Nativity Church

December 9, 2001

Second Sunday in Advent Dead Sea Adventure

Today was a great day. For the second Sunday in Advent I attended a different church. My friend J.Z. is guest organist for the Lutheran Church in Beit Jala, so I went there with him this morning. If you have been following the events in Palestine, you may recognize that this is the church and the boarding school that was taken over by Israeli soldiers for several days a few months ago. The service made no particular mention of Christmas, but two advent candles were burning on a wreath at the front of the church.

After church J.Z. and I went on a fantastic journey. Our final destination was to be the Dead Sea, but at his suggestion we stopped at several good places along the way. Shortly after we left Jerusalem, we stopped at a scenic valley overlook. We had a few sandwiches and enjoyed the peace. Jesus used the wilderness to reflect, pray and recharge. Just admiring the desert view, I can appreciate how he must have felt then.

We packed up and headed back down the road. And we were going down. Road signs along the way alerted us to how low we were going. 100 meters above sea level, sea level, 150 meters below, 300 meters below, and finally 400 meters below sea level! We stopped at a mosque the marks the Islamic site of the death of Moses. A nice gentleman told us that we just missed the group of international observers who had visited the site yesterday. He pointed out the grave of Moses. (Moses!) It was covered with an assortment of colored cloths. Then the man gave us a tour of the compound. The place used to rehabilitate Palestinian drug addicts until it was shut down by the government.

We passed the spot where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found but did not stop. It was such a nice day, that we opted to spend it outdoors. I will return to visit the museum sometime. I did see some of the caves high in the hills. I can understand why the scrolls were hard to find. Some of the caves opened in a sheer cliff wall, maybe 1000 feet high. How did anyone ever get scrolls in there?

We stopped again before reaching the Dead Sea. Our next stop was at an oasis used by David, called En Gedi. David hid from King Saul in the oasis here. The desert was dry and rocky, but this place even had a few palm trees growing. There were some spectacular waterfalls, and the ibex wandered the hills freely and undisturbed.

Finally we drove down to the Dead Sea. It is the Second Sunday in Advent, but today we floated in the Dead Sea! J.Z. floated right in, and I eventually followed. It wasn't exactly warm. You sort of just sit down in the water and presto -- you are floating on your back. You do not swim in the Dead Sea. It is waaaay too salty to swim -- because you really can't get the water in your eyes or mouth. (I was informed of this after I used my patented two-handed squirting fountain of sea water to spray J.Z..) It really is terrible. If you think the ocean is salty, you should come here. I tasted a drop of it, but it was awful. Some people covered themselves in a dark mud that's supposed to be good for your skin, so J.Z. tried it. I'll try it next time...