Masada/Dead Sea/Ein Gedi

this past weekend was some serious adventures. i've never hiked as much as i did this weekend, but i saw some amazing things! we went to Masada, hiked 5miles up it, and walked all around Herod's winter palace, which is just ruins now, but still cool! the hike up was not my thing...hahaha, but Tida was SO nice, so we passed this cyclist, he biked from UK to Israel!!! but he was dying from the hike, obviously, if i was gonna jump off and end my misery, he had it so much worse cause he had to carry his bike...but Tida was SO nice to help him carry his bike, even though she was also having a really difficult time hiking too...and then when we got pretty close, a guy ran down, picked up the bike with one hand and ran up, it was cool. Tida was such a good samartian. then we went to the dead sea, i did not float in it...the salt from the mediterranean sea was already salty enough for me last time, i didn't want the dead sea saltiness...then we went to a pretty nice hostel and stayed there for the night.

the next day we went to Ein Gedi, which is a national park and supposedly where King Saul took a dump. HAHA. but i didn't go to the cave, i chilled at the "freshwater" pools and waterfall. but on the way down, i slipped and hit my tailbone, hahaha, it's all right though, i managed to make it down with the help of enoch and tyler, my two entertaining helpers. so praise Jesus, it's actually a lot better now, so yay! then we came back to Tantur.

today, we had class of course, but that's not important. what's important is, me and 4 other students were just at Dr. Holt and Suzanne's (our director and wife) apartment for Indian dinner. oh praise Jesus for eating some curry! hahaha, and we chatted with them for quite a while, it was fun, I like getting to know the adults, and hearing what they have to say. but something intriguing happened. when i said i wanted to become a pastor, they both had a OMG. PTL! look, hahaha, and they asked me when i had that calling and their eyes became like O_O. but PTL indeed, not because of who i am, but because of what You've done; not because of what i've done, but because of who You are!

Tida - Me - Lynn - Cyclist - Guy who helped - Emily