July 26, 2008
Another great Shabbat. I love the Sabbath Day of the Lord in the Holy Land. The center is just such a great place and I just love the Spirit of the building on Saturday. I think a lot of it could have to do with the fact that I help in the preparation of the Sacrament. It is really an honor; it really puts it in perspective for me, how important the sacrament is. My patriarchal blessing that I received as a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood admonished me to recognize the great privilege it is to participate in the preparation and administration of the Sacrament and encouraged me to think about how few people throughout the world had such an opportunity. I really am grateful for that blessing. Probably today more than ever. Participating in the Sacrament is such a great blessing. This week, I was also asked to give the Elder’s Quorum lesson on Elder Bednar’s talk, “Ask in Faith.” I was really glad because I have definitely noticed that I need to improve my personal prayers. I have really noticed lately how much the Lord loves me, and I know if I improve my prayers with Him, he will continue to show that love to me. The other day on Shepherd’s Field, I had this feeling to move my backpack because my camera was just sitting on top of it, and it was at the bottom of a small cliff people were sitting on. I felt the feeling again and moved my backpack. A second later a girl searching for someone to sit next to and follow along in the hymn book, hopped down and put her nig foot right where my backpack and camera were. I was so grateful! I found out later, that another girl’s camera got sat on and crushed. I really know that the Lord blesses me and loves me. I hope I can do something with my life to pay him back for all of the love that he showers me with. Our LOCKDOWN WAS FINALLY LIFTED!!! Tricia, Liz and I headed for Dormition Abbey, the place where Mary was supposedly buried. We got there like two minutes before it closed, but we really did not need too much time, it was just another Catholic Church with ridiculously cool artwork, mosaics and statues. Obviously we could have spent more time there, but we got booted. We wandered around a bit, and I met an African American guy named Israel. He was from Rhode Island and was here on a Spiritual Journey. He knew about Latter-day Saints, and I wished I could have helped given him some direction with his quest, but as we have a strict no proselytizing rule, I just tried to let him see it in me as we engaged in discussion about life. He directed us to the upper room, where the Last Supper was held. We did not really get it though, and decided that we would spend more time there when we went as a class with Brother Draper. On the way back we explored some tombs in the Kidron Valley and as they had gates on them I was a little bit disappointed until I realized that a square gate does not really cover the mouth of a cave very well. I snuck in through the top and explored. However, I needed a torch and so I have vowed to go back. The rest of the evening was nice, with a pleasant dinner and quiet evening in the center.
July 27, 2008
I think today was the beginning of some ridiculously sweet field trips. We started off by heading to Masada. Masada is this huge fortress on top of a huge cliff. It is basically like a really steep mountain with a round flat top that is so fortified as to prevent pretty much any army from successfully attacking with the exception of course being Rome. Rome seems to always be the exception when it comes to impenetrable. The really fascinating part of this site is the story. During the Jewish Revolt in the first century, a group of intense Rebels took over Masada and turned it into their fortress. In an effort to squash every last ounce of rebellion, the Romans laid siege to the fortress for six months. After finally building a crazy siege ramp, the Romans attacked the city to find all the inhabitants dead. In the water cistern they found a woman and a child, who explained the story. You see, all of the people at Masada decided that they would rather die than be enslaved by the Romans. Knowing this story and going to the site was really powerful. As we went to the different places of the city and saw where they would have lived, where they would have played, they even had a swimming pool! We couldn’t resist, we played Marco Polo and yes, I was it wandering around the now dry pool shouting Marco waiting for the reply from the others until I smashed my toe on a huge rock in the chase. Anyways, it was an interesting feeling wandering around the place and continually asking myself the question, what would I do? The Romans are at the door and they are not happy. What do you do? Death or Slavery? Obviously not very good options, but when you are there, you kind of realize that is the only option they have. What would you do? Yeah, I am still wrestling with that one. We marched down the hill after instead of taking the tram and although it was really sweaty and hot, we took sweet pictures storming the fortress.
