Our final day in Israel. Last night Yossi took us to a “Cowboy” Restaurant. It was very humorous, since it was like we had been transported to Arizona. We went down some random dirt road, between fields and ended up at a cowboy shack, that looked right out of the movies. There was western music playing, girls in cowboy boots and an authentic shack surrounded by cattle. We were in the middle of a cattle ranch. The meat was fresh- like there was mooing in the background while I ate my T-bone. We enjoy just eating by ourselves since we spend the day in the car with Yossi. But we needed Yossi to transcribe what I wanted for dinner to our waitress. To describe the slice of beef I wanted got fairly personal- like Yossi pointing to his hip and describing the cut of meat I wanted!! The food was good, although the girls got chicken- and that tasted almost too fresh- it was so tender the girls were wondering if they could let it sit out for a little or be soaked in preservatives like they do in America! We ate late that night and ended up being the last ones in the cowboy hut with Yossi, a cowgirl and cowing mooing the background.
Back in our rooms, Kendall gave me a near heart attack when she banged on my door, like she was trying to break in at midnight, Syd and I were both asleep and I ran to the door she didn’t say anything and was rattling on the door. I yelled, “ I am going to call the police!” I pulled back the curtain expecting to see the worst and there was Kendall- I was ready to attack! Seriously so tired, what is she doing trying to break into my room!! Our rooms were individual units along the lawn by the beach. So, it was disturbing to have someone banging on your house at night! Almost ready to laugh about it, but that night she didn’t do “the knock” what she instituted so we would know who was at the door, and I almost had a heart attack!
Friday morning we rose to beautiful sun. I went down to the dining room and collected a breakfast picnic. The girls had woken up and were almost packed. We sat out on blankets on the grass by the lake and enjoyed some breakfast in the sun. We packed up,, hit Dr. Lick- no kidding, for a crepe before we headed to Mt. Tabor. Mt. Tabor can be seen almost everywhere. It is a tall rounded mountain/hill. It is where Abraham came and met with Melchezedik in caves thousands of years ago and where Christ took Peter James and John and revealed himself to them as the son of God- Mount of Transfiguration. Here he put them in charge of His Church and showed his truly divine self. Here Moses and Elijah showed themselves to Peter, James and John on this Mt- part of turning over the mantle of responsibility to Christ and his apostles- that they would continue the work that Christ had set out to do. Elijah is significant since he has the power, as we read in the scriptures, to seal the sons to their fathers and their fathers to their sons- sealing up what happens on earth to the heavens. Having Elijah present was another significant thing that happened and a marking of that dispensation which was about to unfold- what was to come with Christ’s final ministry, his suffering in Gethsemane and his sacrifice on the cross and then the continued ministry under Peter James and John carrying the truth of Christ’s atonement and his gospel to the world. (We believe that Christ revealed himself to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland temple, marking the opening of another dispensation, the final dispensation and once again the person with the powers to seal the heavens to the earth and earth to the heavens. We believe this was necessary since since the time of Christ there had been an apostasy- the full and complete truths had been lost and had to be restored in their entirety to the earth once again. )
We hiked up a nature trail that was marked on rocks with blue and white paint. It was straight up! It was beautiful: limestone rocks, deep brown dirt and wild flowers and olive trees growing all around. It was a beautiful steep hike straight up for about an hour until the blue and white markers we were following turned into black and white. We could see a church on top and tried to head towards there, so we hopped a stone wall and found ourselves scaling around this Crusader church trying to make our way to the top, but getting attacked by poison ivy balls- they were spikey green balls that shot some crazy stickers into our legs- all of a sudden, no one was laughing and we found that we would have to climb a chain link fence with barbed wire to get to the top. We backtracked and along the trail ran into a couple bulls, which put Kendall in a spin first to the back of the pack and then leading the charge, bound and determined to find the top. We are about onto a road and Kendall charges through Syd and I right into another bull, who I am sure she scared him more than he scared her. Of course, I thought it was all very funny! She and Syd picked up a jog down the black and white trail that was leading us through old ruins and then some really cool caves. We made it to the top! The views were so beautiful, could see the farm land all around and spectacular views. We could hear Muslims calling out for prayers from their minaret’s in the town below and could hear cows rustling through the bushes – surrounded by spring wildflowers everywhere. So pretty!
The top held a beautiful white church- the home of a convent and a church that sat over caves and glorified the Mt of Transfiguration- a holy place that our prophet Spencer W Kimball called “the highest place on earth.” From the top you had a 360 degree view of everything, near Galilee, near Nazareth and the Jordan Valley. We had a little picnic on top before we went into the church and the lovely little gardens around the church that wove through Byzantine ruins of an old monastery and church marking the place.
