October 22, 2009

After today, I would love to do be an archaeologist for a summer or a semester. I really had fun! We went to the Temple Mount Antiquities Salvage Operation. What we did was sift through a bucket full of debris from the Temple Mount where the Dome of the Rock is. The Muslims few years back had an unauthorized building renovation on top of the Temple Mount so they could have a huge mosque. In Israel you must get authorized to build or destroy anything because you may uncover ancient ruins. In this case the temple mount is an ancient structure, so doing any type of renovation would need proper excavation in order to do any building. Lots of documentation and slow digging needs to be done. And so the Muslims did not want to wait for all that so they took bulldozers near the southeastern corner of the temple mount to create huge doors for their mosque. Their mosque is located where Solomons stables use to be located. The bulldozers that destroyed history dumped all the rubble in the Kedron Valley, so two archaeologists saw the importance to go through the rubble to uncover history. All the debris we were sifting through contained over 2,000 yr old pottery pieces, mosaics, bones, metals, glass, and special stones. I absolutely loved discovering these broken pieces of history from the Temple Mount. Now the picture to the right is a pile of debris waiting to be sifted through. There are lots and lots of these piles to go through. Now look at the picture...notice the orange colored stone and then all the pieces around it that are gray. The orange stone is the color of the stones found in Israel not gray. The reason why the other stones are gray is because there are ashes on them. In 70 AD the Romans destroyed the temple King Herod built, and those ashes are from the war that took place. So, not only were we sifting through rocks we were sifting through ashes of people who fought for their freedom from the Romans. That got me really emotional thinking of all the destruction that happened and the many lives that were lost. This shows that life is so unpredictable, you never know when you will breath your last. It makes me think am I living a life that is pleasing to God...am I showing love to those around me....am I living a life of devotion to my Lord and Savior...will God be pleased with the life I have lead here on Earth....what changes do I need to make in my life. Life is too short to take things so lightly and stay stagnant.

God what changes do I need to make in my life...teach me Lord...reveal more of you too me. God I do not want to be stagnant and not grow more in love with you. God use me to better your kingdom. God there are so many lives that do not get to spend all eternity with you. Like the ashes that I have touched how many of those people do not get to see you in heaven, and have to spend all of eternity in the hands of Satan. God use me to better your kingdom, and give me the strength to overcome any fear that will prevent me from being used for your Kingdom. I love you and praise you.