Jerusalem Day 7 - August 31st

Our first stop in Israel today was one of the most amazing and beautiful sights that we have seen. Although it was nothing like any of the other places we have been to. We went to Soreq Cave, a nature reserve that was in Soreq Valley. It was full of stalactites and stalagmites, a cobination of CO2, water, carbonic acid, and limestone. We weren't allowed to touch any of them because the bacteria of our hands could hinder the process. It was amazing to realize that some of the columns were as old as 1 million years. The cave was found during a routine explosion on the property. Today it has been made into a beautiful nature reserve. That is one of the most beautiful things I have seen since being here and I loved it! From the site we could see the area of Israel that Sampson was from. Our next major stop of the day was the Valley of Ella, where David killed Goliath. Today it is a huge field with a dried up stream. In the winter time the stream floods with water, but today it was bone dry. We had a Scripture reading and a dramatic reinactment of the story of David and Goliath. It was really neat to be standing on the same exact field where the Philistines met the future King David. Most of us picked up rocks out of the stream to take home.

The last site we saw before lunch was the site where the Ark of the Covenant was kept during the time of Eli and his two sons Hophni and Phinehas. This was an amazing site to see because there were still ruins there of the city that once stood. Sadly Hophni and Phinehas decided to try and defeat the Philistines because they figured they had immunity with the Ark on their side. When Eli found out about the death of his sons in their failed attempt, he too died. We had one more site after lunch, and this was another one of my favorite places. We saw the hill where Jesus gave his famous sermon of the beatitudes. There were still ruins there as well as a museum. Our day ended a little bit earlier today, but we crammed a ton of interesting information in. Israel still has so much more to offer.