The Western Wall

At the Western Wall

Praying at the Western Wall

Yesterday, was basically my Friday with no class today. I had Islamic thought in the morning after eating a wonderful waffle breakfast with strawberries and homemade whipped cream. Where I leaned about the Islam calendar and the five pillars of Islam. The Muslims have 12 months and each one has a meaning of the prayer and fasting for "Allah's glory". The calendars were made after 622 AD when the Muslims wanted to disconnect their new religion with the pagan worshippers of the sun god; which Jews and Christians worshipped. So this new faith started the use of the lunar calendar only they forgot about their very own "zeus of the desert" Sin the moon god. So far there is not answer to why they dont have a new form of calendar to get rid of the pagan worship, totally. But anyway, their date as of today is Friday 2 Raby` al-Thaany 1433 and so we also learned the Hebrew calendar being of the solar and lunar calendars combined to have the date at 1st of Adar, 5772 (א׳ בְּאַדָר תשע״ב). We also started the five pillars of Islam which are the 5 main points of what a devout Muslim has to do for his or her faith. We only got started on it, but the first one is prayer; which a devout muslim must pray five times a day at different intervals throughout the day brought on by the Manara or the person who calls to prayer. Also the Muslim must clean his/her arms to elbows, his face, and feet with water and if no water then he must wash with sand. The pray in a clean area.

The boy caring the the Torah during his Bar Mitzvah

After class and lunch my roommates (Josh and David) and I went to the Temple Mount/Western Wall to be able to go visit the Tempe Mount platform in between prayers. We went through the Jewish Quarter an there where two Bar Mitzvahs happening which recognizes the "coming of age", there was a parade of family members and friends with singing and laughing and clapping and drums and shofars playing. We got down to the entrance and there was a huge line for the Temple Mount, so we decided to go into the main area of the Western Wall. We all have our kippahs and so we walked dow the ramp and there where more Bar Mitzvahs and many people praying and sitting, and kneeling. I was able to go up to the Wall and pray there. I had also placed a prayer in the crevice of the Herodian stones of the Western Wall while praying with my hand on this ancient stone which once housed the Temple of Your God, the Lord of Hosts, YHWH. This was truly an amazing time to be able to feel the history and hear it from the Jews praying and kids playing, and also the singing.  We then toured the old city just window shopping, where we bought a rosary, and another kippah.


This Sunday, our Physical Settings class will be touring the Samaritan region, of the Tribe of Manasseh. 

Busy Weekend

At the Romanian Church

Christ raising Lazarus from the dead

So I haven't updated my blod in a while due to the fact that classwork is kinda piling up and also test are to be studied for and so on. So the first part is from from impression report for one of my classes and the other part is about another field study. Both field studies took around 10-11 hours each traveling to a lot of sites and geographic locations that is relevant to he classes and also very relevant and inspiring for studying the Bible.

St. George Monastery

Mosaic in the Church of the Nativity

Sunday my Physical Settings class touring the winding routes to Jericho via the Ascent of the Adummim, where we stopped first at an overlook of the Wilderness to the North, South, East and the Judean Country in the West with the towns and vegetation.  We discussed the wadi system of the Qilt and also the geology of the hills with its Senonian chalk and the Nari crust. We continued traveling to the St. George Greek Orthodox Monastery that was down the Qilt wadi and on a ridge in a very oasis-type location. In the monastery there was the dried remains of a saint who was so well preserved that his body is thought to be so pure that its not decomposing. But on a scientific view, the body was in a dry region where all the moisture was taken out and thus dried and now encased. Continuing on we came down to Jericho where we discussed one of Herod’s third palace, learning about the style of architecture with the diamond shaped bricks to keep the plaster safe from shifting incase of a earthquake. Also we talked about the sunken garden, the pool, and the first only bridge built in the country that cross the Qilt wadi and on the other side was the north-end of the palace with a column portico. After the lecture of the palace we had the free time and opportunity to wade the wadi, which many did.

            We then enjoyed lunch then off again to the field where we visited the Tel- es Sultan that is the Jericho’s Tell. We discussed the overlook from the “walls” of Jericho and the lush green and rich region around the city. Also we learned about the two walls, from the Neolithic and the Middle Bronze with red mud bricks. The red bricks reminded me of the famous red Roman bricks in a lot of ruins and architecture throughout the former empire. We learned about this stone pyre that was inside of the walls of Jericho, which we think it’s a religious site that is separating the profanity of the earth from the “holy site”. We drove on a saw the sycamore tree, which was the tree that in Luke 19:4, Zaccheus climbed the tree to see Jesus Christ because he was as short man.