Next? Dunt dun na nuh! THE DEAD SEA! Holy Hannah is that thing Dead! So, we head down to the shore and jump in and it was hilarious! You seriously just float on top of the water. You like get in and you just float…I wish I could explain it better. When you are in, if you sit up, you float at about your nipples. If you are in on your back, you float with your stomach out of the water. It is crazy! The water is pretty nasty though, and it stings on ANY open parts of your body. Well, despite being warned I decided to try and touch the bottom. Wow, quite possibly one of the top 50 stupidest decisions of my life. I pointed myself straight down and swam like as hard as I could! Seriously 4 or 5 full strokes down, and pointing straight down, I couldn’t get past my knees! My legs were sticking out of the water just flailing. Is that ridiculous? I could not believe it! I thought for sure I could beat it, but I couldn’t. When I came up, it was horrible! My eyes were stinging my mouth was burning and I was just uncomfortable. Actually I could not handle it and had to run my face under the shower for like ever. I eventually recovered, and entered the Dragon again. Besides stinging, it was pretty sweet. The life guard swam out to save us once because we were drifting away and I was seriously offended. If he would have spoken more English than, “Please come back toward the shore” I would have given him a piece of my mind, Listen buddy you know how hard it would be to drown in this sea? I already tried it and it sucked!
Next, we hiked to the top of Ein Gedi, the waterfall where David hid from Saul. It was a pretty sweet waterfall. I liked the hike. I love to be and hike and climb here. It is always really cool.
After that, we went to Qumran! Woot woot! The native habitat of the Essenes, the writers of The Dead Sea Scrolls. We went throughout their whole living quarters, saw where they lived, where they ate, where they participated in their ritual cleansing bath before every meal and then where they copied the scrolls, and it was just cool. For whatever reason, I have always been a bit fascinated by the Dead Sea scrolls and here I am walking around in where they were made. I was however really disappointed that we didn’t get to go inside of the caves. We could see them from a distance, but didn’t get to in and see them. I was really excited though, that I got to see them all.
It was not the most spiritual field trip, but I got to see some amazing things and really think about some important ones as well. Oh yeah, and tonight a group of us went and saw Batman at the mall in West Jerusalem. How good is that movie?
July 28, 2008
Walking where Jesus Walked. Of course, like many people the romantic idea of walking where Jesus walked while engaging in a real spiritual journey was initially what attracted me to the Holy Land. The history and education has really just been a plus. So today, I actually got to do it. Today we went to the Davidson Archaeological Park, which is basically just the thing they created to charge tourists money to see the entrance and walls of the old Temple Compound. When the Romans got ticked off at the Jews in 70 AD, they completely destroyed the temple, not even leaving a brick on top of each other. Sometime ago archaeologists uncovered piles of huge stones and have since hypothesized that they are from the Roman destruction of the Temple. If true that would be really cool, because I stood on them. Standing on ancient cool stuff has become somewhat of a craze for me here, even if it is just hypothesized as being the accurate ancient relic that I think I am standing on. We also went to the corner of the Temple walls, where the western wall meets the southern wall, the place of trumpeting, or sometimes called the pinnacle of the temple. In a lecture by Brother Draper, this is the part where you are supposed to say “ahh!” because you were supposed to recognized the importance of the pinnacle of the temple. Matthew 4:5-7 Christ is whisked away to the pinnacle of the temple and tempted by the Devil to cast himself down and count on the angels of God saving him before he dashed his feet upon the stones below. How did Christ respond, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Cool that I can now really picture that. I have seen the place, the pinnacle of the temple in that Holy City and I can picture that so vividly now. What a response from the Lord! I wish to emulate that response when the Devil approaches me with his false promises seeking to put vain imaginations into my heart. It was so neat to review that incident, right there at the pinnacle of the temple. I was really happy. The best part happened next. Brother Huntington, who was giving us the tour, took us to the double gate entrance to the temple complex. The crusaders, in their brilliance decided to just board up this gate with a wall running right through it, and they just through about anything they could find into the wall to build it. Despite its appearance, there is still half of the gate left on the eastern side of this wall that now runs perpendicular to the main and original wall of the temple. Basically, the border of the original double gate is still there, and also the original Herodian steps are also there, but there is simply no entrance from that place any more. Well, it was quite the experience to walk up the really really old steps and think about who else would have walked up those steps a couple thousand years ago. The best part, was this stone. Right outside the gate, there is a huge stone that has most certainly been there since before the time of Christ. In order to get either inside or outside of the temple complex, one would have to step on this stone, you see it is right in front of the gate. Who of significance do we know that would have entered and exited this temple? That’s right: Jesus The Christ. That is literally, right where he would have walked. Brother Huntington stopped and told us two stories about this stone. He said, there once was a man, blind from birth, who used to sit outside the temple begging for alms. Why outside the temple? The people typically felt a bit more generous directly after leaving the temple. Well, one day, this blind man encountered someone who spit in the mud, made clay, and anointed his eyes with it. The man told the blind man that if he would walk to the Pool of Siloam, and wash his eyes out there, he would see. He walked there, and it happened the blind man could see. Now, obviously