Playing Catch Up

 Well, I started out strong at the beginning of the trip but then kind of ran out of steam at the end.  So get ready for blog overload because I'm home and have lots of free time now! I decided that the opportunity to experience the country of Israel and its culture was too rare to pass up. I'm really glad that I didn't.    

Our first stop on day 6 was the ancient city of Masada (pictured above) which means "the stronghold".  Interestingly enough, the city is at sea level despite its appearance of being a tall mountain.  This is because the Dead Sea is the lowest place on Earth and is located approximately 1,350 feet BELOW sea level! So really, climbing to the top of Masada just makes you break even.

  

The story of Masada is quite fascinating.  Essentially, the city was built by Herod the Great and served as a fortress to house the Jewish people who were living in rebellion of the Roman empire.  When the Romans arrived to take control of the fortress, the inhabitants decided that suicide would be preferable to slavery and everyone except for 2 women and 5 children killed themselves.  When the Romans finally broke in, they found the place eerily silent and realized what had happened.  Would you have chosen suicide or slavery if you were in that same position?  I'm pretty sure I would have taken my chances with slavery but it's really hard to say...

 The siege ramp pictured to the right was built by the Romans on the side of Masada to assist their chariots and weapon systems to scale the side of the mountain.  This is the view from the top of Masada looking over the side of the wall and down on one side of the ramp.  This was the shortest side of Masada and therefore the easiest to scale.

There are two options for getting to the top today.  The first is a cable car ride.  The second is a long hike with lots of stairs.  I chose to ride up on the cable car and hike down on the trail.  I think I got the best of both worlds that way!

After Masada, we drove down the road a little way to a small oasis.  In the middle of the desert expanse was a small stream fed by a waterfall coming out of a mountain!  What a surprise to see fresh water in such a desolate place.  All around the water there were plants growing and animals living.  We hiked the trail up to the top to see the biggest waterfall in Israel.  It was worth the hike!

Hiking made us very hungry!  I had to snack on the bus ride to lunch because I couldn't wait to eat and there was a lot of traffic. Then, before we were allowed to eat, we were herded into a small store full of souvenirs and told to shop.  We all milled around inside and picked out some items made out of olive wood to purchase.  Once we had all bought something they brought out pizzas and we stood around eating and chatting for our lunch break.  When they finally unlocked the door and let us back out onto the bus I left with a magnet and three other beautiful reminders of my trip.  It was a funny way to accomplish the task of souvenir shopping but I suppose it was pretty effective.

 I don't have a good picture of our next activity (Hezekiah's tunnel) because it involved hiking through a dark tunnel with only headlamps for light and sloshing through a few feet of water on the ground!  So instead I have this picture (on the left) of myself with a friendly police officer who was standing near our bus on the way out of the tunnel.  We had an option of hiking through a dry tunnel or a wet tunnel but I had brought my water shoes with me and of course also my sense of adventure so I picked the wet tunnel.  It had been chiseled out of stone and was not very tall in most places so we had to duck down and carefully watch our heads while we walked.  Most of the tunnel was also only wide enough to walk with your arms down at your sides.  This was definitely not an activity suitable for the claustrophobic!  But I'm a big fan of caves so I loved it!!!

Directly outside of the tunnel was a small pool of water called the Pool of Siloam.  This pool was the place where a blind man was healed in the Bible.  Honestly I cannot remember anymore who it was that actually put mud on the man's eyes in Jerusalem and then told him to go wash so that he could see again, but honestly it doesn't matter.  The man who was healed couldn't see the person responsible either!  All he knew was that his life had been changed in a real and dramatic way in the name of Jesus and that he would never be the same again.  After his transformation, he lived his life as a living testament to the power of Jesus Christ in his life. Some people didn't believe he was even the same person.  Not everyone has that kind of a testimony but each and every one of us should truly not be the same as we used to be after being saved by grace!  May our lives not ever be the same again.  

