St. Savior's Church and the painting of Thomas

When we were at the St. Redeemer Church in the old City, I (Lee wrote this post) was able to spend a few minutes playing their organ.  Afterwards, as we walked through the nave, I saw this painting of Thomas feeling the wounds in the body of Christ.  I was reminded of a lesson Michael Wilcox once taught about how we always remember this story about Thomas-- the doubter, but that we never remember the only other story in the gospels about him, when he declared that in the face of great danger, he would go with Jesus to Jerusalem, and would die with him.  Brother Wilcox commented that we we form opinions about people, we often tend to remember the worst thing about them, but how much would we rather that when people remember us, they remember us for the best thing we ever did, not the worst.  It reminded me that I should be more generous in making assessments of other people, remembering them for their good qualities, not their bad ones.   But then, as I turned, I felt the spirit speak to me, as He often does, with a mild rebuke.  I felt the words: "You would do better to be willing to believe without having to see proof yourself."  I had not thought of myself as one who was cynical about spiritual things or required physical proof before believing.  But there it was. The Spirit seemed to nudge me that I was too skeptical, too willing to disbelieve things I hadn't actually witnessed myself.  I concluded that this was something I would work on. 

Roman Gate under current Damascus Gate

Beneath the Ottoman Damascus Gate lies the ancient Roman gate, one of the most impressive and intact monuments remaining from the Imperial Roman period.  Parts of the gate were initially uncovered during the 1910's and major sections thereof were unearthed during the 1960's and in the 1980's more was exposed of the remaining gate.

The gate's architectural structure comprises a large ornamented arch, flanked by two smaller arches, with two massive towers projecting from either side of the gate's facade northward.  The eastern opening of the gate was uncovered in excavations, surviving almost intact; above it are the remains of a Roman inscription from the second century CE.  The western opening is still buried underground. With the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 CE, the city was destroyed and its walls were razed to the ground.  In 130 CE, Emperor Hadrian visited Judea and decided to establish in Jerusalem the colony of Aelia Capitolina.  Once the original walls of Jerusalem were destroyed, the Romans built free-standing gates that were quite elaborate.  This is the gate that was discovered under the current Damascus Gate built in the 16th century by Sultan Suleman the Magnificent, who also built the existing wall around Jerusalem.  He reused towers and ancient wall sections of the Roman and Byzantine periods, and they located their city gates in the same places as the ancient gates.  

 Here we are inside the Roman gate into the original building, that is under the current street level.

This is the Roman Gate (you can see the current road leading to the Damascus Gate upper right corner)

Jerusalem Branch potluck

When the students aren't here, the Branch has a pot luck after church.  Today we had the second one in a row,  Everyone brings lots of great food and we all talk for 1-2 hours. 

 Tina and Loren Spendlove have been here for a year (Loren getting a Master's at Hebrew U) and they have become great friends.  They were the Bethlehem Branch  President and RS President and when we first got here they invited us to speak there.  Since then, we've done several things together, including the archeological dig I wrote about several months ago.  They leave for the States this week and we will miss them!

Last night we went to Howells to visit a synagogue they like to go to because of the singing.  We went with Jill and Frank Judd also.  Heather had a lovely dinner, then the adults went to Shabbat service and the kids stayed home and watched a movie. 

Our Beer Sheva Branch

Lee and I served the Beer Sheva Branch by ourselves (without the Branch President and his wife who are in the states for  8 weeks).  We meet in a hotel room that has a living area and kitchen and we use chairs from the table and from storage.

Lee set the Sacrament table and I set out the hymnals in English and Russian.  This particular week, we had 2 members come--Tanya (and her 2 year old daughter) and Marina.  I gave the talk on Baptism and Lee gave the lesson on daily scripture study.  Both women speak English well, but Tanya understood the context and more difficult words.  It was a good experience for me to see how important language is and reminded me of being in the German wards and branches and how much I missed from the lessons due to my rudimentary language skills.  But taking the Sacrament felt so sacred and I also feel grateful that I have 2 opportunities each week to take the Sacrament.  But being in that small group is really special.  The next day I texted the sisters who couldn't attend and got a good response from them.  I also texted the 15 year old young woman and offered to share the simplified scriptures with her, which she seemed enthusiastic about.