the man who performed the healing was the Savior. Well, from this gate where we were standing, the pool of Siloam was directly straight ahead about a mile. I mean directly, you stay on the road and you hit it. This would mean, that the story would probably make the most sense, if it happened right at this very spot we are standing in front of this gate. It was here, that the Lord Jesus Christ would have stooped down and healed that blind man. The next story he told was of a man named Neil Armstrong. Those of you who haven’t kept up on current events, he was the first man to walk on the moon. Neil, a devout devout Christian, was actually given the key to the City of Jerusalem. Well, when he was touring Jerusalem, before he left he asked his guide to take him to a spot where for sure, Jesus would have walked. His guide took him to the very spot and stone where we now stood. Brother Huntington said he was never sure about this story until he read the exact report himself, but he said that Neil said something along the lines of, I have walked where very few men have ever walked, and I feel so much more the grateful to be here and walk in the footsteps of my Savior Jesus Christ. Now, I thought that was cool. You bet I jumped on that stone and got a picture of me excitedly pointing down. Then, I wandered off a bit...And thought about where I was. Yeah…I too realized my immense gratitude for the opportunity to walk where the Savior walked. I guess some could say, that it is no big deal, that I didn’t need to do it, that it will not affect my testimony, nor my salvation either way, and I would agree, but I still am grateful. My Lord and my God walked here. The Messiah. He who John the Baptist referred to as one whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. I was privileged to take a step where My Savior did. Now, looking back at it, it really wasn’t a giant leap for my testimony, but it was a small step that I reverence the opportunity to have taken. How grateful I am for My Savior Jesus Christ. He is the reason I am here. He is the reason I will return. He is the way the truth and the life. The one who said, “Come follow me.” I have spent my whole life figuratively doing so, and today was grateful to have the small chance to literally follow his footsteps.
I spent that afternoon at the Israeli Holocaust Museum and came to be just uttery confused about the conflict here in Israel. The holocaust was such a horrible horrible thing. It pained me inside to see so many of the Lord’s people suffer what the Jews suffered under Hitler’s monstrosities. By the end of it, those who survived really were left with nowhere to turn and nowhere to go. Does that justify then the thousands of Palestinians displaced at the arrival of the Jews. I don’t think so. All of our teachers continually told us when we arrived, that there would be times when we thought we understood the conflict and had a strong opinion, but that ultimately we would find the more time we spend here and the more we both see and learn we would probably leave utterly confused. Well at this point, they really pinned the tail right on the donkey.
July 29, 2008
We headed for the Sea today, the Sea of Galilee. Of course, we hopped aboard the buses at THE crack of dawn and set out on the road prepared to stop at any and just about every Holy Site along the way. First stop: Caesarea Maritima.
This place was really really amazing! It is Herod’s like beach condo city. One thing we learn is that despite Herod being one of the biggest idiots the world has ever known, he was an architectural genius with a great flair for style. He built this Roman city right on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea. Oh it is beautiful! So beautiful! Roman ruins and Mediterranean Sea are just a great combo. I’ll save you the history lesson and just explain why this place was scripturally significant. You remember everybody’s favorite gentile Cornelius? Yeah, this is where he was baptized. This was the starting point, for The Gospel Spreading to the Gentiles. Acts 10. Cornelius lives here in Caesarea and the angel appears unto him and tells him to send for Peter, who has in the meantime received the go ahead to teach the gentiles. It was here in Caesarea that Peter declares, “Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” That story is so cool and I got to be where that story happened! The beginning of a whole new era! Thank Heavens too, we gentiles sure owe a lot to what happened in that city. It is where we first became eligible to join the true Church of God. Also at this city was a very famous encounter, between Paul and King Agrippa. If you have not read it recently I really encourage you to go back and read the story noting the absolute faith, and therefore power of Paul. It is found in Acts 23-26. Paul, as usual, teaches his conversion story. Accused of sedition and on trial before Felix the replacement of Pontius Pilate, he appeals to Rome as a citizen. He then encounters Agrippa and his sister Bernice. We sat in the chamber, or the room where their encounter would have happened, the very place. Paul dominated. He absolutely dominated and as I read it, with reverence and awe at the testimony of Paul, the King Agrippa remarks, “Almost though persuades me to be a Christian.” Paul, the fireball demonstrates his love for God and God’s children with the zealous response admired by all sincere missionaries since, “I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether, such as I am, except these bonds.” In other words, I wish you were fully persuaded to come to Christ, but not just you, I wish that all who hear my testimony would be persuaded to, free of bonds and chains, come to the Savior Jesus Christ and be healed as Paul himself was healed. I remember Robert D. Hales one time stating, “It is my deepest desire that my testimony will penetrate into the hearts of those who hear it.” I think that was Paul’s greatest desire and I think that is mine as well. My greatest reasoning behind writing adventures down, or retelling them, is to create an opportunity in which I can bear my testimony of the Lord, and in some way, that testimony can penetrate the Hearts of those who hear it, and not only almost, but doing King Agrippa one better, fully persuade them to come to the Savior Jesus Christ and be healed. What a great opportunity to be there though where it happened, where Paul demonstrated the truthfulness of his later statement, I have fought a good fight.
