Third Week in Jerusalem

 Tel Aviv from Tel Gezer

 Oldest Canaanite calendar

 Lee at Caananite city

 Crusader Castle remains

"Stonehenge" from Canaanite era

Last Monday we went with other service couples to hike Tel Gezer, which is a National Park but very out of the way.  We had an Indiana Jones type ride in our van going over deep water filled gullies and over boulders, but we finally made it.  It is an area where the earliest Canaanite calendar was found, and later a city was built during Solomon’s reign.  And finally, it was the castle/outpost of a Crusader’s army.  It was really fun to be there in the wilderness.  You could see Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean Sea from the top point.  There was also a “Stonehenge” area with standing rock pillars from the Canaanite era.

We’ve now been here 3 weeks and are starting to get in a rhythm of our duties.

Saturday—choir practice and church; after church we invite a student “Come Follow Me” group to our apartment for their student led discussion and our providing treats.  I made brownies.

Sunday: Carillon Bells at the YMCA in West Jerusalem with students, Concert Series from 5-10 PM (we do the setup, greet musicians, ticket orders, manage the crowd and then clean up after the concert

Monday:  Our day off—for the first time we have time to go into Old Jerusalem tomorrow.  Last week we went with the other couples and explored Tel Gezar, which has ruins from the Canaanite period, the Solomon period and the Crusader period.  It is spring here and the wild flowers (the lilies of the field) are in bloom.  From Tel Gezar you can see Tel Aviv, the Mediterranean Sea and other valleys. 

Tuesday:  We start office work on getting the Concert programs started, answer email which are usually requests for tickets

Wednesday-Friday:  We keep doing office work and also do tours and Lee plays the organ for the tours during this time.  We have our own Music office with 3 computers.

And that’s our week.  In between we get to interact with the students, can go to their classes (haven’t done that yet) and to the Monday field trips—our first one will be in a few weeks tracing Christ’s steps on the last week of his life.

Some “it’s a small world” items:  There are 2 students here that know my sister Mary Kay and her husband Alan. One was in the mission where they were Mission President/wife in Chesapeake VA and the other one had lived in their Loveland, CO home as a missionary there.  THEN the most astounding thing—we met a young man who is from Sammamish (the Issaquah part) and knew my mother because she had been the ward music director for several years when he was growing up in the same ward she was in. My parents were loved everywhere they went because they were so inclusive and loving.  Today, March 10^th is my dad’s 93^rd birthday, had he still been living. 

AND the doctor who is here is named Mark Earnshaw.  The name is very familiar to me, as we had an Earnshaw family in Huntsville when I was growing up.  But he and his wife kept talking about living in Maine and New Hampshire, so I thought it couldn’t possibly be any one related to the Earnshaw's in Huntsville.  On this outing he asked where I grew up and I said “Huntsville, AL” and he said he did too!  It was the exact Earnshaw family and he is the Mark Earnshaw I remember.  He was younger than me and in the other ward and I didn’t known him well, but it was fun to make that connection. He remembered a lot of the same families that I do.