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Jerusalem Campus
3 Aravnah HaYevusi
Hebron Road,
P.O. Box 1276, Mt. Zion
91012 Jerusalem, Israel
voice: 972-2-671-8628
fax: 972-2-673-2717

North American Office
4249 E. State St., Suite 203
Rockford, IL, 61108
toll free: 1-800-891-9408
voice: 815-229-5900
fax: 815-229-5901
admissions@juc.edu

CURRENT NEWS, GALLERIES AND COMMENTARY

| News Updates
 
Update on Current Events at JUC

March 6, 2008: Dr. Paul Wright, Recent Shooting at Yeshiva and Gaza Issues

Over the past few days news reports out of Israel have highlighted ongoing activity in and around Gaza, including rockets that have fallen in Sderot and Ashkelon. This evening (Thursday 06 March) a terrorist attack took place at a Jewish Yeshiva (seminary) in the far western part of Jerusalem. None of these incidents have had any affect on our campus or our students. This weekend (Saturday-Monday) the Physical Settings of the Bible class takes its trip to the south. We normally visit Ashkelon on this trip but this time, out of precaution, will be avoiding both the site and the entire region. You can be assured that the faculty and staff of Jerusalem University College are able to arrange student activities in a way so as to avoid all known areas of tension. Today the Second Temple History class, instructed by Dr. Yigal Levin, was in the Shephelah for a field trip. I accompanied them on the trip. Everything proceeded according to plan and schedule, and there was no indication of any sign of trouble whatsoever. We look forward to the rest of the semester and to full summer programs starting in May. Of course we are sure that you will want to keep both the JUC community and the people of Israel in your thoughts and prayers. Blessings for the upcoming weekend. Shabbat Shalom.

February 11, 2008: Dr. Paul Wright, Executive Director

It’s been a while since I’ve updated you on the important work and ministry, and the activities and opportunities of the students and staff of Jerusalem University College. It isn’t because not much has been happening. Quite the contrary! Our days have been full, our hallways crowded and our programs bursting at the seams.

Seven graduate students finished their work for the MA degree during December and January. Congratulations to Camilla Luckey, Erika van Haitsma, Murray Hiebert, Brandon Ridley, John and Melanie DeKruyter and Jae-Il Jang! Well done!

We had a full house for our January Geographical and Historical Settings of the Bible course. Most of the students participating were from
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (group leaders: Drs. Russell Fuller and Duane Garrett) and Westminster Theological Seminary (group leader: Steven Vanderhill). A great time was had by all. “Off the charts!” was one comment. “Definitely a must experience” was another. “Not only would I recommend the course, it should be required for all pastors.”

Spring enrollment totals 71 semester students, our largest spring in 7 years. Of these, 26 are undergrads and an equal number are pursuing the full MA degree. Associated schools sending students to JUC this spring include
Cedarville University, Columbia International University, Cornerstone University, Denver Seminary, Eastern University, Gordon College, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Indiana Wesleyan University, Messiah College, Northwestern College, Philadelphia Biblical University and Wheaton College.

We welcome Rev. Andreas Wagner to our semester faculty ranks. Andreas is the Academic Director of “Studium in Israel,” a program for German speaking students of Judaism, Jewish-Christian relations and the history of Israel. Andreas is teaching the course Intertestamental Literature at JUC this spring. 

Perhaps you saw on the news that we had some snow a few days ago. Nothing at all like the kind of snow that has been falling in parts of the US this winter, but for Jerusalem it was enough to stop traffic and close down most of the city. But not JUC! We didn’t miss a beat. One professor even walked in from home, 40 minutes through slush and sleet, just assuming that we would be holding classes. Of course we did!

This past weekend we took a break from the more academic parts of our curriculum and headed south for a S
tudent Activity Day hike through Makhtesh Qatan, the “small crater” in the eastern Negev. The bus dropped us where the Israel Trail crosses highway 25 between Dimona and the Aravah Junction. We hiked south, crossed the majestic Nahal Tzafit, then climbed to the crater’s northern rim. Descending the Hatzera Ascent (1200 feet down, the path of ancient camel caravans), we wound our way through colorful sandstone formations along the crater bottom before finding the bus outside the wadi-flow gap in the rim’s southeastern side. It was a rugged and beautiful 11 kilometers, and a good time had by all.

