Ian Tyson, Ralph Klein, Peter Mansbridge and me

Our American freinds probably won't recognise who these people are, but it is comforting to be back in the land where these are household names. Ralph is the Premier of Alberta(like the governor) and it's good to be back in his quiet jurisdiction. The older of you will probably recognise Ian Tyson, one of Alberta"s favourite sons who penned the song "four strong winds" with his wife Sylvia in the late sixties. The opening line goes " Think I'll go out to Alberta, weathers good there in the fall..." Actually it seems a bit chilly after Israel, but that's ok..it's quiet with tons of space and plenty of elbow room for everyone. Peter Mansbridge is the anchor of the evening news on the good old CBC, and I felt like hugging my tv when he came on tues. night. It's funny how familiar things can seem so good after you have been away for a while.
Of course the best thing about being home is seeing our family and freinds again. Our phone hasn't stopped ringing since we arrived home and it really is overwhelming to find out how many people have been praying for us, and thinking about us. I think things actually look worse on tv than they are in reality, but of course we were on the quieter side of the border. I don't think it would be so great on the Lebanese side. Anyway, if any of you back there are still reading these, we will continue to pray for your safety as the dig continues, and hopefully it will still be a fruitful year of archaeology depite the turmoil. Keep us posted as to how you make out. If anyone back in the states wants to keep in touch our e-mail is: curlingnut@billybob.com and we would love to stay in contact with you. We will try and let you know how our move to Kitimat goes once we are established there. Keep in touch and we will talk to you later eh!!!

that's it time to get out of here

I guess we just aren't quite as resilient as our Israeli counterparts. This morning was enough for us. It is Sunday and we decided to go to church in Haifa. We thought it would be kind of interesting to attend worship in Israel, and especially with all the problems going on. We were pretty sure that current events with Lebanon would dominate the service, and it would be cool to be here and pray for peace with some of the locals. Our choices were limited, and so we decided on an Episcopalian church which began at 10:30. We had breakfast and went out to our local taxi stand to catch a cab to church. In a former blog I mentioned the cool cab driver Danny who rerouted our trip to go and look at the crater the first rocket made. Well who should be waiting at the cab stand but Danny and so we got in. About a block into the drive he asked us if we heard the boom boom of the rockets landing. We hadn't heard this from inside the hotel, and so he explained that just ten minutes earlier 15 rockets had slammed inro Haifa. It was early too soon to assess damage and casualties, but it was becoming apparent that there were many. We made a snap decision, and asked Danny if he could drive us to Tel Aviv. He said he would meet us back at the hotel in 30 minutes. The phone lines were all down and I think he wanted to check on his family. I felt bad asking him to drive us at a time like this, but he seemed willing.
If you have ever heard air raid sirens you will understand how on edge they make you feel. You could hear the air raid sirens all over the city, and the Israeli government had just ordered all citizens of Haifa to go to bomb shelters. We knew our window of opportunity was small and so we packed furiously, all the while an eerie voice was being broadcast in Hebrew over the entire hotel. We didn't know what it was saying (probably a good thing as it was ordering everyone in the hotel to go immediately to the basement and enter the bomb shelter, and when all these guys with guns tell you to do something you do it). We finished packing and grabbed our bags and ran. The elevators had quit working and so we took to the stairs (we were on the 7th floor) and ran to the front doors. The entire hotel was deserted except for the heavily armed guy at the front door who didn't want us to leave the hotel. We explained that we had a cab coming in 5 minutes and convinced him to let us wait.
5 minutes and still no Danny. I breated a quiet prayer that he would show up. Reports kept coming in...apparently the train staition had been hit(this was how we were going to go to Tel Aviv Mon. morning) and things were ungluing at an alarming rate. All of a sudden a taxi came screaming aroud the corner...Danny...I've never been so happy to see someone in my life. There was an eerie haze in the air from all the fires and explosions, and most likely from the train staition, a mere kilometer from our hotel. Some of the rockets apparently went over our hotel and landed beyond it. Danny expertly navigated the panick stricken drivers in Haifa and got us onto the hiway to Tel Aviv. We made it to Tel Aviv and Danny found us a good place to stay, and just in the nick of time as all the hotels in Tel Aviv were being flooded with people fleeing Haifa and looking for refuge beyond the range of the Lebanese rockets.
So what can we say about all of this? I'm sure a little time in between will help to sort all of this out in our minds, but for now I feel mostly pity for all the regular folks on both sides of this. On this trip we have met many Arabs who have been wonderful, from the muslims in Jerusalem to the Druze Arabs in Haifa. One of our cab drivers in Haifa was from Lebanon and he was going back there Saturday night as soon as he dropped us off. He was a really nice guy, but I suspect he was not going home to pay a social call. We met a nice young Jewish boy 17 years old who told us he was scared of having to do his mandatory 3 year stint in the army starting in Sept. And of course Danny who just wants to earn a living and raise his family. None of these people hate eachother but as in all wars (and this is quickly becoming full blown war) people are forced to choose sides and may even find themselves aiming a gun at someone they once called a freind. It is ironic this should happen in Haifa which is the poster child for how these groups can all get along in peace and harmony.
That's it. My brain is dead tonight and it will take a while to digest all of this anyway. Thank you all for your prayers, I feel today was a series of events that were in God's hand and not ours, and so we are grateful indeed. See you soon I hope as long as the airport stays open and there is every reason to think that it will, as Tel Aviv has not been attacked at all. OI Vey... it will be good to get home!!!

