October 17th 2007 Stefi Faust
On Wednesday we took a field trip to Mount Herzl. Our Orthodow Jewish teacher, Ophir Yarden lead us on a tour throughout the site. We listened to lectures about Jewish history, including sad tells of pogroms throughout Europe. Ophir told us about the three most important events in Jewish history- the Holocuast, war for Israel, and independence. We saw Theordore Herzl’s tomb, the man who started the political Zionist movement. We concluded our tour with discussing the question of what the date for the commemoration of the Holocaust should be. The Jewish people decided on the week after Passover as the appropriate date.
We returned for a quick lunch and then headed back to class to learn about the different demonimations of Judaism. Next we went outside to pick olives to crush later this week. We are the first group to pick olives in over 9 years! We felt so lucky to be able to do this cool activity. Of course Maggie was the one to climb right up the trees to retrieve the out of reach olives. Brother Huntington cracked jokes and supervised our progress. Tawfic and Eran even joined in the fun to pick with us. We picked for a couple of hours and got covered in dust and dirt, but it was well worth it.
My Old Testament highlight so far has been visiting the Sea of Galilee. When we hiked Mount Carmel, the overlook of the Sea of Galilee was so striking. As we swam in the Sea of Galilee, it hit me that I was actually at a spot where Christ is known to have walked. It was a glorious afternoon, made even better when Brother Ludlow decided to come swim with us. After an exahusting game of ultimate frisbee in the water, we feasted on a wonderful dinner. That night at En Giev, a group of my closest friends sat on the beach, ate chocolate, looked at the stars and sang hymns. April and McCall sang beautiful duets of "How Great Thou Art" and "I Wonder When He Comes Again." The Spirit was so strong as we gazed out into the water. The Spirit testified to me that Christ really did walk on this water. God loves us enough to give us His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ to be the Savior of the world. I am so grateful for this special experience at Galilee. I feel so blessed to have the special opportunity to be studying here in the Holy Land and feel the Spirit so closely here.
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