May 4. Today was a full day. We got a look at the Old Testament by traveling into the Negev desert to discover places like these:
Tel Be'er
Sheva (which appears in many Genesis texts--from Abraham to
Jacob--and was the southern border of the Kingdom of Judah)
Tel Arad (which
includes the only Judean temple that's been uncovered with the Holy of
Holies intact)
Dead
Sea (which gets its name because its 33% salt and nothing can live
in it--compared to oceans which contain 2-4% salt; we also got to float
in it!)
Masada
(which was Herod's fortress and was also a site where over 900 Zealots
committed suicide rather than surrendering to Roman troops in 72 AD)
Qumran (which is where
the Dead Sea Scrolls were found; some of us visited the Science Museum of Minnesota's Sea
Scrolls exhibit before we left)
We hope you enjoy the video updates from Katy and Betsy! More to come tomorrow after we spend a full day in the Old City of Jerusalem, learning about the current Israeli-Palestinian situation before heading to Bethlehem.
Re-post from http://www.bethlehem-church.org