Saturday, June 30, 2012

Greece is the word... and an amazing country

Today we were on the move and left Tantur at 2.30 am for a 4.00 am check-in at the airport. We were prepared for a challenging time with Israeli airport security but got through without any questions at all. We dozed a little on the plane but also enjoyed magnificent views of the Greek Islands.




We arrived in Athens around 9 am. Got the bus into the city and found our hotel which seemed like luxury after our experience in Seoul. Our experience in Greece was absolutely superb... thanks for all your tips and recommendations Stuart! They were all perfect... and if Greece is not on your place to visit list, put it on!

After a bit of a rest, wander and lunch we were picked up at 3.00 pm to go on a tour of Athens. It helped orient us and we were quite impressed by the city and its buildings and how green and leafy these areas were.


The Panathenaic Stadium, site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

We spent quite some time at the Acropolis – Acropolis means edge of the city and it is a small peak in the midst of modern day Athens and includes the Parthenon, undoubtedly one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The views from atop the Acropolis were amazing.


On the Acropolis the Parthenon is the most striking of the ancient buildings
 



The Erechtheion (above and below)


The Theatre of Herodes Atticus just below the top of the Acropolis hill
Church of St George - the highest point in the city...

Hadrian's Arch
The Temple of Zeus
We also visited the spot where St Paul preached to the people of Athens… an especially exciting thing to do on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.




Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,
“For we too are his offspring.” Acts 17:22-28

Friday, June 29, 2012

Two Pregnant Women

This was our last day in Israel. Steve decided to spend this time going back to Bethlehem and saying goodbye to Baseem before we return to New Zealand. In addition he spent time reflecting on our time here in this land with all its contraditions. He lingered around the Palestinian side of the wall and read the stories as well as taking photos. (He didn't see any planes though!). It is our intention to do a number of other posts upon our return to NZ. One will be on our reflections on the Wall. 

The group went to Ein Karem today. It is a suburb of west Jerusalem and has had changes of populations depending on who is in control. It was a Palestinian neighbourhood until 1948 when people had to just leave their house at gunpoint. Many took their keys and still have their keys in the hope that one day they will return. Today it is Jewish and quite a trendy area it seems. It is the only place I saw the cafe culture in evidence around Jerusalem.

Our first stop was the hospital that has Chagall windows in the synagogue there. There are twelve windows and each one represents one of the tribes of Judah.



Next stop was a Russian Orthodox Church which has gold onion shaped domes which are easily seen on the hill. Both the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholics have churches which are dedicated to the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth.


We then visited the Roman Catholic Church of this Visitation. There is also an upstairs chapel in this place which is cared for by the Franciscans and is dedicated to women.


Two pregnant women...
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’
Luke 1:39-45  



From there we walked to the Church of John the Baptist. There is a chapel where John the Baptist's birth is acknowledged. From there we drove through the check point towards Bethlehem and went to a place at Shepherd's Field for lunch. We could look across from there and see some of the wall as well as a settlement on land that was once Palestinian, and we could also see Tantur in the distance.

The birth place of John the Baptist

Thursday, June 28, 2012

We came to a Samaritan city called Sychar

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’
Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her,‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her,‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ They left the city and were on their way to him.
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’
(From John 4)


Today we travelled to Samaria and our first stop was Nablus (also known as Neopolis, Sychar and Shechem) Our first stop was a Greek Orthodox Church and the site of Jacob's well where Jesus met the Samaritan woman. They were strict about photos but it is amazing what some people like Steve can manage (or sneak)! Leona lowered the bucket into the well which was very deep - about 70 feet. Winding the bucket of water up was more difficult than I would have thought. The water was clear, fresh and cool and we could drink it. The church itself was only finished relatively recently as it was another church that was destroyed by the Persians in the 7th century and gradually rebuilt from Crusader times. The Orthodox priest there at the moment has written many of the icons himself and he is gifted I would say. There is some sad history too. The Jewish people wanted to take over the site and attempted to on a couple of occasions. Finally a group came down with a rabbi and killed the priest. That was in 1987. No one was charged.



