UNO Biblical Archaeology Conference / Campus Visitation to UNL

This Thur/Fri/Sat was the Annual Biblical Archaeology Conference at UNO.  Unfortunately, I was only able to make it to the event on Saturday.  The good news is that on Saturday I was able to take in the entire event.  As always the presentations were very interesting, Saturday's topics were as follows:

- What the Bible Translator has learned and failed to learn from the Biblical Archaeologist

- The Winemaker's House: Key to Life in Bethsaida during the time of Jesus

- Documentary, the Secrets of Bethsaida and the Roots of Early Christianity

- Has Radiocarbon artificially raised dates for the Early Bronze Age?

- Bethsaida and Jerusalem during the Persian Period

- The Iron Age II Storehouse at Bethsaida

This was the third year in a row that I've attended portions of the Conference and each year I am pointedly reminded that when it comes to studying the Bible and Biblical times there are many different interpretations of the same evidence.  For example in the question and answer session after one of the speakers, there were three Archaeologists all seated at the same table and all three held vastly different opinions.  These three obviously are friends yet they engaged in a fairly spirited ad lib debate.

In listening to the various authorities (and UNO brings in big names for this Conference) in casual as well as formal settings you can easily pickup on bias and underlying agendas.  My friend Dr. Frank Clark likes to say that "to a carpenter every situation requires a hammer".  What he means is that we all have a set of lens through which we interpret, digest and deal with information.  Of course since the Conference every year is heavily focused on the findings at Bethsaida, everything tends to boil down to Bethsaida.  

One of the speakers tried to paint a picture of James the brother of Christ as having been more or less permanently located in Bethsaida after Christ's death.  Personally I find this to be highly unlikely and I'm fairly convinced that James remained in Jerusalem and continued preaching in the Temple right up until he was martyred there.  This is only one example, there were many instances when I felt too much effort was given to making Bethsaida the center of all things early Christian.

It was a bit eerie walking into the Thompson Alumni Center for this Conference, as the last time I was there was with Jesse.  As I walked up to the building I passed the bench where I helped Jesse sit down and he waited for me to pull the car around and load him into the passenger seat.  I then walked down the hall and past the chairs where Jesse and I sat with our friend Sandy Smith and visited between sessions.  I truly missed having Jesse there to discuss our thoughts about the various presentations, but I'll post more reflections on Jesse later this month.

On Friday Madeline and I spent the day in Lincoln.  We took part in a "Red Letter Day" event at the University of Lincoln.  These are special days set aside for interested High School Students to tour the University and to learn more about what UNL has to offer.  I have to say that UNL is very, very impressive.  The campus is very nice (though not nearly as pretty as my Alma mater SDSU or as Hastings College for that matter) and they certainly have programs and services in place to allow each student to maximize their experience in Lincoln.  Their requirements for various majors makes it much easier to double, triple or even quadruple major as well as to pickup multiple minors.  One of the students that talked to the incoming seniors was working on four majors and four minors.

Maddie is very excited about going to Lincoln and hopefully it will work out for her to go there.  She is thinking that she wants to Major in Psychology and Minor in Nutrition.  Right now she is hoping to work with girls with eating disorders such as bulimia or anorexia.  I suggested that she may want to consider a Minor in something to do with Aging as well, she absolutely loves the elderly and there is a great and growing need for counselors to the elderly.

The Food Service at Lincoln is simply amazing!  It certainly beats the Food Service in Hastings and is miles ahead of what good old SAGA fed up to us back in the day at South Dakota State University.

As is the case for many of us old folks taking our children on college campus tours, we can't help but be reminded of our own years in college.  It is hard to believe it's been almost 35 years since I went to Freshman Orientation at SDSU.  I remember well going with my mother to register for classes and to tour the campus.  Those were great years at State and to any of you reading this who  were part of my college experience, thank you I do so miss those days.  Be blessed, be well and know that we are fortunate enough to share treasured memories of our youth.

This Sunday we pretty much just stayed home and spent a quiet day reading, writing and enjoying good coffee.  I finished writing the last paper for the 'Pastoral Care' session for ELM and e-mailed it off to Sharon and also sent a copy directly to Russ Seger.  I do have another paper to write for ELM but it isn't due for a few more weeks so I will try and spend some time researching for that one before I start to write anything down.

Lifting has been going along pretty well and I'll wait to report more about that closer to my birthday.  I continue to be pleased with where everything is at with the exception of my body weight which I'd like to be a little lower but I'm paranoid about losing muscle mass so I've decided to take a 'poco a poco' approach.

Please all have a blessed week and remember to be the Blessing to Somebody TODAY!

In his absolute Love and Grace,
Roy