Don't worry be happy

This has been a trip of firsts, but I never thought I would see this when we signed up for this adventure. It seems that the Israelis do indeed have the genes of their forefathers, and are quite happy to make light of a couple of mere rocket attacks. We find ourselves in Haifa for our last weekend and wouldn't you know it, the day we come here Haifa is attacked by a couple of rockets lobbed over the border by Hezbollah millitants. Now before anyone becomes alarmed, these are not scud missles or anything, they are of the variety of a katusha rocket only with a slightly longer range. I will tell the truth that we stubble jumpers from the prairies of Canada were a bit rattled that we were in a city that had just been attacked. This doesn't happen every day in Alberta. But a funny thing started to happen as we began moving around the city. Everyone seemed determined to just get on with life and not be the slightest bit rattled by any of this. From the taxi driver to the waitress at supper last night the sttitude was the same. "Don't worry be happy." Our driver said one piece of advice I can give you, don't let this affect anything you were going to do. Have fun and enjoy our city. Wow! I wonder if the cab drivers in Edmonton would think the same if they were under rocket attack.
We went out today to see Mount Crmel and a couple of Old testament sites relating to Elijah's time spent here, and our cab driver actually took us us on a detour to go and see where one of the rockets crashed hrmlessly into the side of Mt. Carmel. We joined the throng of other Israelis taking pictures and looking at the crater left in the side of the hill. Traffic was backed up because of all the hubub and horns were honking with impatient drivers wanting to get somewhere. I think for this day the crater became the most popular site in Haifa, and Elijah"s cave played second fiddle.
It's all a bit surreal as we relax in our comfortable seaside hotel listening to the waves, and the roar of jets flying missions overhead to go and pulverize Lebanon, all mixed together in what could only be an experience one could have in this part of the world. Truthfully, one could wax political about who is right and who is wrong here, but for now it feels good to be safe, and be on this side of the border. Our cab driver eloquently put it today, "No be fraid in Israel, but in Lebanon be fraid." Shalom.

