We started this morning with a 6 am sunrise service at the edge of the Dead Sea. We traveled from the southern part of the Dead Sea through the Negev desert and past Be'er Sheva. We saw several Bedouin encampments on the way up. It is truly a dry and weary land. We paused briefly in the general area where David slew Goliath. [caption id="attachment_610" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Bet Guvrin cave with boxes carved out of walls to raise pigeons for temple sacrifices before time of Jesus"][/caption] Our first stop was an archaeology site at Bet Guvrin, a city that dates back to the first temple under Solomon in what is called the first Temple period. We got to work on a dig, in underground Indiana Jones--like conditions. One of our team found a complete jar and Dan, a prof at PBU, found an oil lamp. [caption id="attachment_615" align="alignright" width="270" caption="Jill in Archaeology dig"][/caption] Jill and I both found lots of pottery shards. We then sifted through all our soil outside on grates. An Israeli archaeologist led us in the dig and showed us some of the finds. They had discovered a written document connected with the rise of the Macabees from 170 BC.     After lunch we moved up through the Judean foothills to another Tel, the city of Beth Shemesh, the City where the Philistines sent the ark on a cart. It is really striking seeing the valley structure in the foothills. The story of the lost ark and Sampson make a lot of sense when you see how the valley is laid out. [caption id="attachment_613" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="Jill entering cistern at Beth Shemesh"][/caption] Another Israeli archaeologist gave us a tour of the massive underground cistern underneath the Tel that had just recently been discovered. If you've done any reading in archaeology over the last twenty years, you'll hear about a school called the minimalists who toss most of the Old Testament out. If you read Time magazine, you'd think the minimalists are correct. I asked Ian, the first Israeli archaeologist about it and he just laughed. The minimalists are just a small group of Scandinavian archaeologists who are just out of touch with what is going on in recent discoveries in Israel in the last twenty years. In the whole city of Beth Shemesh they have not found a single pig bone. That is true in multiple other sites in Israel. Both archaeologists were secular but both pointed to numerous connections with the Biblical text. I was fascinated. Next we traveled up to Jerusalem. As we traveled up through the Judean hills, Jill and I found it very moving. Psalm 121, "I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from, my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth." Hills don't surround Jerusalem, mountains do. It is really mountainous. I had no idea. I should have paid attention to psalm 125, "As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people." [caption id="attachment_611" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="City of Jerusalem"][/caption]   Our hotel sits on the Hinnon Valley and looks toward the old city of Jerusalem.           [caption id="attachment_609" align="alignright" width="243" caption="At Western Wall"][/caption] After dinner our group walked to the Western Wall, the most sacred site in Israel because it is the closest part of the Temple Mount to the original temple.   [caption id="attachment_614" align="alignleft" width="202" caption="Jill going to women's side of western wall"][/caption] At the wall, I prayed that God would bring back his first love, the Jewish people.               [caption id="attachment_612" align="alignright" width="224" caption="Prayer Sweepers"][/caption] Prayer sweepers were cleaning the written prayers out of the wall with a broom and dust pan.                   [caption id="attachment_616" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="Purim costume"][/caption]   We walked through the Sheehan quarter during the last night of Purim, which is like Halloween.   We walked back to our hotel room, and Jill is now next to me asleep. We are both tired but loving it.