Monday December 3, 2007

Meg Rampton December 3, 2007

Today as we left the Galilee I was very sad because it is such a special place of peace. I am so grateful that I was able to be there and learn of the Savior and study of his life at the very places where he taught.

Our first stop of the day was at the tombs of Beth Shear’im. It was fun to explore around these tombs and I couldn’t believe how these Jewish people of the Talmudic period built into the side of a hill. There was even a beautiful Golden Retriever there that we played with as well. I tried to pull a joke on everyone and old the door closed to the largest tomb but no one really got scared. Oh darn!

Then we visited the Bahai Gardens in Haifa. They were so beautiful and perfectly manicured. I had never heard of the Bahai religion that believes in many different prophets and started in the late 1880s. This garden in Haifa is the most sacred place for them because their first prophet is buried at the Shrine of the Bab.

My favorite part of the day was visiting the Cemetery in Haifa where two early missionaries where buried along with the earliest members of the church in Israel in this dispensation. It was really neat to visit and see the columns on top of the graves that where in half which symbolized their lives cut short. There was a very special spirit of sacrifice at this place. As we sung hymns and learned of the early attempts to teach in the Holy Land I felt a deep sense of gratitude for this missionaries that partly because of their physical presence the Church is officially recognized today.

One of my favorite passages of scripture as we have been reading the New Testament this semester is found in John 9. It is the story of the blind man who the Lord passed by on the temple mount, made clay and placed it on his eyes, and told him to go was in the pools of Siloam to washing and he would be healed. The man did and was healed. It was on the Sabbath so he was brought before the Jews who interrogated him. When Jesus found this out he found him and asked them man if he believed in the Son of God. The man answered, “ Lord, I believe.” It is these simple words that struck me very deep as the blind man who sees is able to testify of the Lord to the Lord. I hope in my life I always and praising Jesus Christ and always remember him and say, “Lord, I believe.”