            Driving through the Wilderness again to the Central Benjamin Plateau region we stopped at the hill of Nebi Samwil. This hill is the supposed site where the prophet Samuel w is buried and this is called the Tomb of Prophet Samuel. But this is not so there is no proof that Samuel is buried on this hill or anything that points to it. But on this hill is the ruin of a Byzantine and then Crusader fortress, which overlooks then entire region from Gibeon, Ramah, to Gibeah and then to the east. Also, this hill is the site of a mosque, which is shared in peace with a Jewish synagogue around the corner. During the Second Infatada in 2006, the Muslims and Jews prayed in the same building with peace and respect, even though CNN says there is violence that is engulfing the Middle East.

            The last stop was the ancient site of the town of Gezer; this settlement is in the westernmost part of the Benjamin right on the hills of the Shepalah (lowlands), which overlooks the coastal plain with Tel Aviv, Joppa in the West-Northwest and Ashkelon and Gaza in the Southwest. The region is lush with farms, field, and forest. Showing that this region was a great importance to the Israelites for trade, which Gezer was the “front door” of the Central Benjamin and thus the trade into the Hill Country (Jerusalem). This location is very vulnerable from the coast; i.e. Philistines, Egyptians, etc.

Shrine to Zaccheus in the Coptic Church

And on Saturday (Feb. 18) my class for Church of the East had a field study where we toured the different eastern churches and monasteries. We first traveled in the rain of the Judean Hill Country to the sunny slopes of Jericho where I was able along with the group visit a Romanian Orthodox Church/Monastery. The monastery is runned by a dozen nuns and a couple of monks, this site was attacked many times and also is rebuilt so its beautiful and still not done. But the main chapel is complete and once you walk in the 4 seraphim angels are guarding the doors and around the chapel is life size saints around the walls with the apostles on the dome and the portrait of Christ in the middle of the dome. We learned that the paint is a special paint that will last hundreds of years. We were greeted by a young nun to enter the crypt of the chapel, where on the walls there was the main stories of Christ doing miracles and the birth and resurrection of Christ on opposite sides with another huge portrait of Christ on the ceiling showing the sign of blessing. the sign of blessing is where the thumb and any other finger touches and then the other three fingers are up meaning blessing. We then traveled down the road to the Coptic Church, this church was much more , dare I say, trashy and more poor than the Romanian Church. But these people are very hard working and are quite content on their postion. But what is really sad is that this church, the Coptic Church is very heavily persecuted in Egypt and here in West bank, and other Middle East nations. But as the farmer-monk in rubber dirty boots said that he follows what Moses said to "be still and know that I am God" and this just made us all feel content that these people value the most poor and insignificant land and the people are so persecuted , while at the same time being very trusting in God.

Walking up to the Mount of Temptation

The Sycamore Tree

We continued on to the Mount of Temptation where its is said that Christ sat on the mount and where the devil tempted Jesus to worship him in exchange of ruling all the nations that can be seen from the mount. This site is also the supposed site where John the Baptist got executed. We climbed up to the midpoint of the Mount where there was a Greek Orthodox Monastery an it was really Lord fo the Rings like. Where the monastery was in the cliffs and overlooking the Jericho region. We were able to touch the stone where Jesus sat , which was so awesome and real. Afterward the Abbott Gerosimus gave each one of us, students, a blessing. He prayed by placing a golden cross with red stones on our head and touching the five points of the head which represents the fie openings of the body: the mouth, the eyes, and the ears to get rid of the evil of temptation. Professor Petra Heldt said this was the first time in 20 years where she had a group individually blessed. What a great honor and privilege to get blessed this way on such a sacred site. We continued down the road to the Ethiopian Church, where we learned that the Ethiopians just built the church, before it was just a hut on the land. The Ethiopian church is known for adapting its church buildings to the region round them. So in the Middle East the domes are used and also pews, but in the States a more protestant look is used.  From there we went on to the Church of St. Gerosimosus where it was another large Greek Orthodox Church in the middle fo the Rift Valley near Jericho. We had lunch at a rest stop where there was a border patrol, the IDF troops were looking at our food and saying they have better food than us, which was kinda funny. We then drove on to Bethlehem and visited the Church of the Nativity to visit the oldest part, owned by the Armenian Church. But the monk wouldn't let us in even though we got permission form his superior the Bishop of Jerusalem, so that we almost the end, we got back to Jerusalem and went to vespers at Abu Ghosh Monastery. This was an amazing vespers, with the monks and nuns singing and the ritual of bowing at the cross and very sincere  and paying great respect to out Lord Christ, Jesus. Well that was the day and the night and on Sunday was another field trip then on Monday was Exam three for Physical Settings class.

