A Quick Update... For Mom's sake

Since I only have about 15 days left in the Holy Land I assume that this would be a good time to give an update on what I have been doing “professionally” lately. After moving back to the college from Augusta Victoria and my olive picking experience, I have been working hard at being the Course Assistant on the Palestine of Jesus pilgrimage. Since this is the real reason that I am in Jerusalem, I have given as much time to making sure that the courses run smoothly. My job is just that. I am the practical arm of the leadership team within the course. The course director and chaplain live in an entirely different realm of understanding the real world because during the course they must provide insight and lectures into Christian spirituality and gospel. So, since I have little of either of those insights, I take care of the planning. I maintain hotel and lunch arrangements, buy tickets to sights, make announcements about modest dress and other various odd jobs. Since this is a pilgrimage, I have shed the boring Course Assistant title for a much more appropriate and encompassing title of Shepard. I am the Shepard that tends to his flock of middle-aged sight seers and my only hope is that I don’t loose one of them I hope I don’t give the impression that this “job” is difficult at all. In fact it is fairly easy and painless so I really am able to enjoy myself here.

Some things that I have enjoyed include my current location, the Sea of Galilee. Those who have been here can attest to the beauty of the lake against the backdrop of the Golan Heights. The simplicity of this place is wonderfully relaxing. I imagine that the beauty of this place played a significant role in the formation of the man that was Jesus. I enjoy this part of the trip especially because we study the place where Jesus was a man. He is not the legend and myth that he has been associated with in Jerusalem. Instead, Jesus can be seen as a social revolutionary breaking the taboos of the early Jews. Sometimes lost is that fact that he was a man that lived for 33 years with an incredibly humbling story.

The experience of working in Galilee is much different than working in Jerusalem. The course members seem to finally relax, start to interact together like a thriving community of pilgrims, and blow off some steam. In Jerusalem, there is a hurried feeling to the whole experience because of the hustle of the city and the massive amounts of tour groups each day so it is nice to get away.

I have been asked whether or not I am looking forward to coming home. Answer: Yes, but with some hesitation. I am looking forward to being home, seeing friends and skiing but I know that I will miss this place. As I have said before, I have never felt unsafe here but I have felt a whole range of emotions and frustrations that I don’t regularly have to deal with. These can add up and weigh someone down and make them yearn for a nice book by a fireplace surrounded by comfort, I realize how life changing this experience has been for me and I think that I am just on the tip of the iceberg of my decompression and reflection mode.

See ya’ll soon!