Floating in the Dead Sea and Crawling into Qumran Caves

Yay for adventures! I love adventures :)

Yesterday, we hiked up Mt. Sinai (or more techincally, Jebel Musa, where Mt. Sinai is thought to be, but scholars are not quite sure). It was an intense hike, 7,500 ft. elevation - around 4,000 stairs, but it was so worth it being on that mountain where God descended to talk to Moses and give His law to His people. We came down, and it grew dark during our descent. I was walking with Susy and Eufemio, and Susy said to look up. The sky was so beautiful filled with bright-shining stars - it was the best sight of stars I've ever seen. So pretty and magnificent. While Eufemio was taking a picture, I started singing all the songs I knew with the word star in it - even "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." haha.

Today was an exciting day. We went up the mountain in Masada - I actually took a cable car because I was too sore too hike up the mountain, since yesterday we hiked up Mt. Sinai. It was a great view - both places.

Then, we went to En-Gedi, saw some sweet waterfalls, ibex - which are deer-like animals, and rock badgers. Todd read Psalm 42 and Psalm 63 - two of my favorite Psalms - about the longing of the psalmist' soul after God like a how an ibex longs for water - and how his soul longs for God in a dry land. Seeing the dry land around me, and then the cool streams of water in the midst of them, these passages have taken on a whole new meaning for me. This is how my soul needs to long for God - the way I longed so much for water today because I was thirsty and coughing - that I actually payed $5 for a bottle of Evian water. (haha, yes, it was an impulse buy, but I really needed water and didn't really look at the prices. ack.)

After En-Gedi, we went floating in the Dead Sea! It really was an amazing experience - just getting in the water, laying back, and floating without exerting any effort. So crazy! It was so much fun. We put some of the mud on our skin, and our skin came out so soft and smooth - like a baby's bottom. haha.

Because Todd is so cool, he took us to see Qumran Cave #1 - a place which is not on any map, and only a handful of people know it's location. It was a steep climb - a bit treacherous - but we made it - just got a couple of cuts on my hand along the way - but again, so worth it. The Qumran Caves are where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. So cool.

Today was a sweet day of adventures! Yay!

But we have a quiz tomorrow which I haven't studied for at all, and right now I feel like I smell like mud and sweat and salt - shower power.