Our first night in Jerusalem was Thursday but it felt like a Friday night because everyone was out on the streets celebrating the end of the week.  Shabbat, or the Jewish Sabbath day, starts every Friday night at sunset so the people have their "Friday" on Thursday.  The streets were busy, the shops were all open, there was music in the streets and everyone was excited. It was really cool to be a part of that!  There's nothing quite like pretending to be a local when you're a tourist.  Its in blending in that you truly get a taste of the culture in a place.

   

North to South

 Many thanks and all the credit goes to Kelly Cole for allowing this blog entry to take place! Seriously.  I’m on a plane right now flying over the Atlantic Ocean between Frankfurt, Germany and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and I only had about 10% battery life left in my laptop.  Luckily, Kelly found an American style outlet hidden between our chairs that fits my laptop charger’s 3 prongs perfectly! My device is now happily charging away.

I left off on a bit of a cliff hanger in my last post!  Day 5 was probably the warmest day of the whole trip.  The day started off warmly during our tour of Nazareth.  However, despite our wonderful guide and the re-enactors who brought the site to life, I still struggled to imagine the village as it actually was 2,000 years ago when Jesus lived.  We walked through an area of the city of Nazareth which is essentially a large park now and we made stops at different sites where the guide explained how people of that day made a living and what life would have been like back then.  But if you looked up and around beyond the park, it was surrounded by taller, more modern buildings and it became harder and harder to believe that Jesus really walked there. It’s interesting to me that some of the places we visited during the trip immediately felt significant, others were not necessarily significant at face value but with a small push became that way, and still others simply did not have much of an impact at all.

Our next stop was another National Park called Bet She’an (or Beth Shan as it is listed in my tour book).  Today there are only ruins scattered across a valley, but historically the place was a huge Roman city. Above the uncovered ruins of the city stands a tall hill which visitors can climb to the top of (at the expense of climbing 169 steps!).  Making the climb is well worth it if you are “fleet of foot” as Jeremy says.  

The view of the uncovered city from above is amazing! If memory serves me right, part of the city lies within the hill and archaeologists have identified approximately 22 layers of civilization there but have decided not to uncover them yet.  As I walked amongst the part that IS uncovered I was amazed by the enormous size of the marble pillars, some of which are standing and some which fell to the ground during past earthquakes. At my best estimate, some of them are 4 feet in diameter.  

Another thing which impressed me was the advanced nature of their various construction projects.  For example, the Romans had figured out a way to make the floors of their bathhouses heated by building two layers of floor supported by little barrels and then channeling the heat from fires in between them!

After lunch we boarded the bus and drove to the Qumran Caves which is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered!  For those that don’t know, the Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient documents that were discovered in the 1940’s by some Bedouin shepherds.  They had happened upon the scrolls inside some pottery jars which were located inside caves by the Dead Sea.  When the scrolls were analyzed, it was discovered that they were early manuscripts of the Bible dated back way before any that had been found until then.  The fact that the words have not changed and the meaning has stayed the same for that many years is extremely significant! I know I’m not doing the explanation justice because there are entire books on the details of the find and so much speculation on the meaning of the scrolls but you get the idea… They are often referred to as the greatest archaeological find of the 20^th century.

Young Israeli Army soldier who boarded our bus
by the Dead Sea and instantly became famous!

From the caves at Qumran, we drove down the road and arrived at our hotel for the night.  But the day wasn’t done!  As soon as we got to our rooms we changed into bathing suits and spa robes and hiked out to the beach across the street.  We were ready to swim in the Dead Sea for the first time!!  With strong warnings from Jeremy floating in our minds reminding us of the safest way to swim in the sea, which if not heeded would surely end in death (!), we waded out to test the waters.  At first it felt normal.  But as we headed farther and farther out, I noticed the water beginning to become denser.  By the time I had waded in up to my waist the water was trying to float me already!  Being careful not to splash or place my face anywhere near the water, I lowered my body in up to my shoulders and was immediately picked up and laid flat on my back! Without holding my breath or even trying to float, I was lying on the surface of the water.  It felt so strange! But also quite incredible. 