Day of love and mourning

Well yesterday was Valentine's Day, which a group of us singles celebrated Singles Awareness Day. But anyway, I checked my mail that morning and saw I got, along with all of the other students, valentines from our dear college president and professor, Dr. Wright and his wife. On it was a verse form Psalm 52:8 "But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever." This verse was quite relevant seeing the olive trees living in very rough terrain and can weather through strong winds and flash floods.


After class a group of us hopped on the tram system to Mt. Hertzel to visit and pay our respects to the victims of the Holocaust at the Yad vaShem Museum. This was my first time of the tram which I found out it is just a two way line and building it cost millions of dollars extra and the work was delayed a lot. But anyway going back to the museum, we entered the Gateway with a verse from Ezekiel 37:14 in English and Hebrew "I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD." So far with just this verse and being in the chosen land, it has an somber and amazing (bad, not good) feeling. We walked through to the Garen of the Righteous where every tree in the garden and all over the museum grounds has plaque to each tree representing a gentile and or a resistance group who helped or tried to help the Jewish people to safety from extermination. We even found a tree in memory of Oskar Schindler, and this started to get real for me and I;m sure for the other as well. We walked on tot he Children's Memorial; where on the hill was a group of twelve or so limestone pillars of different heights representing the 1.5 million Jewish children from the little ones for the infants and the taller ones for the teenagers who had their live cut short and their family lines eliminated. 

Oskar Schindler's memorial

We went in the Memorial which was donated by a couple who lost their son from the concentration camps. Inside there was a large wall with portraits of the children killed and in the background was the recording of the 1.5 million children's names, age, and country which to complete the whole list would take 7 months continuously. The next room was pitch balk and the only light was from one candle reflected on a room of mirrors showing the light like millions of stars. Each star was to symbolize each child from infant to 18 years of age killed in the Holocaust. This part standing and hearing the names of the kids would were murdered and seeing the millions of lights was truly sad and I was starting to weep. We saw the Warsaw Memorial of large iron murals of the Jewish people being placed on train cars. And the Concentration camp hall, where on the floor was the names of the each concentration camps that took the lives of the millions of Jews and in the middle was a tomb of the unknown, which was filled with the ash of thousands of people and a everlasting flame. This too had a impact on me after seeing the camps names that I recognized from past history classes. We went on and toured the portrait hall of the portraits of people who were in the ghettos and camps right before they died. Seeing kids in the hall all the way to the eldery was a unspeakable and really I dont know what words to say, just a real way to see the victims of the Holocaust.

Aslo yesterday night was my night class, Church in the East. Where we learned to day about the Dhimma system which is a subgroup of the Sharia Law. A form of ingrained cultural, historical, and legal way of persecuting the Christians and Jews who live in Muslim territory. This form of forced contract is where the Christians and Jews have to pay a tax to live in Muslim regions, are not able to ride a horse, provide witness against a Muslim, wear clothes like a clown, and is subjected as a lesser people, even more inferior than the lowest class in Muslim tradition. This kind of tax they must pay is for any travel, and housing tax. Also any church or synagogue is owned by the Muslims and is taxed and the Christians/Jews must pay or bad things will happen. The pride of the Christian Church, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is one of these, a Muslim family owns the Church property and is rented by the 4 Christian denominations. This form of persecution is killing the Eastern, the Syrian, and the Coptic Church so much that these Churches will be gone, extinct in roughly 50 years. So I ask all of you who are reading this to pray for the Eastern Churches for their growth/survival and for the love of Christ to change the Muslim ingrained culture of the Dhimma to a more reformed and equal, fair way of living. If this does not happen then there will be NO church in the East.

