…okay, a lot of times.

Brigitte and Michelle looking for "treasures"

Ces, Mike, and Drew working hard

 The third station was sifting through actual piles of dirt. We had to sift through the dirt to get out what we knew must be “precious stones.” The guys shoveled the dirt into buckets, and then the girls took the buckets and dumped them into the sifters. The sifter part was basically a three step process.

Meghan and Jenn doing step 1

 Step 1 was basically just shaking the sifter until all the dirt fell out!

The Jenns doing step 2

 Step 2 was dumping the sifted rocks down the chutes.

The final destination of the rocks - step 3

 The rocks would then come out into buckets. These buckets would later be taken to be sifted again (like at our first station).

The archaeologist in charge of the dig

 The archaeologist in charge was very good at explaining things to us and helping us understand the world of archaeology better.

Listening to explainations about archaeology

 Day 2: Monday

Our second day of archaeology experience was very different from the first. We did not do actual sorting of ancient items as before. We spent the day doing manual labor. This excavation is located just south of Old City Jerusalem in the City of David. Some of you may remember reading in the Bible about the Gihon spring. In ancient times, this was Jerusalem’s main water source, and is also associated with Hezekiah’s tunnel. Well, that’s where we were excavating, right next to it. The bags in the picture below are all the bags the workers had filled with the excavated dirt that needed examining. They needed our help to get all these bags out of the “dig.” We formed a human chain assembly line to get the bags from inside the dig out to the street where a dumpster was waiting to be filled by the bags. This dumpster was not a trash dumpster, but merely a way to transport all the bags to a location where the contents in the bag could be researched.

All the bags we had to carry out to the dumpster!

Meghan and Isaiah carrying a bag of "treasures"

 Isaiah Schlegel (Bill’s second son) was thrilled to come with us on our excavating adventure! It was his birthday, so he got to take a break from school and come with us for the day.

Passing the bags

The line outside to the dumpster

 After seeing the piles of bags that had to be transported from inside the dig to outside in the dumpster, some of us decided to count how many bags we moved. Our grand total at the end of the day was…drum roll please…1,307 bags (weighing approx. 10 - 20 lbs. each)! We filled up two dumpsters full with bags. It was a lot! Along with the bags, we also had to move some very big rocks outside. Apparently these rocks were “modern,” useless rocks and needed to be thrown away. So, we moved them outside and made a big pile. We also started counting the rocks…but it got a little confusing to the counters when multiple people were throwing rocks on the pile at the same time. So, as close as we can figure, there was a grand total of 550 rocks moved as well.

Jennifer standing on a huge pile of rocks

 The three of us right between the excavation dig and the entrance to Hezekiah’s tunnel (the children in the background were there for a tour of the tunnel).

Inside the "dig"

 We finished our job at about 3 pm and then Bill took us down into the shafts and tunnels where the archaeologists are finding walls and other historical things.

Bill taking us through the excavation site

In the tunnel

 Just to clarify…these are not the water tunnels of Hezekiah that we went through previously in the semester…these are different tunnels in a near location.

Walking through the tunnel

 After coming out of the tunnel and while waiting for our bus to come, we stopped for a break on a grassy area for some “Becky” snacks and drinks. It had been a tiring day and we were all ready to go back to the moshav and shower! Everyone was basically covered in a layer of dust!

Hanging out and resting on the grass

Brigitte and Michelle chillin' on the rock wall

The last picture of the day

Both of the days spent excavating were filled with learning many new and interesting things about archaeology. We were blessed to have the opportunity to excavate at current digs and see first hand how they work. I must say that after only working for a few hours compared to a full time archaeologist that works all day every day, I have a new appreciation for the tediousness of the work and how much patience they must have to do it! We can really be thankful for all the work they have done, and the benefits that have come from that work.

We praise God for how He has been working in our lives and teaching us through this awesome experience here in Israel. Soli De Gloria – Glory be to God!