"Oh Come Let us Adore Him"

This is graffiti on the Separation Wall. The Palestinians have put graffiti all over this wall. It is such a controverisial wall and causes them so much grief and pain. They definitely have the worst end of the deal. It toke us 1 1/2 hour to get through but not because we were intorrogated because we had to wait in a huge line.

This is Manger Square. It is in the center of Bethlehem, the oldest city known to Christianity. And behind me is the oldest church in Christianity built in the 5-6th century by Justine, he also built the Church of the Holy Sceptlatcure and Stevens Bascillica.

When Christ was born he was laid here, where we are sitting. This is the spot pretty indefinitely because it has been labled since the 6th century which may sound like a long time afterward but its not.

This is where Christ was born. The 14 point star represents the 14 centuries before Christ was born, it also recognizes the 14 points on the Via Dolorosa ( where Christ carried the cross). You stick your hand down the hole and feel the ground where he was born.

This is Christ was born. Of course back in his time it was not in a chruch, it was in a cave. I am so grateful for Christ and his willingness to come down to Earth to perform his ministry so that I can return back to Heavenly Father someday.

This is Dr. Musallam. He teaches Islam History and Culture. He is an "interesting" teacher. He has a very strong accent. He lives in Bethlehem in the West Bank. He is Palestinian. It takes him about 2 hours to get to Jerusalem because of the checkpoints that cause so much problems. This at Bethlehem University which is in the West Bank, he also teaches here its like his pride and joy.

At Bethlehem University waiting for the video to start.

The conflict simmered down this week. Luckily we were able to go out to the center and go back into the Old City. It was great. There is still major conflict but the Dome of the Rock is still there so life is good.

This is the Russian Convert, commemorating Mary Magdalene... aka the "Onion Church". Its actually one of the prettiest churches I have seen. It is open very rarely so when we got out of class early one day we had to run there to get into it. It was definitely worth it! Cute little nuns run the church. The art inside is gorgeous, each piece of art was a picture of what Mary Magdalene accomplished. Its one of my favorite churchs, its located on the Mount of Olives right next to the Orson Hyde Gardens.

The Meditterean Sea beach sunset is probably one of the best beaches I have ever been to, so I went again. It was so pretty and a gorgeous beach to relax at and play in the water. But beware of the Jelly Fish.

Jumping for joy at the Meditterean Beach. It does not get much bettter than this. We walked all around the city and then it was time to hit the beach.

The scarf has many uses here in Israel. You can put it around your neck for warmth, you can wear it around you waist as a fashion statemnet, wrap it around your head to cover you from the sun OR wear it around your head as a headband. As you can see you could wear one in all the seasons, a phenomenon I havent learned until I got here.

Courtney and I by the purple bogen vias, it just reminded me of home. Glad we could coordinate with the plants.

Finals are OVER!

Well it has been two months that I have been living in Israel and I have recently experienced some actual major conflict. This picture is a barricade in the middle of the road, on the street outside the center. These are Palestinian men protesting because the Israeli police would not let them pray in the Dome of the Rock. There was two on this road that were blocking traffic. There were men in the street throwing trash and rocks all over the street. For the past couple days we have been on lock down in the center, we are only allowed in West Jerusalem. Both sides are tense and very aggressive. Its really crazy. But I feel completely safe in the Center. Finals just finished and so we went to the park and played the HA HA game. It was so fun and it was a gorgeous day. It was so relaxing.

Just relaxing in the park. Its winter so everything is green and beautiful. West Jerusalem is the Jewish side of Jerusalem and it is kept much nicer and litter free.

In West Jerusalem there is an open air market called Souk. It was friday afternoon and so its closing for the weekend. Because jewish sabbath starts friday at sundown. All the pastries and fruit are sold for super cheap because they cant save it. Its really neat to see the prices drop like crazy because they get really desperate. There are Shabbot police they blow a huge horn to make sure everyone knows its sabbath.

Kimber and I celebrating with refreshing mint gelato! So yummy! We were walking down Ben Yuhuda like we owned the place because we finished finals.

These are the Chagall Windows. They represent the 12 tribes of Israel. Every part of the windows is symbolic of the tribe. The windows are found in a hospital, what a randow place for a tourist spot.

It was pouring outside but who cares?! Jumpin' pictures are the best.

Getting ready to go dance the night away in the West Bank. Purim is a Jewish Holiday that celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from Haman and the story of Esther. They basically just partt, get drunk and dress up like halloween. We recently learned Israeli folk dance and the instructer invited us to his dance studio to party. We got security clearance to go to the West Bank and dance. So we all dressed up and went. It was really fun for a little while after a hour we got bored. But HEY when am I ever going to celebrate purim again.

As a part of Purim, the next day they dress up and party in the streets. There were magic tricks, juggling, dancing, festivals and crazy costumes. This lady was dressed up like an air vent. She had confetti in her hand an would make the air sound and sprinkle it on your head. It was so funny. She was on stilts so she was like 8 ft. tall.

This is a fish guy. He was also celebrating on the street. The holiday is so fun. We also were able to go to a Italian Synagogue celebrating Esther. It was so cool.

Finals are over and now we only have 2 classes. We are starting the New Testament, I love studying about Christ. Its going to be great. We are going to Gailee next week for 2 weeks. Im so excited. Life is good, I love being here.

Well this past week has literally been the most stressful week this trip, we have had 4 midterms and 5 finals this week. This has been my schedule this week:
Arise from my warm bed.
Eat a muffin, cereal, and OJ.
Go to class.
Go to another class.
Listen to annoucements.
Eat lunch.
Go to another class.
Seclude myself in my room for quiet study time. (usually involves falling asleep)
Go to the student lounge. Study.
Study, Study and more Study.
Go to dinner.
Go study.
Study in my bed.
Write in my journal.
Pass out in my bed out of pure exahustion. (def. not physical exhaustion)
Repeat.
But I have never regretted coming, normally you have one week of cram packed studying but this semester there is 2 and it is just VERY tiring.

