The DEAD Sea

I woke up Saturday with a feeling of great anticipation. This may sound incredibly sketchy, but I found a guy on Facebook, his name is Garrett, who has a car and was looking for people to go on short weekend trips with him. I messaged him and said I was interested. He had three spots open and was going to the Dead Sea on Saturday morning. Lauren was down to go, so I told him we would love to join him. Our classmate and friend, Simon, was able to join as well. So Mom, (and anyone else who questions my trust of strangers), I wasn’t going alone (: Lauren made some delicious salads for us to bring, and I packed granola bars and apples. Garrett picked us up around 8:30, and we were off. The drive was very pleasant. Every time I get out of Be’er Sheva, I am in awe of the countryside. The dessert is beautiful. We finally saw some camels while we were driving!! I really hope I can ride one sometime. I learned that Garrett made Aliyah 5 years ago and has his own dog walking/pet care business. He is going to have eye surgery at the end of September, so he is trying to take advantage of every weekend until then because he won’t be able to drive for a while after the surgery.

Photo Credit to Lauren Knibbe, as expected ;)

Something you can also see while driving through Israel, especially around the outskirts of Be’er Sheva, are Bedouin Settlements. Bedouins are nomads of a sort, mostly by choice and because of their culture. I don’t completely understand it all yet, but one of my goals is to understand and visit these settlements before I leave Israel.

As we neared the Dead Sea, the views were incredible. Did you know the Dead Sea is several hundred meters below sea level? There is nothing else on earth quite like the Dead Sea. We went to one of the free “beaches” (if you can call them that haha), and I am happy to report there weren’t many people there at all, we had a whole pier to ourselves. On the edges, there is a shoreline of calcified salt. I kept my chacos on the whole time, but I’m sure my feet would have been unhappy if I walked on it barefoot.

When we got in, the water was soooo warm. It was already a warm day, but it felt like being in a hot tub during the summer. Obviously I knew I would be more buoyant than normal and float, but it felt so much different than I expected. I don’t even know if I can properly describe it, maybe its similar to wearing a lifejacket, except imagine the life jacket covers your arms and legs too. I was instantly aware of all the scrapes and scratches I didn’t know I had once I got in. It burned very nicely haha. We happily floated in the water for a while before slowly moving to the shore and rinsing off. The guys had decided we should try to “swim” to one of the “nearby” salt islands. The thing is, swimming is completely different in the Dead Sea. You can’t really use your legs, especially because it would cause way too much splashing and you risk getting all that salty water in your mouth, nose, or most dangerously, your eyes. We set out and it was extremely slow going, which made the salt island feel like it was miles away (it definitely wasn’t haha). We finally got there, a little worse for the wear, Simon had gotten salt water in his eyes, and boy it was burrnnning. Dang. The little salt island was pretty neat though, it had some shallow water inside which was surprisingly much cooler than the rest of the Sea. We managed to swim/paddle back, rinse off, and after making sure everyone was properly hydrated, we headed back to Be’er Sheva.

Garrett invited us to join him on another adventure next week at the same time. I think we are going to take him up on his offer. Stay tuned to hear where we end up next! (:

I was thinking about a few interesting parallels our Dead Sea adventure has to life. When we are in a different environment, we notice things we would have otherwise been able to ignore. In the Dead Sea, this was the case with my cuts. The same is true for me while in Israel. I am constantly realizing things about myself and about the world that would have been easily ignorable otherwise Like my current desire to figure things out myself rather than rely on God, my frustration that bubbles to the surface all too easily, and my selfishness and pride. Psalms 139:23-24, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.” He has been revealing many of my offensive ways, now I have to allow him to lead me in his everlasting way.

I also thought about how determined we were to swim in this sea of salt. In different environments, the things we able to do changes. We can’t have the same expectations. If we do, we are just going to be disappointed and frustrated again and again. Swimming in the Dead Sea led to salt in the nose, eyes, and mouth, and possibly some mild heat exhaustion for some of my companions. No one else on the beach was trying to swim, they were simply enjoying the unique attributes of the Dead Sea and accepting it for itself. Here in Israel, there are many things that are different. To name a few; I don’t have a vehicle, I don’t speak the language, and the weather is very different. I can’t plan my time as if I have a vehicle, I need to adjust and plan for public transportation. I can’t communicate with people the same way I would in the States, so I must make adjustments and be patient when misunderstandings happen. Contentment has a whole new meaning and I have to trust in God to provide for me in ways I never needed to trust him before, because my only other option is to trust myself, which fails more often than it succeeds.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."