Haifa

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go the beautiful port city of Haifa, located on the northern coast of Israel, with several Bible study friends. We left Jerusalem on the 7:30 bus to Haifa, which took about 2 hours to get to our destination. Once there, we trekked to the youth hostel where we would spend the night, dropped off our stuff, and headed to the beach. The temp was in the 90's, and we wanted to just soak up the heat and say that we got to swim in the Med in March. The beach was packed with Israelis, most of them looking to be of middle school age or younger. We spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun, swimming, walking the length of the beach, and enjoying burgers and fries. At the end of the day, we caught the last bus into town, changed clothes, and went out to sample the city night life. We ate at a cool restaurant called "Havana Plus", a Cuban place with most of its seating placed outdoors in a large tent-like structure. When we went back to our hostel, we ran into some off-duty U.S. sailors attached to a U.S. destroyer that had just pulled into port. They didn't give us the name of the ship, and when asked what they were doing here, they responded simply with "Syria", and we left it at that. They also mentioned that they took part in the Libyan war that saw the overthrow of Gaddafi, but again no specifics were given and none were asked for. It was great running into these guys, and my friends and I quickly invited them inside the hostel for coffee and tea, our only way to thank them for their service. We sat up for a couple of hours talking about current events, politics, wars and rumors of wars, and Christianity. I told them how much I respected them and their service, saying "The military is one of the few government institutions left that still has honor." One of the sailors said, "For now." I asked what he meant by that, and he said "Right now we're all volunteer, but if a major war occurs, they'll be calling all of you up, and a lot of you won't want to fight and won't feel compelled to do so." My friend Keith (a religious studies major from Berkeley) and I exchanged looks, and both of us said "If called upon to serve, it is my honor and duty to do so." The conversation switched to religion, as two of the three sailors had doubts about faith and God. My friends and I took turns trying to answer their questions and doubts about God, and a good back-and-forth took place concerning the various beliefs and views of all the people present. When the night ended and the sailors made ready to go back to their ship, we each shook their hands and thanked them for their service. I hope we impressed upon them that not all American college students are clueless, and that some of us still view the U.S. military with awe and admiration. The next day, we set out to tour the Bahai Gardens, Haifa's main attraction and a world heritage site. The gardens are located on a slope of a very steep hill/mountain, as the city is built on the slopes of mountains that rush down to meet the sea in a huge natural harbor. To get into the gardens, it was necessary to hike all the way to the top of the mountain. We did this in about twenty minutes to catch the one English tour of the day. It is impossible to describe the beauty of the gardens or the amazing view that they offered. If possible, I encourage you to look through the pictures I posted on Facebook. They will give you a much better sense of the scale and grandeur of the gardens than any written description can give. Suffice to say, they were some of the most beautiful areas of this planet that I have ever seen. After that amazing tour, we went through an Arab market for lunch, and then hopped on the bus to make our way back to Jerusalem. It was an absolutely amazing experience with awesome people, and I consider myself blessed to have been able to go.