Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Jerusalem

City of faiths, the Holy City, the center of the world, whatever you want to call it, its definitely something you have to make a right judgment for yourself if you come here.

This is where the stomping grounds where King David took the throne after stomping the Jebusites (a Biblical peoples). This was the city in which many prophesies were made. Then after the expulsion of the Jews and the destruction of the temple, the Jewish people were spread worldwide to create the Jewish Diaspora. It would be a long time before the Jews would come back and establish their own state, the State of Israel, in 1948.

Until then, wars, occupations, Crusader vs. Muslim antics, the Roman Empire, Mamluk and Ottoman control, and a certain ambiguity about true control over the Holy Land was a theme throughout the history of Jerusalem. All people laid claim based on political and especially religious grounds.
The Roman "Cardo:" an old street during Roman Times

For myself, coming to the City of David was a huge culture shock and exciting at the same time. There is the Old City and the New City. Obviously, the Old City is where all the historical and Biblical action is at. The Old City is the city of antiquity, containing walls and architecture of different eras and the streets looking like the past. The New City is where all the commercial and shopping districts are.

It would take days to truly check out the place. There are so many sites that its best to choose what fits your needs and stick to them.
A view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

I stayed at the Mount of Olives Hotel, so every night I could get a fantastic view of the city. Amazing. A survey of the Old City, you can see sites such as the Dome of the Rock, which is the 3rd most holy site for Muslims, from a far distance, as well as a number of other churches and buildings.

Yet what struck me during my time in Jerusalem is the diversity of the people and the sections of the city. The Old City is split into four quarters: the Armenian Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, and finally the Jewish Quarter. Throughout the years and after much tussle and bussle, this is how the city got laid out and to each his own made their own style and set-up.

The Armenians, from the nation of Armenia, are supposedly one of the first Christianized nations in Christendom. They came to Jerusalem to set up shop and have stayed ever since. One of the coolest aspects about the Armenians was that they were very adaptable and versatile in living among the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Many could speak Arabic, Hebrew, and whatever language that prevailed at the time. Though insular, they could be unique among the communities.

The Old City

The Christian Quarter contains most of the Christian holy sites such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is the place Jesus died and was buried. It is a more quiet area with nice shops. Well, Christians can be anyone, so what specific ethnic groups live here? Mainly pilgrims or priests from other countries who take care of the Holy Sites, and many Arab Christians.

The Jewish Quarter is where a majority of Jews live. It is a newer part of town with newer buildings. To me, the Jewish people, very religious and conservative, are very quiet, endearing to one another, and reserved. Life in Synagogue and study of the Torah are prevalent in this quarter. Many of the Jews are Haredim, or ultra-orthodox Jews with old pig-tails and dress. They are old school of the old school in Jewish thought.

A Haredi Jew getting ready for Shabbat, or Sabbath

The Muslim Quarter is the most boisterous and most tough to get through as a tourist. Very energetic and filled with shops, you are zeroed like a plane target as you walk through, getting manhandled and harassed by shopkeepers left and right ("come and buy"), or from Palestinian youths who come up to you asking where you are from. The Arabs, who live in East Jerusalem, tend to be a loud, fun, and family caring community. Greetings include kisses on the cheek from man to man and a strong, firm handshake. They are a very touchy and close-knit. One Bedouin I met in Jordan reminded me that Arab communities are like "one hand:" we are just extensions of one hand and we get each others back.

The Muslim Quarter

At first, I was like, "why do they keep asking me for money or want to always talk to me?" I was hoping to not be noticed because I was a darker-skinned foo, but the Arabs can easily tell who is not part of their community, it was hilarious. I remember one cat ("cat" in hip-hop English means "a dude") just coming up to me on the street, putting his arm around me and just randomly asking my name and country. I guess I was really that unique to him? Or I was cute? I hope not. It threw me off, but later I started to really be cool back and got to me a few Arabs just through random encounter. They are a really interesting, outgoing people.

With all the diversity and various sections making up one city...I was asking myself, what is Jerusalem? Is it truly the Holy City? Is it a place where many peoples can live in "peace?" What then is the definition of peace? By peace, is it just co-existence and tolerance? Or is it a city in which there is a unity of truth? I choose to answer the latter question, a city in which God has chosen, through the Jews, to bring salvation to the world through the One who walked through its streets and died there, and later came back to life through God's power...Jesus Christ. In him there is peace.
The Garden of Gethsemane

As historical and beautiful, unique are the buildings, the city of Jerusalem represents many ideas, faiths, and within those faiths, denominations and sects, and of course, ethnic groups. Who claims this Holy City? Battles and blood have been spilt for this piece of land for thousands of years, one of the more recent being in 1967 when Jewish paratroopers stormed the Old City and reclaimed it from the Jordanians. Saladin, the Muslim warrior, took back the city of Jerusalem during Crusader times. The British had occupation of Jerusalem for a while.