When I got a bit braver I tried turning over onto my stomach and the water immediately flipped me over and pulled my legs up so that my knees were bent and my feet sticking straight up out of the water at a 90* angle!  The entire experience made it feel like I was flying.  The scenery around me was a mix of high rise hotels and palm trees with giant brown desert mountains filling in the background.  It was truly surreal.  I did NOT want to get out but it is advised that one not stay in longer than 30 minutes because the body is not used to being immersed in water which is 9 times saltier than the ocean!  I finished the night off with a quick dip in the hotel hot tub to take the chill off from the cold sea water. 

With that, I went to bed having checked an item off my bucket list that I didn’t know I had and with softer skin than I expected.       

Walking Where Jesus Walked

I'm currently sitting in my hotel room in the dark.  I just learned that this hotel has a strange and annoying energy saving technique where after approximately 2 minutes of inactivity, all the lights turn off by themselves.  I cannot figure out how to disable this function and so here I sit, with only my computer screen for a light. 

Yesterday began like every other day.  Wake up call at 6 AM (this may be vacation but there's no sleeping in haha), breakfast at 7, on the bus and moving by 8.  We arrived early for our appointment at the Sea of Galilee and so we had a few minutes to watch a film in the museum and see the exhibit about the ancient fishing boat that archaeologists dug up out of the Sea! The boat is a real boat from the time when Jesus lived.  Did he set foot in that very boat with his disciples?  Nobody knows but its fun to imagine.

With that in mind we walked out to the docks where we met Captain Dan and boarded his vessel for a time of worship.  He took us out into the middle of the Sea of Galilee and led our group in a wonderful time of worship and prayer.  Honestly, that's a place I wish we could have stayed at all day.  To sing praises to my God who can calm the wind and waves, in the exact place where he literally did that, gave me goosebumps!

Our next stop was the Mount of Beatitudes (reference Matthew 5).  This was where Jesus preached his famous Sermon on the Mount! There was a beautiful church on the grounds with mosaic tiled floors and a domed roof (pictured left and below).  The mountain area was very well gardened and the place smelled like honeysuckle.




After a short time there we moved on to our next stop, Tabgha.  This is the site where Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fish so that the entire crowd he had been preaching to would not go hungry.  There was a short path which led down to a small beach at the edge of the Sea of Galilee.  We had a short devotional and time for contemplation and then again headed back to the bus.  This is the pattern we have been following throughout the trip so far.  I am being stuffed with knowledge and information and each place has so much to offer that I admit I am finding myself to be a bit frustrated by the extremely small amounts of time we have to fully appreciate each place.  I feel these things should not be rushed through and I just wish we had some more time to let the feelings and the knowledge absorb.







With that being said, we again hopped back on the bus and headed out to Capernaum.  This is a place known as the Jesus city.  They call it that because Jesus spent so much of his time here in ministry.  I forget the exact statistics but if I remember correctly, He actually performed 23 out of 37 miracles in this one town alone!

 For lunch we stopped at a small cafe and out of three choices, I chose to be adventurous and try the fish.  Well, they warned us that it would have a head on it still but they did not mention that the whole entire fish would show up on the plate, bones and all!  I took this picture for proof... I ate the entire thing.  I would say this takes fish and chips to an entirely new level!

After lunch we headed out to go kayaking. When we got there, however, it turned out we were actually paddling canoes.  I am learning that the description of the activities in the itinerary should not be taken literally.  Jeep = ATV and kayak = canoe in Israel apparently.  I wonder if I will actually end up on the back of a camel during camel riding, or if it will be a horse instead. Most of us stayed dry during the "kayak" trip.  Only one boat got flipped and I must say it was entirely deserved... well done Nagahashi's!

The view to the right is from the window of my hotel room at sunset last night.  The hotels we are staying at are absolutely beautiful!  Each night keeps getting better and better.  We ended the evening with a baptism.  About 8 people in our group wanted to get baptized in the Sea of Galilee.  It was a wonderful, meaningful time of hearing how God has impacted the lives of others and watching them re-dedicate their lives to following Him.

