1979 June-December - BYU Jerusalem Center Alumni

Orson Hyde Memorial Garden Dedication

One of the highlights of our semester in Israel was participating in the historic dedication of the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden on October 24, 1979. Located on the Mount of Olives, the garden overlooks the old city of Jerusalem and is just above and north of the Garden of Gethsemane. What a blessing it was to participate in the preparation and dedication of the garden! We spent time weeding the garden before the event, and many in our group participated in the Dedication as part of the Dedication Chorus. It was such an honor for our group to welcome our prophet, President Spencer W. Kimball and his wife, Sister Camilla Kimball, along with President N. Eldon Tanner, President Ezra Taft Benson, Elder Howard W. Hunter, Elder LeGrand Richards, Elder Marvin J. Ashton, and Elder Eldred G. Smith who all came to Jerusalem for this special event. Our group made banners to welcome these wonderful visitors and lined the street holding the banners as their cars drove by from the port.

Three days after the Dedication, our group was blessed to participate in a special outdoor Sabbath fireside on the Mount of Beatitudes with President Kimball as our speaker.

Announcement of the Jerusalem Center

Another historic and exciting event that occurred on October 20, 1979 and just 4 days before the Dedication, was Elder Howard W. Hunter’s announcement of the building of the Jerusalem Center on the Mount of Olives. The announcement came while he and several other general authorities, including President Kimball, were on a cruise ship on their way to the Dedication of the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden.

Ramat Rachel

Ramat Rachel, located on the outskirts of Jerusalem and overlooking Bethlehem and Rachel’s Tomb, is the place we called home for 5 months. The building was three levels: the main level where the cafeteria was located along with housing for the leaders, the second level that housed the men’s dorms, and the third level that housed the women’s dorms. Each dorm room had a bunk bed for two students and a desk. The grounds surrounding the building were beautiful, and many of our classes were held outdoors.

About halfway through the semester, many of the students contracted shigella. Our kitchen was subsequently condemned for awhile due to the outbreak. All of our meals during this time were boxed meals that were brought in from outside sources. We had many field trips where the bus driver was asked to quickly stop the bus and pull over as one or more students dashed off the bus, frantically searching for a restroom! The shigella outbreak actually turned into a blessing because it brought our group closer together as we cared for one annother during this time.

We washed our clothes in buckets and hung them out to dry on clotheslines on the outdoor deck. We shared a large bathroom at the end of the hall–one for the women and one for the men. The toilet paper was a thick gray paper with a rough texture. Using this was especially challenging during the shigella outbreak!

There was a smaller building on the grounds where we could buy snacks. Egosi candy bars were a favorite!

Leaders and Instructors

Our two tour directors and their families who accompanied us were Keith and Vella Perkins and kids (Annette, Valene, Denise, and Michael) and Alfred (Bud) and Lorraine Pace and kids (Elise, Lawrence. Michelle, William, Andrew, and Wendell.) David Galbraith was our resident tour director and instructor for many of our classes and John Tvedtnes was another instructor for several of our classes. Shirley Rockwood accompanied our group as a member of the Administrative Faculty for the Jerusalem Center and Kirk and Linda Anderson were our newlywed dorm parents. Teddy Kollek was the mayor of Jerusalem and Menachem Begin was the prime minister of Israel.

Sinai Peninsula

On July 29, 1979, we embarked on a 5-day field trip to the Sinai Peninsula, stopping on the way at the southern Israel port city of Eilat, located on the Red Sea. This trip offered a variety of great activities: snorkeling in the Red Sea, sleeping on the sand dunes under the stars, visiting a Bedouin Camp where we rode camels, saw Bedouin tents, visited with the Bedouin families while eating fresh baked bread. At Ras Mohammad we enjoyed snorkeling and some in our group were able to scuba dive in the deep blue waters of the Red Sea.

On the night of August 2nd, we retired under the stars at the base of Mt. Sinai, soon to be awakened at 1:00 a.m., to begin our hike up Mt. Sinai where we would summit before daylight. The sunrise was breathtaking and a perfect lead-in to a spirit-filled testimony meeting prior to our descent to the hot desert floor. The last night of our venture, August 3, found us sleeping on the shores of the Red Sea.

Galilee and Kibbutz Degania

We traveled to Galilee on October 15, 1979, making memorable stops in ancient Samaria and beautiful Nazareth before arriving at Degania, Israel’s first kibbutz. Degania is situated at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee near the headwaters of the Jordan River. During our 3-day stay we worked daily in the banana fields, rising in the 5 a.m. pre-dawn darkness, quickly dressing in the well-worn “banana apparel” provided by the kibbutz (t-shirt, banana stained shorts often held up by a rope belt, and ill-fitting sandals). On our way by 5:30 a.m. we piled onto a trailer pulled by a large tractor and were delivered to the banana fields where some spent long hours bagging bananas and others placed long poles under drooping branches to support the heavy banana bunches. Work ended at noon providing time to rest, fish and swim in the Sea of Galilee and Jordan River, and explore the local community.

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