Galilee Pictures 2

At Belvoir



At Beit Shean



Lauren and I at the Jordan River

Galilee Pictures

Michelle, Emily and I at the Lebanese border with Mount Hermon in the background



In a first century Tomb



Sunset from the top of ancient Roman aqueducts in Cesarea

Galilee Trip

Well, I got an email from my aunt claiming that I never update my blog, so this is to prove her wrong ;)

We spent 8 days in Galilee from October 29th to November 5th. On the first day we left early in the morning and went to Aphek, where Paul was taken on the way to Cesarea to stand trial. We then went to the Ha'aretz Museum. It was really cool to see an amazing collection of ancient coins and glass as well as a section that showed us how things were made in ancient times. We then went to Cesarea on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. It was amazingly beautiful. I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in my life. That night we stayed near Dor on the Mediterranean Coast. The next day we went up onto Mount Carmel where we stopped at the place where Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal. We also did an overview of the Jezreel Valley. From there we went down into the Jezreel Valley and went to Megiddo. We also went to En Harod where Gideon chose his 300 men to defeat the Arameans (I believe it was the Arameans). The last stop of the day was Nazareth. It was amazing to see the place that Jesus grew up. While we were there we went to Nazareth Village where we were able to see how things would have been in the time of Christ. We then went to En Gedi where we stayed for the rest of our time in Galilee. The next day we went up to the border between Israel and Lebanon, where some of the war this summer was fought. We also went to ancient Dan where Jeroboam set up one of his rival worship centers to Jerusalem and where he put up one of the golden calves. We then went to the border with Syria where we could see the Damascus road at about the place where Paul had his conversion experience. The next day we went around the sea of Galilee. We went to Bethsaida, Capernaum, Chorazin and the Mt. of Beatitudes. Going to the place where Jesus gave the sermon on the Mount brought the sermon alive to me. While we were there we read most of the sermon. It was powerful and moving. We then went to the church of St. Peter's primacy, which is at the spot where Peter confessed Christ as Lord. We then drove to the top of Mt. Arbel where we did an overview of the life of Christ. From there we hiked down the mountain. Once we got past the point where we had to climb down ladders that were put into the rocks, a few of us decided that we were going to run the rest of the way down. It was a ton of fun, especially when it started to rain. When we got to the bottom we went and took a boat ride from Tiberas to the En Gev fish restaurant where most of us ordered St. Peter's fish, which is the kind of fish that Peter caught that had the Denarius in its mouth. It was probably the most ugly fish that I have seen, but it tasted good. In the middle of the boat ride over, we stopped the boat and Uncle Randy read us the accounts of Jesus walking on the water and also of Jesus calming the storm. It was an incredible experience to actually be on the sea of Galilee and be able to look out and see where these events occurred. On Thursday, I had the amazing priviledge of being baptized in the sea of Galilee. I was so excited to be able to finally proclaim my belief in Christ publicly. There were three of us that were baptized that morning. We then went on a hike through the Nahal Yehudiya. It was an amazing hike. At one point we stopped and got to jump off a 20 foot cliff into water. It was sooooo much fun. We had to climb down cliffs and then swim for a few hundred feet in a couple of places during the hike, it was freezing but completely worth it! Once we got back and got warmed up we had a half day field trip for my Modern Israel class. It was pretty cool, we got to go to different Kibbutzim that were part of the founding of the state of Israel. The next day Abby and I had a free day because the Regional Explorations class had an all day hike. So we were able to sleep in for a little bit. We then spent the rest of the morning playing with some of the professors children in the sea of Galilee. The second half of the day we layed in the sun and took naps and just relaxed, it was a great day. On Shabbat most of the IBEXers went and floated down the Jordan River for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun, but was also freezing. The rest of the day we just hung out with people and played games and such. Sunday we left En Gev and went to Belvoir, where there was a crusader castle. It was a lot of fun to climb all over the castle since a lot of it was still fairly intact. The last stop in the trip was Beit Shean. From there we drove back to the Moshav and back to classes the next day. The Galilee trip was a lot of fun. I learned so much about the life of Christ and it really helped me to understand the New Testament better. I praise the Lord for the opportunity to be here and to learn about the land of the Bible and the understanding that I have gained from being here. I also praise the Lord for the lessons that He has taught me while I have been here. We did many other things and went to many other places, but if I were to write them all this blog entry would be forever long. I will post again soon and tell everyone all about our amazing and crazy trip to Egypt. Thanks for sticking with me and reading my fragmented thoughts.