Wow! What a day.
Today is Richie’s 30th B-Day and Adam bought him a birthday shirt that Richie has to wear today that says, “30 and dirty!” Good times! I bought Richie a yamica(sp?) or “skull cap” that the Jewish people wear. Richie wore it all day, he even looks Jewish!
We started with a drive from Amman, through the northern land of Jordan. The fields were green and the olive trees were big. It’s amazing what a little water will do.
We drive to Jerash, an 1800-year-old Roman city. It is the best-preserved and complete Roman city in the entire Middle East. It was amazing to stand among those columns and see what people saw so long ago.
As we were driving we realized that we were going through the same land that Moses walked with the Israelites at the end of the 40 days in the desert. At the end of the wandering years, Moses went up to Mount Nebo and God showed him all of the Promised Land. As we made the drive up to Mount Nebo, you could feel the history and significance. The view was not of this world. You can actually see the whole valley from the east looking towards the west. We stayed a bit to take it all in…it was very cool.
On the way to the Israel border, we crossed the Jabbok River; the place where Jacob wrestled with God and God changed his name to Israel. We were actually at the fork…or a fork, the same type of place Jacob was in. We took some great photos.
From there we had to leave our Jordanian guide behind because we were going to cross over to Israel. The border crossing required us to go through customs again and change busses. It was already past noon and the boarder crossing took nearly two hours. After that, the group was very hungry as it had been about 8 hours since we last ate. We ate at the base of Qumran, the place the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered.
At Qumran, we got to walk through the dig and se how the Essene people lived. A little way down the path, we could see the cave where the scrolls were discovered. Our new guide had a lot of great information to share with our group.
To finish off the day, we headed to the oldest city in the world, Jericho. Jericho is over 10,000 years old and is still bustling today. It got dark so we could only see with limite lights. It is our hope to return to Jericho in a few days to see it during the day. Near Jericho is a Sycamore tree that it is believed Zacchaeus climbed. It’s most defiantly is not the tree, but a good representation of what the tree would have looked like.
A late supper and late bed time as I finish this blog. Tomorrow is a very full day. We are spending the night in the Holy City, Jerusalem. Tomorrow we will see many sites here and Bethlehem.
On the way to the Israel border, we crossed the Jabbok River; the place where Jacob wrestled with God and God changed his name to Israel. We were actually at the fork…or a fork, the same type of place Jacob was in. We took some great photos.
From there we had to leave our Jordanian guide behind because we were going to cross over to Israel. The border crossing required us to go through customs again and change busses. It was already past noon and the boarder crossing took nearly two hours. After that, the group was very hungry as it had been about 8 hours since we last ate. We ate at the base of Qumran, the place the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered.
At Qumran, we got to walk through the dig and se how the Essene people lived. A little way down the path, we could see the cave where the scrolls were discovered. Our new guide had a lot of great information to share with our group.
To finish off the day, we headed to the oldest city in the world, Jericho. Jericho is over 10,000 years old and is still bustling today. It got dark so we could only see with limite lights. It is our hope to return to Jericho in a few days to see it during the day. Near Jericho is a Sycamore tree that it is believed Zacchaeus climbed. It’s most defiantly is not the tree, but a good representation of what the tree would have looked like.
A late supper and late bed time as I finish this blog. Tomorrow is a very full day. We are spending the night in the Holy City, Jerusalem. Tomorrow we will see many sites here and Bethlehem.
2 comments:
I can't believe how much older Richie looks...wow. I'm amazed at what you're seeing and thanks so much for sharing your journey with us because it's probably the closest I'll ever get to the Holy Land. As I was watching your video, my students came in and summed it up as best as an 8th grader can: "Why would you pay money to walk into a hole and look at a pile of dirt?" And there you have it from the good old USA....
Did Adam buy that shirt for Richie becuase he has been reluctant to bathe or something? Allison told us she only packed him a couple pairs of undies so he could be in some real trouble. That air freshener on his head must be very powerful. I've always used pine scent. I wonder what "Yamika" scent is like.
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