Last day of the dig

This entry will be short as we are done up at Hippos and are readying ourselves to catch a taxi to Haifa. We will be staying there until Monday morning and we hope to have as relaxing time as possible. Things have kind of gone crazy here in Israel and today up at the dig the sound of heavy bombing was almost constant. We have been assured that Lebanon cannot reach us here with their Katusha rockets, and the Israeli army is pushing the Hezbolla fighters even farther back. Wow we didn't expect to be in a war zone. It is one thing to have the threat of an occational suicide bomber, but this is something different again. It's funny how calm the locals are about all of this. I can't help but wonder what the reaction would be if this was going on in Canada. Here they just shrug and go about their daily buisness. I know I should writs more about the dig but these recent developments have overshadowed things I'm afraid. We will always have good memories of this place even with all this at the end. It's been a wonderful experience and we can't wait to see you all Bye for now

about those jets we saw

The jets we saw flying up the Jordan valley in my last blog have now become an everyday occurrence, with a slight difference. Now we can hear the rumblings of bombs exploding after they go past us. We assumed that these explosions were training exercises, as there is apparently a bombing range just up and over our position to the east in the Golan Heights.
When we are home we watch the good old national news with Peter Mansbridge almost every night, but here of course we are greatly out of touch with what is going on in the world as our access to tv is mostly limited to a couple of Hebrew language staitions. And of course we just don't have time...so we go along each day in our little archaeological corner of the world with nary a concern as to what is going on elsewhere.
Today that changed. Dr. Shuler took us aside as a group and told us in sketchy details that a couple of Israeli soldiers had been abducted in the north by Lebanon and we were to keep an extremely low profile for a while. I now needed to know what was going on, and tuned into cbc on the internet, to discover that Israel had invaded southern Lebanon, and was considering the kidnappings as an act of war between two sovereign nations. Oh boy...so I guess those jets we now see almost hourly aren't going on training missions.
We are going to Haifa tomorrow to stay until Monday morning when our plane leaves. Pray for our protection and the protection of all the dig team, and god-willing we will be fine. Dr. Schuler said the airport and checkstops will be at the highest alert possible, and so we may have some delays in getting around and leaving etc.
We have no idea how blessed we are to live in a peaceful country like Canada. Ive never been in a war zone before, but let me tell you that this is a long way from Leduc or Carstairs. One more day up the hill and our part is over. It's been great and we can hardly wait to get home and tell you all our stories.

Just another day

Just another day...nothing remarkable. Just another day searching for buried treasure in a 2000 year old city on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Its funny how even the most remarkable things can become routine and ordinary. In all of this I dont think that we have told you about our regular routine.
It goes like this. 4:00 the alarm goes off. We have a half of an hour to go to the bathroom, munch down a granola bar, put on our work clothes and have a cup of good old instant coffee while we chat to our roommates. 4:30 its off across the kibbutz to catch the bus that takes us up Sussita mountain at 4:45. Joyce likes to arrive early enough to ensure that we sit on the passenger side of the bus so that she doesnt have to look over the sheer drop-off when we get to the hair-pin turn. The bus dropps us off at 4:55 and we begin ou one and a half mile hike straight up the mountain path lined on both sides by mine fields. We work until 8:30 when we stop for breakfast of boiled eggs, tomato cucumber salad and bread. This marks the end of the cool part of the day. We then go back to work until 11:40 (stopping every 20 minutes for a mandatory water break, at which time we pack up and catch the bus back to the kibbutz at noon.
We go to the room and shower up and march back to the dining hall for lunch, the big meal of the day. A nap immediately follows lunch until 3:00 or so at which time I file these reports. Pottery cleaning is from 4:30 to 5:30, a little break...supper at 6:30 and then lectures at 7:30. Devotions at 8:30 and then off to bed to get up again at 4:00.
Routine...even here we have routine and one falls into it unconsciously. When we get home and look back on this it will seem anything but routine, but for now its just another day... Oh that is except for all the fighter jets that were flying up the Jordan valley and then popping up over the Golan Heights on a mission to Syria. Other than that...it was just another day.

