Thankfulness #2

6. Beautiful weather

7. The ability and pleasure to write

8. The bike path behind my house

9. Safety from war - being in Canada while conflict in Israel reminds me how easy it is to take it for granted

10. Family

Thankfulness

Thanksgiving is mentioned all over in God's word.
I can say that I am being thankful, but I find if I don't actually put it into words, that I forget very quickly.
So I thought I that I would start a list, adding to it little by little whenever I think about it.

1. Quiet times to work - reminds me that I am working for God, not just the next thing.

2. Thunderstorms - make the world feel refreshed, and an awesome show of God's power

3. My Bicycle

4. Air Conditioning :)

5. Internet - being able to communicate so quickly is awesome!

Dust

Last weekend it was a little dusty out. (This was taken in the afternoon)

Usually you can see for quite a ways, although with the dust blowing you could clearly see across the valley.
Apparently this is what is called a khamsin, or east winds. They are hot, dry, dusty winds that blow in from the desert. The happen on and off in the spring and everything gets dusty (somehow it seems to get in everywhere, even with the windows closed).

I have seen the wind blow dirt around before, but I have never seen it like this. It definitely has an thick and oppressive feeling to it.  Any rain afterwards is surely refreshing!

It makes me think of what was meant by God promising that he will make Abraham's descendants as numerous as the dust. Is this the dust that is Abraham is told his offspring will be like?

Genesis 13:15-16 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.

On another note, the sunsets when it isn't so dusty are quite beautiful!

Where are you from?

Studying abroad this is a question that I hear often and answer without thinking much about it.  I am from Canada.... and that is usually followed with, where about in Canada? I name the next largest category I can think of that won't get them entirely lost (such as Ontario) and if they are familiar with the region the process continues until it gets to the point that the other is adequately lost, which tends to be fairly early on.

We have a desire to place people and things in context to what we know. We understand things better when we see the connections that exist between people and places. There is a particular sense of excitement when you meet someone who knows your home turf and possibly has run into to some of the same people.

In the west we like to define ourselves by place. 'Where are you from?' is the question. In the East it is different it is not where are you from, but "Who are you from?" 'Who are you related to?' 'What is the family name?' because it  seems that in a culture that doesn't focus as much on the individual, but more on the community that it says more who you are related to then where you are from.

I feel that this concept isn't completely foreign. Growing up in a community that was strongly influenced by the Dutch there is a little 'game' called Dutch Bingo. Basically trying to figure out who is related to who and how so, and often figuring out a way that most people are related. (even if it is 5 times removed and through marriage twice)

The extent of this family based identity rather that of location based can be easily discovered using the well known tool of Google maps. West Jerusalem and the New City area is mostly made up of more westernized people. If you zoom in on the streets, you will see a tangled assortment of many different streets each with its own name. If you cross the dotted line into the West Bank and zoom in on the streets there, you will see a tangled assortment of streets mostly without any name at all.  Why - because in that culture families live together, your are defined by a family and leaving a family would be social suicide. There are parts of world were houses are built so that another floor may be added on top so that when the son marries, they may just add on another room (John 14:2)

However we tend to define who we are, whether it is a geographical location or genealogical place, it provides connections and belonging. The more I think about it, the more I realize that we are more than just an individual.

In the Bible it makes sense that they were a people who favored genealogical addresses. There are lots of them. And much like a scenario where if you were to ask someone where they are from, and they would answer 'Mars',  we tend to skip right over the 'addresses' of the people in the Bible. They tell us who the are based on the people that descend from, and we see that as just another genealogy.

So when Jesus starts talking about mothers and brothers, when Paul elaborates on being adopted as sons, and John uses the concept children of God, it isn't just fancy imagery and nice or effective metaphors. It is declaring that the lost have been found, that the exiles have a home, that the orphans have a family and that it is a place where we belong.

Cultures... west and east and places inbetween

Our second semester started two weeks ago and we have jumped in and are already busy with papers and reading and studying Hebrew.

