Day 6 - Saturday - Sabbath - Shabbat

From sundown on Friday to sundown Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath or as they call it Shabbat.  For Religious Jews, it is a day of rest and worship.  For secular Jews, it is their only weekend day.  It simplified our travel because there were fewer people one on the road.  Today we packed up from our hotel in Tiberias and headed to our new hotel in Jerusalem.  We made a number of stops along the way.

This is our guide, Tamar

First, we traveled south along the Jordan River and along the border between Israel and the country of Jordan.  Our guide, Tamar gave us a history lesson about Israel and its neighbors as we rode in the bus.  We got our first view of Jerusalem and it was amazing to look at.  Jerusalem came into view and we were awestruck that I didn't get any pictures as we drove in.  Our first stop was the Shepherd's field.  We had to crossover into Palestine because even though Bethlehem is very close to Jerusalem, Bethlehem is controlled by Palestine.  Shepherd's Field is believed to be where the shepherds were when the angels appeared to them and told them about Jesus' birth.  It is a cave that has been turned into a church.

Shepherd Field cave

Next, we traveled on to Bethlehem and the Nativity Church.  This experience was ruined because of a long wait and too many people trying to get to a single opening to see where they believe that Jesus was born.  The location of the birth was marked by a star on the floor.  Then you turn around and see where the manger was that held baby Jesus.

Star where Jesus was born.  Maybe.

  

Grate and lights to memorialize where they believe the manger was located.

While we in Bethlehem we went to a store that sold Christian carvings made from olive wood.  We were given a tour of their workshop.  The machine below is a router that can rough carve 10 pieces of wood.  The finer carving still had to be done by a person.  The best work was done by hand but could take up to the order of months.  The price of the final product  showed how much time it took.  One nativity scene in the store cost $28,000 but they would ship it for free.

  

Guide showing us the router.

We then returned to Jerusalem.  One important point was Tamar is an Israeli Jew and was not allowed to cross over into Palestine.  We had dropped her off and then picked her up on our way back into Jerusalem.  We had a Palestinian guide while we were at the Shepherd's Field and Bethlehem.  In Jerusalem, we went to the Zion's gate, the Upper Room, David's tomb or memorial (no pictures) and Caiaphas' home.  Below are pictures.  Caiaphas' home is where they brought Jesus after He was arrested.  Before His crucifixion, he was held in the pit in the basement of Caiaphas' home.

Checkpoint getting back into Jerusalem from Bethlehem

Zion Gate complete with bullet holes in the walls.

Pit at the bottom of Caiaphas' home where Jesus was kept.

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Day 5 - Friday

Today was an educational day.  Our guide, Tamara taught us as we headed north on the bus from Tiberius to Tel Dan.  The name, Dan dates back to the 12 tribes of Israel.  There numerous old ruins there.  These included an altar built by King Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:25-30).  He was one of the sons of King Solomon.  There was a Canaanite gate dating back to the year about 1500 BC.  This area is also known because it is one of the sources of the Jordan River.  To an Israeli person, the sounds of the water rushing in Tel Dan is a wonderful sound because it means that a large amount of water is being fed into the Jordan. 

This is a picture of the river rushing toward the Jordan river.

This is a picture of the Canaanite gate from about 1500BC.  A replica of the gate is gray in the front.  The gate in the back (red/orange) is the remaining portion of the gate preserved when it was covered by sand.

The picture above is from Caesarea Philippi.  It was originally used to worship the Roman god, Pan.  He was an idol, his body looked half man and half goat.  This area was believed to be the gates of Hades.  It is also believed by most theologians but not our guide to be where Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was.  Peter answered, "the Son of God".  Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the Gates of Hades will not stand against it."

This was the most wonderful and amazing part of the trip so far.  We were able to baptize most of our group.  One for the first time but the others rededicated their lives to Christ.  This is Larry and I baptizing Terry.

It was an amazing day!

