Heat, Dust, and History

First of all, I hope you weren't too disappointed that I didn't post last night. First, my computer completely ran out of "juice", then I fell asleep waiting for it to charge enough for me to write. It was a very busy day!




Yesterday was a full day of doing what we were sent here to do. It was a day of refining processes while getting work done. The sifting that John is in charge of went off like clockwork, which made my section, registration, fall behind. We have about eight buckets of shards waiting for us in the morning.

Here are some pictures of the sifting operation. Man, do those folks get dirty, as you saw yesterday! They love it and consider mud and water signs of honor. I personally think that they never got over the thrill of playing in the mud!

Tomorrow, I'll try to get some pictures of the registration process, although sitting behind a bucket of water washing the last of the mud off the shards and putting them in boxes to dry isn't quite as exciting.

Today is Pentecost, 50 days after Passover, so it was a holiday. Pentecost to the Jews is the Festival of the Harvest. For Christians, Pentecost is the day that the Holy Spirit gave the apostles the ability to speak in languages so those around them from all over the area could understand what they were saying about Christ.

We toured for 12 hours. The temperature was in the high 90's, so we came back sweaty, stinky, and tired. However, we saw some marvelous sites. The highlight was Tel Dan, a nature preserve and historical site. Read I Kings 12: 16 - 33, with an emphasis on verses 25 - 33. Jeroboam, king of Israel, decided that he wanted to keep his citizens and others traveling through to go to Jerusalem (Judah) to worship, so he built altars in Dan and Bethel. As worshippers walked through his kingdom, as they had to in order to get to Jerusalem, the heathen priests would try to waylay them to worship at his altars. The scripture is clear that this was all "devised from Jeroboam's own heart" and was an abomination in God's eyes. The calves, unlike what we see in movies, were only about a foot in length.

I have some wonderful pictures of Dan but will have to send them tomorrow. We also went to Capernaum, the "City of Jesus." and those pictures will be here tomorrow. I'm beat, and there is a pianist in the lobby playing very loudly and not particularly well, and I can't figure out how to take them from my phone to this site.

Better tomorrow ----- I promise!

Love you all.

M.