I am excited for the classes I get to take. This semester history and archaeology (both looking at the second temple period), Parable of Jesus, Hebrew 2, and Cultural backgrounds.
I'm finding cultural backgrounds to be a very interesting class so far. Seeing the different cultures at play in this area is fascinating. Today we were talking about surface culture and deep culture. Surface culture being the things that culture have and do visible to everyone. We see the cloth that people groups wear and the food that is available and eaten. And then there is deep culture. This is the underlying values and currents that run beneath a culture. This is the culture that doesn't change as easily.

Coming back from my break where I spent some time in another part of the Arab world, it stands out now how western Israel really has become.  There are still values that seem to come from deep, but it seems the modern culture is shifting the way that it does things. There are shopping malls and materialistic trends. The impact of immigration and tourism means that there are a lot of people from different backgrounds and to some degree there is a great tolerance and adaptations to that.

It is easy to recognize that there is a difference between east and west and label them as such, but I think that there is more to cultures that just east and west. There is a lot of in between. Places where the east meets the west, (or maybe meet something completely different) and the change slightly.

I find whenever I start looking at other cultures it is almost impossible not to think of the cultures and I grew up in and around. I don't think it is possible not to, we all have a way of viewing the world and that is what makes up a large part of our culture. Even from region to region there seems to be a shift in values and culture within the people who live there.

Jesus lived in a place where 'the east' met 'the west'. God placed his people along a route that carried people from all over the world and in it his covenant with Abraham his told them that through him all peoples would be blessed.  There is something beautiful about the place where cultures meet and the fact that God seems to use them.

Understanding and navigating cultures is something I am not near close to having accomplished. Taking modern Hebrew this semester is showing me how much a language reflects a culture.  Someone asked how to say particular phrase politely, only to receive the answer that there wasn't a particular way to say it, but just to say it.

I'm excited to see all that this class will explore and how it all works together, but in the meantime, I probably should get back to studying  :)

Jordan day 4 November 12 – the last field study (for this class)

So today was the last field study for the Physical Settings class. It has been good looking at the land in such a way as it relates to the Bible and the stories that happen in and around those times. I am continually amazed at the vast differences that are here in the land. The regions are close and play off of each other in interesting ways.

            We started off today at Karak. This is probably the site of Kir that is mentioned in the Bible. There is a crusader castle that is there now. When the Israelites pushed westwards this was one of the areas into which they pushed. There is a story here of a battle against the king of Moab, Mesha.  (2 Kings 3) It ends when a son is sacrificed on the walls of the castle, and Israel returns home. It is unclear about whose son it is that is sacrificed but it apparently is a game changer. 

After this we headed North towards Dibon, the capital of Moab in the Medeba Plateau. We got have way up the other side of the Yarnon Canyon and our bus decided it was a great place to hang out for a couple hours waiting for mechanic and a new bus J. It was quite the view and it definitely struck me how separating this canyon really can be. While we were here we talked about how the different regions push in different directions to get more land. The Edomites push westward to get a hold of the Negev. The Moabites push north to the Medeba plateau. Each nation is trying to push to be able to get more resources, more land and more access to the trade routes that come through here.

The Medeba map is a mosaic that was found on a floor in a church. It is interesting the perspective that the people back then had of the world and how places related to each other. Apparently Jerusalem was a very important city to them.

Jerusalem

 The last stop for today was at the site for Mount Nebo. This was the mountain for which Moses is said to have viewed the entire land and then died. The interesting thing, from this mountain and others in the region it is impossible to see everything that is recorded to have been ‘seen’ from this mountain. The Bible doesn’t explain how something like this could have happened and it is left to question. Maybe God gave Moses supernatural vision and it was a super-super clear day (like the days that don’t really exist) or maybe it was god calling to mind everything that Moses had seen of the land since his time in Egypt.

 

We ended the course with looking over the land. Throughout the Old Testament the land and the promise of the land play a very important role in the lives and the faith of the people. Yet when it comes to the New Testament the idea with the land tends to shift a little. Acts is started with a verse that tells the disciples that they are to go from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria and the Ends of the Earth. No longer is the gospel and salvation limited to a single group of people in a particular land with set customs.