Judean Countryside

The morning view of the Old City from the Mount of Olives

Today was our Jerusalem Approaches field study, where we toured around the Judean Country and learning about the geography, the history, and the importance of many biblical places. We started the long and tiresome day with a short bus ride to the overlook on the Mount of Olives over looking the city of Jerusalem and then to the other side looking at he Judean Wilderness. What I am always amazed is the stark difference of the western side of the watershed ridge and the eastern, not to mention seeing the cliffs of Moab in Jordan. We then walked down to see the site of the city of David from the overlook on the Mount of Olives, as well.  I’m glad to say I knew most of the geographical names of the significant regions surrounding the city along with the city of Jerusalem.  We then walked down hill to the supposed site where Jesus Christ cried for the city of Jerusalem, and also we saw and went into the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene, which this is the supposed and the traditional site where the Garden of Gethsemane was during the time of Jesus. When we came up to the church I was kind of proud of myself for being able to read some of the wordings that were in Russian Cyrillic. This was my first time being in a Russian Church and it had those famous onion shaped domes, full of gold plating which made it amazing. From there the group of Physical Settings students walked on down through the Kidron Valley and we came across a huge mixed cultured monument, which is named Absalom’s Pillar, which is the supposed and false tomb the King Absalom, King David’s rebellious son who had a huge ego problem. I was impressed at the architecture of the tomb and also confused of it, as well. The mixing of the Greco-Roman, the Nabataean, and the Egyptian architecture kind of turned me off. I am for Western and classical, but the false tomb is still a wonder with the large cut bedrock around it and the different styles of architecture. Just around the hill were the other tombs of the Hasmonean priests that also had wonderful tombs. 

The Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene

The supposed tomb of King Davids son, Abasolm

From there we left on the bus and into the West Bank to tour and learn about the great palace fortress of Herodyon, on the way we learned about the landscape and the other geopolitical areas of the land. We kept driving up and up and seeing this great hill with the former palace of Herod was just a monument to the people and the land. We got to the midpoint place and we enjoyed a great “sack lunch” and had the great opportunity looking out over the Judean countryside that changed from green and populated west to the desert and sparse east close to the Dead Sea; truly amazing and a place to truly see and understand the Israeli country. Now to the palace, this palace that was built by Herod the Great around 23 to 20 BC, which contained two sections: Upper Herodyon and Lower Herodyon. The Upper was the place of the palace and with it the circular fortress on the cone-shaped partly artificial mountain. And the Lower had the numerous palace annexes for the usage of the King’s family and friends. This area had a 800 seat amphitheater, and a large pool surrounded by a column portico. I was also impressed again with the great engineering feat that the Jewish zealots, of the Bar Kochba revolt who controlled the palace built a great system of tunnels under the mountain in the soft chalk. And to add to this I was impressed at how Roman this fortress-palace was; which was a great help when Agrippa came to visit.

The wall separating the West Bank and Israel

Guard towers that are at every couple miles

And then we drove to Bethlehem and visited the Church of the Nativity and toured the city seeing the refugee camps and the regions that surrounds it which included the famous three Herodian water reservoirs, Solomon’s Pools. These pools are huge, and can hold massive amounts of water for governmental and Temple use only. But to bring water from the hills in the west to this dry region Herod had built stone pipes that cared the water 60 miles on a 1000-foot decline to water Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and his private palace, as well. We then drove off back to JUC, we then came to the West Bank checkpoint where there was a line of vehicles and the  IDF troops went through the cars and busses. So this means that the troops would have to board the bus and check us out. It was kinda different having a kid, around 18-20 age with an M-16 walking pass you and checking you out to see if you were "hostile".  


P.S. I have a test on Monday and I ask for prayers for my success, and a good grade.