Next, we went to Megiddo. Armageddon. The place of the final battle. Erie huh? The place where a final battle will be fought. Now it is just a big tell or ruin. But it has been the site of SO many battles throughout history and is destined to be the site of more to come. We took a picture of us battling a top the hill, just to you know fit in. We used ball point pens and stones for weapons, but it was a rough battle and luckily we had to cease fire in order to catch the bus, or who knows what would have happened. Brother Draper talked to us a lot about the last battle and a lot of it went over my head, but this stuck, the ones who will be safe. You know who it is? The pure. The pure. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. It is those of us who are pure in heart at that great and final day who will be able to see God and live. I once saw pure defined as not mixed with any other substance. I liked that. How many of us can say that we are pure in heart, that our actions, motives and intentions are not mixed with any other evil substance? I agree with Brother Draper; that is something we need to be fighting everyday for, a pure heart.
Next, Nazareth. The city of Nazareth was not really a big pilgrimage town until about the 6th century and like unto Bethlehem is still pretty simple with just one big Catholic Cathedral built over a house that could have very well been where Joseph and Mary lived and raised their children, which included Jesus. It was back then, and still relatively today, a pretty obscure town. They used that to teach us, that even as Christ came up out of obscurity, we can too. I liked that, but I thought that what was so cool about Christ being raised in Nazareth was that it wasn’t that cool of town. Christ really didn’t grow up living a life of luxury, ease, and to be honest that much excitement. He lived a life probably working in the carpenter shop with Joseph and doing everything he could do to provide for the family. The God of Heaven and Earth, the Master of the Universe truly did condescend to the earth, below all things and dwelt on earth as a man. That is what Nazareth taught me. The church there is pretty cool. It is called the Church of the Annunciation. They built it on the site that traditionally was the place where Mary received her visit from the angel Gabriel. A really simple little town, Nazareth appears to be about as humble and simple as when Christ was there, just of course in 21st Century style of simplicity that includes cars, street lights and marketplaces. It is interesting to remember how the people of Nazareth treated him. Remember, a prophet is not without honor in his own country. I do imagine it would have been hard for those Nazarenes to believe that the man they watched grow from boyhood was the Messiah, the one they watched work alongside his father and help his mother and play with his younger siblings was the Redeemer. But being hard to believe is no excuse for disbelief. Lots of things are hard that must be done. Today, it is hard to believe that a man who lived and breathed 2000 years ago is the only way back into the presence of God, but that does not make it any less true. I think we need to look at the hard things in life, and accept that they are hard, and say that is good and fine, okay it is hard, but is it true? That is the question that must be answered. Being there in Nazareth, okay yeah, it is hard to believe that a boy from this obscure part of the world and universe was foreordained to be the Savior of it all, but is it true? I testify that it is. I am thankful for the Holy Ghost who through peaceful and assuring promptings continually makes hard things very simple for me to understand. Especially the hard but true fact, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. I really liked Nazareth, a lot. Not much to it and that is exactly why I loved it.
We finally landed at the Kibbutz Ein Gev, where we will be staying for the next 10 days on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Let me tell you, Galilee is one pretty place. Christ really knew what he was doing when he kept retreating here. I will let the pictures do it justice.
July 30, 2008
Again, bright and early we headed out from the kibbutz on the sea of Galilee to tackle some more sites in the land of Galilee. We get tired. I mean they really run us hard here in the short six weeks we are here and we just get exhausted sometimes. One thing we are really tired of is seeing runes of cities that we do not know much about, or even if we do know a lot about them, they just really do not mean that much to us. Well, that is how Hazor was, our first stop, Tell Hazor. Another old ruined city. By this point we are so tired of rocks that were once a wall and that have nothing to do with Christ directly it is really hard to stay focused. This time instead of exploring the site, Tricia and I just built our own runes. It really isn’t that hard to make runes. You just pile a bunch of old rocks on top of each other and wa-lah = runes! It was actually pretty fun. I think I might build a bunch of runes out in like Montana and tell people to come look at them and analyze them, it could turn out to be a pretty lucrative business.