            I appreciate it being pointed out that the land portion of the promise was never fulfilled in the fullest sense of it. The land was briefly ‘theirs’ while those on the coast didn’t challenge them too much. It is a sense of ‘Now-and-not-yet.’ This term was used plenty by a couple of professors that I had in undergrad and I think that it accurately described much of what we experience. We have some of the promise now, but much of it is still to come. Hebrews 12 talks about his as well. The Patriarchs had time where they did not have the promise to the full, they had time and opportunity to walk away from it all and yet they stuck to it and they have been rewarded for it.

            This faith, this gospel is passed onto us and now we have the opportunity to carry it forward. We are no longer bound by geography, we are to carry the message to the ends of the earth, and we have the example of faith from those who have gone on before us and Paul tells us that they are a great cloud of witnesses that surround us. 

Jordan Day 3 – the land of Edom

Today we started in Petra. This old city was considered to be lost for thousands of years after it was abandoned before it was found in the 1800’s. This city was important because it was on one of the main trade routes into and through this region. Many caravans from all over the known world would pass through the area carrying spices and other goods from the west to the coast in Gaza. There are carvings in the walls along the road entering Petra showing a caravan of camels being led.

spices and incense in a shop - the stuff that looks like amber is frankincense

Tucked away in the middle of the desert it is surprising to find such a well preserved city and one of such size. Water for the city was collected with aqueducts and stored to be used by the city. Being cut into the steep rocks of the wadi seems to provide it with a little more protection from the elements as well. Most impressive part of Petra is the buildings and caves that are carved into the rocks at Petra. The most famous one is the ‘treasury’ that is located as you come into the city. Although it never has (except in Indiana Jones) held treasures, it is commonly called the treasury. 

Carving of camel caravan, merchants feet

camel feet

'treasury'

a couple camels

The Monastery is also quite impressive. Located a little further up, apparently 850 steps, and tuck behind hills it is a spectacular view. Nearby there is also a lookout that looks out over the rift valley. It is from here, the city of Petra, which the traders would make their trek westwards to get to Egypt or to the ports in Gaza. 

hike up to the monestary

looking out over the rift valley

the treasury after the sun rose a little more

In the afternoon we went to the site of Bozrah. It was another city that was there because of the trade routes coming from the East and cutting into the land of Israel. This was in the land of Edom. This land is talked about throughout the Old Testament as the descendants of Esau lived out here. Out here is where the rain shadow is tapering off into nothing and the land provided barely enough to get by on.

It has occurred to me over the past couple of days that this land is made up of many different groups of people and often people who just end up here. It isn’t an ideal land, it isn’t a land with many resources or easy access to anything, rather it is a land where there is just enough to get by.  

This land was filled with the Israelites who asked to stay on this side of the Jordan.  It was frequented with retreating kings and desert wanders. This land was the land given to the brother who sold his birth-rite and sons of Lot who chose the ‘greener’ land. This land has boarders that shift with the weather and hemmed in by the desert. They have figured out how to survive and even thrive in a land that lacks. 

the children seemed excited to welcome us when we got to the hotel

Even today this land is frequented by those who ‘don’t belong’. A good portion of the population of Jordan is made up of Palestinians who left Israel during the war there as refugees. Today there are over three million Syrian refugees who have left Syria due to the fight there. While we were in the North I noticed that there were quite a few tents that had the UN symbol on them that looked like refugee tents.

a refugee tent in between buildings in Pehel

Israel is located just across the rift valley, although it is a national border today, it has seemed to have been a major connecting point between the two regions in the past. Maybe God placed his children in a place so close to the people on the other side, the people that seemed almost related to Israel (Ammonites and Moabites come from Lot, Edomites from Esau) so that they could have the opportunity to bless all nations, maybe starting with them. 

Maybe the love and justice that we are suppose to bless all nations with starts with loving the estranged brother.