Wind, storm, rain, and hurricane were not in my dictionary until I moved to the United States of America. I didn’t know the meaning of hurricane until August 29, 2005. I am originally from Egypt  and I moved to New Orleans just a year before Katrina hit. It was such a scary moment for me and my family. Me and my family weren’t planning on evacuating until we saw on the news that it was a mandatory evacuation. We packed our stuff and left before the hurricane hit by a couple of hours; on our way to Panama City, Florida thinking that we will be back home in a couple of days. It took us about ten hours to get to Panama City. We got to our condo and we were twenty-two people with two grandmas in a two bedroom condo. We were a lot of people in one condo but one good thing about it was that we were all scared about our houses and our properties so we all stand up together and pray that God may protect our houses. Unfortunately we stayed in Florida about two months until they let us back in. We were thankful that we got back and we found little damage to our houses and our properties.

So far I enjoyed the class, I am excited about the material that we will cover later on in the semester. My expectations in this class is that it might help me get closer to God because of the readings that we will do later on in the bible. I am also looking forward to know more new people. I am excited about learning new stories in the bible and learning more about my religion, Christian. I took this course because it is a requirement, and also because I wanted to learn more about the bible and about my religion and just to see what other people who are not Christian think about Christianity and the bible.

I think of the bible that it is a book that every Christian should carry along with them, it is a book that would lead you to a lot of things in your life and help you with a lot of decisions that you want to make throught your life. I think that Biblical Studies are very important to every Christian because it could help them understand more about the bible and it makes them grow in their faith and get closer to God. I have a big background about the bible since I was born from a Coptic Orthodox family where the bible is very important to us.

In the future, I would like to be a Pharmacist as my professional vocation. I think that this class have something to do with my professional vocation, because as Pharmacists we should know other people’s religion, and that’s for those who are not Christians. And also because it might help those who are Christians because when I become a Pharmacist I am going to face some problems that will make me ask God for his help. I think I can definitely commit to all those course commitments that this class require.  

586 BCE is an important event in the bible because during that period of time Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians and that was when the kingdom of Judah ended; and the Temple of Jerusalem was also destroyed and also Nubuchadnezzar appoints Gedaliah Governor of Judah. In the book of Lamentations of Jeremiah, the Lord is mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem. In Lamentations chapter one, it talks about Jerusalem’s Plight and how the prophet and the people weep over Jerusalem’s destruction. In chapter two of The Lamentations of Jeremiah it talks about God’s judgement upon his people. In that chapter it connects with reality, we realize that it was the Lord, Himself, who brought the destruction. It describes what the Lord has done to the city. In chapter three, it talks about Jeremiah’s grief that is comforted by the hope of God’s mercy. The author of the book sinks in despair and depression until he says in verse 3:18 “So I say, ‘My strength has perished, and so has my hope from the Lord.’” In chapter four of the book, it talks about how Judah became like “tarnished gold” because of his many sins. It also contains words of confession and hope. In the fifth and the last chapter of Lamentations, it talks about Jeremiah’s prayer for mercy upon Jerusalem. It mentions that the nation finally asked the Lord to turn his face to them and see their condition.

Some of the specific horrific scenes that were described in Lamentations and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, is when in Lamentations when Jerusalem was not doing so well and wasn’t praying to God and then it was destroyed and so was the Temple of Jerusalem. But when they finally realized that what they did was wrong, they asked God to look back at them. Same thing with the aftermath of New Orleans, something was not right that was going on in New Orleans that might have caused that bad of a hurricane to New Orleans, and I am sure at that time everyone was praying for New Orleans to get back with it’s people and it finally did.

The Merneptah Stele is an inscription that was written by the Ancient Egyptian King Merneptah. I think the Merneptah Stele pretains to this course because it is the first object other than the bible that mentioned Israel. And that is why it is called Israel Stele.

The point of showing the Babe Ruth movie clips, to show the differences that was in the 1948 and 1992. How doctors used to come to the patients in their houses to help them, but in 1992 the patients themselves had to go to the hospital to get help. It also showed the difference of the cameras that they were using in the two time period; how in the 1948 it was in black and white, but in 1992 it was in colors.

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