Qumran and Jerusalem

This morning we woke up on the Dead Sea. It has been strangely cool this trip. We usually begin our day in long sleeves. A strange feeling in the desert. But, a welcome relief from the 120 degrees that we have experienced before.

Today we visited the Essene community of Qumran. This is where many of the Dead Sea scrolls were found. The settlement at the bottom of the mountain is completely excavated and really powerful to study.

We did a great study on Mikvah, Conversion Ritual Cleansing, and Baptism. Really cleared up a few things. Look forward to sharing....

A prominent peice of the day included an exporation of an anaqueduct that brought "living water" (water brought by G-d) from the wadi in the mountain down to the ritual baths (mikveot) in Qumran. It is an incredible structure running along and even though the dolomite mountainside. The moving realization about the aqueduct was that it was not the most practical and definetely not the easiest way to move water for use. But, it was the only way to get "living water" which was needed to be obedient.

How far are we, am I, willing to go to be obedient?
What would an explorer find out about us 2000 years later?
What would it say about our community?
What would it say about the intensity of our faithfulness?

This evening we drove into Jerusalem. There are few words to describe the feeling of coming over a hill, or in our case out of a tunnel, to see the city laid out in front of you. The busload gasped and then went dead quiet.

There is so much to share personally. There is so much to share about our community. There is so much to share about Jesus. There is so much.

Cathi and I are not sure how this will all come out. We will need some time to digest it all.

Our next two days are here in Jerusalem. More tomorrow night!

Shema,
Scott and Cathi