Kay's Room in Bet El

On Sunday, August 17th, I finally made it to Bet El to see the dormitory room in the girls school that was dedicated in Kay's memory. My friend Yonatan arranged the dedication over a year ago. He and I have been trying to coordinate schedules for several months. Today was the day we were finally able to make the trip. Below is Kay's plaque just as you enter the dorm room.

This is the main entrance to the girl's school in Bet El, where over 400 girls attend. In the US, we would classify it as junior and senior high schools.

This is a beautiful tile mosaic in the main hallway of the girls academy.

Kay's room is one of the downstairs rooms in this dormitory building.

The main entrance to the dorm.

Road sign at Ofra showing giving direction to Bet El and Jerusalem. In our English translations, Bet El is Bethel. When Abraham came into the land of Canaan, he made his first camp near the area of Bet El. ...And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran ... So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem ... Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the LORD. Genesis 12:4-8

The patio off of two of Kay's dorms rooms.

The adjacent dorm building.

Below is the girls academy. It's just a short walk to the classrooms.

The dorm room sleeps 10-12. This is one bedroom. School starts in two weeks.

Another bedroom.

A 3rd bedroom.

Kay's kitchen for the young girls. I know Kay would have had fun decorating it.

This beautiful bush was in the parking lot just outside Kay's building.

Down by the school was a swing that I know Kay would have loved.

While we were at Bet El, we also visited a prep institute for the IDF (Israel Defence Force). After 400 years in Egypt and another 40 years in the desert, it was Joshua who led the battles to regain the land around Bet El. So he (Joshua) took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. And when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city, and its rear guard on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. Joshua 8:12-13.

This painting shows the Biblical story of Jacob's Ladder which he saw in a dream at Bet El. The Hebrew meaning of Bet El is House of God. Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran ... Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: "I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants... Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" ... And he called the name of that place Bethel ... Genesis 28:10-19.

Same type of purple bush that was by Kay's dorm.

Other floral at the IDF Training School.

After leaving Bet El, we drove further north into Samaria to the town of Itamar. From Itamar, you look across the valley over the Palestinian towns of Nablus and Shechem at Mount Gerazim on the left (blessings) and Mount Ebal on the right (curses). This is where Moses commanded Joshua to read the "blessings and the cursings". Now it shall be, when the LORD your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Deuteronomy 11:29.

The IDF standing guard over Nablus and Shechem. Nevertheless we made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night. Nehemiah 4:9.

A view of the valley from Itamar. Itamar (Ithamar in English translations) was one of Aaron's sons who ministered as priest. Itamar was responsible for the inventory of the tabernacle in the desert. This is the inventory of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the Testimony, which was counted according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest. Exodus 38:21.

On a remote hilltop outside of Itamar was Gideon's Tomb. At first, I thought, "get out of town, it's Gideon's tomb!" But after reading the scripture, I'm not totally convinced. Gideon had seventy sons who were his own offspring, for he had many wives. And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, whose name he called Abimelech. Now Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Judges 8:30-32. Shechem is very close in the valley. Is this a tomb? The modern town of Ofra (Ophrah) is several kilometers south of Itamar where we stopped and had a falafel.

What a day in Bet El. Memories of Abraham, Jacob, Joshua, and my precious Kay. What a tribute for Kay to have a room named after her in the House of God, Bet El.