View of the Judean countryside

View of the fortress-palace mountain of Herodian

Fertile Cenomanian limestone lands in the west

Desert-like Senonian lands in the east

View from the Herodian top with the Dead Sea ad the cliffs of Jordan (Moab)

Looking north with Bethlehem and Jerusalem in site

The ruins of the fortress Herodyon (Herodian)

View of the Dead Sea and Cliffs of Moab, again

A Not Too Important Day

Church of the Redeemer

Looking to the Northwest

Dome of the Church in the foreground and Dome of the Rock in background

Well today wasn't a busy day. I did have class to day, just one, Islamic Thought. Which was quite interesting when we were talking about the prophet Muhammad and his talks with Jesus, Moses, and Adam; along with negotiating the amount of prayers people should do in a day, which was from 50 times a day to 5 times. After talking about the "ministry of Islam" and of Muhammad's life we just had discussion. Class ended and I was free for the day, so I went with some other fiends to climb the bell tower of the Church of the Redeemer. At the top we had a great overview of the Eastern Hill, so basically the Temple Mount and all of the quarters of the Old City. We then got down and walked to our local friend, Shaban, where we talked for the next 40 minutes till lunchtime back at the campus. He told us some of his stories of going to Shiloh and not liking it, and then taking tourist to the West Bank and the IDF stops him because he is Arab and the IDF officers just let him through cause Shaban is a well known guy in Jerusalem and many other cities. He also told us about the First Infatada.

We got back had lunch and I read and did some studying, then relaxed and took a short nap. Tomorrow is Shabbat and then on Saturday our Physical Settings class is taking a day trip to Bethlehem, Herodium, Mount of Olives, and other places. This will be my first time in the West Bank and going through checkpoints. And to be honest I'm kinda looking forward to it.

My initials on the bell tower

City of David

The entrance to the National Park

View of the site of the City of David in the Kidron Valley

Yesterday, was a very long day. It was educational, fun, sore, tiring, and just the surreal-ness of the city. We woke up very early to get the whole day to tour the city, so I woke up at 05:30 to get some hot water. I didn't. The group, Physical Settings class met at the gate at 07:00 for the 10 hour walk of the Old City and the City of David; this quaint little village of two thousand in a valley surrounded by large hills surely gives a visitor a sense of the verse Psalms 121: 1-8, “ I will lift up my eye to the hills; from whence shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your feet to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is the shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day nor the moon by night. The LORD will protect you from all evil; he will keep your soul. The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in from time forth and forever.” This passage shoes just how vulnerable the city was from invaders and other hostile nations. Being that this city was basically in a valley with tall high all around makes it a bad strategic location but since there is a water source from the Gihon Spring this was more valuable for sieges. The part where “He will not allow your foot to slip” shows us how steep the hills were and for a visitor to up walk or down the hill would be difficult.

I was also impressed on how these semi-nomadic peoples, the Israelites, when pressed and scared of death could dig a large tunnel system under the city for water supply. Just the thought of ancients making a tunnel system with no “modern” tools or even advance math to be able to have the knowledge and ability through a hardship to dig and meet the two teams together is amazing.Our group first went to the wall of the Old City near Jaffa Gate, where we learned the three different stone layers of the wall. Also what was interesting was how high the silt was in the past, which basically covered half of the today’s shown walls. The three layers that were showing were from top to bottom were from the Ottoman Turks, the Crusaders, and then the Ancient Herodian Era stones. We could see how ornate and nicely cut the Herodian stones were then the stones became more about utility than about prestige.

Inside the Canaanite Tunnel of the Gihon Spring

After the tour of the Broad Wall, City of David and The tunnel system, we continued our way to the Umayyad Palace of the Ottoman Era at the Eastern end of the Temple Mount where we saw the ruins of the Robinson’s Arch which held the stairs to get to the top of the Temple mount from the market below and the mikveh’s. What I was impressed about was hearing about the purification bath and then stumbling upon it during our lecture I was sitting where thousands of Jews walked in as unclean people before God and came out as purified people, ready to enter the Temple. It might be the place where even the disciples and Jesus Christ, out Lord went in and then out to head to the Temple. And as if that wasn’t cool enough, not more than fifty feet was the street where Christ Jesus walked to buy a sacrificial animal and meet the shopkeepers.

We then walked on to through the Crusader Wall and rested at the Eastern Steps, where Saul (Paul) was taught by the famous rabbi at the time Gamaliel. Where as Dr. Wright states it “Paul’s seminary desk was”, but to also think these steps were probably the same ones that Jesus spoke to the masses, and where the 3000 people were baptized on Pentecost, and the site was quite convenient being that there were a couple dozen mikvehs in this area; the mass baptism seems very possible. Today was truly a very spiritual day to imagine the days  of the ancient City of David and feel the stone that Jesus and Paul might have touched and even stood. My place on those stones is now part of history with Jesus and the other disciples being on top of the long list.

