Today'sMeeting
President Don (H-III) called the meeting to order. Chuck Mooreled us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Rotary Grace was lead by Mark Werum.
Visiting Rotarians Angela Fairchild
Guests of Rotarians
Scott Johnston’s daughter, Jamie, and granddaughter were in attendance.
Announcements
Gary With announced that he has just gotten full time help for Marilyn, who is very ill. We all send our best wishes.
Board of Directors Meeting will be held on March 12 at Pres. D-H-III’s offices. Stiff fines and corporal punishment will be liberally administered upon those non-attending Directors. You know who you are.
Gary announced that April 24rd is the mystery golf trip, on a Wednesday, for $100. per duffer. Next week, signup sheets will be on the tables.
Kris Kristensen introduced Vanessa of the Yolo County Grand Jury & Esmerelda, YCGJ assistant. They announced that the YCGJ is recruiting folks to apply for the position of newly appointed members to the YC Grand Jury. One must be a citizen of the US, a resident of Yolo County, be at least 18 years old and know how to read and write English. All candidates must undergo background checks As a Grand Jury member you can expect to work about 20 hours a month. 300 random applicants are invited and others are encouraged to apply.
Mahlon Whittle announced that the Opus 1 wine tasting he is hosting has one or two openings, for all of you enologists, enofiles and just ordinary winos are encouraged to sign up soon while space is still available.
Birthdays
Gary Wegener was manufactured by his parents and imported from Detroit in 1948. He is celebrating his 65th birthday today.
Anniversaries
Pat Imbach was given an early warning for his anniversary next week.
Tom “Rocky” Schwarzgruber got lucky and married Gail 20 years ago.
Recognition
Marc Werum very capably handled recognition, but before he called for happy time, he first nailed Mark Faye, who had gotten a call on his cell phone during the meeting. Mark explained that it was something about a call from Kauai, Hawaii and the installation of their new Plantation water system. Mark paid for being back here and that he misses Kauai. He was able to burn the farm’s last rice field. And today Mark begins his 55thyear as member of our Rotary Club. He has been one of the great members of our club and is still one of the most enthusiastic Rotarians I know.
Other happy time: Clancy Dupong has a new HondaCRV. Bob Moeller bragged about his grandson shooting a 2 under par in a golf tournament played in Georgia. Bob Nakken & Kevin Haarberg had a nice Rotary dinner, which was hosted by Rotary Sunrise member Tom Galliachi. And several other Rotarians and spouses attended but I can only type so fast and missed all the names. The highlight of the evening was when Kevin took Bob to Kenny’s bar, where native Woodlander Bob had never been before. Kris Kristensen returned from a trip to Texas,where he attended the Houston Rodeo, America’s largest, went a wonderful tour of Galveston. Shirley Gardner and Becky Martin were ina bidding war on Schwarzgruber’s Hawaii Condo. Shirley won, but later bailed due to Frank falling down, so Becky was able to step in a get the condo. Frank quickly recovered from his fall upon learning that he and Shirley no longer had to pay for the condo. Sean Kolb moved honey bees on Sunday from Dunnigan to Capay and only suffered 3 bee stings. Mahlon whittle was happy, period! Pam Vagas announced an upcoming Christian missionary trip to the Philippines for 3 weeks with 15 other missionary folk. Sounds like an ideal future Rotary Program, Pam (hint, hint).
Then Mark Werum switched to a quiz on flags from some of his and Sherrie’s travels.
Karl Diekman, a world traveler, correctly guessedthe US flag. He has been to every state in our wonderful country. Steve Venables guessed wrong on the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Seth Wurzel, changing topics back, had some happy time, related to his daughter in law. His flag guess was incorrect. Gary Wirth was presented with the Israeli flag and guessed it correctly, cuz he has been to Israel. He said that Masad was the most interesting, which is also Marc Werum’s favorite place in Israel. Tom Schwarzgruber was presented with a Turkish flag. George Berretoni was there for a year in various places. So was this reporter, who saw the Whirling Dervishes in Konya. Turkey was a pretty primitive place back in the day. Peter Holmes was presented with a flag of Tunisia. Next Roy Holmes was called on with the flag of Croatia. Kevin Haarberg was tagged for $5 for prompting Roy. Kevin’s favorite place of all time was Kenya, Africa. Becky Martin has been to Croatia, and while taking a photograph fell down. Marc Werum loved Dubrovnik. Peter Faye has a book at home and guesses the flaghe was shown appears as a picture in his book, which was the flag of Spain. Bob Nakken has never been to Spain. Peter and Marilyn Faye have been to 17 Rotary International Conventions. During one trip to Milan, Italy and a visit to a small Rotary Club there, they saw that the club had 2banners from the Woodland Rotary. Small world. Gary Bunch was told that Mark Werum went to the R.I. convention in Canada. Gary had gone through there (Canada not the R.I. convention)on his way to Alaska. Next was Barbara Fleck with a flag from somewhere? She has only been to South America and Canada. David Conto paid $5 for a beast on a flag, which turned out to be from Wales and the beast is a Griffin. David Janes did not know that. George Berretoni could not guess a flag from somewhere in Italy. Imagine that.