There's gold in them there ruins

Gold...it has started wars, created klondike fever, and has been something that mankind has sought after since the beginning of time. The Israelites built a calf out of gold and worshipped it when Moses took too long to come down from the mountain, and Paul speaks of God's faithfulness and gifts to us that will not tarnish, and are better than refiners gold. We have envisioned heaven as a place where the streets are paved with gold, and so it was with much hoopla that Cameron emerged from the depths of the cistern up at Hippos yesterday and announced to everyone..."Gold, I found gold!!" and so he did. What he found down there was a clasp that would be used to hold the top of a woman's dress together, made out of pure gold. What is even more remarkable about this is that it looks as if someone could have gone down to the mall and just purchased this piece at a jewellery shop. If this clasp is 1500 years or older, then it is remarkably well preserved, and we can marvel even more at Paul's annalogy.
The crypt crew are a bit dissapointed I think due to the fact that they didn't find more under the sarcophagus. They did find some more bones though, and Glen isn't giving up yet on finding something else. Our mosaic floor recovery team of which Joyce and myself are a part are scraping away at the mosaic floor to find Dr. Schuler an inscription that may be carved there which might answer a number of questions regarding who these burial chambers belong to, or at the least who donated the money to build the church as was the custom of the day...kind of like getting a library named after you these days.
We are in the final week of the dig for our Canadian crew and 6 others from the states. The rest will be staying on to finish the dig season and will be joined by a few more replacements. Already I understand what it is that draws these people back here year after year. Some have been here every year since the beginning, some 3 years, some two and others like ourselves who have come for their first year. The work is brutal, the hours are terrible (5am-noon), the sun is unrelenting, and the kibbutz food is, well...Yet once you have been up there it becoms a part of you. You are always anticipating what will be found next that will help to fill in the pieces, and the shear scope of the history of what we are doing all contribute to this thing being like a drug that you get hooked on. I know that with our path to the ministry it is highly unlikely that we will be able to return...but it is a part of us now, and we will follow this dig on the internet and through all the great friends we have made here for as long as it continues.
That being said, thoughts are beginning to turn homeward and linden's wedding, and then our move to Kitimat. We miss our kids terribly, and I think I will even be happy to see George again when we arrive. Dan is ready to go now, and so is Doctor Chambers I think, but we will march up that hill three more times before coming home...We need to find that inscription before we leave!!!

O Jerusalem

We just got back from our trip to Jerusalem last night (Saturday), (Sabbath), (I'll never get used to Saturday being the day of worship), and I have to say that I'm glad to be back in the smouldering heat of the galilee. Don't get me wrong, loved Jerusalem, but at the end of the day I'm just a small town boy. I think Jesus was too and that gives me hope. Ever wondered why Jesus spent His entire ministry in small towns and the countryside with only a couple of brief forrays into Jerusalem? Well after this last weekend I think I know why. Jerusalem is a smouldering caldron of tension and chaos, which quite frankly baffles my small town prairie sensibilities. Jerusalem is different than any other place on earth. We have been to other chaotic large cities such as Caracass Venesuela, Tijuana Mexico, and Marachesh Morrocco to name a couple, but besides the chaotic hustle and bustle these places are vastly different from Jerusalem. You see, Jerusalem is a city that is all about religion. It pours out of every crack and crevice in it's dusty streets. The problem is that all three of the worlds large monotheistic religions claim it for their own...unfortunately they aren't very good at sharing it. The old walled city of Jerusalem which exists in the heart of the modern city of Jerusalem, is evenly divided among these groups, (Christians, Moslems, and Jews). It may be that this recent kidnapping of the Israeli Soldier is the reason for this heightened tension, but we had an encounter that I would not like to have again any time soon.
We were returning from our side trip to Bethlehem and as we were getting close to the gate we enter going to enter by (The Damascus gate)our bus was stopped and told we would not be allowed to enter via our bus. We disembarked and decided to go the rest of the way on foot. As we neared the gate we saw the reason for not letting us through. It was Friday at aproximately noon (the moslem day of prayer) and of course the Moslem Palestinians were expecting to go to the Dome of the Rock (the big bronze domed mosque you usually see in the news) and they were being stopped from doing so by an extremely large number of police in riot gear. As we neared the berricade we discovered that the Israeli police were only letting Moslems over the age of 45 in to pray. They were expecting trouble that day from the younger guys, so they just stopped them from entering. As we got to the barricade you could see that there would be trouble there this day. I felt guilty as we went up to the police and asked to be allowed in. Taunts of "oh sure you will let in these Americans, and yet you bar us from entering to pray. I can honestly say that I felt the weight of the hatred on my shoulders as we snaked through the crowd and through the gate of the barricade. This is something that I will never forget. It is only by the grace of God that we all made it through without anyone being hurt. There were young Palestinians trying to butt into line with us and get through, but we all were praying and stayed bunched up as tightly as we could, and somehow we made it safely through to the other side.
Was the situation the same in Jesus time. You bet. And I daresay that it has been scince the time of David and before. There is so much there for us as Christians, (there is a biblical site around every corner it seems) and the experience is something everyone should have if they are able. But it is also the third most holy city in the world to Moslems(next to Mecca and Medina) and I don't have to tell you how the Jews feel about it. I suppose over the next few weeks and months I will have time to digest this weekend and perhaps put some perspective on it, but for now I am happy to be back in the little backwater burgs of the Galilee. "Can anything good come from Nazareth/Galilee...You bet!!!