As I write this, I am sitting in my hotel room looking out over the Dead Sea.  I have watched about 5 fighter jets fly past over the Sea heading south.  I can only imagine they are Israeli fighter jets conducting some training exercises but it is really exciting to watch!  If my dad was here he would be practically jumping up and down with excitement and he would be able to tell me exactly what type of plane they are flying just by the green light that flashes as it flies by in the dark.

Get excited because tomorrow I'll tell all about my swim in the Dead Sea!!

A Good Kind of Jealous

(Minor side note before I get started: in my last post I briefly mentioned child sacrifices... Just to clarify, the city of Megiddo was conquered and rebuilt 25 separate times throughout its existence! The people who lived there and made those particular kinds of sacrifices were not Christians and they were directed to pagan gods.) 

Day 3 dawned gloomy and cold.  (Which was funny because the night before Jeremy had encouraged us all to wear shorts the next day!)  I am glad I made the decision not to though because we were up quite high in elevation and the wind was blowing.  I was wearing all the layers I had brought with me on the trip and was still shivering!  The wind just cut right through.  Our first stop of the day was up in the Golan Heights.  We connected with the owners of an off-road tour company. The itinerary had mentioned that we might be taking a Jeep tour but the picture below shows quite obviously that we did not end up in Jeeps. They provided us instead with these ATV-style vehicles called "TomCars" which are possibly more effective than actual Jeeps at off road travel.  The shocks on these vehicles were so efficient that you could drive over a pothole or a giant rock and not feel a thing.   The only problem was that they were open body vehicles and so the cold became worse while we were moving.  

I volunteered to drive first!  I was in a vehicle with 3 other women.  Halfway through the tour we stopped at an abandoned building.  The tour leaders had us go up inside the building.  They told us it was an old Soviet building which had been lent to the Syrians while the land was under their control but then the Israeli's took the building back when they re-acquired the land.  It has since sat empty because at some point it had been attacked with artillery and was no longer inhabitable.  Our guide gave us a wonderful summary of the Arab/Israeli conflict while we were standing around an open window looking across at the Syrian border!  The reason he said he feels so safe so close to the border is because of Israel's far superior military capabilities and technology. 

Not pictured in this blog is the Olive Oil factory that we visited after the "Jeep" tour.  Needless to say I purchased a souvenir there so that will take the place of a picture.  After that we had lunch in a Druze restaurant.  I forget if I already mentioned this, but Jeremy explained to us that the Druze are an Arabic religious group in Israel. Their beliefs may indeed be a bit strange but their food is out of this world!  I tried fried falafel and lamb kebabs at lunch and both were fantastic!

After lunch we went to another national park. We visited Caesarea Philippi.  Here we listened to Carl preach out of Matthew 16.  One particular part of that passage stood out as extremely interesting.  Jesus said that upon "this rock" his kingdom would be built and that the "gates of Hades" would not be able to stand against it.  The "rock" referenced was most likely the mountain we were sitting next to at Caesarea Philippi and the cave located in the mountain was historically called Hades by the locals who worshiped there! They believed that their gods lived in the cave and that they had to pray to certain idols and perform certain rites to awaken their gods and entice them to send rain for their crops.  (Pictured left are little niches carved into the mountain where their idols would stand to be worshiped.)

 Leaving Caesarea, we continued on to Tel Dan where we went hiking.  Part way through the hike we stopped again and heard a passage read from 1 Kings about Jeroboam building a golden calf for his people to worship.  (Are you sensing a theme here?) Pictured at right is the actual altar where the calf was placed and where people would come to sacrifice animals to the fake god.

Our hike through Tel Dan also included views of the Jordan River which originates there and some beautiful views of the country side.  In the foreground of the photo below are military trenches leftover from when there was fighting over the country's borders.  Jeremy pointed down to a dirt road just below the trenches and told us that we were looking at Syria!  He marked out visually where the borders of Lebanon and Syria and Israel are today.  It was really quite remarkable how precise they are.  So much so that a single town is split in half between Israel and Lebanon!