Caesarea Philippi/Banias. Now this place was awesome. It was here that Christ asked a very very important question that Neal A. Maxwell once said until we can answer with both our lives and our tongues, whatever else we do or say will in the end make little difference. After gathering information from his disciples on what others think of him, Christ asks them, “Whom say ye that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said unto him, “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God” (Matt 16:15-16). I really wish I was there for that. I wish that when he answered that question, I could have beaten Peter to the answer and boldly declared in a resonating tone, Thou art the Christ! But if I was there, would I have beaten Peter to the punch? Would I have been able to be so bold and quick to respond as Peter the Rock was? I hope so, but I am not sure. What I do know is that, I was there today. I was in the very spot today and answered the very same question with the very same answer. And you know what, I think Christ could have given me the very same response, “Blessed art though…for Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven.”
Brother Draper went into another cool insight about Peter being the Rock built out of the rock, using the differences between the word petro and Petra. He talked also about how the gates of hell could have possibly been a reference to Spirit Prison and that by giving Peter the keys to bind both on heaven and earth it was the beginning of work for the dead. Interesting stuff we learn out here.
Dan. We hiked up to Dan, a very ancient place with a lot of history, most particularly the place where Jeroboam set up one of the golden calves in an effort to wean his people of their dependence on Jerusalem as he wanted the newly divided Northern Kingdom to stay divided. This started the Northern Kingdom on their path of Idol worship and then destruction. Point: Idol worship brings destruction. On a lighter note, the place is beautiful! It was finally a good example of a land flowing with milk and honey that was promised! It was really a very beautiful place and is now like a nature reserve wilderness park. We hiked up this trail along the stream to the top of the stream where we found a spring. 240 million cubits of water flow through this spring and eventually make up the Jordan River as “jor” means descent and Dan is well just Dan. Jordan means descended from Dan. The Jordan River as far as I understood primarily flows or did from this spring. It really seems like a fountain of everlasting water. The idea was introduced that perhaps Christ visited this place, not too far from his house and an excellent place for R&R, perhaps he came here and developed the idea of a fountain of living water to help the people understand how important he was and what he could do for them. He could be spiritually what this spring was temporally to the people a source of life. It was an interesting idea presented to me…Christ got his teaching ideas from the places around him and the things that he had seen. That certainly would make sense, both for him to develop the ideas and for the people to understand them. I loved the idea that I could understand more fully something Christ said because I had been where he was. Just another cool experience in a beautiful place.
July 31, 2008
Quite possibly the BEST FIELD TRIP EVER! Today was the tour of the land immediately around Galilee. We hopped aboard the bus early as usual and took a 3 minute drive to a boat harbor nearby us and boarded a small boat. We ventured out in this boat across the Sea of Galilee. In case you did not catch that, I will repeat: WE TOOK A BOAT OUT INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE SEA OF GALILEE. It was absolutely amazing. Because the Lord loves me, the weather was absolutely beautiful. A light breeze, overcast and the water was calmer than I have yet seen it. A lot calmer than a few thousand years ago when the Savior and his Disciples were out in the middle of it. When the waves began to rage and the winds began to howl and the Master slept through it all. When in fear the Apostles awoke the Lord with, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” Yeah, I was on that same sea today. That same sea that today, while I was on it was probably about as still as when the Master awoke and said unto it, “Peace be still.” Then the wind ceased and there was a great calm. Today, because the Lord loves me, I got to see that same great calm. I was grateful to see it in a similar way that the disciples would have seen it right after they witnessed the true power of Christ. “What manner of Man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Do we not understand the true power Christ had? He was powerful. He demonstrated the true power of faith in commanding that Sea. What an opportunity for me to be there on that same sea and just think about him and what he was capable of doing, and consider what he was capable of doing for me. We talked about another miracle he performed on that special sea, when after his disciple shad departed and were in the middle of the Sea, he simply walked out to them upon the water. I was there. I was in that water. I stuck my feet in the very same water and guess what? They sunk. Yup, they sunk. It is not a magic sea! There is nothing different about the water in that sea and the water in any swimming pool, river, ocean or sea around