First Letter from Nazareth, 2015
Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues, It’s 6:30 AM on Sunday the 31 st of May. It’s Trinity Sunday, my automatic calendar alert tells me. The late hour pushes a little needle of shame into my conscience, as on most days the work at the site is well underway by this time. The birds outside my hotel window have been singing since daybreak. Much has happened ever since I and the advance crew landed in Tel Aviv on May 23. Most of it, however, barely rises above the mundane. It is difficult to get across what I feel when I land at Ben Gurion, and even when I make way through the airport to passport control, baggage claim, and the arrivals hall. Maybe if you imagine flying into your home airport you’ll get a sense of it, but only if you regard that as a positive experience. It feels like coming home. And it feels exotic. That’s an odd combination. We have a good crew this year. There are some health issues: a couple have come down with b