In the end, I think about the book of Revelations where in Chapter 21 will come the New Jerusalem. A new city that descending from Heaven (verse 2), from God Himself. It is through Christ and from God that the New Jerusalem will come. It will be a new city of hope for those who trust in His son, and we can finally be in the presence of God with no more sin in the city. That is the New Jerusalem I want to see and I can't wait to visit in the future.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Until then, Old Jerusalem was pretty cool too!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The West Bank: Reality Check(point)

Well, I am on a trip that was probably one of the most eye-opening in my life. For the past few days, I have been staying in one of the most cities of anitiquity, the City of Zion, drumroll please...Jerusalem!


I took a very nice tour of the Old City yesterday, seeing the old style pavement mixed with the walls of past ancient eras of the Kingdom of David and Solomon, the Crusader Kingdom, Mamluks, the Kingdom of the Ottomans, the British, now the Israelis. History is rolled up into one ball you just gotta see it for yourself.

Yet yesterday, I went on a trip that was one of the most thought-provoking in my life: the West Bank.



If you aren't familiar with this area of Israel...its the area that is most highlighted on NBC News for all the violence, unrest, fights between Jews and Palenstinians, and fights over land. Its where all the stuff between Yasser Arafat and various prime ministers of Israel went down and the fight where Zionists (those who want to reclaim all of Israel, even by force) face off with Palestinians who have been forced out of the rest of Israel and in here.

It was a difficult place to see but a reality check if I needed one. I went to see two distinct cities, Hebron and Bethlehem, which are in the West Bank ("West" meaning that its west of the Jordan River)

Bethlehem was not as quite shocking as I thought it would be, but the stark reality kicked in when passed the first checkpoint. The wall that separates the West Bank and the rest of Israel, like the Berlin Wall, is very funny. Funny as in one side there is beautiful pictures of Jerusalem marbled on the wall, and then on the other side, the Palestinian side, there is mass grafitti with one poignant sign saying: "to exist is to resist."

Tour groups getting in and out of Bethlehem is more easy because that's where one of the most respected spots in Christianity is at: the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus was born. Our tour was part of "Alternative Tours Inc." This company provides political tours to show to tourists the other side of the politics of what goes besides terrorist bombings, Zionist attacks, and the stark distrust between Jews and Palestinians. Its very biased for Palestine, but that's the point of going on a tour like this, to see their point of view and try to make a judgment for one's self.

What's even more was the trip to Bethelem's "Deja Refugee Camp." (Spelling is very wrong, but that's how it is sounded) Going to a refugee camp, I thought it would be simply a place of tents like the ones you see in Darfur or something. In reality, its a very poor place of buildings piled on top of one another. We were briefed for a long time about how at the camp there is hardly any access to basic services and the aid is very minimum, even though it is free. The rep from the refugee camp called the United Nations' aid the "United Nothing." Nice. Walking through the camp, you see and hear about stories about "martyrs," or innocent people who were shot up by Israeli troops who violated curfew. Their pictures were painted on various walls of the camp. You could seeother Palestinian kids milling about saying hi or asking for money. Their existence is not good.

Hebron was a different story. That city experience hit me hard yesterday. Regardless of the horror stories we heard from our tour guide as he explained his version of the events, I didn't really need to hear them because just seeing the city itself was a huge reality check. There were many checkpoints at tourist and Holy sites which separated Muslims and Jews. Stories about a massacre at a Mosque by a Zionist idiot. Stories of stonings and trash thrown at Palestinian homes. Yet actually seeing a checkpoint that separated one Jewish settlement and a few steps the Palestinian quarter was really weird. What made it more funny was the checkpoints. Each checkpoint is housed by a few Israeli guards, age probably just 18-20 years old. These soldiers are kids with guns. That's what hit me hard...kids. They probably didn't want to be there and probably bored out of their minds. We watched them check various Palestinians for I.D.'s and at times it got testy between the guards and them. I mean, imagine what you were doing at 18? I was working at Chick-Fil-A scooping up fries. How about the Israeli youth? "Oh Shimon, what did you yesterday?" "Oh, I just ran a checkpoint with my M-16 on me." Instead of going to the prom, even female Israeli soldiers have to keep the peace as they serve from age 18 to age 20.

