My Teacher Told Me to Go to Hell

Shalom! This morning I got up at 5 to work out. Kudos for Heather! My morning schedule went something like this: 7:30-Old Testament with Brother Draper...Awesome! We talked about what exactly the Old Testament is and the way it came to be and the Abrahamic Covenant...I can't believe how ignorant I've been! 8:30-Near Easter Studies with Brother Seeley...can you say hilarious? This man's speed in speaking ability is inconceivable. He's a true gem among professors and he always keeps class interesting. 10:30-Modern Near East with Adnan Mussallam. This is the class that we have taught to us from two perspectives, Palestinian and Israeli. Adnan is a Christian Palestinian and he is adorable! I want him as my third grandpa. Today was our first day meeting him and he is so cute! Although his class is going to be alot of work. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed by the end just thinking about trying to do all the work for all my classes plus exploring Jerusalem plus being social...so much to do, so little time!!!! I have a feeling my grades are going to suffer a bit this semester, but hey, sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven! :)
Alright, so after lunch (and showing everyone at my table my turtle impression) I joined some fun kids to go see some sites. But not just any sites. Brother Seeley has given us a list of places that we can choose from to visit while here in Jerusalem. One of the places is called Gehenna, also know as Hell. Not like fire and brimstone, it's just the name! So funny! So we were telling everyone that we were going to Hell for the day. It was funny.
Anyway, we walked down the Kidron Valley and Hell is at the bottom. It was supposedly a place where people used to burn children and such...not a very nice place. So anyway, on our way to Hell we passed the tombs of Absalom and Zechariah. They were so fantastic! We took a lot of pictures which I'll hopefully figure out how to download. Anyway, while at the tombs this pack of boys approached us. (Side note: children just wander the streets here all the time. You never see that in the U.S.) They came up and started patting our pockets and telling us to give them cigarettes. Their English was minimal, but they just kept saying "Cigarette?" They didn't believe us when we kept telling them that we didn't smoke because everyone here smokes. It was so sad that these boys wanted cigarettes from us so bad--they were all probably between 7 and 11. They all had packs of cigarettes and lighters with them. So sad. But we teased with them for a while and got pictures with them, but they really wouldn't leave us alone. They were determined to get cigarettes from us. The guys in the group now refer to them as "Hell's angels" because they were touching us all over and trying to get our cameras and phones and such. It's a different world here.
So when we finally made our escape we kept walking down the Kidron until we came to this monastery. Okay, so this monastery is cool for two reasons. 1) It's believed by some to be Potter's Field where Judas committed suicide. 2) It was dedicated to this Egyptian hermit who lived in a cave in the mountains and was known for his extremely long beard which was his only garment! Ha! So cool! I got a fun picture in front of the monastery.
After that we walked up to the Old City and made our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It's so funny how much the merchants love us. This one man practically forced us into his shop and kept saying things like, "Since you student, you get anything 50% off. You come back and I give you more than 50% off. Tell everyone about me. My name's Charlie. Here's my card. I love you. Even if you don't buy anything, I still love you." And then he kissed the cheeks of all the girls saying, "You are so beautiful. I love you. Come back to my store. You come back. I love you." Beautiful. A fat old Palestinian man trying to win our hearts by making love to us all. So cool.
Anyway, we ended up at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and there were tons of news channels and photographers there. It turned out that there was this big important Japanese Buddhist Priest or something and we went in right next to him and such. He had tons of Security guards, but we were very close. I don't really know who he was, but he looked ANCIENT. I caught a sneek peek at his sandals with the one toe thong thing. Awesome.
Well, the church of the Holy Sepulchre--discovered by Helena in like 332 A.D. Incredible. I can't believe I'm seeing things this old, with this much history. The Church is like the #1 spot for Christians, kinda like their mecca. We walked in and there was this long, rectangular slab of stone surrounded by people kneeling down touching it and putting anything they had with them on it. Supposedly, it is the slab of rock they laid Jesus on to embalm Him before burying Him. I touched it. Even if it isn't really the slab, how cool is it that I'm in a place where it's even POSSIBLE that it could be??!!??? The church is full of low-hanging lamps and large pictures of Christ throughout all the stages of His life. The ceilings are high and candles are burning everywhere. There was a long line to get into the place where he was supposedly buried, so we're going back later. It was neat though being in a place so revered by so many people.
Conclusion: I can't believe how much history is here in this 200 by 50 mile wide piece of land. While walking to and through Hell we just passed tomb, after sepulchre, after ruins of cities, after cemeteries, just as if they were nothing. Who knows how old these things are? I could live here my whole life and still not even scrape the surface of the stories to be found in this incredible place. Hurrah for Israel!