However I have started to get Cabin fever so after church I originally was just going to go on a walk but we ended going some pretty cool places. This is me sitting on Domunus Flevit, this is supposedly where Christ laments over the wicked city of Jerusalem. This is where the "O, Jerusalem O Jerusalem" Greg Olson picture is based. It was a gorgeous day and it had a great look over the city of Jerusalem, of course. Any where really its gorgeous!

There are many places that different religions think that Christ ascended into heaven. I think their 3 churchs designated to it at believe that is where it is. We went to all 3 of them. The tallest one is the Russian Orthodox Church. The grounds were gorgeous. The Bell Tower is one of the 3 tallest towers in Jerusalem that can be seen from far way. The other two are the Hebrew Communications tower and Augusta Victoria. This is a group of sitting at the base of this slightly leaning tower.

According to Lorenzo Snow, the place of ascension was 75 ft. away from the tower, this is the place. Its gated in and has weeds growing all over the place.

***NO biblical place ever has a definite spot. except if the church says. :)

I MISS CHILDREN!!!!

I love you LOO!!!! :)

For Sabbath today we went as a FHE family to a branch members house. They have 3 children and they were so cute. Here in the Holy Land because of the Swine Flu and other hygeinic problems we arent allowed to go to the orphanages and volunteer, it makes me so sad. So we dont get to be around children very often.

Suzanna loved being held upside down. It was so fun to be around little children and be able to pick them up and make them laugh. I miss interaction with young children! They have such sweet spirits!!!!

The Via Dolorosa Walk

It is the first week of Lent so I walked the 14 points of the Via Dolorasa with a bunch of Franciscan priests. We walked from each point and they prayed and sung at each point. There was a huge recessionaly following them, it blocks the Old City streets. It was reallyc cool, the prayers were given in english, arabic and italian. It was really neat, I didnt realize how many Catholics there were in Jerusalem. But its starting to begin the tourist season, which really stinks.
This is kinda of a picture that I kind of took on accident. But this is on of my friends, in the backround is a bunch of ethnic groups. Way neat!

Waiting at the first position, there were a ton of nuns and monks.

These were the Monks praying at Position 2.

I like this picture because it shows the sacredness of the walk from the positions of the Via Del Rosa. The Via Del Rosa the street Christ walked when he walked with his cross.

I dont know how many of you have seen the article on CNN that talks about the 7-story Israeli building in the middle of a Palestinian neighborhood. The Israelis says that to make peace they are going to tear down this building because it was illegally built there. But something CNN didnt mention was the fact that the other part of that deal is that they are going to tear down 81 Palestinian homes as well. The US news is so bias about the Middle East, I have realized this since I have been here.

Here in Israel the Sabbath day is on Saturday because that is the day the Jewish people have their Sabbath. Anyway, after church one Saturday we walked down to the Garden Tomb. It was a gorgeous day. I just feel so blessed that I can go ponder at the place where Christ was risen. I was really good to go ponder and write in my journal for a couple of hours. Who gets to do that?!

This is Skull Hill, Golgatha was near here somewhere. It has a parking lot here now.

This is the YMCA building and the Bell Tower in West Jerusalem. I live in East Jerusalem it is mainly Palestinian. On the West Side of Jerusalem it is more secular and Jewish.

I got to bells that can be heard all over Jerusalem. It was really cool. I was able to play "Nearer my God to Thee". Its way cool that the city of Jerusalem could hear ME playing the bells.They even have the YMCA in Jerusalem. So cool, its actually been here for years and its really pretty. They hold people kind of like a hostice, they have exercising rooms and such.

Happy Valentines Day!!!! (Brett, Leslie, Kennedy, Stacie, Courtney, Corina- Jonathon the Photographer (he didnt match) :) )

Our Monday Field Trip to the City of David. Its right outside the gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. I guess you could call it a suburb of Jerusalem

This is in the National City of David Musuem. We are standing in front of Nephi's Friends House. Its a two story house and it has a lot of remains left that are very visable, including the toilet! :) Brook, Natalie, Taeler, Me and Katie.

We went into Hezekiahs Tunnel. It still has water in it. It was built in King Davids time, whats interesting about his tunnel is they started at both ends and met in the middle. It was fun to walk through the tunnel all the way under the City. This is actually how King David attacked the city and gained control.

This was inside Hezekiahs Tunnel. The tunnel was very narrow. Both Jonathans were behind me the entire time splashing it up!

This is on a ledge by the waters of Siloam. I dont really know why we are being so seductive? It kind of reminds me of a spiderman pose. :)

We are the girls in white so we can join this picture! We are so funny! :)

I was told to get out of my room. I was like why? My roommate was like just do it! So I went out to the porch and contined writing. Anyway when I came back this was on my bed. I had to wear this crown to dinner as a favor from my Valentine.

We had secret Valentines randomly drawn in the center. Before Valentines day I got this poster put up for me in the student lounge. I really appreciated it. It made me feel good. To this day my secret Valentine still hasnt revealed himself. But I have a pretty good guess... :)

Here in Jerusalem we see a lot of sites, but not very many people and thier homes. However I was one of the very special students of 18 that get to go to the elderly homes and sing hymns. The elderly guy in this photo is the director of the Christian Elderly Home. He toke us around to a few elderly homes and we sang. The people that we went to are home ridden. Since they have all types of diseases the Old City is not accomadating. There are stairs everywhere and wheel chairs are very ineffective. So getting visitors is very exciting to them. It was really cool to see them and their tiny homes. Basically they just have one room and no backyard!