Hebron was a city, even though of Biblical importance (we visited the Tomb of Abraham there), was a city that was dilapidated and very poor. No one gets out. All the kids just play in the streets, peddling you as you walk by, saying stuff like "we don't like Israel, buy this key chain," and many don't have basic access to many services. Security is so tight you can't probably fart without someone knowing it. We visited one poor woman's house who her and her nine kids live in one room, and it smelled like urine. Yikes. Above her house was another Jewish settler's house, who on top of his house was an Israeli soldier protecting it. We heard stories of intimidation and rock throwing at her house. Even then, these Palestinians still treat each other like family and do their best to survive. They try to protect one another.

So, my first trip to the West Bank was something else. It challenged my thinking alot. When I was a kid, being a Christian and all, I was like, "Go Israel, take the land!" But its not that easy of a situation to discern. God loves His people, whom He called in Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12. They deserve a homeland. However, a one-state solution? A two-state solution? These were the many questions and debates we had yesterday in the van among our 6-person group. I know for sure no political solution will bring peace. Man is sinful, there will always be violence. That I conclude Biblically.

Yet when I read about a New Heaven and a New Earth, and a New Jerusalem (the book of Revelation)...that I count on for sure. Jesus is the only one who can bring that about, a land for those who trust in Him for their salvation and the forgiveness of sins. We can definitely live there together... with no checkpoints. The only checkpoint then is when God judges those and to see if their name is in the Book of Life. That's the scariest checkpoint of all.

P.S. Quote of the Day

I met a fellow Marylander named Bill Rhea on this tour to Hebron and Bethlehem. We watched the Shabbat (Sabbath) begin at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. We saw hordes of Israeli soldiers make their way to say prayers at the wall, all of them carrying their M-16s or M-1 guns with them (they are required to). Bill looks at me as we leave and says...

"More people should carry their guns to church."

Monday, January 11, 2010

Israel and English

Its been an interesting day in my second day about in Tel Aviv, Israel. Today I had to pick up my visa for the "Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan." According to my Lonely Planet guidebook, it takes a few hours to get a visa at the embassy. It took me less than 30 minutes. Take that bureacracy and guidebooks.

Besides the fantastic weather (70 degrees in Israel vs. 0 degrees in South Korea, you know which one I'm loving), today was a nice walk about the city. Its nice to observe people and their lifestyles here. Like I mentioned in my previous blog, Israelis are a very animated people. Its in their blood.

I had a nice conversation with a taxi driver from Morocco. A Moroccan Jew, this guy and I talked a mouthful about our lives and current situations around the world. His English was very good. See, I can hardly speak a lick of Hebrew, and why should I? I'm not going to live here. Its good to have a phrasebook and practice, but phrasebooks don't have the luxury of teaching you the actual language.

I think its interesting how certain countries speak excellent English and some are really poor at it. I think knowing English has alot of benefits in our world today. Its a lingua franca, or a language that is fairly known throughout a given area.

For example, back in Roman times, people would converse with one another in a tongue coinae Greek. It was a language of exchange and medium of conversation for two people from two different areas of the Empire.

In the Soviet era, a Hungarian and a Lithuanian could conversate in Russian because their native tongues are too different (I'm not condoning the Soviet era). In East Asia, Chinese characters, even though not spoken, were fairly understood between countries like China, Korea, and Japan.

Thinking about my time in Korea and the mission I was given to do (to help improve English conversation), and just getting around Tel Aviv with basic Hebrew, but mostly using English to ask for help, I was wondering how Koreans could really improve their language skills. I heard about 80% of Jews can understand decent English even though its not their first language.

So why not Koreans, especially with the drive to learn it? Not beating a dead horse, I already explained why in my past blogs why its so difficult for them to learn English in a system of education that promotes memorizing facts rather than disseminating them and putting it together. But, being in this country for only a few days I noticed some things about learning a language that this country does not REALLY need to survive, but they learn it anyway:

1. Tourism. Do you want to promote your country? Learn English. Many Europeans know English as well. Many Africans know English. More increasingly, Latinos from Latino America are also studying English. Koreans would do well to help other countries' know about the mighty power of small Korea...and I'm not kidding, Korea is powerful. Even the taxi driver admitted how good Korean cars are.

2. Political situation. Israel is surrounded by Arab nations. I'm not sure how mutually intelligible Arabic is with Hebrew, but it would certainly help to learn English as a medium of communication. Same with Korea, China, and Japan. Learning each other's language and English is a good combination for clear dialog.

3. Learning a foreign language does not threaten a country's culture. I think one underlying "beef" that Korea has with learning English is that it is consuming so much of Korean students' time and effort studying it that it threatens their native culture. You got Konglish, or Korean and English mixed, for example. Also, students don't naturally want to speak it because they get sneered for knowing something above the crowd (group think). There is also an atmosphere of "English is weird." Trust me, its hard to explain. But, I remember one of my teachers in the office using the OMG swear loudly, and everyone was like, "OHHHHHH! He used English." When speaking English in public, sometimes I get stared at for being different.