tales from the crypt

Big day today on the dig. Dr. Schuler has been waiting for this moment for a long time, and it finally happened on Tues. Glen our soft spoken tomb expert has been working on this one project now for three years. What he has been doing is digging down a burial chamber that he discovered to see what is under the sarcophagus that is in there. You see last year he found the sarcophagus with the bones of what looks to be an entire family all buried together. This tomb is located at the front of the church and just off to the left a little. In Leduc and Didsbury it would be located right where the pulpits are. The big mystery is...why would there be a burial chamber in a Christian church in this place. Apparently it wasn't uncommon to bury someone of honor in the church, and in fact there is another tomb that was found in a previous year which Dr. Schuler supects held the remains of a holy lady of some sort...but this other one creates quite the mystery. So anyway last year right at the end of the dig, Glen reached down under the sarcophagus housing the family, and came up with a handful of nails. Hmmm. What could be under there, perhaps another cofffin of some sort. Well that is the note that last year ended on, and the excitment of getting the tomb re-dug and lifting the sarcophagus out has been palpable since we met up with the team.
Lifting this out would not be easy as Glen and Dr. Schuler estimated that the sarcophagus weighs about 2600 pounds. We would need help. Fortunately, we have the services this year of a backhoe on site and Dr. Schuler assured us that this fellow could give any one of us a clean shave with the bucket if he wanted to. All work stopped on the site as the straps were wrapped around the sarcophagus and attached to the bucket on the front of the backhoe. Dr. Schuler isn't a slave driver, but he does expect us to always be dilligently working as the dig season is only 4 weeks long, but for this he ordered us all to stop what we were doing and come look.
The plan worked to perfection as the 2600 pounder saw the light of day for the first time in 1500 years. Cheers and congratulations were abundant as everyone crept closer to see what was down there. On first sight nothing more than more dirt, but the trained eyes of Dr. Schuler and Glen were already spotting bones and such. Who is down there? Stay tuned.

