Church in Israel

Going to church in Israel was a dream, really, if nothing less than for the view we had from our seats each Shabbat.




The Jerusalem branch meets in the Jerusalem Center auditorium, where they also hold free monthly concerts open to the public. Since any form of proselyting in Israel is not allowed (to keep the BYU Jerusalem Center there, this contract was made with the Israeli government before the Center was even finished being built), church is only for the few LDS who are living in Israel--most of them are ex-pats, but there are Filipino and a few others who live there as domestic servants. The Jerusalem Center branch, when I was there, had just the students and service couples living at the Center and a few American families who were going to school/working there. And maybe an Israeli or two who had joined the church many, many years ago...?

The excitement was that once, Truman Madsen and his wife came to our church meeting (they taught our Sunday School!) and once, Daniel Rona graced us with his presence. And I even shook his hand. :) (This man took my father and grandparents on a tour of the Holy Land back when my dad got off his mission.)



I heard that this $600,000 organ was donated anonymously. It is beautiful. And I got to play it--there are few things more magnificent than sitting here playing this organ as the sun sets over the Holy City.



This is the chapel up at the Galilee. We were there when it was dedicated by Elder Holland, and unless I am mistaken and we rent the property, it is the only building the church owns in Israel (the Jerusalem Center is built on land that is on a 99 year lease--it is very hard to buy land in Jerusalem).



The chapel is small but the left side wall is a large window looking out over the Sea of Galilee:



The window/wall is next to a walk out balcony.



Isn't it beautiful?



The Tiberias branch, like the Tel Aviv branch, had several different nationalities that attend church. Here is their hymn number holder, telling the hymn number in the English, Russian, Spanish, and Hebrew hymnbooks.

I went to the Tel Aviv branch once, and there they had 4 sections (even though they only had about 20 people) in the congregation: Tagalog, Spanish, Russian, and English. And a translator sat in the middle of each section and translated Sacrament meeting into each respective language. It made for a pretty noisy church meeting...but at least no one could fall asleep, right? :)

The rest are pictures of members of the Jerusalem branch:



The Relief Society president.



Most of the Primary children.



A family that lived in the Palestinian village below the Center. He was studying at Hebrew University for a year.

Class at the JC

Classes at the Jerusalem Center were quite...interesting. We had class 6 days a week, Sunday-Friday (Saturday is the Sabbath in Jerusalem), and were given quite a heavy workload (which may or may not have been done by most of the students). Many of our classes were in the same classroom every day, every class, shown below:





More than half the time there was at least one person in the class sleeping...





In addition to time spent in the classroom, we often had class "on site." Actually, each time we were "on site" (meaning out where the events actually happened) our instructors were instructing. To accommodate all 44 students, they gave us each headsets which we were supposed to wear so we could hear the professor wherever we were at the archaeological site. This made for some pretty sweet looking pictures. :)









Sunglasses? Check. Headphones? Check. Hard hats?



Check.



Since we spent so much time on site, we also spent much of our time on the bus. Too bad for those of you who get car sick or claustrophobic, ipods are not allowed. (Story on this to come later...)



This was our Jewish history professor. He was bald and always wore the kippuh...and since most males in Israel kept their kippuhs on their heads by using bobby pins between the hat and the hair, and he had no hair, we always wondered how he kept his kippuh on...



He also gave us a large amount of reading assignments. Like upwards of 5,000 pages worth. He would copy them and stick them in the library upstairs, and one day he came to class and mentioned that he was a bit worried because they were all still there. Don't worry, we took them up to the Sea of Galilee with us...if for nothing else, they were useful for firewood...





This was our Arabic professor. His name was Ayman, and we loved him. His English was great and one time he mentioned "foot fingers." It was a laugh a minute. And then he invited us to his house to eat dinner and meet his family.



We loved him.

Palestinian Home

One day we went to Bethany to see Lazarus' tomb...and while we were there a Palestinian woman (Bethany is in the West Bank) whose house was right down the road from the tomb started talking to one of our professors. She was kindly enough to let some of us come and have a tour of her home...which was an awesome experience. At that time I didn't speak Arabic so I had no idea what she was saying, and she only spoke a little English. But from what I gathered, 9 people (including some of her extended family) lived in this house.

This is the walkway in from the gate through her yard to her house.



This is her front door. I think most of the family was short enough for it to be ok.



Her yard/garden. Those are olive trees.



Her kitchen. How would you like to cook for 9 people in this thing? The kitchen is actually newer than the rest of the house and is not attached to the main room. She was so proud when she was showing us her kitchen--that she has a covered place to cook food. And yes, that hole in the ground through the doorway is the toilet. They also have indoor plumbing (and the traditional Arab "toilet," which I just never got used to). :)



These last two are of the inside of her house. It was one room and I am standing about 3/4 of the way to the wall by the door. So what you see is more than half of her house. There were only 4 beds (all pushed against the 4 walls) so we asked her where the other 5 slept (9 people live there). She lifted up the cover of one of the beds and we saw blanket rolls under the bed. "On the floor," she said.

Wow. I hope no one needs to get up in the middle of the night...maybe they let that person sleep by the door...



These are the decorations on the wall. The one on the left is a picture of her mother. By the one on the right you can tell that this was a Christian Palestinian family.

Hezekiah's Tunnel

Hezekiah's Tunnel is a must see in Jerusalem. Although the first time the Jerusalem Center crew (also known as the JSAC) went through I was riding in a car through the back streets of the city with a JC guard (I was forbidden from entering the tunnel because of over-worried professors and a knee problem I picked up in Egypt, but this is another story for another day), I did go through another day. So take that, over-worried professors. :)

Hezekiah's tunnel is fun for all ages (except the sick, babies, elderly, and those with knee problems :) because you walk through 533 meters of water, with the deepness ranging from up to your ankle to above your knee (if you are short). And you can still see the chink marks made from the workers.



Highly recommended--but remember to take a flashlight. The tunnel doesn't have electricity. :)

Cathedral Singing

While in Jerusalem, one of our favorite things to do (much to the chagrin of other tourists and worshippers, I am sure) was to take advantage of the amazing acoustics in the cathedrals and sing hymns as a group when we visited the different holy sites. It was always fun to sing hymns about Christ at the very place (maybe) that they happened, but that joy was multiplied as we sang in the cathedrals.

These short clips, unfortunately, highlight much of me and little of anyone else singing (since I was holding the camera), but if you can overlook that part it gives you a good sense of the awesome acoustics in those cathedrals.

Passover--and Unleavened Bread

I love religious holidays. And I love celebrating religious holidays, even if I do not prescribe to said religion.

But when you open your lunch during passover season and it looks like this,

you start to wonder how to eat it.

No wonder the children of Israel complained about the manna. Every day for how long? :)

Lost in Translation

One of my favorite parts about going to other countries is seeing their English translations on signs for tourists...


They had these signs everywhere. Something sick inside of me thought it was funny that each one had a picture of a person falling down...











If you want control, just keep your ticket.



In case anyone tries to tell you otherwise...



(You have to look at this one closely.) Swimming on this beach is risky. Especially since there isn't any water. Or any beach.



Don't even try it.



When words just can't say it, just don't use words.





This one isn't a sign, but isn't this about the creepiest mannequin head you have ever seen?







ok, you can throw your trash here if you can't read any of these languages...

please. don't pick the herbes. it's dangerous.