2026 Week 2, Winter Semester Kickoff

 

Ready or not, here comes another semester!  

91 BYU students arrived for the study abroad program last week, then they sit through a bunch of orientation meetings while they are jet-lagged.  As soon as we can, we take students on a walk through the old city to get them ready to go explore.  They will have free time after classes, and they can go visit the old city and West Jerusalem in groups of three.  The orientation walk is a fun time to get to know 15 students' names, walk down and up again through the Kidron Valley, zigzag through the Old City, and explain a few unique things about Jerusalem.

  This is a photo of Damascus Gate, which was built over top of an arched gate from Roman times.  So the current gate is on top, and the Roman gate is down below.  This is an interesting view showing how the ground level of the city has risen over the years.   The old city is amazing and confusing and charming, a cacophony of people and churches and alleyways thronged with shoppers and shopkeepers and tourists.    

We show students how to find a few key landmarks and assure them they will have time to go back and explore further.  

One important landmark is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the heart of the Christian Quarter.  This cat seems right at home sitting on the construction supplies in the courtyard of the church.  

Our trip to the old city ends at Jaffa Gate, near David's Citadel.  

 The students' orientation meetings include a lot of information about security and regulations like where they can go, what they can wear, and what to do in case of air raid siren, which is try to reach the nearest shelter in 90 seconds or less.   The Jerusalem Center  building has 2 bomb shelters.  The level 2 bomb shelter has ping pong equipment, and the level 6 bomb shelter has foosball, so at least we can distract ourselves from the anxiety we would probably be feeling if a siren goes off.  

Another beginning-of-semester tradition is visiting the Augusta Victoria church of the Ascension.  The beautiful interior was matched by a beautiful welcome from the pastor, who told us about several outreach efforts aimed at increasing community connection between Christians, Arabs, and Jews in the area.  They hold sunrise services, children's events, and prayer services where all are welcome.  Their focus comes from the mosaic in the curved arch, where the angel on the left points to Christ, as if saying, We center our belief on Christ and allow people to believe how they choose.  Meanwhile the angel's other hand is pointing toward us, as if to say, we live our belief in Christ by doing good in the world we find ourselves in.

On a field trip early in the semester we take students around Jerusalem for some overlooks, such as Mar Elyas, a hill south of Jerusalem from which we can see Bethlehem on the other side of the separation wall.  

From the same hill, looking north you can see Ramat Rachel, where BYU Jerusalem students used to stay before the current building was built.  That would have been a long trip in to the center!  We can also see towers on the Mount of Olives from this location.

Another location we visited is Nebi Samwil, which means the prophet Samuel.  This crusader era building in northwest Jerusalem houses a mosque and also a synagogue, and is surrounded by ruins dating back thousands of years.  

Here is the door to the mosque.  As we entered the Nabi Samwil park, we could hear the call to prayer broadcasting loudly.  We saw Muslim men gathering to pray, including the man in charge of the snackbar, who locked the door to his workplace and prayed with the others.  

Nearby are several tombs, one of which has a heavy square plug made of rock which would have been used to close off the tomb to prevent anyone or anything from entering.  The square plug was an alternate type of closure for tombs in ancient times.  

Jumping to other topics, I've had a few more social opportunities this week, which is very nice.  I enjoyed lunch at Askedinya with women from the branch.  I had some nice beetroot and sweet potato gnocchi with tomato basil sauce.  

I had lunch plans with Sana after church, and who should appear at church but long-time friends John and Heather Howell who were visiting from the U.S.  So that was pleasant company!  And I was grateful that my gluten-free brownies turned out okay!  Chocolate chips, butter, sugar, eggs, and cocoa powder made a very moist, fudgy pan of brownies.  

A few days later, I was making a meal of baked ziti for a family in the branch who doesn't eat dairy.  Luckily my neighbor had sine extra almond milk, and I was grateful to be able to make dairy free bechamel sauce with almond milk.  It's always nice when recipes can be adapted for individual needs and avoid dietary triggers.  

Speaking of food, our favorite Jerusalem fruit right now is called a pomello.  It looks like a huge grapefruit, but it is more sweet and less messy, once you get through all the layers.  The rind is very thick, with a half inch or more of pith all around.  Inside, the core is the size of a regular grape-fruit, wrapped in another layer of membrane, so each segment has be individually peeled.  

It takes a while to get through the defenses of this fruit, but a good pomello is worth all the effort!  

