hold me like the river jordan

Well it’s that time of year again… my half birthday!! And what better way to celebrate than a sabbath in the Galilee?! But really, it’s been a great past few days! On Thursday I had classes in the morning and then a free afternoon. I chose to use my free afternoon to go on a hike in the Golan with a bunch of friends. We had a super sweet hippie guide that took us on the hike. It was AMAZING!! We were wet and muddy, but we were so happy. The entire hike was incredibly beautiful. It was exactly the fall hike I’d been missing. We stopped at a waterfall and a few of us got in for a swim. The water was so cold that it took my breath away! But it was really fun. I loved the hike mostly because it was just so peaceful. We go to a lot of really neat and really spiritual places here in Israel, but we don’t have very much time to just enjoy nature and be so secluded like that. It was really peaceful.
After our hike we went straight to dinner at a fish restaurant and then spent the evening in Tiberias. TIberias is one of the only bigger cities in the Galilee, but when we went there it was dead. Apparently the nightlife isn’t very big here… We did see a really cool water show on the port though. It felt like we were at the Bellagio in Vegas, but minus all the people. I felt like I was watching a fireworks show. After that we just got some ice cream and came back to our Kibbutz.
Yesterday we had another field trip. We first went to the ancient city of Gamla. It was a really cool city that was placed at the top of a super steep hill. During the First Jewish Revolt (66-70 AD), Gamla was one of the last Galilean cities taken over and destroyed by the Romans. They killed some 4,000 Jews while another 5,000 jumped off the edge of the cliff to avoid surrender. After hiking up to the top of the city you could see how jumping over the cliff would be certain death.
Our next stop was the ancient Jewish village of Qazrin. The cool part about this site was that they restored a house in the village to show what it would have looked like during its time. It was neat seeing what houses would have looked like during the time of Jesus. It made some scriptures come alive a little more. Like the one that says if you drop a coin in your house you wouldn’t be able to find it. There were hardly any windows in the house so it was really dark in there and the floor was not a smooth surface.
Our last stop of the day was Kursi, the site where Jesus cast the evil spirits into the swine. We didn’t stay too long, but long enough to get a nice pig picture!
Last night we had class for two hours (7-9 pm on a Friday night!) and then a bunch of us played capture the flag on the beach. We always have a good time!
Today we went to church in Tiberias with the Galilee branch. They meet in a converted house with a great view of the Sea of Galilee. One of the boys (well actually the only boy) said the sacrament prayer in Hebrew and it was really cool! Then during the last talk a storm came and the thunder was super loud. Guess what the closing hymn was? Master the Tempest is Raging. Crazy huh?
On our way back to Ein Gev, we stopped at Yardenit, a baptismal site on the Jordan River. It was a very commercialized site that a lot of Christians come to get baptized at. Luckily for us it was a rainy day so there weren’t actually a lot of people there. It was the perfect location for us to pay our tribute to Michael Jackson. A group of us sang “Will You Be There” right on the Jordan River! (Hold me like the River Jordan…) It was so sweet! I loved it! The days just do not disappoint here in the Galilee.