We went around the Temple Mount and went through security to visit the Western Wall. Vistor's could only be in the back second and if one wants to go up to the Wall. They must wear modest conservative clothes and also wear a kippah (yamaka) and the women are separated from the men at the Wall.

Our group then walked on the Via Dolorosa toward the French Basilica of of the Church of St. Anne; this site where the church is, is also the spot where the Bethesda Pool (where Jesus Christ healed the blind man) and also where some pagan cult sites are. We had the opportunity to go inside the Basilica where we sat down and sang Amazing Grace and Great is Thy Faithfulness in this building that is known for its great acoustics. It was really cool, I wished I recorded it. At the end of the tour we had one last place to visit, The Austrian Hospice in the Muslim Quarter. We climbed the stairs to the top and looked out on the roof seeing the whole skyline of the Central Valley with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the right, Western Hill and on the left, Eastern Hill, the Temple Mount/Dome fo the Rock. It was cool to see the Church on the higher hill than the mosque, and in this world that means its more important. We did a horizon survey and had time to take pictures and then headed back to campus. Now, back to the Hospice, the Hospice was built in the 1870s by the Hapsburg Dynasty in the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the Unification of Germany and an alliance with German Kaiser Wilhelm I. The inside is very sophisticated and elegant, it had an Imperial -style of decoration and architecture. And the two main languages used are German and English (keeping their history alive). All in all this day was great, learning was awesome from seeing the sites in person and then imagining what it looked like in the past.

My feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Me on the Ramparts Walk (south route)

The title is from Psalms 122, the previous days weren't too busy just class and a group of us went to Mike's Bar on Thursday, which was fun, the bar is very American-like. I don't really like that.

Today was the Shabbat weekend so I enjoyed sleeping in and then walking around the Old City walls. We (a group and I) went from Jaffa Gate south then east on the ramparts walk. We saw the Armenian Quater the Dormition Abby on Mt. Zion and the Jewish Quarter. It was cool to think that defenders of this ancient city for thousands of years stood, guarded, and fallen where I walked. Our group then found this "secret passage", very Indiana Jones-like, and we climbed down it. We were surprised to find this quarter as a Hobo house we then continued down the ramparts bobbing our heading through the battlements to get some pictures and look at the area. We saw the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives and the huge Jewish cemetery, I think its the largest one in the world. We continued off the wall, through the city to go back to Jaffa Gate to go the northern route of the ramparts walk.

Southern Route near Zion Gate

Going into the "secret passage"

Kids playing in razor wire

The Northern route went from Jaffa and ended just west of the Temple Mount in the Muslim Quarter. But, we are getting ahead of ourselves. Now we walked along seeing the Latin Patriarchate (Roman Catholic Housing) next to a family mosque and on the other side of the wall is the New City. We walked on going up stairs then down, up and down where we got to New Gate, which was built in the late 1800s and took pictures of the Christian/ Muslim Quarters. From there we went on to the Damascus gate, where the place was bustling on the streets with street merchants on the side of streets and in the middle of the streets. Here we were met by three Arab boys who were very brave, for they played in barb/razor wire stairways and they also asked us to take pictures of them with some of our ladies from our group. We saw nothing wrong with that, but we found out later that these boys were looking for something...mostly pickpocketing but also feeling the ladies behinds and being quite perverted, to say the lest. The ladies were fine and the boys didn't take anything, just scared the ladies abet and made us guys to be more aware. We then continued on after that ordeal and saw girls playing basketball, who then saw us and asked us guys our name. Apparently, Sam is a good name,but my name was not liked, maybe because Islam is from the Essau in the Abrahamic-side of the tree and the disliking of Jacob, I really don't know. We also saw boys playing soccer on really nice soccer fields with the background of the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock and the Mount of Olives. Wow, I dont think i would be paying attention to the game just thinking about the history of this place. We then came to the end and got off the wall int he Muslim Quarter we walked down the Via Dolorosa to get to our main street, Christian Quater st to find our favorite shopkeeper, Shabban. We walked back to campus and had enough time to look over some pictures from friends and get ready for dinner.

Tomorrow, Sunday, the Physical Settings class (all new students) will be going on a 11 hour walk around the Old City for class. This will be fun and I am ready to lear more about the City of Peace.