the world, if you step on it, you will sink. Here I am, Tyler Duane Gardner testifying to you of the fact. So, why was Christ able to do it? Realize who he was! He created that sea! He is the one who divided the earth and seas! It is so vital that we realize this! It really hit me! I am so grateful for the humility of Christ despite his obvious power and ability! For what was this creator of the universe doing here anyways? Why was he on the earth or sea that night? He was inviting all men to come unto Him. To come and be like him! That is humility, the invitation to share the power that one has, not to sit upon a lofty throne and look down upon the minions below you, but to reach down and try to help others get to where you are. Read the account of him walking on water Matthew 14 and notice the imagery! Christ calls to them and tells them who he is. Peter asks, If it be thee Lord let me come on out there with you. What does the Lord say? Come. He always says come. Peter walks out there. He takes steps of faith out of that boat and we see that Christ intends all of us to realize the power that is in us. He did not reserve walking on water and the performance of miracles unto himself; he didn’t reserve anything unto himself. He wants everyone to have all that he hath, just as the Father does. Peter joins Christ upon the water. However, Peter is fearful and when he is about to sink, all it takes is simple plea, “Lord, Save Me.” IMMEDIATELY Jesus stretches forth his hand and catches him. What do we learn from that? As disciples of Christ we are capable and in store for so much, all we need to do is heed the call to come, and in the midst, when the waves get rough, Christ is there with his hand to catch us. I love that. Think about Peter for a second. As I was on the Sea of Galilee, I thought about what it would have been like for the fisherman at that point. I used to use this story on my mission in an attempt to encourage the comfortable out of their comfort zones and into following the Savior. On that boat that example became even more real as I watched the captains of our little boat. They were very comfortable. Commanding the ship we were on was almost second nature to them. How well do you think Peter knew that boat? A fisherman on the Sea of Galilee probably his whole life, how comfortable would he have been on that ship. Probably really comfortable, pretty sure and pretty steady walking around that deck. How many times do you think he had attempted to walk on water or even seen it happen? What did it take for Peter to venture off onto that ocean and take those first few steps of faith? He was a fisherman who knew that boat and knew he was attempting the impossible, but there he goes stepping off into that ocean following the call of the Master. Do we follow the Master in the same way? Are we willing at a simple call to leave what we know an attempt the impossible? I think that if we are, and if we do, we too, like Peter, will find that we are capable of incredible things. And if the wind gets boisterous, we can count on that hand of the Savior to be there and catch us, pull us out and gently rebuke us for our lack of faith. Oh I cannot explain how cool that was out there on the sea and just staring off into and imagining a figure walking towards you suddenly. I loved it. We sang Master the Tempest is Raging (like you didn’t see that coming) and How Great Thou Art. I loved that. Golly it was so beautiful! One of those things that you never want to forget. The creations of God never cease to impress and amaze me with their splendor. I think Christ positioned himself specifically on the Sea of Galilee for its beauty. And seeing as He is Christ, I am okay with that, in fact I love that.
Mt of Beatitudes
We had the privilege of visiting one of the traditional Mt. of Beatitudes sites. Of course it is this beautiful hill overlooking the Sea. The Savior seems to have an attraction to doing really cool things in really beautiful places. Well if it was the actual site, I am sad that I was here two thousand years too late, by the time I got here all that I caught was the view and the heat. Oh boy was it hot! You know we have all of these beautiful pictures of the Savior painted and he just looks like he smells like a rose, like he just hopped out of the shower. I really can no longer trust those pictures as adequate depictions of the Savior. He was hot, he was sweaty, and boy was he tired! That son just drains you! In his three years of his ministry he would have been absolutely exhausted, why do I know this? Because I sat in the sun for ½ hour on that mount and I was exhausted! I cannot imagine day in and day out bearing that heat and just pushing and pushing and pushing. Okay, actually I can imagine it, I did something similar for two years in India, but at night, we had a/c and cold water…so yeah I cannot imagine how he did it! The one thing I am sure that those pictures did get right was his face. The peaceful face I think was always there typically, obviously there was remorse on that face and disappointment at the wickedness of the people, but I think on the normal day to day the peaceful face the artists render was always there. I imagined that face as I sat on the mount and listened to Brother Draper lecture about the Beatitudes. Hearing the teachings of the Savior in the place where he taught them, come on, that is saweet! I soaked in every second of that opportunity.