Success Shopping for a Tablecloth and other surprises--August 19, 2019

For weeks we have shopped for a tablecloth to fit our small table.  Once we found one that was too big, but could be sewn to the right size, but the seller wanted about $55 for it and it was very cheap cotton.  So we decided to go to Jaffa Street, where there are many retail stores and material stores to see if we could find some fabric.  We did and I came home and sewed it.

Before we went to Jaffa Street, and after we had been at St. Savior's we saw this building and it caught my fancy.

To the right of the door there is a picture of an Israeli basketball player (Issa)  Under it the sign says:

Jerusalem is the Fame

Peace is the Aim

To the left of the door it says:

Issa is the Name

Basketball is the Game

I looked up his name and the saying and found this informative piece on the internet:

https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/131143/jerusalem-basketball-jesus

It was a fun discovery!

Lee plays the organ at St. Savior

August 19th Lee and I walked in to the Old City to visit the St. Savior church, a Franciscan church. The church is more European than most of the Christian churches here and the organ was beautiful.  Lee asked the caretaker if he could play the organ and we were sent inside the compound to ask permission from one of the Fathers.  We received permission after a monk and a female office worker had a long conversation in Italian.  The woman spoke excellent English and told us that we could go into the chapel to play the organ.  Here are some pictures of Lee playing.

August 16, 2019 Beer Sheva Branch

Lee has been asked to be the 2nd Counselor and Branch Clerk in the Beer Sheva Branch,which meets on Thursday evenings, because that is when the  most members can come.  There are about 20 members of the branch and on any given week there are between 5-15 people there.  One couple, Anke and Liviu were celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary, so we made a cake and took it with us for the branch to celebrate.

Left to Right Back Row:  Margaret Lifferth, (her husband is Dennis Lifferth, the District President; they were visiting this day), Shawna Hilton, Rachel, Masha, Taunya, Charles (a visitor) Zoya, holding Taunya's daughter, Cameron Scott (Branch President). Then Anke and Liviu and sitting in the front is their son, Rafael.

Carillon Bells again

About 10 weeks out of each semester we take students to play the Carillon Bells at the YMCA in Jerusalem.  From 11 AM to 12 noon each of these Sundays, the people in the city hear the chimes of the students playing a wide variety of songs.  Here is Lee with faculty member, Shon Hopkin, and some of the sudents.

Ashkelon

In July the Lifferths, Earnshaws and we went to Ashkelon, near the the Gaza Strip.  Wikipedia says:

Ashkelon is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Tel Aviv, and 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Neolithic Age. In the course of its history, it has been ruled by the Ancient Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Hasmoneans, the Romans, the Persians, the Arabs and the Crusaders, until it was destroyed by the Mamluks in 1270.

The Arab village of al-Majdal or al-Majdal Asqalan  was established a few kilometres inland from the ancient site by the late 15th century, under Ottoman rule. In 1918, it became part of the British Occupied Enemy Territory Administration and in 1920 became part of Mandatory Palestine. Al-Majdal on the eve of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War had 10,000 Arab inhabitants and in October 1948, the city accommodated thousands more refugees from nearby villages.^[2] Al-Majdal was the forward position of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force based in Gaza.^[3] The village was conquered by Israeli forces on 5 November 1948, by which time most of the Arab population had fled,^[4] leaving some 2,700 inhabitants, of which 500 were deported by Israeli soldiers in December 1948.^[4] The town was initially named Migdal Gaza, Migdal Gad and Migdal Ashkelon by the new Jewish inhabitants. Most of the remaining Arabs were deported by 1950.

In 1953, the nearby neighborhood of Afridar was incorporated and the name "Ashkelon" was readopted to the town. By 1961, Ashkelon was ranked 18th among Israeli urban centers with a population of 24,000.^[5] In  F 2017 the population of Ashkelon was 137,945.^[1]

Byzantine Mosaic

Not protected, this mosaic was part of a Byzantine church

Lee and the Sycamore Fig Tree

The Sycamore Fig tree is the kind of tree that Zacchaeus climbed (New Testament) to get a better look at Jeus.  It's fruit is smaller than a fig, but quite sweet--we ate some!

Roman Ruins
The remains of Roman pillars can be seen strewn on the ground, and also were used by Persians and Crusaders to buttress their newly built walls.

