Week 4 - Wilderness

I had something else in mind this week, but... everything changed this morning.

I taught a class in Elyiahu's escape to the wilderness.

He then went a day's journey into the wilderness; he went and sat under a solitary retem tree, and requested for his soul to die. He lay down and slept under a solitary retem tree; and behold! — an angel was touching him and said to him, "Get up and eat!" (1 Kings 19:4-5)

In my lesson plan, I wanted to show this tree to the students and explain to them about the meaning of wilderness in the Bible.

BUT the projector in this class wasn't working...

A Rotem tree in the Negev desert

A common tree in this desert climate is the broom (Hebrew: rotem). It has adapted to the lack to water with deep roots. It performs photosynthesis using long stems rather than leaves. This allows it to conserve water. Leaves have a large surface area from which a great deal of water evaporates. Trees in this hot dry climate do not have the luxury of "spreading their wings" with excessive leaves. 

How I solved my big problem? I took my phone, and sent this picture to the students by whatsapp! ;-)

PS If you like to use Photoshop, there is an interesting way to do it online with Pixlr Editor!