Tabgha
5 loaves of bread. 2 small fishes. 5 thousand fed. Tabgha. Been there. There is a church there that was probably built during the Byzantine Empire. Draper called it a perfect model of a Byzantine Basilica. There is a really famous mosaic on the floor of bread and fishes. We took a picture by it doing fish faces. Then we sang songs in the Church, and at 12 o’clock, the bell man came in and rang the church bell. It was really funny because we thought he was just some random guy ringing it and he was going crazy on it! It was really funny watching the whole class turn around and look at each other going should we do something about this? The funny part was we were all singing and competing with the bell. It was just really really funny.
Church of St. Peter’s Primacy
This marks the spot where Christ appeared the third time to pass on the leadership of the church to Peter. The Scriptures tell us that Peter told the other apostles, “I go a fishing.” Christ showed up and told them to cast their net on the right side of the ship, which once they did, they were not able to bring in the multitude of fishes. They realized it was the Lord. Then Jesus prepared fish for them. Still serving his disciples. Then those questions arose…Lovest thou me? What a question. Interesting that he asks it to Peter three times, the same amount that Peter denied him. Each time Peter answers, “Yea; Lord thou knowest that I love thee.” Draper brought out some great points about this, explaining that this was Peter ready to lead the church. Thou knowest I love thee. He says that the Peter of Acts is very different that the Peter of the Gospels, he is ready. What changed him Draper asks? The love of the Savior. He loved the Savior, he realized his love for the Savior and he was forever different after it. I really liked this site. It was a church again, right on the shore. We walked out the back on to the shoreline and stood on rocks out there. Possibly the same rocks that the Resurrected Lord and Peter walked across on the eventful day when Peter went a fishing. The best part was, I was out there on the rocks and was just sitting there looking straight out when after a time I looked to my left and noticed people on a small outpouring of rocks. What were they doing? Fishing. I loved that. It just seemed appropriate and made the site more real. The site of actual fisherman. I kind of regret that I did not run over there and ask them if I could cast once. I actually had to get drug away from that site. Yeah, we sang in that church and I loved it.
Capernaum
Please go to the Bible Dictionary, look up Gospels, and go to the timeline of events in the Saviors ministry and look at the location of the events and see how many times Capernaum is there at places where ridiculously sweet miracles were performed. It is sometimes called Christ’s City. It definitely was the early headquarters of the church which was centered out of Peter’s home. The best part about it is that they found Peter’s house! You see, in a lot of instances these places we find are just speculated to be places of important people from history, but this place is pretty for sure Peter’s house, it matches everything. They dug down to excavate it and built a synagogue over it. So now you can look down through glass floor in the synagogue or you can look from the side and see in to what was the house of Peter. To the main room where they would have held the early church meetings, the house where Christ would have healed Peters mother-in-law and the place well just Peter’s house! However, it is left in runes as Christ prophesied it would be. Now there is literally nothing left, but a few very sparse runes. It was even difficult to imagine what the bustling small fishing village would have once looked like. They say it was destroyed by hatred and abandoned by shame. Interesting to think what would have happened if they would have taken the eternal exception and just repented. I love that exception. Repent. Come back and I will heal you. I am so grateful for that exception; I wish more people would recognize its true healing power. We had a really choice experience. We talked about the lady who was healed there who had an issue of blood. The choice part was when a student in our class stood up and talked about having that same problem the woman had. She talked about the difficulty she had with it. She talked about how hard it would have been for that woman. How hard her life would have been, being considered unclean, and being so weak all the time, she spoke of experience. It seems that woman traveled from Caesarea Philippi over 25 miles away, Julia testified of how difficult that truly would have been for that woman. Then she bore her testimony of the Savior and of how he healed that woman and how much it would have meant to her to be made whole. Notice, the Savior’s response to the women who was only able to reach out and touch the hem of his garment, “Daughter, be of good comfort thy faith hath made thee whole.” It was the faith that she had in Him as the Savior and healer that made her whole from that hour. She was desperate, but she was faithful, “If I may but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be made whole.” I was there, on what was left of those streets where she, I imagine on her knees, reached out for the Savior as he passed. I did not need to be there to gain a greater understanding of individual faith in the Savior, but I was glad that I was there, it was powerful. So powerful. May we all have such faith, to when in serious trouble and unexplainable agony, make the difficult journey to the feet of Jesus and reach out for and just touch the hem of the Savior’s garment. I know that if we do that, we too can be made whole. Brethren and sisters can I just get a Hallelujah! For heaven’s sake!
August 1, 2008
Today we had amazing class for 3 ½ hours. I loved it. It ended at 11:30 and then we had the rest of the day to play in the Galilee. I love to play in the Galilee. I spent most of the time swimming underneath people, grabbing their feet and scaring them. I am so much like Dad it is ridiculous.