Whew! Good job Marc.
Rags to Riches
Gary Wegener, birthday boy, won a free lunch.
Today’s Program
Kris Kristensen introducedDr Carl Morgan as our program presenter.
Dr. Morgan is Pastor of Woodland United Fellowship Church and has served as a Senior Pastor in Woodland, CA for over 27 years. He has traveled and researched extensively in Greece, Israel, Turkey, and Jordan since 1973, as well as leading biblical study tours and participating in archaeological excavations on over 40 occasions. He has served annually as a Field Supervisor for the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project in Jordan since 2005.
Dr. Morgan began the Woodland Museum of Biblical Archaeology in 2007, and currently serves as its Director and Curator. His love for and understanding of the Bible, historical geography, and biblical archaeology is demonstrated in his teaching, weekly sermons at his church, and presentations in other churches and gatherings. Dr. Morgan continues to encourage church members and others to participate as volunteers on the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project and to emphasize the importance of archaeology in the study of the Bible.
Who would have known that Woodland is home to the Museum of Biblical Archeology, which is a rare gem and hidden from many. Though small it has over 400 pieces. Some are 4000 years old, through more recent millennia. It has free admission since it opened 4 years ago.
The compact museum is set up with several display cases. One can touch the replicas but not the original artifacts. There are many vases & vessels from the time of Moses, battle implements from the Abraham and Moses eras, and bronze implements are also included. There are some Egyptian pieces from the time of Joseph, including a signet ring like the one Joseph had been given bythe Pharaoh. Most interesting are cuneiform tablets which are unreadable by most folks. They are made of soft clay for wedging and wrapped in wet clay for protection. Rolled out the image from the cuneiform is a collection of horses and men. The message is that, “I give acceptable things to the gods. My name is (untranslatable).”
This is a very well displayed and interesting Biblical Museum collection. Also includedfrom the time of Jesus, are several items of Roman glass. Little vessels are displayed which were used in funerals to collect the tears of the mourners. Many of the artifacts are retired museum pieces from other museums. You cannot receive anything from many Middle Eastern countries today, but you can get some pieces from Israel, but they must have been discovered before the 1970s or so. The museum has some jewelry and makeup items. Most recently the museum acquired a Jewish ossuary, from 30 BC to 70 AD, which is a bone box. Now these are a national treasure in Israel. This is for a child’s bones, so it is small. Many coins of the era are displayed. There is even a model archeological dig, designed after one Dr. Carl Morgan had participated in.
Mission statement of the museum is to preserve pieces of antiquityfrom the land of the bible; to promotethe understanding and teaching of biblical history; to demonstrate the historical and geographical authenticity of the bible; and to create a learning environment for understanding God’s redemption of the world through Jesus Christ.
Many religious folks of all denominations have visited the museum, including Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and other groups, as well as folks who are just interested in the history.
Nest Dr. Carl Morgan told us, and showed us photographs, of the location of Tall el Hamman, archeological dig site, which is in Jordan. Excavation started 10 years ago, on what is believed to be the biblical City of Sodom. It is at the North endof the Dead Sea, and the headwaters of the Jordan River. This is the location of major historical crossroads just Northeast ofJericho. Gomorrahis also located in the area. Carl is a trained archeologist, who has been to 3 archeological digs. He explained that you are not going to find signs that say this is Sodom orGomorrah, but there is much evidence to support that conclusion. The neighbors of the dig site are Bedouins, goats, camels and scorpions, which come in colors of gold, brown and black. Sometimes there areviper snakes. One just needs to be careful. The first square was excavated 8 years ago, which went down 13 feet to an Iron Age era. Bottom was middle bronze 2, with a gap of 500 to 700 years before being resettled. There was a terrible destruction as evidenced by a thick ash layer. This site is of a city of 65 acres. Jericho was 7 acres. Jerusalem was about 12 acres, in the middle bronze period. The wall system is estimated to be 200 million mud bricks, which as constructed contained 15 foot walls and gateways into the city. Reconstruction drawings bring the remnants to life. Dr. Carl Morgan excavated a temple last year, which is the largest Canaanite temple anywhere. The footings supported 3 stories. Then farmers had tilled it over and planted bananas, so excavation needed to be redone.
It took 4 years of applying to get a permit for the dig. It is good for 16 years. Supposed to be 50-50 arrangement with the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, but all costs are being paid by Church. The land at the dig site is owned by local Muslim farmers, who are all very hospitable.
The massive destruction evidenced by the thick ash layer resembles a nuclear blast, but the bible says that God rained down fire and brimstone.
This was a very interesting program on biblical archeology.
Upcoming Programs
David Janes announced that next week’s program will feature Gerhardt Bauer (sp?), the acclaimed Stem Cell Researcher from Austria, who will talk about something like replacing body parts with newly grown ones from stem cells. Anyone in need of replacement body parts might want to attend and place their order.