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
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CURRENT NEWS, GALLERIES AND COMMENTARY |
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News Updates |
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Update on Current Events
at JUC |
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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 Student 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.
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New
Galleries
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Spring 2008
- New galleries from recent field trips of the Spring semester
students. |
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Related Information |
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»
Sept 2007 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, Sept 2007 |
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July 2007 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, Jul, 2007 |
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April 2007 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, Apr, 2007 |
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Feb 2007 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, Feb, 2007 |
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Dec 2006 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, Dec, 2006 |
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Oct 2006 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, Oct, 2006 |
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Sept 2006 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, Sept, 2006 |
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August 2006 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, Aug, 2006 |
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June 2006 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, June, 2006 |
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March 2006 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, Mar, 2006 |
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Feb 2006 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, Feb, 2006 |
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January 2006 Update and Gallery:
Archived news and
Gallery, Jan, 2006 |
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November 2005 Update and Gallery: Students on field trips |
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September 2005
Update and Gallery: Students on field trips |
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October 2005 Update
and Gallery:
Archived news from October 2005 |
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September News Update:
Archived news from September 2005 |
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» Field Trip
Galleries: General galleries of students and places. |
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