New Experiences In Old Places

I've found that there are very few places that get old as you visit them repeatedly. Even if there is nothing new in the place itself, there are always interesting, new people to watch. Besides, the beauty of God's creation never wears out no matter how often you look on it. When Dave, a Marine friend of the Dukes from NC, came to visit a couple weeks ago, we took him to all the "must sees": the Galilee, Capernaum, Jerusalem, En Gedi, the Dead Sea, Masada, etc. But we also added in some very interesting places to which I had never been before.

Our plans for touring stumbled coming out of the starting blocks. I forgot the meat in the freezer on the way to our camping trip so we had to drive around looking for an open grocery store on the Sabbath. While we were camping on the Sea of Galilee, the kids fell sick with fevers and ended up being down all week. Poor Caleb moaned that being sick while you are camping feels like being on Survivor! :) Maggie took them all back home to bed the next day. Darren, Dave, Hayley, and I continued our sightseeing. There were cisterns to climb down in and bunkers and tanks to explore. Darren took us to the battle field of a famous tank battle where one company of Israeli tanks defended the Northern border against a much larger Syrian force.

In Jerusalem, we met up with Hayley in the City of David and headed right to Hezekiah's tunnel. I can't even imagine how long it took for Hezekiah's men to dig that tunnel through the rock. It was amazing! In some places, the ceiling allowed you to stand tall with room to spare, and in other places, you were bent almost double, praying that the walls would narrow no further. The rough wall still bore the ridge marks of the men who had hewn them.

Our journeys south brought new adventure as well, including a few beautiful hikes. Qumran, the location of the religious community that copied the Dead Sea Scrolls, contained more than just the ruins of the building complex. Behind the ruins, we hiked up into the mountains and caves in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The view from up there was beautiful. The whole Dead Sea basin fell away and spread out before us from our perch in the mountain cliffs.

Speaking of the Dead Sea, one common custom that I have never had a great desire to uphold is to cover myself in the dark, rich mud that is said to be so beneficial for your skin. Where we went swimming, the ground was covered in rocks with no mud to be seen. No problem, no great loss.

Because I didn't realize she was talking to me, I didn't pay close attention to the jabbering Hebrew of a little swimmer coming up to me on the bank. "She wants to give that to you." The cute, little girl's mother caught my attention and motioned toward the girl. She stood smiling up at me, her arms extended toward me, and in her hands, she held a balled-up glob of dark, Dead Sea mud. "Oh! Wow!" With a plop she deposited the ball in my hands. "Thank you so much! You are so sweet!" The thick mud on the outside of the ball began to ooze through my fingers. Ma la'asot? What do you do? Out of gratitude for that sweet little girl's gift, I covered myself with the mud. Of course, I didn't want to do it alone so I gave some to Dave, too. Now I'm ready to fit in with the Sub-Sahara Africans (yah, I still need to work on some of the blending and edges)! Being that dark is definitely something new for me.