August 2, 2008
Shabbat. Shabbat here was really really cool because they have a branch here and the meeting house is in Tiberias. When we went to Egypt we just had one in the lobby and we asked not to bring Church clothes. Well, I (and several counterparts I might add) logically figured that the same applied for the Galilee, not true. Me and like two other guys looked like fools. It really wasn’t that bad, I wore jeans, vans and a polo shirt I borrowed from my roommate (which I spilt on at dinner
August 3, 2008
Another Galilean Field trip! This one we started off with some runes, aka another tell. We visited the city of Bet-Shean. There are 18 layers of civilization at this site and a whole lot of history. However, the Holy Land is so full of history and just about every rock has a story and every pile of rocks has several volumes written about it, I would prefer to give you the bare minimum. When the philistines had it, this is where they hung the bodies of King Saul and his sons on the wall after destroying their armies. When Christ was here it was about the same size as Jerusalem and run by the Romans. The Roman runes really are great, but Roman runes are always great. The best part was there is this huge hill and only the strong climbed it, eh hem, so when I was at the top with some other homies we started a call to the other students down below. Yes, we cheered B… they cheered Y… we cheered U… they cheered Cougars… they commenced the fight song…and we all joined in for the Ra Ra Ra’s. The funny thing was that it like reverberated through the whole place and was extremely loud and carrying. Luckily, it was so early we were the only ones there. But Brother Draper made the comparison, that from across the valley he could clearly hear everything we said atop that hill which made King Benjamin’s speech from atop that tower a little bit more understandable.
Next we headed to some springs for swimming! Woot woot! It was really cool. There wasn’t any historical or biblical significance to the sites, it was pure fun. We played in that spring for two hours. During which, I managed to scrap my side trying to enter underwater caves without goggles, lost a swim race to a girl, and watched the lifeguard who looked like Vin Diesel be really hardcore in his far too revealing swim trunks. Okay, in my defense, the girl is on the BYU diving team and has been on swim teams her whole life, I had never raced the breast stroke before, and when we raced freestyle later I won. Granted I was filled with adrenaline, took only like one breath, cut her off and she probably let me win after seeing my distraught reaction to the first race, but nevertheless I feel like I walked away with my dignity intact. (Dad we are gonna need to be a bit more aggressive in our early morning swim work outs, I am bringing a whistle and stop watch next time).
We went to Bet-Alpha Synagogue which was not very cool. It was just a Mosaic floor. It was significant because it was a synagogue and had a Zodiac in the middle of its mosaic demonstrating the Hellenization that happened to Judaism prior to the time of Christ. I thought it was cool, but we have seen so many synagogues at this point, I was over it at the same time.
The next site we went to was Mt. Tabor. I have mixed feelings about this site. You see, I was so excited for it! I was like yeah we are going to the top of the Mount of Transfiguration, sweeet! (ask Ric about the pronunciation of that “sweet”) Well, we get to the top and what is the first thing Brother Draper does? If you look at the Greek translation of the text ladi dadi dah: this is not the actual Mount of Transfiguration. That was probably on Mt. Hermon where we don’t visit. I was needless to say disappointed. However, Brother Draper did have a sweet lecture for us and since it was about 3:30-4ish at this point, and we had been out in the sun since 7:30 that morning, what do you think good old responsible Ty Ty did? Yup, I fell asleep like a 4 year old or 75year old in church, depending upon which you find more entertaining you can imagine. It was frustrating, because I really wanted to hear the lecture, I mean I came all the way here to learn this, but indeed the Spirit was willing and the flesh was weak. I was a mess and what made it worse was that the peops around me got it on video. My head just kept dropping limp to my chest, which would startle me, I would pull it back and then it would fall to far back behind me that I would get startled again and bring it back to my chest. Basically that continued on repeat. Luckily I has some sweet black shades on (thanks again for those) so you couldn’t tell I was asleep, that is to say until one of my head jolts was to intense and the slipped down my nose and I was dead in the water, wearing them like Grandpa Smith and now Uncle Kent wears his reading glasses just on the edge of his nose. Yeah, and the best part, I saw it all on video. The scary thing about being in a huge tour group of people, some of whom seem to be operating multiple cameras at once, most of your acts of stupidity get captured on film just as much as your moments of glory. Yeah, so Mt. Tabor…little disappointing for me, but a good view of the surrounding Jezreel Valley and city of Tiberias. That is thinking on the bright side too.