Jacob's well

Icon of the priest being killed
We briefly visited the archaeological site of ancient Shechem/Sychar in the centre of town. The ancient city sits in a valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. From there we walked through the city market to the Anglican parish and were hosted there for lunch.

The archaelogical site and Mount Ebal in the background



One of the many posters of the many Palestinians who have died during the occupation

Back to the bus and to Mount Gerizim where there are still Samaritans living. The Samaritans hold only to the first five books of the Bible. When the Northern Kingdom of Israel was captured by the Assyrians in the year 722 BC they effectively became separated from mainline Judaism. By the time of Jesus the Jews hated them, yet in the Gospels all the Samaritans are seen in a good light. We visited their village and we went into the synagogue there and the priest told us about the religion and practises of the Samaritans. They still have animal sacrifice. It used to be once a week but now a lamb is sacrificed by each family only at the Samaritan Passover. We saw the place where this occurs and were given the details. There are two main villages of Samaritans in Israel today and they now number around 750. Quite an increase from 150 about 50 years ago!


The Samaritan priest and a Torah scroll

The site of sacrifice...  the trench in the foreground extends quite a distance - the lambs are slaughtered and the blood runs into the poit where all the entrails are offered as a burnt offering. Some blood is sprinkled on the foreheads of the people and on the doors of their houses like the Passover story. The lambs are then eaten by the families.

Our final site was nearby Sebastia where Herod the Great had built a city. It was here that John the Baptist was beheaded.


The forum where Herod was enchanted by the dance and where he was asked for the Head of John the Baptist on a plate here and now

Where John was beheaded


Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Walking Down to Jericho and into the Jordan

Today was an very early morning start for the group for half the group. We left on the bus at 4.45 am and walked through Wadi Qelt to Jericho, a distance of about 12 km. We arrived in the Wadi Qelt area in time to see a brilliant sunrise over the barren hills of distant Jordan.




A wadi is, for most of the year, a dry river bed, but that in the short rainy season turns into a raging torrent. The surrounding hills were amazing - barren, rocky and amazing formations.



We trekked on and eventually arrived at a point where we could see St George's Monastery hanging on to the hillside. There have been monasteries in the area since about 400 or 500.  Of course we had a man with a donkey wanting to give Leona a ride (maybe it was because she was the only woman of our group present). We could also see the Wadi from this viewpoint before we walked down a very steep road towards the monastery and the dry Wadi. The monastery with about 9 monks does not open to visitors until 9 am so we kept walking towards Jericho. 
Monastery of St George



We saw many caves and evidence of former dwellings as well as the place of a hermit who lives there today. We wondered how they ever built the places and how they got to them. As we walked along I thought of the tramps that we would go on in NZ - we look down at running water and rivers and look up at mountains and walk through bush. This was the complete opposite. 


The hermit's cell stuck in the side of the cliffs of the wadi.


We arrived in Jericho just after 9am after walking for a few hours and around 12 km and the temperature rising towards 40 degrees. The rest of the group arrived a few minutes later by bus. From there we visited a church before getting the cable car up the hill to the Monastery of Temptation. The icons of Jesus and Mary on the iconostasis we're some of the best we had seen we thought. From the monastery and the cablecar there was a good view of Jericho. We were told though that it is a poor town of around 20,000 people.
 
The Monastery of Temptation
 

Our last stop of the day was the baptismal site of John the Baptist. The area has only recently been opened up to the public as the Jordan River is the Israeli-Jordanian border as the sign reminds you



On the left Jordan, on the right Israel. Israeli soldiers are sitting above to make sure you don't cross from one side to the other.

The main archaelogical sites for John's baptism site are in Jordan and the Jordanian government are keen for churches to set up there... you can see a couple from the Israeli side

Just don't wander too far... this is a border area and the Israelis are pretty untight about people crossing into Israel