I had the chance to help with primary on the first Sunday of January.  There were 2 children and 4 adults, and the objective was to introduce the Old Testament which is the topic of study for this year.  The lesson was by Gaye Strathearn, and as she testified of God's love as expressed in creation and covenants, she took the time to look at each person in the room and say, "Jesus Christ loves you, [saying their name]."  I was struck that she made a point to individually tell each person how loved they are.  We are a faith community, but we are also individuals each hoping to grow closer in relationship with Jesus Christ.  After that I helped the children sing songs while doing yoga poses to get our wiggles out.  

I hope you find ways to take the ingredients life hands you, unwrap them, or combine them to make something sweet, and share it in a way that makes someone feel individually loved, even if that someone is you!

Happy New Year! 2026, Week 1 Museums, Mexican food, and Hope

Happy New Year!  There is much to be grateful and hopeful about.  I am determined to keep telling myself this.  

Things I am grateful for:  #1 Family.  Starting with this handsome guy I get to be with.  I am so grateful he took a chance on me 33 1/2 years ago!  And I'm grateful I got to talk to all 5 kids this week.

We have been walking through the city and visiting museums this week, and I'm grateful for 

#2 Good Health to be able to do this.

Gratitude List #3:  Friends!  Including you!  And also including these fun families we hung out with on New Year's Eve.  I learned that I am useless at Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, that I am okay at Neanderthal Poetry, and that 25 balloons being popped simultaneously in a small room sounds a lot like fireworks at close range.  

Gratitude List #4 Church.  I am grateful to set down my usual worries and think about God's great love for me.  This is an indefinable experience, and I know not everyone feels this way, but for me I'm okay with trying to stretch to understand something infinite, something not provable in usual ways.  I have experiences with feeling God's love when I didn't love myself, with seeing people change and endure because of that love, and with feeling greater purpose by trying to be part of sharing that love. 

Quote from church:  As the chapel was filling up to its capacity (350 people including several busloads of tourists) my friend Sana at first walked in, saw the crowds, felt out of place, and felt the urge to turn around and walk out.  She instead sat down and saved me a seat.  Once she was comfortable, she watched each new person who walked in and looked around trying to visually locate them a seat.  Her relief was palpable as each new person was able to sit somewhere.  This sense of hospitality came out in a story Sana told me about inviting her mom to dinner.  Her mom at first declined, not wanting to eat all their food.  But Sana said, "I have already prepared the food.  We are only 4.  You have a place here."   

The power of that phrase stayed with me and I wrote it in my phone.  You have a place here.   That is what I want people to feel in my home.  That is how I want people to feel in the church.  That is how I want to feel in God's presence.  

Gratitude List #5:  Beauty

This will take up most of the remainder of this post.  We visited the Israel Museum this week three times as Frank refined the study guide for an experiential learning assignment.  I love museums and there is always something more to see, and being so close I don't feel like I have to see and understand everything.  

I started making some jewelry from polymer clay based on the cylinder seals in some of the museums we have seen.  

I learned a new word:  intaglio, which means the design is carved or pressed into the surface.  I got this intaglio effect (below) by pressing a metal pendant into it. 

Most of the cylinder seals we saw in museums had these intaglio designs.  When the seals were rolled across wet clay, the image would be protruding up from the background, which is called relief.

I made some other pendants with designs in relief.

Here are some ancient amulets, a fancy version of the cylinder seal.  Apparently they are apotropaic, which I learned means intended to ward off evil.  

Below, not much to look at but extremely significant, is a thin sheet of silver which had been written on then rolled up into an amulet.  It is also apotropaic, containing the Jewish priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24-26.   “The Lord bless and protect you. The Lord deal kindly and graciously with you. The Lord bestow his favor upon you and grant you peace.”  Two of these tiny amulets were found in the Hinnom Valley west of the Old City, and they are the oldest surviving biblical texts, dating to the 7th-6th centuries BCE, so about 500 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

Here is a ring seal.  There were lots of seals with this oval shape, but fewer were set as rings.

More beautiful craftsmanship from the Israel Museum.

Not in the museum, but interesting, the inscription below was found in the Givati excavations near the city of David, and it seems to be another type of amulet of protection, but this time in clay.  It says in Arabic, "Karim will trust in God.  God is the master of worlds."

The curved stone behind my head below is called a Proto-Aeolic Capital.  This stone shape is from the First Temple Period (1000-586 B.C.E.)and was used for royal buildings made in the Phoenician style.  Think Hiram of Tyre who helped with David and Solomon's building projects.  

These distinctive capitals have been found in several places in the Holy Land, including Hazor, the City of David, Ramat Rachel, near Bethlehem.  Some say the design represents curving plants from the tree of life, others say they are curving rams horns.  This motif can be found on the current 5 shekel coin.  

Another type of artifact I found interesting was the seated figure.  

This Philistine deity is pictured as having merged with her throne.  Known as Ashdoda after the city where she was found, she may represent a mother goddess.

