We finally left for Egypt today!! The administrators and students have been building it up for way too long and the tension was finally released lol. For the record, it was (obviously) a once-in-a-lifetime experience that left me marveling at the achievements of mankind. Bottom line: Absolutely epic.
So, what did we do today? We were actually still in Israel haha. We first stopped at Tel Beersheva (which, according to the Bible, marks the southern boundary of the Kingdom of Israel and the tribal allotments). It was used as a military outpost in the time of Solomon. Interestingly enough, our professor explained to us that excavators found a room that they now think was a "satellite temple" (despite the temple that obviously existed in Jerusalem at that time). Curved stones from a supposedly Israelite altar and a small "broad-room" layout suggest that the Israelites conducted worship services there in some form or another. I had no idea that anything like that existed...crazy, huh?
Actually, the reason that they figure it was a temple was because of more distinct remains found at another place called Tel Arad. It was about the same structure but in a different place. This tel actually had a "Holy of Holies" that we all got to stand in, an altar, and stones set up for the worship of TWO gods. Dr. Chadwick suggested that perhaps they were being misused and for that reason King Josiah (?) shut down all of the small temples in an effort to bring the Israelites back to God. Pretty cool. On another related note, you can still see the straw laced with some of the original bricks used to build the settlement. Sound familiar at all?
We drove for quite awhile after that through the Negev desert and stopped at a Jewish Kibbutz, which is basically a self-sufficient Jewish community (kind of like Consecration). We had a guide that showed us their algae farm (I guess they grow algae and then filter the antioxidants to make cosmetics and other stuff), talked about their dairy products, and then took us to Tel Ketura. You know how some of the prophets would "go to the wilderness" to commune with the Lord? I finally understand why now. Our guide showed us some of the ancient ways of worship of some people dating a long time back and that was kind of neat (not really consistent with the Gospel--more like worship of the elements), but the best was the time we had to reflect by ourselves. We took about 15-20 min. and spread ourselves out, they gave us a scripture from the Book of Mormon, and we all just sat and thought for awhile. I haven't been in such a quiet place in a loooong time--so peaceful and relaxing, and all I could hear was my own thoughts. I about cried just sitting there. It was one of the best experiences of the whole trip (especially because it was at dusk so it wasn't too hot). Afterwards we had a testimony meeting and went back to the kibbutz. They had a bbq dinner prepared for us there (it's neat that they tried so hard to recreate that for us) and we went swimming. We had chicken fights and my roommates were awesome for that night. It's an understatement to say that it was a pretty good day; hope you got the idea ;) More tomorrow!
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