First Day of Class - Sunday

Today I worshipped in the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. A group of us from Taylor went there. I am already plugged into church volleyball games and children’s ministry at the church. I am excited to be able to worship in this place. After the service we had a birthday party for one of the members of the church, we all had cake and tea for a time of fellowship. The whole congregation was about 50 people. It is so small because it was the English speaking service. Other services in Arabic, as well as German took place in this church. After not attending a Lutheran church in a long time, I was drawn to the very literal and liturgical style. Before my heart was not into worship and I did not like Lutheran services when I was younger, but now this sacred style of worship is appealing. There is a sense of more respect for traditions and verbal confessions. This struck me as very important today. It was most incredible when the pastor began to talk about Jesus walking to Jerusalem, and I was sitting in a church in Jerusalem right next to the place where he would have walked to.

After lunch, I had my first class. It was my Physical settings class. We had our first tour/walk; we walked a lot around the old city. In all it was 5 hours long. It did not seem so, though, for we saw many sights and learned a lot about the geography of the land. We literally experienced the valleys and mounts with our feet. Our teacher stopped every so often and explained what we were looking at or standing upon. It was pretty incredible to compare that with what was there now. One of the cool things we talked about was the different walls and when they were built. There are many layers of city wall, and there is quite a bit of different rulers that contributed to the walls Jerusalem has today. Another thing we saw and talked about was the pools at Bethesda. This lines up with the story that John tells in his gospel. There was an archeological dig that revealed this place. Another place we saw was the western wall. It was incredible to go down by the wall. I joined in with many others as I prayed against the wall. It was quiet and experience to pray to the Lord who once resided in entirety on the upside of the wall I was touching. Lastly, we visited St. Ann’s Church. This is a crusade church that was built in the Byzantine period. The church had incredible acoustics. We paused for a while and sand a few worship songs in this place. I felt like I was part of a huge cathedral choir. I couldn’t help but think that this is the way that church was supposed to be experienced.

I definitely am learning a lot here. Going on all the walks, seeing parts of history that I have heard about for so long, and talking to the other students have brought a lot of insight. There are so many smart kids here. I just listen and take it all in. My first official day of full classes starts tomorrow. I actually have 4. Monday’s are my busiest days of the week. Hopefully I’ll get some time to start my Greek for the semester also. As for now, I need to rest, for it has been a very exhausting day. I’m sure that the jet lag hasn’t worn off either. Shalom.