Field Study - Benjamin

Another all-day field study! 12 hours this time. And LOTS of hiking. It was awesome. :) This time we were studying the region of Benjamin.

First, a short story...as you can imagine, in Jerusalem, there are TONS of tour groups. Many identify themselves with matching hats, shirts, scarves - something....and our teacher has made some cracks about it. So as a joke, one of the students here decided to have t-shirts made for our field study. So as Dr. Wright was leading us down into the Wadi Qilt, we all uncovered our THE WRIGHT WAY TOURS shirts. Imagine his surprise when he turned around! It was really funny. Here were are....

My favorite part of this day was hiking through the Wadi Qilt to Jericho. It was so amazing. Who wouldn't want to come here to study - if only for this! The word "wilderness" takes on a whole new meaning....

These pictures hardly do it justice, but this is what the hike was like...

This is St. Georges Monastery, which we passed on the way. How cool is that?

...and you never know what (or who!) is around the next corner... :)

But oh joy! Imagine what it would have been like for weary travelers to finally look out and see the oasis of Jericho in the distance!

We ended the day at Gezer. Looking out on the Aijalon Valley - and Behold! The moon! We couldn't help remembering the words of Joshua:

"Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon"

And the sun stopped, and the moon stopped,

until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

(Joshua 10:12-13)

And if the day couldn't get any better....just as we were walking back down to the bus, I got the call - the sale of my house was completed! Settlement went as planned, thanks to my dad and all his diligent work in my absence. Praise God for this wonderful news! Thanks to all who have been praying about this!