November 16, 2006

• Day 3 in Israel - More of Galilee & Golan Heights

   It's been another exciting and long day in Israel.  We started today off with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.  While we were on the boat we recorded a video for Sunday's announcements at Word of Life Church...You'll have to watch for us Sunday morning!!  The boat ride is one of my favorite parts about our time in Galilee.  You can close your eyes and listen to the waves beating against the boat and just imagine you're there with Jesus and the disciples!  It's amazing!! PBZ spoke from Matt 8:18-27 and Matt 14:1-33...about how he calmed the storm!

   

  Eric, Lori & Theresa on the boat on the Sea of Galilee

  VIDEO - NEW!!

   

  Chris singing while using his new mic stand, Philip 

   

  The Colonel & his wife

  

  The Steeve family - Doug, Colton & Lisa

  

  Aaron Z setting up to film the WOLC announcement for Sunday (PBZ's back)

  After the boat ride we stopped at a Kibbutz and saw a 2,000 year old boat called "The Jesus Boat".  It's a fasinating story about how 2 Galilean fisherman always say that some day the Sea of Galilee was going to give them a gift.  One day while walking on the shore when the sea was low, they came across some old nails...they then saw a piece of wood and kept digging until they realized they had found an old boat that was encapsulated in the wet sand.  For more information you can go to The Jesus Boat.

  

  From there we traveled North up to Caesarea of Philipi.  We saw where the pagan temple and sacrifices took place there.  This is also where Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" and Peter answered that He was the Messiah.  See Matthew 16.

  

  

  Believe it or not...this is a 2 lane road!!!  And we're in a HUGE bus!

  From there we drove further North through the mountains of Golan Heights.  We saw Mt Hermon from a distance and learned on our drive about several of the wars over the last several decades.  The Northern part of Israel has has Lebannon to it's East and Syria to it's West.  We saw burnt trees left over from the last rocket attack this summer.  We drove by several tanks and a tank trench (see the picture below).  Don't worry...we didn't have any issues with safety as everything is fine now!!  It was very interesting to learn about the Israeli war history, military and their equipment, etc. 

  Tank trench is parallel with the road

  From there we drove to the Tel Dan, which is the oldest Tel in the country of Israel.  A Tel is a hill that is not really a true hill...but several layers of former civilizations (kinda like a layered cake).  In some areas they have found more 20 or so layers of different civilizations!!  Dan is the land that was given to the Tribe of Dan.  It's known for several things...it's where King Jeroboam wanted to change the direction of prayer (away from Jerusalem) and towards the North land of Dan where he built a 2nd golden calf.  In the building of the golden calf it was the men who gave their jewelry to form the calf.  It is for this reason that women are honored with a monthly holiday on the New Moon of each month.  On this day, the woman of the house doesn't have to cook, etc.  It's her day to be catered too.  It's kinda like having a Mother's day once a month!!  How bout that Mom's??

  

  The River of Dan                                                           Eric's One Man Island!

  At the Tel of Dan we saw a 3,000 year old wall - it's the ORIGINAL folks!!!!  And it's still standing!  We saw the 2 gates of Dan -- the first one, was the Israeli gate to the city of Dan.  We saw where the King & his advisors sat. 

   

  The Israeli gate...

  Where the King's throne sat Where the King's advisors sat

  The second gate we saw was the most amazing gate.  It's the Canaanites gate to the city of Dan...and the very same spot Abraham took his first steps into the land that God was calling him too.  The gate and the stones you see in this picture is 4,000 years old.  The most inner archway is made of blood bricks.  It's a very moving spot...it's the actual spot where Abraham walked!!  The Mega Faith man of the Bible!!

  

  The Ancient gate of Dan...where Abraham actually walked!!

  After eating schwarma (I think I spelled it wrong) and having ice cream for desert we headed back South to the Jordan River for a baptismal service.  Curt & I didn't get baptized again this year...although this year was very different from our "pull over to the side of the road, change on the bus, walk into the grimy river to get baptized" experience last year.  The baptizee's had white robes and got to change and shower in changing rooms!!  They also had nice ramps that let them down to the river.  It was very nice...but in some ways I like the way I was baptized a little better.  Kinda reminds me of how maybe John the Baptist would of done it!!  After the baptism service was over...Philip Z caught a fish with his hands!!  It was pretty cool!

  

   

  We ended our day back at the hotel with dinner...and then an after-hours tour of a diamond cutting/polishing museum and then got to "window shop" for some wacka-wacka diamonds and precious stones.  It was a little steep for our budget...so Curt & I and some others walked back to our hotel.

  Most of the stuff we saw today was new to both Curt & I.  We didn't get to go to Caesarea of Philipi, the Golan Heights, the Tel of Dan (to see the ancient gate) nor go to the diamond museum last year.  Well, and for what it matters, we didn't get to go to the fancy baptismal place either.  So it was a pretty exciting day.

  P.S.  I had a cool 1 minute video from our boat ride on the Sea of Galilee but the silly thing won't download.  Will keep trying!!

  • 5:08 pm
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