Random stuff we forgot

The problem with trying to play catchup with this is that invariably you always forget some stuff.There is no way to tell everything, that would take more time than we have each afternoon to writs these, and we have to leave some good stories to tell you all when we get back. As you may have picked up already, we have both been writing these, and so hopefully you get some different perspectives on things. This is Clint writing right now. Anyhew...I thought it was interesting on Sunday night during our church service led by Dr. Chambers (that's my professor from Sem. in Edmonton for any who don't know). It was in the evening at our usual time for devotions of 8:00 pm, and I was struck by the thought that we are 9 hours ahead of you back home, and so doing a little math left me with the thought that we were probably in church at the same time (at least in the 11:00 service in Leduc, and in Didsbury). Pretty cool eh? Apparrently I say eh alot and our American team gets quite a kick out of it. oh well, we are what we are.
The other thing I should mention is the misadventures of our good friend DR. Chambers. He has really had a rough go of things. The day we arrived, we got to the kibbutz only for him to discover that he had lost his passport. Let me tell you that this is one of the constant worries when travelling abroad. As of today(Wed) it has not been found by the airport people, and talks are underway as to what can be done. On the first day of the dig(Sun) we were cleaning out a lot of weeds and brush, and Dr. Chambers whacked his leg with a turea that he was using to chop with. He limped for the the rest of the day, and the next. Now if that wasn't enough, on that same night he was showing us the tremendous welt on his leg, when Joyce noticed that he had a tick burrowed into his leg. It took quite a bit of trouble, but we finally got it out. Poor guy...if trouble comes in threes, then I guess he should be in the clear.
I'm sure I will think of some other stuff but I will just include it in our regular posts.

Mon. July 3rd,2006

It was particularly hot this morning when we got up at 4:00, and the humidity was very high. We knew we had our work cut out for us today, as this was the day to remove all of the fill from the nave floor that the team last year had put on it after they had covered the floor with a felt fabric. The fill was a combination of dirt, sand and small rock, the reason that this had been put down was to protect the floor from would be souvenir hunters or even just protection from people walking on the very fragile mosaic. The method for removing this fill is to very gently scrape it up into a tool called a terrua (sounds like maria) put it into a bucket then pack it off to the aisle of the nave for use at a later time, then you take a brush and brush off the remainder from the fabric into piles to be scooped up by the terrua and carried off. Joyce worked the terrua all day and now has a whole new appreciation for the work that the slaves in Egypt were doing. Very hot back breaking work. All of the screens were being used in other areas on this day so Nancy, Clint and Joyce who were working the nave floor together would have no screen from the scorching sun all day. Work began at the usual time with the sun taking it's time in appearing due to the thick haze in the air from the extreme humidity. In fact the haze was so thick at times as to obscure our view of the Sea from the top of Hippos. However once the sun broke through this haze at about 8:00AM there was no reprive for us except one far corner of the nave the the sun could not reach. 8:30 AM and the call for breakfast is welcomed by all. Off we all troup back to the entrance of Hippos to the one time army barracks where our breakfast awaits us. Breakfast consists of cucumbers, tomatoes, boiled eggs, some type of raw fish, bread with various spreads, salad, and coffee. The building has been sitting vacant for a year since the last dig season and has become home to numerous pigeons, scorpions, and who knows what else. However once swept and the floor squeegied we are able to enjoy breakfast and most of us have no problem ignoring the pigeon droppings on the few chairs that are available as we fill our plates and move out to the deck to eat. Just a quick break for food and then back to the church we go. The sun is very hot by now and we are only able to work for 15 minute intervals before stopping to find some shade and some water. Dr Schuler has been very adamant that we only work short periods with larger water breaks to protect us from the blazing sun, without a screen. It takes us the entire day but finally the fill has all been moved into the nave aisle. The fabric has been swept clean and we are ready to start removing the fabric from the floor. We remove 2 sections and take them up out of the church and away from the other areas of work in order to shake them out. Wow, who would have thought we would come all this way from the worst session of rug beating I have ever experienced. The fabric is full of dust and has clumps of hard mud plastered to it, we decide that in order to get it clean enough to be reused this year, we must hold it up, as Clint take the brush and scrubs off the clumps. This is very hot and extremely dusty work, and takes us much longer than we would like to be standing there exposed to the sun. Finally with this completed we decide that it is too close to noon to actually get started on anything else and Dr. Schuler suggest that we clean up our area of tools and try to find some shade for a bit untill it is time to walk back down the hill to the bus. This walk down the hill is very hot after working in the sun all day, it is a good thing it is down hill as I know I would not be able to do it if it was uphill. Clint develops a headache in the afternoon which last all night long and into the next morning, probably as a result of the heat and the sun. Tonight we had a lecture by Dr. Schuler on early Roman and Byzantine church architecture, it was very interesting and informative. Immediately followed by a quick devotion by the lake and then off to bed.