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 

Day 3

Today we started the day with a buffet, freshly made omelet, fruit, croissants, chocolate milk and miscellaneous salads.  For those of you that know me well, I was exaggerating about the fruit and the salads but they were available.  Then we said goodbye to Netanya and headed for Caesarea by the Sea.  This was a port city built by Herod for the Romans.  He wanted to empress the Romans and give them access to Israel.   There was no evidence that Jesus ever went there because it was a Gentile city.  It is recorded in Acts 10 that Peter was told by God to go there.  In a vision, Peter was told by God that the gospel message was meant for Gentiles too.  Praise God.  Throughout the years, possession of the port city changed hands numerous times.  Today the remains of Herod’s original palace are visible, including his swimming pool.  The first two pictures shows the remains of Herod’s palace and his swimming pool.  There is a well preserved Roman theater.  The third picture is the theater.  Even a hippodrome has been dug up.  If yourself asking “hippodrome what’s a hippodrome.  If you have ever watched the movie “Ben Hur” you have seen a hippodrome.  The arena where the chariot races take place is the hippodrome.  The fourth picture is the remains of the hippodrome. 

Before leaving Caesarea by the Sea, we took a pitstop.  One important thing that this blogger did not make sure of was which picture is the correct picture for his gender.  He chose the wrong one.  You have the benefit of a direct comparison and he did not.

Then we headed to Megiddo.  If you have studied Revelation then you will realize that this area is where the Battle of Armageddon will be fought.  Napoleon said of the Jezreel Valley or Meggido that this valley was large enough to hold all of the armies of the world.  It was amazing.  The pictures do not do it justice.  I took this one in panorama mode. 

At the top of the hill was access to a spring at the bottom of the hill.  An access tunnel was hand dug with chisels.  The tunnel was 36 meters deep.  I can't imagine.  We went down steps to get to the spring.  The tunnel was cool which gave us a break from the hot temperatures outside.  Pictures to follow.

  

Day 1 and 2.  This has been a long day(s).  Getting on a plane and being transported from Newark, NJ to Tel Aviv, Israel, is not as easy as it sounds.  As we were finding our seats on the Boeing 777 we passed through “business” class.  The almost cubicle look of the business class seats left us a bit jealous.  Spending a little more than 10 hours in an airplane seat left us a bit underwhelmed.  It wasn’t that the seats were completely uncomfortable, it is just sitting anywhere for 10 hours is difficult.  If that isn’t enough, we crossed 7 timezones.  My watch needed to be changed from 9 am to 4 pm.  The 7 hours are gone until we try to recover them on our return trip.

It all started with our band of 14 arriving at the Columbus airport.  Other than arriving at 4:30 pm for a 6:46 pm departure, our trip started uneventfully.  When we arrived in Newark, we headed for our gate.  When we arrived at our gate, we found that it was closed.  Turns out, they open the small gate just prior to boarding.  It was strange there was an entrance and an exit to this gate.  The exit was a significant walk to get to the entrance.  Our group of 14 became 16 when we ran into the Wig’s.  The Wig’s were a couple from Akron who we had come to our house to meet our group during one of our information meetings.  We finally were told we needed to be at the entrance.  We found a line forming at the entrance.  Behind us in line was a group wearing purple T-shirts with an “Israel 2018”.  I discovered that they were the group of 8 joining us from Muncie, IN.  Now we had joined up with 24 of the 31.

Turns out, we had to pass through a strange security specific to our gate.  The TSA people allowed about 10 people to pass through the entrance.  We were told to place our backpacks, carry-ons and purses on a table.  The men were “wanded” by a couple of male TSA agents and likewise the women were “wanded” by a couple of female TSA agents.  Another TSA agent “wanded” our carry-ons.  This wand was check from explosive residues.  None was found so they let us go to the next step.  The 777 is a large plane and 354 people were waiting to board.  We were separated into boarding groups and stood around until we were allowed to board.  Terry took advantage of this time to meet four more of our group of 28 out of 31.  The final 3 of your merry band would join up with at the hotel in Netanya.

On the drive from the Tel Aviv we got to meet our guide and driver for the week.  Driving here is a bit concerning.  At this point, it is more concerning than any bombing.  I was sitting in the front seat behind the driver and much of the time I was riding down the center line of the freeway.  It wasn’t that bad but the motorcyclists were like we had seen in Europe.  I caused me to ask our guide if any formal training was necessary to get a motorcycle driver’s license.  She said that training was necessary to obtain a motorcycle license but that the automobile drivers weren’t much better.

After a dinner, a planning meeting, a walk on the beach and finally a shower, we were ready for bed.  Below are a few pictures of the city of Tel Aviv and a view of the beach in Netanya.

Traveling to Israel

Flight leaves later today.  More soon.