Here in Israel, its not a big deal to use a language outside their culture. Two girls helped me today when I was lost. It wasn't like, "Oh crap, here's a non-Israeli, what do we do?" In fact, the girl beckoned me when I was lost. That was nice of her. It didn't kill them to use it. They went back to speaking Hebrew after I left. It came natural to them as all Israeli kids learn English in school to a certain degree. You don't have to be perfect. Heck, my Korean is horrible and I even managed to help some Koreans with buses! (My aunt was shocked how much of the bus system I knew, and she has lived in Incheon more than I have)

4. If the language is too hard...work backwards. My biggest teaching philosophy about teaching English during my time in Korea is to use their native langauge and work it into mine. I don't believe in "English Only," anymore. No, I'm not talking about using Korean the whole time. Basically, I would handle communication like I would if I were in a foreign country (and I am living in a foreign country): use the most I could to bridge gaps. Make an effort to get something back. Sometimes, Koreans are so enthused and passionate about learning this language they forget how to introduce it slowly for a student and make it practical. Now, for a teacher who doesn't speak a lick of Korean, the biggest advice I would give is to take it slow and speak slow. For the Israeli's, I doubt there are hardly any similarities between English and Hebrew, or for Arabic in that matter. Its all about communicating backwards.

5. Have fun with it. I always wanted to make sure my students understood it was a way of life, rather than something to be grasped for survival. My friend Jason wisely pointed out as Christians none of our degrees or skills will be valuable before God on judgment day. So, with the situation we are given, like Korean students who pour themselves into self-study over verbs, nouns, expressions, and awkward pronunciations...just have fun with it. You never know who you going to meet.

Back to Israeli time, I'm off to the City of God tomorrow. I'm excited to see the differences between metropolitan Tel Aviv and switch it for the religious and history city of Zion. I will be there for a longer period of five days.

Praise be to God through whom all blessings flow.

Mark

Sunday, January 10, 2010

In the Holy Land

Hey folks, I dropped in on the Holy Land on January 9, for a two-week excurision of the nation of Israel. To see the land of my Savior is a pretty big deal for me. I got in late last night to a round of questioning from security (seeing that I came alone, oh boo hoo hoo!) and now I am here in the port city of Jaffa.

I'm so tired. But today, I woke up somewhat refreshed (jet-lag), so I took a stroll around the sea in Jaffa and near the port. The sounds and the people are fresh, so are the smells, the sights, and the landscapes, everything is back to square one. Not knowing the language and trying to order something is quite intimidating, but the cool thing is that most Israelis know English.

Its definitely culture shocking to begin with. Every trip I take its culture shocking. From Japan to Taiwan to China there are some nuances to be noticed and the unfamiliar can always be daunting. Yet this is Israel, nowhere near the Far East. The energy of this place is very different from Asia. The Jews here are a very animated and experssive people. Their hand gestures, the volume of their voices, and their behavior seem much aggressive. However, they seem very genuine and heartwarming to one another. Coming from a nation where people are naturally reserved, its definitely tough when I experience another new culture.

See, this happens to me every time I go to a new country. I come off the plane, I am exhausted, I'm culture-shocked (I miss Korea), then I after a few days I get used to the pace of life of the new country and get into a groove. That's how I roll. I guess travelling alone it will have that effect everytime I go somewhere new, but going solo does have its benefits as you can spend more time in reflection and peace at certain sites.

Today, I went to Simon the Tanner's house. Do you remember Simon the Tanner from Acts 10? When Peter invites the Roman centurion Cornelius after the Lord revealed Himself in a vision to him? Simon hosted Peter during that time when Cornelius and Peter discussed how the Lord brought them both together. It was neat that this would be the first Biblical site I would see in Israel, as this event paved the way for Christ's message and salvation to be spread among all peoples who feared the Lord and wanted to walk in His ways. It was cool. I read the story in my Bible while I sat in front of Simon the Tanner's house. Too bad I couldn't go inside.

Other fun events today was I saw a camera crew shooting a music video for an Israeli music artist. This 17-year old Jewish kid might become a pop idol. The kid was really nice as I got to see them produce some of the vid.

Another sign I was in Israel was when a platoon of young Israeli Defence Soldiers (IDF) came round yonder, M-16's in tow. These Jewish homies don't play any games! Its pretty amazing that 20 year olds, both female and male, have to join the military. Talk about patriotism and serving your country. Many of us in the United States don't want to serve.

So I will be in Jaffa/Tel-Aviv for a few days before moving on to the City of Zion to see places where my Savior preached, died, and rose again. In the meanwhile, I need to take a nap.

Get It Done...

Get It Done...
2010: The Year of the Soni Tiger