Long Walk on the Beach

Today we went to Tel Aviv. We may not have had as much time in Jordan, but we're still going strong with the whole field trip thing-- and we have another one on Sunday. This morning we went to the Diaspora Museum (Diaspora is the name for all the Jews living outside of Israel- it means like, scattered or something) which isn't exactly a museum. Like, it doesn't have artifacts or anything, its function is to kind of tell the history of the Jewish people. So they mostly have a lot of dioramas and models and things like that.

The first thing we saw was kind of a monument to Jewish history. It had like a rod hanging from the ceiling of the third floor all the way down to the first, covered in little light bulbs, and it was surrounded by four cages, each a little bigger than the one inside, and it was in a completely dark room. To me it kinda symbolized hope amid all the darkness of the past for the Jews. It was cool.

The first floor then kinda told about the Jewish lifestyle, and their customs, and what binds them together as a nation, even though they don't share most characteristics of one: common language, common territory, common culture. The second floor was dedicated to faith, and it had all kinds of sweet little models of synagogues from different parts of the world throughout the centuries. They were pretty cool. Then the third floor kinda told the story of the Jews being shunted around from place to place. Lol, we stopped right next to the open stairway where the first monument that I talked about was, and I sat on the banister. It was high. Like, looking down made my stomach turn, and I don't usually have a problem with heights. I think it was my precarious position, though, that was making me nervous. So I sat up against the wall-- coz I still wanted to live on the edge a little, I just didn't want to fall and break my neck. You understand.

Next we went to Independence Hall, which is where they first declared the state of Israel. I remember pulling up and thinking it was kind of small, and nondescript. But they had to kind of put it together in a hurry once the UN gave support, because they were facing down 6 Arab armies (Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia). So this location was pretty well protected, since the main room is mostly underground, and that's why they held their Declaration there.

So then they let us off to do whatever we wanted for 3 hours... :) Mike and I made our way to the beach- by way of the Carmel Sukh (once again, "sukh" is the Jewish market). Mike bought a fresh-squeezed passion fruit slushie, and he totally conducted the entire transaction in Hebrew. I was impressed. He said it was lucky that it cost 7 shekels, coz that's one of the numbers he actually remembers, lol. Then we took pictures with some people at the beach, and they headed off to the flew market and Mike and I took a long walk on the beach. It was really nice. The weather was gorgeous- 80 degrees, hello spring! We gathered a shell collection. Mike picked up the cool ones we saw and then I held them, and every few minutes we would sift out the ones that weren't as cool as the other ones (coz I didn't really want to carry 25 shells all the way down the beach). We ended up with about 10, and they're pretty neat. Then we had to make our way back the other way (where there was no sand- that's why we didn't just wander that way in the first place) to St. Peter's Church, where we met up with the group, where we talked about Jonah a bit (he would have got on the ship he was fleeing with at Joppa, which is in Tel Aviv), and went to see the house of Simon the Tanner, which is where Peter had his vision about taking the gospel to the Gentiles.

So, while we were waiting for everyone to get back to St. Peter's, before we finished up the field trip section, Mike and I were sitting on a bench next to this Nigerian man, and Ken came up and informed us that we weren't allowed to sing in St. Peter's, since the Pope has now officially declared that Mormons are not Christians. And we started talking about that a little, and the man asked what religion we were (we hadn't said "Mormons" yet, just "us") and then he asked us what our church believes. And Mike started to tell him, but then caught himself as he realized that we're not allowed to even answer questions about the church here. And it was so hard, because the man really wanted to know, he kept saying that, and all we could say was that our church has an agreement with the government that we won't talk about our beliefs. Guys, it is such a blessing to be able to share the gospel. It blesses our lives as well as the people we share it with. One thing that being here has made me realize is how pathetic my attempts to share the gospel have been in my life, and I really want to have the desire to change that when I get back. Share what we have, guys. There are people out there that want to know, and we have the privilege and responsibility of sharing our light with them.

Well, it was a really good day, but I am soooooooo tired. I nearly fell asleep at Independence Hall. I think I'm going to try and take a nap before dinner.