The Heat...

5:00 am...we have arrived as far up the hill as the bus would be able to take us, the rest is up to us . It is five in the morning and already you sweat just by breathing. From where the bus drops us off, we have a 1 km. hike up a steep trail with barbed wire on both sides on account of the fact that there exists a mine field on each side, put there during the war with Syria. Our instructions are that if your hat blows off on the way up, kiss it goodbye. On the right of us is the Golan Heights, which is disputed territory, but currently occupied by the Israelies as a result of the afforementioned war with Syria. Bullets, hideouts, sentry posts and barracks are all current reminders of the present day advantage that the top of this hill holds in terms of military strategy. What we are digging up and piecing together tells us of this same strategy that has been employed on this very spot for at least 2500 years. Hippos is indeed a city set upon the hill. There is no way to attack it other than to climb straight up the steep banks on every side to get to it. In the annals of history, it has only been taken twice by military conquest...one being the previously mentioned war with Syria. An old fellow in the Kibbutz told us last night that he would tell us how he took it in one night from the Syrians...That sounds like a good story.
Day one on the dig was mostly setting up to get work done. We pulled weeds, and set up gear mostly. From an archaeological perspective it was relatively uneventful, but from a personal perspective it was awsome to finally be up at Hippos doing what we came here to do. There is no way to describe the heat of this place to our fellow Canucks. We did not know it yet, but those early hours prior to breakfast are ones to be savoured, as the temperature is only in the high 20's. By 11:00 or so the heat becomes unbearable without some shade. A good deal of our set-up time consists of building structures over top of the various work areas to create some relief from the relentless sun. Darrel (one of the team) clocked the temperature the other day as 32 in the shade and almost 40 degrees in the sun. We stop for mandatory water breaks every 25 minutes, and Dr. Shuller is very strict on this point. Joyce quit "sweating" for a bit on the first day, and this caused alarm bells to ring. This is the heat equivalent of losing feeling in your toes in a Canadian winter. (That sounds a long ways removed from where we are here).
After work, we ride the bus down to the Kibbutz, and have lunch in the dining hall, then traipse off to our rooms and collapse in our air conditioned room. Ahhhh. The rest of Sunday is a bit of a blur. We did not have any pottery to clean as we did very little digging. Supper of cereal and hard boiled eggs was nice, and again devotions on the beach was great. But we will never in our lives forget that first day of working in that blast-furnace with those images indelibly seared into our minds.

