Back to the steamy jungle, with mangoes, monkeys, geckos, etc. etc.
My journey back to Honduras really began at 5am on Sunday, and I
won't be back in my house until probably 6pm tonight (Wednesday). It has been a
nice way to transition back from my first trip to the U.S. after moving here in
January.
Things I've noticed: everyone is speaking Spanish and I can
actually understand many of the conversations, I've heard the vos form (unique to
Honduran Spanish from what I can tell so far). I'm excited about being picked
up by a friend and her presence (also as a representative of the community) may
be the single factor that makes me feel like I am coming home, rather than just
visiting. I have lived in not just one or two, but many vacation
destinations, and flying into the airport in Roatan makes me feel this acutely.
I was away for a month, starting with several days in Boston
before a 3 week study tour in Israel. The course was through my alma mater,
Gordon College, and was taught by my former Biblical Studies professor Elaine
Phillips. It’s not exaggerating to say
that I feel like we had the best possible experience in Israel. The course was ‘History
and Geography of the Bible’ and we studied everything from geology (“Cenomanian,
hard limestone, deep V-shaped valleys, natural protection, water source is springs!”)
to archaeology (more than just piles of rocks) to modern Israeli history to
music (the sound of our voices reverberating against the walls and ceiling of
the Chapel of St. Ann’s was as lovely as the guitar-led modern praise songs
sung at the top of our lungs against the evening wind at the Sea of Galilee).
It was 4 credits of academics squeezed into 3 weeks of lecture, field study,
exams, and a little free time to enjoy Jerusalem in our own way. The group was
50 strong, composed of 20 Gordon students, a group from ORU, some
Gordon-Conwell seminary students, a handful of pastors, and a couple of ‘independents’
who found the course on their own. I was a little nervous about being the odd
one out in my late 20s with a gaggle of college kids, but ended up being
somewhere in the middle of the age range. These particular college students
were an exceptional bunch, and I really enjoyed the friendships that formed quickly
as we spent most waking moments together.
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| "Swimming" in the Dead Sea |
I’m still trying to figure out how to answer the question “How was
Israel?!,” which I’m sure to hear many more times over the next few days,
because it is hard to summarize such an amazing experience into only a few words
or sentences. Briefly, the trip was wonderful and life-changing. The only
things that were sobering to me in the elation of the incredible experience
were 1) a glimpse of how different the treatment of women is in the Middle East
compared to America and 2) how difficult and complex peace is in this part of
the world. On both counts, I feel I’ve only scratched the surface in
understanding, but it did make me want to learn and study more.
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| Judean wilderness |
The trip has forever changed what I will think when I read the
Bible. The closest comparison I have is the feeling that you get when you see a
well-done movie adaption of a favorite book, or when you visit a good friend
who lives far away and you see what their house/office/life looks like in
person when you’ve only heard it described before. Obviously, we couldn’t see what Israel
actually looked like in the Iron Age (yea- archaeological time period
reference!) or the 1st century when Jesus lived there, but our
instructor was skillful in tying together the site we were visiting and areas
we were exploring with references to them in the Bible. There are so many
things that ‘came alive’ for me and the reality of these historical events hit
home.
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| Jerusalem as seen from the Mt. of Olives |
One of those things that came alive had to do with a favorite
Psalm (Ps 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.” The city of Jerusalem at the time of the writing of that psalm was
perched on a tiny 11-acre ridge above the Kidron Valley (City of David). All
around it were, you guessed it, mountains! Modern day Jerusalem is built up
over these mountains and it is easy to forget that geographical perspective
that would have shaped the author’s reference.
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| boat ride on the Sea of Galilee |
It’s pretty much impossible to write everything I learned. I
narrowed down my thousands of pictures to a highlights reel of 100 or so.
Suffice it to say it was a worthwhile excursion away from the hospital. Back to
work tomorrow!
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| Western/Wailing wall in Jerusalem |
