First, am I really old enough for it to have been 17 years since I attended a semester at the BYU Jerusalem Center? Weird.
I visited again today for the first time since. It was an emotional day for me. I remembered a lot of people and events I am sad to admit I had forgotten.
As you will surely guess, I also remembered many spiritual experiences. Prominent among them is a gem of a spiritual lesson that could have been acquired anywhere, but was brought to me by the unique circumstances of living in the Middle East with a bunch of Utah girls mostly far from home for the first time.
They daily the check-the-mail routine was a source of some, I don't know, agitation for me. I bristled at the giddiness the girls displayed upon receipt of letters or packages. At lunch one day I complained of this to Wade Milne. At age 26, Wade was the oldest of the group.
(As I type this, I now remember how we all worried when he would just finally get married because he is WAY old. Strange culture.)
He apparently had acquired some wisdom with his antiquity. He responded with something like this (I forget the exact words): "Tim, maybe everyone else thinks it strange that you don't react enthusiastically when you get a letter."
The Garden Tomb was great. The Via Dolorosa is impressive. But Wade's Socratic method probably made the biggest difference in my life.
Thanks, Wade, wherever you are these days.
I visited again today for the first time since. It was an emotional day for me. I remembered a lot of people and events I am sad to admit I had forgotten.
As you will surely guess, I also remembered many spiritual experiences. Prominent among them is a gem of a spiritual lesson that could have been acquired anywhere, but was brought to me by the unique circumstances of living in the Middle East with a bunch of Utah girls mostly far from home for the first time.
They daily the check-the-mail routine was a source of some, I don't know, agitation for me. I bristled at the giddiness the girls displayed upon receipt of letters or packages. At lunch one day I complained of this to Wade Milne. At age 26, Wade was the oldest of the group.
(As I type this, I now remember how we all worried when he would just finally get married because he is WAY old. Strange culture.)
He apparently had acquired some wisdom with his antiquity. He responded with something like this (I forget the exact words): "Tim, maybe everyone else thinks it strange that you don't react enthusiastically when you get a letter."
The Garden Tomb was great. The Via Dolorosa is impressive. But Wade's Socratic method probably made the biggest difference in my life.
Thanks, Wade, wherever you are these days.
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