Crusader buildings

Walking the path one can see a building that starts with Canaanites (bottom) then Roman (middle) then Crusader (top using Roman column as support)

As the walk continues, one can see a modern refinery in the outskirts and the Mediterranean to the right.

It's difficult to describe how it feels to witness remains of so many civilizations and wonder what our civilization will leave.

It's a Small World Afterall....

We love the students here.  They are mature, dedicated young adults who know how to organize and follow through on pretty detailed assignments, like putting together the Talent Show or Humanitarian efforts.  This is Miriam Flinders, whose Seminary teacher, we found out, was Lee's sister, Christine, in Granite Bay!  Miriam and I took this picture to send to Christine.  It is a small world after all.

Where Can You Buy a Fan???

After Lee was called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Beer Sheva Branch, and after talking with the 30 year old Branch President, who is a PhD student, I thought it would be great to buy Pres. Scott and his wife, Hannah, a box fan for their non-air conditioned apartment.  Beer Sheva is the desert land where Abraham and Isaac lived, and it is 110-120 in the summer.  They were suffering in their very  hot apartment, with their one year old son. 
So we began our search for a fan....how hard could it be?  Well, 5 days and many hours later, after going to the Mall, the appliance store, asking Maintenance where to get one, we decided to walk into the Old City to look.  Maintenance had access to a very small, weak fan, but I wanted a powerful box fan.  I vaguely remembered seeing a fan store in the Old City, on the way to Omar's Olive Wood store.  So we walked to the Old City and yes, we found the perfect fan!  The store keeper was a young adult Palestinian who spoke English.  He was very nice, only took cash, and the purchase was made!  We have chuckled about this multiple times, as a Box Fan has become a metaphor for all the difficult things we do that should be easy and straight forward.  The Scotts loved the fan and are happy to have a cooler home!

Is it a Cantelope or Honeydew Melon?

We can buy ripe, delicious fruit here, but the Honeydew and Cantelope all look the same to us, so we never know what we're buying.  There is also a "Spanish Melon" that is orange inside but has a sweeter taste than Cantelope.  So, what kind of melon is this?  I thought Spanish Melon, 

HONEYDEW!!

Life is always a surprise here, in more days than one!

The Attack of Black Mold

The bathroom door kept sticking--it wouldn't close all the way.  We called Maintenance and they said we needed to open a window after showering (there are no air vents) to the room could dry out.  But, they did come and plane the door and we were able to close it for about two weeks.  Then, it started sticking again.  

Lee decided to investigate more closely and noticed that the door jamb was warped.  We have a coat rack that brushes up against the wall outside the bathroom and Lee pushed the coats away and saw this:

Black mold

Then we found fuzzy mold growing on Lee's coat.

I think we were both totally freiked out!  It was GROSS!  So we pulled the coat rack out, washed all the coats in hot water and called maintenance.  They found a leak in the air conditioning system in the ceiling above the wall where the black mold was.  Because of language differences, we don't know if they actually fixed the leak (we hope so and think so) but they redid the bathroom door again, only this time they took the door off and really fixed it and when they put it back on, they caulked it.  They didn't didn't take off the wall board, but cleaned off the black mold.  Unbeknownst to them, I also sprayed the black mold with bleach.  A couple days later we came back from our Music Office and found that the wall had been painted over.  So, we really don't know that they truly fixed the problem, but you can't see any mold now.

Lee's Actual birthday, July 16th

For Lee's actual birthday we did some site seeing.  Now I can't remember where we went, but at the church a group of French tourists sang worshipful music and we saw some ruins.  Then we had dinner at the apartment --Caprese salad with the basil Lee had grown and $30/pound fresh mozzarella.

Lee's 68th Birthday

We decided to celebrate Lee's birthday with Neomi and Gil, and later found out that a few days later it would be Gil's 75th birthday.  They suggested the place, Dolphin Yam, which serves great fresh fish from the Mediterranean.  Neomi is on a first name basis with the manager, and we received a traditional mix of small bowls of various sauces to put on bread, then a salad, and then the fish.  A beautiful set of watermelon slices topped off with dessert was a great ending to the evening.  We had a wonderful time and were happy to be with them.