Day 11 - June 19

Sunday, June 19th

This morning was Hezikiah's tunnel. I guess Hezekiah built this to get water into the city of Jerusalem. It was 27 hundred years old and 560 yds long. We had a good time walking through there! Next, we walked to the Southern Steps of the temple. After lunch we went to the Holocost museum called Yad Vashem. That was a really neat experience.We were told ahead of time to expect to come out with more questions than we went in with. It would seem like if you went into an information museum you would come out with more questions answered but he didn't want us to answer the question of, "why?" We don't know why the Jews were treated this way. There was and is no explaination. From what I gathered from the museum though, was that somehow someone decided Jews weren't people and therefore needed to be swept off the face of this earth. they had pictures, props, artifacts, letters, personal belongings all throughout the place. They also had video "Interviews" with Jewish suervivors of the Holocost. Those were what moved me the most. Them recounting what they saw, heard, felt. It is hard for me to imagine! Man, I feel aweful for what happened. After we got out we went through the Children's memorial. Out of the 6 million Jews killed, 1.5 million of them were infants and children. The cool thing about this one was how unique it was. You walked into complete darkness except for little lights. What it was, was five candles in the middle surrounded by tons of mirrors. The effect was exactly 1.5 million little lights! That was so crazy. After the museum we stopped at some park to "recap" the trip. We took communion and gave our "1 minute story." Some things that impacted me most on this trip were asking questions, I tend to think all mine are dumb or the teacher won't know, or else I feel like it is something I am susposed to know already. Kent said "the text can handle it, don't be afraid to ask questions." Another was the difference between Harod's and Jesus' kingdoms. Which is in rubble now and which is still standing? There were a fwe more things like just being in a different culture (to be a Jew is to remember) and a different way of thinking of things like the Text. From there we went to Boaz's (our tour guide) house, his wife along with David's (our bus driver) wife cooked us a wonderful last dinner in Israel. We had a great time there and now I am on the plane! Man, I wish I was just home right now!