Jim played for church which is always so nice.  It was Fast meeting. We'll watch recorded General Conference next weekend.  There were a few visitors, notably Dallin Smith’s parents who had flown in from Shelley, Idaho, to be with him in the hospital.  Dallin was taken to the hospital last week with rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle tissue. He was started on dialysis as his kidneys were affected.  We are all hoping that this will be a temporary issue for him. Jim played for the monthly Evensong program on Sabbath, a very nice program with organ, psalms, and hymn singing. We dedicated the fast and program to Dallin.  In the evening, we drove to the hospital in Ein Kerem to see Dallin and bring his parents back to the Center.

Scott and Karen Smith, Dallin's parents

Jim joined the students to Shfelah, the low “hill country” area west of Jerusalem which, of course, is full of Old Testament history.  Hard to remember all the names and places—Judah, Philistines, Assyrians! First stop was Tel Beth Shemesh, recalling the story of Samson and Delilah.  Mauro Properzi gave a devotional here about marriage (and asked Jim to chime in about his marriage story).  

Tel Azeqah overlooks the Elah Valley, the site of the fight between David and Goliath.  Amazing to think we were right in the area where that took place—the Israelite army on one side of this relatively small valley, and the Philistines on the other.  (1 Samuel 17:40)  They had another devotional about “Goliaths” in our lives and how we can look—outside of the box—for ways to conquer them.  Azeqah was one of the last fortified cities of Judah to withstand the Babylonian siege.  A “letter” (ostracon, inscription on pottery) was found that tells of sending fire signals to the people at Lachish, off in the distance.  Half of the class had gone there first, and the two groups also sent signals to each other by reflecting sunlight with mirrors across the valley.  

Tel Maresha in the Guvrin Valley is noted today mostly for the fascinating “bell caves.” Here limestone chalk was harvested over the ages (for making plaster, etc.), leaving gigantic underground caves in fantastic shapes.  The students sang some rousing hymns in the great acoustics.  

They also visited two underground Sidonian tomb complexes (c. 200 BC), which included over 2000 carved niches (columbaria) for raising doves (which were used for their eggs and meat, but also sacrifices—Joseph and Mary offered two doves at Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem).  

 Another tomb with extensive stairs and chambers carved in the solid limestone also had a large olive press inside.  

Very impressive was the painted Tomb of Apollophanes at Maresha—reminded Jim of being in Egypt. 

Next, in the heat of the afternoon, was Tel Lachish—famous for the battle between Joshua and the Assyrians.  There is an enormous siege ramp built by the Assyrians.  You don’t have to try too hard to imagine out here how difficult survival was at best, and then every few hundred years being obliterated by the next conquering army.  

Their final stop was back in the Elah Valley, where they got to try their hand at slings and stones, very possibly close to where David and Goliath squared off.  Most of them got the hang of it, but Jim was mostly amazed that with 50 college kids, standing side by side and slinging good-sized rocks, no one got hit in the head like Goliath did.

Both Jim and Deanne had dermatology appointments with Dr. Michael Arthur Goldenhersh.  Parking was tough, and we entered the wrong car in the parking app and ended up with a parking ticket. Grrr. Dr. Goldenhersh was a nice Jewish man originally from East St. Louis, went to Yale.  He wore a kippa and his wife wore a wig, so they were orthodox.  When asked why he moved to Jerusalem (38 years ago) he said "for spiritual reasons."

Yom Kippur:  We had been told that the whole country of Israel shuts down for Yom Kippur.  This was not exactly true—there was still plenty of traffic, buses, tourists, and most non-Jewish stores and restaurants were in full swing. Time for a wonderful walk in the Old City with the Barkers, which we hadn’t done for a while (and were curious to see if it was a ghost town—it most definitely wasn’t).  We walked to Lion’s Gate but turned south through the Arab cemetery where we marveled at the Golden Gate, which has been sealed up for centuries.  In Jewish tradition, the Messiah will enter Jerusalem through this gate, coming from the Mount of Olives.  Christians and Muslims generally believe that this was the gate through which Jesus entered Jerusalem.  

We circled around the south wall of the Old City, entering at Dung Gate, and explored an archaeological area on the southwest corner of the walls.  Then we marveled again at all of the Jews worshiping at the Western Wall—all dressed in white and shoeless.  We walked up the ramp to the side, thinking it was just a way to view the Western Wall worshipers (it does provide a wonderful vantage), but it actually leads into the Temple Mount. 

We walked through Hurva Square and the Jewish Quarter, where everything really was shut down; then into the Christian Quarter, stopped by Omar’s, and Patty found some red sandals she had been looking for.  The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was too crowded to visit, so we exited through the Coptic Christian Church complex, out Damascus Gate, and walked home.  One of the best Old City walks we’ve been on yet.

The student choir is making great strides with the Christmas concert music. We think they are having a lot of fun too! Deanne put Jim in charge of warming the choir up before rehearsals. This week he had them all stand and give quick shoulder massages to the person next to them......They got a kick out of it.

A few of the choir girls

One of the students, Ella Havranek, received her mission call and invited everyone to the "opening" of her official call letter. We all met on the "J-View" (view of Jerusalem) which is the new given name by this semester's students to the terrace on Floor 7. It is a pretty spectacular view indeed. Ella was called to serve in the the Hungary-Romania Mission! Three of the other students had served there and were totally excited. 

P.S. At the end of the week, Dallin was released from the hospital and able to come back to the JC for a few days! He still went in for dialysis each day but it was so important for the students and Dallin to be together again. For medical reasons, it was decided that he should go home to Idaho until his kidneys were functioning normally again. We will miss him. He hopes to return to the JC another semester. So do we!