This figure is a Syrian man holding a curved sword.

I think this pair represents a parent teaching a teenager to drive.  "Slow down!  Three chariot-lengths!"  

This figure below represents Maat, the Egyptian deity representing harmony, justice, and truth.  She wears an ostrich feather on her head, which is weighed opposite the heart of the deceased in the judgment.

And this bronze bull is a reminder of the power associated with bulls  (think golden calf or a water basin held up by oxen)

Above is a transcription of the word Israel as it appeared in hieroglyphics on the Mernepta Stele (below).  It contains the earliest mention of Israel outside of the Bible (1208 B.C.E.)

Below is the earliest inscription of the house of David (930 B.C.E.).  It was found engraved in Aramaic script on a stele in Dan, a northern city.  The Stele contains the boasts of a foreign king who defeated Joram and Ahaziah, kings of Israel mentioned in I Kings 22 and II Kings 1.

This is a heel bone that was found pierced by a nail, physical evidence of Roman crucifixion.

A stone sarcophagus with horns.

These look like strange combs, but they are keys.  When Jews fled to the desert during the Bar Kokhba revolt against Rome (132-136 A.D.) several people brought with them their house keys, expecting to be able to return after the war was over.  

These are pigeons from the roof of a palace in Jericho, the 8th century Ummayad Khirbet el Mafjar, also known as Hisham's Palace.  Behind them are some of the first known windows made with colored glass.

This mosaic was part of the dining room floor of a very fancy Roman residence in Nablus, from the 3rd century.  The mosaic depicts the story of Achilles.

The Israel Museum also houses replicas of  Dead Sea Scrolls fragments.

Near the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit is a model of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount depicting the buildings as they would have looked before the Roman destruction in 70 A.D.  

Ahava, this is Hebrew for "Love,"  a fitting ending for a good museum visit.  

A few more interesting photos:  This is a fountain in the old city.  A sign says, "Prophet Muhammad said providing drinking water is the best charity."  Fountains like this dot the old city, and this is among the best preserved.  

The eastern wall of Jerusalem is the oldest of the walls, and lower portions of it may date back to Hezekiah, Hasmoneans, and Herod the Great. By comparison, the sealed Golden Gate is much more recent, from Umayyad times (8th century), and the many of the other parts of the Old City walls were completed in the Ottoman time period (16th century).  Walking along the wall, we could see places where the soil had been removed so the earlier foundations were visible.  

The city walls and gates have many examples of beautiful carvings, as well as stones in secondary usage.

Jumping abruptly to a different topic, we got enchiladas from our favorite kosher Mexican food store called Quesadillas Asencio.  The owner, Sofia, is very pleasant and we enjoy eating here.  There is usually a wait but never a line.  Kosher restaurants either serve cheese or meat but not both, so this place serves quesadillas with cheese, mushrooms, beans, or potatoes.   

Our other favorite Mexican restaurant is Tacos Luis.  This restaurant is a kosher meat store, so you can get tacos with fish, turkey, chicken, or beef.  This restaurant usually has a long line.  

If January is named for Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings, then this cat graffiti may be a fitting image for New Year's, looking to the past and the present and the future all at once.  

Thoughts about January: A few years ago I went tubing down the Provo river, and it was fun to be swept along with the current.  If a rock or tree branch came along, you could kick and paddle madly with your hands and cause a slight shift in trajectory but mostly you're a passenger, not a driver.  It's mostly about finding contentment in the journey.  And avoiding the eddies, which are invisible until you're stuck in their slow spin.  

Contrast the tubing experience with the go-karting activity from last month.  Not only was I a driver, I was clenching the steering wheel, swerving, stomping on gas and brake, avoiding other drivers, and frenetically trying to be both safe and fast at the same time.  Full on ambition, competition, and inhalation of gasoline fumes. 

I wonder what this January will look like, tubing or go-karting?  Or a mixture of both.  I know that goals that are too ambitious can lead me to a crash of discouragement, but the absence of goals leads to drifting into an eddy, moving in a slow circle while time goes by, and that also brings discouragement on top of regret.  

So I'm looking for enough hope and ambition that I am steering my own life in a good direction, but also enough grace to be content with the time and mistakes it may take to reach the destination.  

On a podcast this week, Ross Baron (a colleague of Frank's) said,  "I always know the difference between the Holy Ghost and Satan.  And one of the ways I know the difference is, if the voice in my head says, 'Give up, stop trying, throw in the towel,' that is Satan.  I have been rebuked by the Holy Ghost, by the way, but in the rebuke it always whispers hope.  Always.  Satan never whispers hope."  

#6: I am grateful for hope.