catchup

It is now Monday afternoon and we finally have internet access here at the Kibutz En Gev so this entry will catch you up on events up untill now. We arrived @ the Ben Gurion airport outside of Tel Aviv on Friday around noon, after a few scheduling mishaps due to electrical storm at the Toronto airport. The crew from St Paul were there and ready to meet us as we walked through the doors of the customs clearance and loaded us straight onto a bus bound for bEn Gev. Slowly the reality of where we were began to sink in as we took in the sights of the bus trip some of which were of course the palms and beautiful flowers. Once out of Tel Aviv area, which is such a modern western looking city, we began to encouter small towns. Looking at the signs along the way was not like traveling in Canada. We drove past signs pointing to places like Nazareth, Meggido, and Tiberias. We traveled across the Jordan River very close to a current baptisimal spot, with one in progress. We crossed a plain which is said will be the valley of the battle of Armagedon. Finally arriving at the Kibbutz after a two and a half hour drive, there it was, the Sea of Galilee, waves crashing onto the shores. Unloading our gear and bags from the bus we hauled all of our belongings to our sparse little cottage that we will be sharing with our cabin mates, Dr. Susan Pratt and her husband Dr. J Anders from St. Paul Minnisota. Once unpacked and settled into our cabin we took some time to walk around the Kibbutz and become acquainted with the small village type settlement. We discovered a bit more knowledge as to just exactly what a Kibbutz is, it is a settlement of people who share responsibilities and profits, originally because of the safety that numbers afforded them. This kibbutz has approximately 400 head of dairy cattle, banana groves, fig groves, and makes some profit from renting out accomadations to tourists and dig participants. There seems to be almost everything here that a person could possibly need and even want, a small grocery store, hairdressing shop, daycare, beach front coffee cafe, and of course the dining hall. The dining hall is open to everyone in the Kibbutz three times a day, however we have discovered that the idea of breakfast here is not exactly what we would serve or think of for breakfast at home, it comes complete with coleslaw, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, raw fish, jam, and some sort of sour cream every day, and usually includes boiled eggs. Lunch is the big meal here, and so far has been very good. A full hot meal with soup and salads, and usually some type of fruit for desert with perhaps small yogurts or puddings in containers. Supper is also very strange indeed to what we are accustomed to. There is usually cereal, milk, salads, boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, ( you see a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers here which is good because Clint likes tomatoes and Joyce likes cucumbers) yogurt, fruit, just a very odd assortment of whatever is hanging around by the looks of things. Oh and one other note about the food, NO real coffee, only instant coffee and that is only at supper and breakfast. Friday ended with a devotion in the evening on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and an early night to bed as our bodies were severly jet lagged.

Saturday morning and big treat we got to sleep in untill 7 o'clock, because it was the Sabbath day here and no one works on the Sabbath including us. Clint took advantage of our late start by going to the beach for his morning devotion. It was truly a unique experience to sit on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and read a couple of chapters of Matthew, where Jesus was conducting his ministry in the very area in which we were sitting. Now when I say that no one works on the Sabbath that includes the dining hall people, which means no meals at the Kibbutz, so we all brought items along with us, as well as some hasty shopping on Friday at the local grocery store, and between us we had a picnic breakfast on the beach. Once finished packing our picnic lunches we loaded up on the bus for a tour around the Sea of Galilee. Our first stop was Kursi, which is the traditional site of the swine miracle, found in the first three gospels. It is the account of Jesus casting the legion of demons into a herd of pigs, which then ran into the lake and drownedthemselves. There is a church that is being excavated there which commemorated this event. This seems to be the case for most of the Holy sitezs we visited.
Next we went to Capernaum which served as mission control for the bulk of Jesus' Galilean ministry. There we were able to walk through the ruins of a synagogue which is not the one from scripture, but similar. What also is there is the ruins of what is thought to be Peter's house. Pretty cool that. In this site one can imagine Jesus teaching at the synagogue, and then walking across the street to Peter's house to cure Peter's mother in law of her illness. Next up on the tour, also in the Capernaum area, was the site of the Primacy of Peter. This is the traditional site of where it is thought that Jesus commissioned Peter as the "Rock" upon which He would build the church. If this wasn't getting to be overload already, the next visit was to the church which commemorates the traditional spot of the sermon on the mount. Upon entering the churchncommemorating this site, we were greeted by a spontaneous outburst of "How great thou art" by a fellow singing at the top of his range in Korean I think. This was a bit overwhelming for both of us to be in such a place and hear this. Joyce started to cry, and I think all present were moved in one way or another. We left the church of the Beatitudes feeling uplifted and spiritually renewed. We were supposed to stop in Tiberias also to see the ruins there as well, but as we mentioned, it was the Sabbath and swimming in the lake is not forbidden, and so the parking lot was full. Oh well...I think we saw more than enough for one day. Back at the Kibbutz, our wonderful day ended with a devotion on the beach of the Sea of Galilee(that still sounds funny) and it was off to bed for our first day of work which would Begin with the alarm going off at 4:00 am.