Samford Summer in Israel

 Rebakah and Mason staking out points  Jeff running the gun  Emily Drennen The complete and whole Herodian lamp Emily found

Sunday May 29, 2016 Dear Friends and Family, Most of the crew is here and work began in our Field I on Monday.   The first day is among the hardest, because folks must clear thistles and grass from the site before they can erect shade, string their squares, and begin digging.   Jeff Posey and his survey team made short work of shooting in the corners of the dig squares and taking beginning elevations.   That’s what it’s like to work with a pro. As we worked, God gave the gift of a rainbow to our west and the temperatures remained in the 70s.   Later in the day it rained in Nazareth, and for our first Saturday trip we drove wet vans past standing water in ditches.   I don’t think temperatures climbed out of the low 80s on the coast and the mid 70s in Nazareth.   That is unusual in late May, but it happened last year too.   In recent years the “late rains” (Deut 11:14; Jer 5:24; Joel 2:23; James 5:7) have lingered. I mentioned gratitude in my last p

May 22, 2016 Dear Family and Friends, It’s 6:00 a.m. on Trinity Sunday and I hear the church bells of Nazareth asserting themselves over the sound of traffic outside my window.   That is their job, I suppose.   Sunday is a regular workday in Israel, but the Christians in Nazareth take the day off for worship.   Well, the bells ring, calling them in.   Some respond, some sleep in, and some head for the beach, I imagine.   For my part, I have begun the day thanking God for the opportunity for another dig season in Israel.   Gratitude has become my fundamental attitude here. The early crew arrived in Israel without much incident: only one suitcase stayed behind in Philadelphia.   But if the suitcase is yours I guess that qualifies as much incident.   In any case, it has found its way to its owner, minus a few items that I assume a TSA agent though would make good gifts.   At the Galilee Hotel in Nazareth we were greeted with Muslim and Christian hugs, ha