I have been reflecting on how I wish that idols today were as obvious and physically represented as they were back in Bible times.  I can't help but think that we might be able to recognize them more quickly for what they are and destroy them more efficiently than our modern, abstract idols of the heart.  But then again, we might choose to set them up anyway.  In our sin our hearts wander so far away from their true purpose.  Without our sinful tendencies though we might not ever recognize or appreciate the crazy, jealous love of our God (a good jealous, that is). So could sin, if it eventually leads us closer to God than we could have been without it, actually be a good thing in a way? Until next time, chew on that.......

National Parks Abroad

Let me tell you something.  I'm sitting here in my hotel room after a full day of touring and sight seeing and I realized just now that I'm thinking in a British accent!  Well now you might begin to wonder why that is... Don't worry, I'm most certainly not in the UK, I am still in Israel! However, our tour leader (whose name is Jeremy and can be seen in the blue striped shirt just to the right of me in the picture above) has lived in Britain and in New Zealand prior to coming to live in Israel and his accent is very strong still.  He is absolutely a wealth of information!!! We love having him as a guide but someone has given him a microphone on the bus and in between stops he narrates the entire journey.  Anything from cows to mountains is fair game.  Sometimes he prays, sometimes he sings, sometimes he tells stories but no matter what it is, he is always always speaking.  Then, when we get off the bus, we have little ear pieces called "Whispers" that are like radios.  Jeremy uses a microphone for that too and his voice enters directly into my brain through my ear during each tour.  So, basically, its as though my own thoughts have taken on an British accent.  Jeremy has a wonderful way of infusing our tour group with joy each day and I am severely impressed by his energy and seemingly boundless enthusiasm.  He must be an extrovert....

 We went to 3 Israeli national parks in one day!!! I was thrilled at each stop that I had the privilege of visiting such amazing places.  Parks are similar here in that they protect special places of natural and historic national significance but different in that they seem to not care much if people collect flowers and rocks as souvenirs or walk off the designated trails.  I have had to keep myself from yelling at some of my fellow tour members as I see them doing things that would normally be prohibited in national parks in America.

The first national park was in Caesarea Maritima.  I'm not entirely sure of the spelling of that second part but the distinction is important because there are other Caesarea's in Israel and this particular one is by the sea.  Here, we learned that this Caesarea was established by Caesar Augustus and then shortly thereafter King Herod the Great built a city there for the Romans.  Several active archaeological sites exist here and so far they have uncovered many significant ruins.  One definitively proves the existence of Pontius Pilate.  

 

 Another impressive feature of this city is the theater (above).  Remember back to my last post? About Peter receiving a vision from the Lord? Well Peter took that message all the way from Jaffa, north to Caesarea Maritima.  He probably came directly to that very theater and stood in front of a large crowd and delivered his message there regarding the equality of Jews and Gentiles in the salvation message.  It was incredible for me to be sitting in that spot thousands of years later and imagine that Peter himself had stood and preached on that very same ground.

The picture on the right, with Jeremy in the foreground, shows more of the city that King Herod built. Off to the left in that picture is a piece of land that juts out into the sea.  Herod built a large palace for himself right on that piece of land.  You can just see the pillars on the left that once marked the boundary of that palace and still remain to this day!  If I was a king in that day, I must say I agree with his choice of real estate.  The views from that palace would have been amazing every single day!

(I think I must learn to cut back on details.  I have learned so so so much already!  I want to share it all with you.  But I also think some of this cannot be shared and must be experienced first hand.  You all will just have to come visit Israel for yourselves to fill in the blanks I may have to leave here in order to conserve space.)

Our next stop was the city of Megiddo.  Highlights here were learning about human sacrifices and seeing the altar where they actually happened (circle of stones, left), walking through an underground tunnel where the cities inhabitants gathered their water, and most of all seeing the valley where the battle of Armageddon will literally take place!  Looking at it, it makes total sense.  The valley is wide open and empty.  So vast you can barely see the edges of it.  And directly above the valley and overlooking it is Nazareth, the village where Jesus grew up.

 The next stop was to Mount Carmel.  This was the mountain where the prophet Elijah had a bit of a spiritual battle with the prophets of Baal in the book of 1 Kings.  Again, I could not believe I was standing in the foot prints of a "character" I had only ever read about in the Bible.  These people come to life when you wander in the places where they did. I was reminded here that God speaks in whispers, not just in fire or thunder and also that God is infinitely more powerful than idols or the numerous gods with a lowercase "g" that distract us and make believe they are more powerful than they actual are.