We then headed to Caesarea- the ancient Roman City that Herod once built with the largest port, manmade port, that was made and later Israel was governed there by Roman’s governor Pontius Pilot- the one who in the end allowed Christ to be crucified. The city has been uncovered in the past 100 years and has revealed a Hippodrome- where they would have had chariot/horse races, Herod’s old palace on the water, Roman baths, older Byzantine churches built over the Roman Ruins, stadium, and remains of Greek bath houses, gyms and homes with beautiful mosaic floors, that we were walking over. We had fun walking around this 2000 year old city and enjoying the beach that Caesarea was built on. The great city was destroyed during a couple conquests and then ultimately in a huge earthquake and is really just a restored ruin town now.
We made our way to Tel Aviv and it was nice to be able to see it in the day. It is a different kind of city. It was only built 100 years ago and on the outside it looks ok, but the back alleys are run down like an old city, but without the beautiful architecture. They have a great beach and nice tourist hotels along the beach with nice public facilities along the beach, but lots of trash around. The heart of the city is not along the water, just hotels. Even in Caesarea, there aren’t really homes built on the water- since there is no “sweet water” there. The towns and valuable land is inland where there is ground water, wells, springs or rivers. We had an hour to kill before dinner, so we walked along the beach and I told the girls stories of my adventures in Brazil with Yvette- of our hilarious massages and hiking and kayaking 8 hours a day for the week we spent there 9 years ago.
We witnessed a beautiful sunset before going to our delicious restaurant on Montefiore St. It was like we had stepped into another universe and back in time. Old 40s music was playing and it had a Louis Armstrong feel- like a classy old jazz club. We enjoyed a great meal that was “civilized and expensive.” I wanted to be clear that tonight we weren’t looking for our meal lowing in the background. It was a very funny dinner. The girls and I were both very giddy. We met up with Yossi who we said our goodbyes too after a very jerky ride, seriously he has a lead foot- really not exaggerating, something that happened during the war of independence and he slams the breaks on all the time and all the stuff in the van gets thrown from side to side, or he takes corners like we are in a Ferrari and not a van! But, once again, Yossi means well and has been a kind host. He left us with a couple books, one his father-in-law wrote about life on the Kibbutz- since he lived on one, his father-in-law helped establish one in the early 30s when they were set up as communal agricultural military camps. It is something I was fascinated by .
It has been great traveling around the Holy Land/Israel and the home of our Bible. I feel that we have had a great adventure. I couldn’t help but think about my sisters living in Israel and their experience, especially Julie who worked on a Kibbutz- I think for a month. We laughed a ton and walked the lands that our past prophets and our Savior walked while he was on this earth. It was exciting for me to wake up early in the morning and prepare passages to read to the girls about where in the Bible we were now. Truly the scriptures have come alive more for me and the girls. The stories we grew up hearing, came to life. We can now visualize where great events happened in the Bible and in history. I am interested in reading the writing of Josephius Flavius- the Roman soldier that recorded for Rome what he saw and what Israel was like nearly 2000 years ago.
I am grateful to have this opportunity to do it alone with the girls. There are many funny memories, great experiences shared, witnessing places in history and learning together and having a greater understanding of people and places we know and are part of our beliefs. It is culturally enriching, to learn about other cultures, to be reminded that our Father didn’t create us all alike and that we are all God’s children. To be reminded in the Yad Vashem, that we should never discriminate against people of different faiths, different customs, different circumstances. Israel is a land that has survived millenniums of battles, of conflicts and continues to survive and find peace in places where it is not imagined, like how anything can grow around the Dead Sea or how friendships can persist between divided lands and walled off cities. But, as we understand each other more, we share what we have and what we know and show respect for each other, peace can exist.
I believe that through our trips and our experiences we have found that we can love and respect people of different faiths, colors, background. If we know who we are, we are grounded in our faith, we will be secure in ourselves to let other’s live their lives. It is not easy to hold onto ones faith sometimes, but it is that faith that makes us strong spiritually and physically. Allowing others to live their faith does not make ours weaker, but like times of old and even in times in the last century, when people loose tolerance for others and condemn those that aren’t like them, peace cannot exist and as we have been instructed after loving our Heavenly Father we are to love our neighbor and our enemy and show kindness and serve them as we would to our God.
I think what I was most moved by this trip was the Yad Vashem. We must first love our God and then love our neighbors and that means getting to know them, understanding them and showing respect for them. Fear should not rule us and is not of God. What happened in WW II was people who had stopped thinking for themselves, people responding to fear and doing horrific things and so many not preventing horrific things out of fear. My great hope in seeing the world and understanding the people and places that we visit is that we will become more tolerant of those not like us, while understanding that the strength of great leaders started by having some peace in oneself and being able to stand for truth and righteousness, not cowering from it.
The world is getting more challenging. I don’t know what lies ahead for us in this life, but if we don’t have strong footings in our beliefs and who we are we will not weather the storms well, but if we stay close to what we have been taught, to who we are and to our Father in Heaven, I believe we can stand strong, feel and generate peace and make a difference for good in this world, that is the legacy I hope to leave behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment