I had several friends who attended the Jerusalem Center and they all described how magnificent the center was, but I had my college courses planned out and there was no time for me to attend. I was working alone one day in the early summer of 2010 and was listening to some quiet spiritual music when suddenly I heard a voice clearly and distinctly say “You need to go to the Jerusalem Center.”
I immediately paused and looked around because the voice was so distinct and clear that I thought somebody had come in where I was working but I was confused why they would say something like that. After looking around and verifying that I was still alone, I decided to keep working. The voice came again clearly and with stronger emphasis on the same message “You need to go to the Jerusalem Center.” This time I was alert and recognized that this was a prompting from the Holy Ghost and the fact that it came again and stronger than before as I was listening made me realize that this was very important since I didn’t receive promptings like that very frequently. I put in my Jerusalem center application the next day and was excited to learn that I had been accepted and would be heading to Jerusalem in January of the following year.
The autumn leading up to going to Jerusalem was one of the worst seasons of my life. My now wife left me to go on a mission in October. My next girlfriend dumped me right before Christmas because I was going to Jerusalem and my parents were going through an ugly divorce. I considered not attending the Jerusalem Center because I was so discouraged. The night before we were supposed to head to the airport and leave for Jerusalem, I called my dad and told him I wasn’t going and that I was too depressed and unhappy to go to the other side of the world for a reason I didn’t understand. I didn’t get a positive response like I had hoped for so I turned to my Heavenly Father for comfort and guidance.
The still small voice came again with a quiet and simple message of “Go.” It wasn’t a command and it wasn’t a condemnation. It was both an encouragement and a promise that it would be worth it. I wasn’t entirely convinced but I went home and packed my things and the next morning hopped a ride to the airport by myself and slipped quietly onto the airplane. Looking back, this was a recurring theme that kept happening and it was to trust Heavenly Father. Our journey through Egypt and our subsequent Exodus would permanently cement that testimony in me for the rest of my life.
My first few weeks in the Holy Land were spectacular and immediately after we arrived, I knew I had made the right choice to get on that airplane and let go of all the things I couldn’t control. We saw the wonders of Jerusalem and being instructed in the scriptures on a daily basis was manna to my soul that was desperate for hope and happiness. Being able to travel to so many different biblical sites and watch the scriptures come to life was incredible. We were scheduled to head to Egypt after only a few weeks, which was very exciting and I couldn’t wait to explore the wonders of the ancient world. We heard some rumblings about the unrest in Egypt but our excitement couldn’t be dampened. We left for Egypt and drove out of Jerusalem on what would become an extraordinary and unique testimony building experience.
We crossed into Egypt and made our trek across the Sinai peninsula and it seemed like the closer we got, the unrest only continued to increase. I noticed that our professors were constantly checking their phones for news and were calling Ehran to get updates and verify all of our plans and reservations. I remember Brother Chadwick being the fearless leader saying we were going to do anything and everything we had planned to until something forced us not to. I’m sure many of you can imagine him leading us on our adventures with his Indiana Jones hat and a coke in his back pocket. We explored Cairo and the great pyramids, and then flew down to Luxor for a few days where we experienced so many incredible things that Egypt has to offer. I had the best birthday of my life in Egypt that year. We explored the Valley of the Kings, rode camels, and sailed back up the Nile river to enjoy a beautiful sunset at our hotel. It was truly incredible and I can still remember in exquisite detail all the amazing things we saw and felt on those adventures.
Sadly the political situation in Egypt really went downhill while we were in southern Egypt as we were preparing to return to Cairo. We took the overnight train from Luxor back up along the Nile river and into Cairo where we made it safely to the appropriately named Oasis Hotel. Overnight, Egypt had devolved into open revolt and people were protesting in the streets and demanding change. The Egyptian military was deployed, a curfew was set, and martial law was declared. Our professors were communicating with Ehran, but it was plain to see that our planned activities like visiting the Egyptian museum were now in jeopardy.
We watched the news all day on Friday while we hung out at the Oasis and saw that societal structures were breaking down and we were squarely in the middle of the chaos. Tanks were deployed into the streets and gunshots rang out all around us. We stayed in the hotel as the civil unrest escalated rapidly into what felt like civil war. In the midst of all these very concerning events, we stayed put and it felt to me that we were being protected by spiritual walls unseen by physical eyes. I couldn’t see what exactly was protecting us, but I could feel divine power coming down from heaven to shield us from the chaos and perils. We were surrounded on all sides by destruction, but I felt a spiritual confirmation that no power of earth or hell could touch us where we were. One of our local Egyptian guides left the hotel during the night to go and try to stop looters from ransacking one of the museums and he was shot in the leg twice. He made it back to us in the hotel and we were blessed to have both Dr. Jacksons with us and they took excellent care of him. This reinforced to me that we were protected where we were and shouldn’t go anywhere without spiritual guidance.
We had a short but powerful sacrament service in the hotel on Friday evening and we knew it was time for us to leave. The dangers around us were multiplying and we needed to escape the violence and destruction happening throughout Egypt. We packed up and boarded our buses early Saturday morning. Brother Chadwick had his camera out and was snapping photos of everything going on around us as we drove. We looked out the windows to see everything that had taken place up to that point. The destruction was everywhere and smoke hung heavy in the air.
We drove out of Cairo with smoke billowing and fires burning everywhere we looked. There were smoldering cars beside the highways that had been destroyed and the streets were empty when there should have been bustling routine traffic. As we drove east, we saw more pillars of black smoke awaiting us in the distance. The day before we left, there were reports of intense fighting east of Cairo and around the Suez Canal, but as we passed, everything was quiet and we encountered no resistance or obstacles. It was as if the fighting dissipated before us as we traveled and moved around us like water flowing around a boulder in a river.
We pressed on and when we reached the Suez Canal, Brother Chadwick stood up on our bus and gave us a powerful impromptu testimony and lesson. He told us that most Jerusalem center groups who visit Egypt experience a symbolic exodus to see what it was like when the children of Israel were led out of Egypt by Moses. Our group was experiencing a literal and miraculous exodus as we left death and destruction behind us while we journeyed to the Holy Land like the twelve tribes long ago. The Lord had parted the violence and destruction before us like he had parted the Red Sea for Moses and the Israelites. I remember that day with perfect clarity and detail as I felt the Holy Ghost bear a powerful witness that what Brother Chadwick said was true. That we were blessed to have such a miraculous deliverance from a civil war, while so many people did not survive or would suffer greatly during the following years of upheaval and trouble.
Our journey wasn’t over and there were many reports of terrorism and fighting going on throughout the Sinai peninsula. We called and consulted with Ehran many times about whether we should attempt the traditional climbing of Mt. Sinai. We ultimately decided to move forward with our original plan and trust that we would be protected as we had been up to that point in our journey. We checked into St. Catherine’s Monastery and had a wonderful stay there. We woke up in the middle of the night and made the short journey over to the base of Mt. Sinai where we started our climb. We hiked for several hours through the dark and I went ahead and left the main group to climb faster so I could reach the summit as quickly as I could. A desire burned in me to get to the top and drove me to climb as fast as I could through the dark night.
I reached the peak of Mt. Sinai and stood alone under the vast expanse of stars in the cloudless sky and thought about how Moses had escaped danger in Egypt, made a similar trek through the desert, and scaled a mountain to communicate with the Lord. It was below freezing temperatures and the wind howled, but I felt a strong surge of gratitude and warmth for the way we had been delivered from the many pitfalls that had been all around us. I knelt down and offered a prayer of thanks and gratitude to our Heavenly Father for the many blessings we had been given, for the protection we had received, and for the testimony building experiences we had been provided. There was no doubt to me that day or today that we were delivered by the hand of the Lord and that he had been watching over us and guiding every step of our journey.
Jared August, Winter 2011
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