 

Our day ended up at the top of another mountain.  This one was called Mount Arbel and it overlooks the Sea of Galilee and the city of Tiberius.  I cannot emphasize enough how lush and beautiful this country is right now!  I have been told it gets hot and everything green turns brown in the summer but its hard to believe when everything around you is so vibrant.  The picture below shows the Sea of Galilee and the city of Tiberius.  All the yellow flowers are actually wild mustard!  These pretty yellow flowers are scattered everywhere and really add a nice pop of color to most landscapes.  We have stayed for 2 nights in a place not far from Tiberius called Kfar Blum and I must say, they have really outdone themselves with the accommodations here!

Shalom

Greetings from the Lord's country, Israel! I have been here for 2 days now but it feels like closer to a week.  Our leaders have packed an incredible amount of activity into each day but have punctuated all of it with aptly placed breaks so that it is not overwhelming. Tonight I have a bit of free time alone with my friend wifi and I have been longing to update this blog which is long overdue for some new travel tales!

Getting here was more unpleasant than I had expected. The flights were long but largely uneventful. The second flight from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv however was nausea inducing for me because of turbulence and exhaustion and I was thrilled when we finally landed and were re-introduced to solid ground again! I was sitting next to a girl on my first flight from Philadelphia to Frankfurt.  Neither of us spoke much until we landed in Frankfurt.  At that point I asked whether she was continuing to Tel Aviv or staying in Frankfurt and when she replied that she was continuing on, we discovered that we were actually part of the same tour group!  We were randomly seated next to each other on the second flight as well and are now roommates for the entire trip (also "random").   There are 5 of us young, single females on the trip and I am thrilled to have others my own age to spend time with!  

After a day (or more?) of traveling, our group (43 in total), arrived in Tel Aviv at 3:30 in the afternoon. Needless to say, the last thing on my mind was sight seeing at that point.  I just wanted to take a shower, brush my teeth, and go to bed.  However our leaders, who had already been in the country for a week or more, were ready to go and they whisked us onto our tour bus and away to our first tourist site!

The bus stopped in the port city of Jaffa and we enjoyed a walk around a bustling town with shops and people enjoying their Saturday evening.  Our official destination was Simon the Tanner's house in the middle of the old city of Jaffa.  His house is important because he allowed Simon, who was also called Peter, to stay with him.  While Peter was staying there he received a vision from God who told him that the good news of the Gospel was to be for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews.  This is truly good news for those of us saints who are not Jewish because it means we also are chosen by God and can equally partake in the salvation that God offers!  (More in Acts chapter 10 on the details of this story but that's the gist of it...)  It was so appropriate to start our journey here, at the literal doorstep of the place where the Christian message was offered and extended to us all.  It is here that the Gospel became truly all-inclusive.

Eventually we got back on the bus and drove to our hotel for the night.  The leaders encouraged us to force ourselves to stay awake until at least 9 so that we would be able to sleep through the night.  I slept very well last night!  Except for one dream during which I sat up and grabbed my roommate's leg and mumbled some unintelligible words and surely scared her half to death, I did not wake up once.

The food here has been lavish and delicious!  I have been very careful to avoid pineapples but I learned today that of all the produce this country grows for itself (which is practically everything you could imagine), they do not grow their own peanuts or their own pineapples.  Thank you God!

Our leader, who has lived in Israel for close to 20 years, specifically mentioned the fruit and said that Israel does not do much cooking or eating of it at all.  I think this is the right place for me, then. Despite this news, I am still avoiding anything fruity and yellow just to be safe.

