Day 4

After one of the hottest May’s in history, we thought that we were ready for hot days in Israel.  Today we found out that we were wrong.  It reached 43 degrees Celsius which is 109 degrees Fahrenheit.  We are in the city of Tiberias which is on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  We are sitting more than 600 feet below sea level.  This area is in a huge trough and so the temperatures can get very hot.  The bus driver was making a killing.  He had bought bottled water that he would store in a fridge on the bus.  Ice cold water for one US dollar was available all the time.  With the horrible heat, we had to keep hydrated.  

In spite of the heat, today was a full day.  We started the day at 8 am (after a big breakfast at the buffet) with a boat excursion of the Sea of Galilee.

  

This was Terry’s favorite and most moving thing yet.  Imagine, there we were on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus had walked on the water.  It was the region where He had called His disciples.  The Sea of Galilee was one of the last places that He had see these disciples before ascending into Heaven on a cloud.  He served them fish from this save sea.  It was amazing!!  At lunch we ate a whole fish just as the disciple Peter ate from this sea.  It was even called “Peter’s Fish”.

Next, we visited The Church of Peter Primacy.  Just so you know, there are churches built throughout the ages where significant Biblical things happened.  This church building was built to commemorate Jesus’ reconciling with Peter before He ascended into heaven.  Peter had denied Jesus three times so Jesus asked Peter three times “Peter, do you love me?”  During our trip, I looked at the building as a memorial and thought about what had happened outside the building.  Many of us spent time out by the shore of the Sea of Galilee and thought about what had occurred here.

On the Shore where Jesus served fish to His disciples after His Resurrection

Peter's fish that I ate for lunch.

From this church building we traveled a few miles to Capernaum.  This town was the center of Jesus ministry.  In Matthew, Capernaum is referred to as “His own city”.  Jesus would have taught in this synagogue. He also cursed this city and it was later destroyed and never rebuilt.  Our group had a very spiritual time here.  We then traveled to the Church of the Multiplication which commemorated the feeding of the 5000 (Luke 9:10-17).  Next was the Mount of the Beatitudes.  It was easy to see why our Lord would have given the Sermon on the Mount here.  It was a beautiful place.  Yes, there was a church built at this spot.

 Mount of Beatitudes

The next stop was at Magdala.  This site should sound familiar.  It was the hometown of Mary Magdalene.  At this site, we were able to see the ruins from the town at the time Jesus.  Jesus could have read and taught in this synagogue.  It had been buried after the final Roman invasion of 70AD.  It was amazing to look at their findings from about 2000 years ago.  We had a local guide that knew so much about this site.  She was Irish and a Christian.  She was a breath of fresh air on such a hot day.  Many of our group felt that this was the best stop up to that point. 

Magdala Synagogue

The final stop for the day was at the Valley of the Doves.  This was as spiritual as visiting the church buildings.  This valley had Mount Arbel on one side.  The valley would have been used as a pass by travelers on foot as they traveled from Cana to Nazareth.  It didn’t hurt that there was a farm on the other side.  We interrupted a herd of goats as we were walking back.  It was easier to see Jesus in this place than many of the sites that we had visited today.  We finished the day in the pool and dinner at the buffet, of course.

Valley of the Doves