Once again into the Judean wilderness

It is amazing how quickly the month at Tantur in Jerusalem is coming to an end.  Tomorrow, three of our group will be leaving.  The rest of us will be going our separate ways in the next three days.  As such, this is the last full day we have together.
I am glad to say that it has been an excellent one.  It began with getting out of bed at 4:45 a.m.  This was so because eight of us were going to leave at 5:45 a.m. for a hike in the Judean wilderness. This is the area just east of the ridge upon which Jerusalem sits.  It is in a rain shadow and the moisture and vegetation drop off dramatically.
The link is to a video I took just after we got to the trail head at about 6:30 a.m.  It was a beautiful morning and already warm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH5_XFo5es0


Our hike would take us down into Wadi Qilt, to St. George Monastery, and finally down to Jericho. Our group was glad that we were going down almost the whole way!

If you watched the video, this will look familiar.  If you didn't, this is a view of the Judean wilderness. The sun had been up a short while and it was pretty and already warm. 

In the background, you can see St. George Monastery.

The monastery was begun in the year 420 A.D.

As we walked down the wadi (aka canyon), we saw a number of human made caves.  In the 400's and 500's, there were quite a number of hermit monks who lived in the wilderness to pursue a life of prayer and dedication to God.

This picture shows the cave of the one remaining hermit monk living in Wadi Qilt.

The hike was a lot of fun.  As it was fairly early in the morning, the colors were vivid.  I was glad to be out in the creation with a group of friends I have made while at Tantur.



After we hiked out of the canyon, we met up with the rest of our group and we went to the Monastery of the Temptation.  It, too, is on the side of a cliff and commerates Jesus' trial in the wilderness.  The earlier video clip shows the view from the monasatery.

After returning to the bus, we went to the Jordan River.

Here I am wading in the Jordan.  As you can see it is more of a stream at this point.  It is used significantly for irrigation.  So by the time it gets here, which is getting close to the Dead Sea, there is not much left.

While we were there, there was a fairly large Hispanic group of Roman Catholics.  This is the second baby I saw baptized by them in the Jordan.

With this, we headed back to the bus, ate a picnic lunch, and returned to Tantur.  This evening we will have our closing party.  Those of us who remain will have Jerusalem activities tomorrow but this will be the last time all of us our together.

I hope this finds you well.

God bless!