I will write again as soon as I can but tonight I need to shower and sleep so that I can be ready to go for tomorrow.  I heard we are going on a Jeep tour first thing!!! (And anybody with a driver's license from the US is allowed to drive!)  Wish me luck ;)

The Poconos

 

Once you stop writing, its hard to start again.  What's important is that you do.  I never wanted this blog to be a source of stress but it could have easily become that if I let it.  My most recent travels have brought me from my old home in Salem, MA to my new home in the Poconos in Pennsylvania.  I think this is potentially the most important form of travel to undertake.  It is an incredibly difficult thing to undertake the moving of one's belongings and life and bring them from a place of familiarity and comfort to a new, different, uncomfortable location.  And yet I believe that without change like this, life would be incredibly boring and stagnant.  Without it, I wouldn't have the opportunity to learn more about myself.  I would simply be repeating patterns that are tried and true and safe.  So although moving creates anxiety and uncertainty in the present, I have to trust that it will also cultivate new strength, adventure, and confidence in the future. 

Some observations since the move:

First and foremost, we all know that people operating motor vehicles in Massachusetts have a reputation for being bad drivers.  It has been said that they are rude, impatient, and reckless.  However, after moving to this particular area of PA, I do believe we ought to cut them a little slack up north.  Truly, the drivers here are 10 times worse than anything I ever experienced in the Boston area!  (And I haven't even been here a week yet!)

Second, let me note that I feel blessed to be living in the hotel that I am.  The outside and inside are beautiful, the staff are helpful, my room is comfortable, the laundry facilities are free, there is always plenty of parking, and they serve free food every day (sometimes multiple times a day)!  I can walk down the hall and work out whenever I want.   And better still is that housekeeping comes to clean my room and give me fresh towels every day!  Its almost like being at FLETC again (minus the towel pyramid and my awesome friends).

Although the hotel is great, its not sustainable in the long run for my needs.  So, since day 1 I have been looking for an apartment to rent.  No luck yet.  Of most interest to me is that apparently buying a house is much cheaper than renting an apartment here!  Usually its the other way around, right?  Should I consider buying?  I think about that for a minute or two and then dismiss it again.  There's no reason to do that yet as a young, upwardly mobile, single individual.  And it would tie me down more than I want to be right now.

Another thought: people complain about their jobs so often!  Our society works for the weekends. People admittedly live mostly for the two short days of freedom where their happiness supposedly surpasses what they have during the other 5 days of the week.  You know what?  I want more than that.  I experienced 11 weeks out in Wyoming where I was NOT working for the weekend.  99% of the time out there, I almost dreaded weekends!  I  know there were other factors involved there (i.e. wanting training to be over so I could get on with real life) but I honestly had fun doing my job in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks so much that I didn't want to go home.  I was excited to go to work every day and I looked forward to it!  I loved the adventure and I knew I was getting better at my job every moment.  THIS is what I want to find.  Not just in training, but every single day.  I am seeking joy (which is a little different than happiness) for all 7 days of the week.  Some might say its not possible.  I am hopeful that it is. 

I've been learning lately that life isn't perfect (that would be putting it mildly).  That no matter where I go there will always be "Kevin's".  There will always be people who do bad things (job security, I guess....) and those who will want to stand in my way.  But I also believe that there is a niche for everybody where the good outweighs the bad.  Where, although there is still clearly sin in the world and storms come to toss and blow and howl and try to destroy, there is something, Someone, to be an anchor of hope.  Where there is enough good surrounding me that it becomes easy to focus on "whatever is good, pure, and lovely". 

Salem was not that place for me.  Pennsylvania may or may not turn out to be that place either.  But what I learned in Salem is that beauty. blessings, and good things (in the form of friendships, nature, local culture, etc.) can come from the most unexpected places.  Unfortunately, most of these things aren't realized until they are gone or about to be gone.  I know now to look for the beauty as it is unfolding, for the story before its finished being written - to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.  I want to take the time to look around and appreciate what I have before the time comes to make a change.  Despite my tendency toward believing that Salem was a God-less territory, I have come to be proven incredibly WRONG!  Despite a lack of Christian radio, God is most definitely working and moving in the lives and hearts of the people there as He was in my own life, though I was largely blind to it at the time.  I was leaning on my own understanding, which is exactly what the Bible says not to do.  Long story shorter, I want to shift my perspective away from my own understanding from now on.  Somebody else deserves my trust more than myself.