Day 02 - Neot Kedumim, Beth Guvrin (Maresha), Archaeological Dig

EREV TOV (good evening) from Israel! Our second day here was a great one full of interesting learning and hands-on experiences. As usual we began with a beautiful breakfast buffet and hot coffee, tea, and juices. The Dan Hotel has such good food and offers everything a person could want (except bacon or sausage) such as eggs, potatoes, fresh bread and pastries, fresh fruit, yogurt, cereals, and bagels and cream cheese.

We met outside on the balcony facing Jerusalem where Rich Ferreira led us in a morning devotional on the Sh’ma in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Sh’ma literally means “hear” in Hebrew. In our English language, we differentiate between hearing and listening – meaning actually doing what someone says. But in Hebrew, “hearing” implies obedience. Our spiritual forefather Abraham obeyed God, not only leaving his home but in preparing to sacrifice Isaac, the son of promise. His faith was so great because he was obeying a God he hardly knew. We, on the other hand, have the scriptures to tell us of God’s faithfulness over the generations and still find it hard to obey.

For our first stop, we drove to NEOT KEDUMIM. This translates to “ancient places” but also carries a meaning of “future”. How fitting that it is a 625-acre, man-made nature reserve which has been cultivated with flora and fauna mentioned in the Bible. The park guide Edith taught us about how crucial water was for life of all kinds in this climate and talked about wells and cisterns. She showed us an almond tree (which bursts into thousands of white blossoms every late winter and has its own holiday, TU BISHVA’T). We then divided into guys and gals’ teams and had a contest of herding sheep and goats. It’s not easy being a shepherd, but as we see in scripture, it was how God prepared many spiritual leaders such as Moses and David.

We drove to BEIT GUVRIN for our second site. Before exploring, our group enjoyed a picnic lunch prepared by our fabulous bus driver, Meir. There were fresh pita pockets with chicken shwarma, Israeli salad and dressing plus chips, cookies and drinks.

BEIT GUVRIN is a huge national park so we only had time to see part of it. The first part was a refurbished Sidonian burial cave with incredible hand-painted murals.

Then our main attraction was becoming archaeologists for a day! We climbed down into a partially excavated pit and were given instructions by the director. Tools in hand, we all chose a spot to dig. It was amazing to see how many people found something, even multiple things, mostly pottery. One piece of pottery had a rich red glaze (probably from Athens), one was a jug handle, and the rest were shards. Heather found a small animal horn. After filling many buckets, we carried them up and began to sift. We found even more small things, including a tiny coin!

Some of the group chose another adventure and climbed through narrow caves. The weather was hot, and we all returned to the hotel dusty and dirty, but had the time of our lives!

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