Warm greetings to Linford and Janet Stutzman and 30 students from Eastern Mennonite University who will be taking a two-week course in Biblical Geography, Archaeology and History February 16-March 1, taught by Cyndi Parker. This intensive course is a portion of EMU’s semester long Middle East Cross Cultural program that takes their students to Egypt, Jordan, Israel, the Palestine Territories, Greece and Rome. An emphasis is placed on contextualization—ancient and modern—and the process by which the Gospel and Gospel-believers engage culture. If you haven’t read Linford’s book Sailing Acts yet, I would highly recommend that you do so. It is an engaging account of his and Janet’s travels by sailboat as they followed the sea journeys of the Apostle Paul and experienced the thrills and challenges of breaking down barriers and building bridges for God’s kingdom.

We stand mid-point in our current fiscal year and I am happy to report that our “bottom line” is healthy and well. This is due in no small measure to sustained giving by our faithful band of interested donors who have committed to helping Jerusalem University College financially. You can know that you are helping to build a legacy of Christian higher education in Jerusalem that sets the standard for the study of Biblical Historical Geography and Modern Middle Eastern Studies in the evangelical world. This is education that is by design interactive, placing students “in the field” and “in the community” as they learn and interact first hand with the multi-faceted reality that is Israel. We are in our fiftieth year, and forty-first on Mt. Zion. The vision of G. Douglas Young, to establish a viable, world-renowned, high-caliber study center for the evangelical world in Jerusalem is alive and well. Its been fifty years already—enough for generations of students to complete our programs of study and find positions of leadership and influence in the church and Christian academies around the world. There are many superb projects worthy of donor support around the world. We have proven our worth by our longevity, our wide-spread and effective circle of alumni, and our commitment to keep the light of the Gospel burning on Mt. Zion. Thank you for your support.

Among our new semester students we welcome back Tim and Kristi (Latimer) Knipp, who were JUC semester students from Taylor University back in the spring of 2001. Tim and Kristi are living in a pleasant, airy home in the middle of the Old City, a great place for an inside-out view of Jerusalem. I leave you with some of Kristi’s first impressions of returning to Israel: 
Being back in Jerusalem in many ways feels like coming home. The smell of incense, busy small streets, walls of stone, a beautiful mix of different cultures and peoples. It all reminds me of the semester I spent here seven years ago. Difficult as it is to believe that seven years have passed and much in my life has changed, yet upon returning to Jerusalem the city feels much the same.

Spending an afternoon being reminded of things once learned filled me with anticipation for a semester of revisiting and more fully understanding the most complex place I have ever lived. I am finding I now have a context to hold information that the first time around felt overwhelming and completely foreign. I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to return and to further grasp and enjoy the land of the Bible. . . Walking by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre each day on the way to JUC is a good reminder of the special opportunity to live in such close proximity to locations of events that have radically changed my life.

 
| New Galleries

Spring 2008 - New galleries from recent field trips of the Spring semester students.

Click here to go to the Gallery Click here to go to the Gallery
 
| Related Information

» Sept 2007 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, Sept 2007
» July 2007 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, Jul, 2007
» April 2007 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, Apr, 2007
» Feb 2007 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, Feb, 2007
» Dec 2006 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, Dec, 2006
» Oct 2006 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, Oct, 2006
» Sept 2006 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, Sept, 2006
» August 2006 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, Aug, 2006
» June 2006 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, June, 2006
» March 2006 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, Mar, 2006
» Feb 2006 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, Feb, 2006
» January 2006 Update and Gallery:  Archived news and Gallery, Jan, 2006
» November 2005 Update and Gallery:  Students on field trips
» September 2005 Update and Gallery:  Students on field trips
» October 2005 Update and Gallery:  Archived news from October 2005
» September News Update:  Archived news from September 2005
» Field Trip Galleries:  General galleries of students and places.
 


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