The Galilee Region

I am writing this at the end of day 3 and I am feeling completely wiped out. I hope I can remember everything — what an amazing day!

We all woke up again with a 6:00 am wake-up and went downstairs for a fabulous breakfast. Shortly thereafter we were boarding boats and sailing across the Sea of Galilee (which is actually a lake). It is approximately 8 miles across and 13 miles long. This was the scene for so many Bible realities; Jesus lived, traveled, and preached on the Sea of Galilee and its neighboring towns. The boat ride was awe-inspiring. Being at the place where Peter and Jesus walked on the water, where Jesus delivered the demoniac, and where He calmed the storm was pretty intense. Here’s some clips from the boat ride…

From there, we went to my personal favorite stop for the day, the Mount of Beatitudes. This is the place where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. I bought a $2 Coca-cola while we were there as today’s temp was over 100 degrees fahrenheit. Some traditions state that this is also the area where Jesus picked his 12 apostles. In the late 1930’s an amazing gray and white stone sanctuary was built on this mountaintop. It has eight octagonal walls that commemorate each of the beatitudes; each engraved with the first words of one of the verses. The place was absolutely beautiful in every sense of the word.

One of my favorite things parts of this trip has been Foursquare pastors in our group that share devotionals at the different points of scriptural reference. The pastor here — Ray is his first name, from North Virginia, if I’m remembering right — had the Sermon the Mount memorized and started reciting it. I about lost it; tears were running down before it was over. I could barely breathe — I was forgetting to… just being there was an experience. I still can’t really believe that I am really in Israel. I feel like I’m a first grader that is learning the alphabet all over again for the first time. Everywhere I go, scripture is coming alive in me. I’m almost tearing up now (smile). Here’s a pic of Pastor Ray right before he shared…

Pastor Ray was sharing about his last experience at the Mount a few years ago. He said that when he finished sharing, a shepherd and his goats came walking up the mountain, right next to their group. Whoa! Daniel, our tour guide, then said that many, many times when the story is shared about Peter’s denial of Christ that afterwards a rooster can be heard in the distance. He has experienced it, in his own words, “more often than not” whenever that story is read. Here video clips from the Mount of Beatitudes…

Tabgha, the place of Peter’s primacy, or where Jesus restored Peter after his denial, was the third stop of the day. Many believe that Jesus may have come here when looking for solitude, especially since it was close the the Galilee city of Capernaum. Two big events that happened here: the Miracle of the loaves and fishes and Peter’s restoration. This was another amazingly beautiful place… I’m learning that monks are really good caretakers and they are the ones that make all of these places (mostly owned by the Catholic church) look so incredible.

The priests had carved twelve rocks into the shape of hearts on the beach to represent the twelve apostles. I went into the waters of Galilee and waded around a bit. One very cool thing of note was that there was a “red coloring” of all the water that was next to the shore. Our guide told us that it was because of volcanic activity. It sure looks a lot like blood… Here’s some video…

As you can probably tell, this day was really packed with a lot of visits. Before lunch, we toured the ruins of Capernaum. Though Jesus grew up in Nazareth, he chose to move His teaching and healing ministry to the shores of Galilee, primarily in Capernaum. Jesus attended synagogue and performed many miracles here, such as the cure of the man possessed by an evil spirit, the cure of Peter’s mother-in-law, and taking the money for taxes from the mouth of a fish. He frequented the village so much that Matthew even calls it Jesus’ “own town.”

While we were visiting there we got to see where Peter lived and a magnificent synagogue where Jesus very likely preached. It was incredible to walk through the church and think about Jesus up in front sharing. See the ruins here…

We still had one other stop before lunch — we were kind of getting hungry, but it was all worth it. We went to a museum that was built to house the discovery of a “Jesus Boat” that was constructed around 40 B.C. and was probably in use into the 1st century A.D. We lucked out, as one of the original discovers of the boat was actually in the museum and shared his story with us personally. Afterwards, most of us did some shopping at the site’s store. I ended up getting stuff for my four girls, whom I miss very much, back home. I’m still looking for the right gift for my beloved Deanna, whom I miss even more.

Finally, we got to lunch… it was almost 2:00 pm! We had this for lunch…

Amazingly enough, I rather enjoyed it, even though in general I don’t like things that are too fishy. I also took a few quick shots outside of the restaurant, which was on the coastline of the Sea of Galilee…

To the top of Golan Heights, where one can see the whole Sea of Galilee in one glance, was our next quick stop. It was formed by volcanic activity and earthquakes (which come to the region about every 100 years). This place has it all, natural beauty, the sources of the Jordan River, and the beginning of biblical history. It was here that Abraham first crossed into the Promised Land.

All along the mountainous region to the east were signs posted of danger as live mines are still planted all up and down the terrain. We descended Golan heights and drove down along the Jordanian border, which is lined with an electronic fence and monitored 24/7. Here’s video of Golan Heights and the Jordanian border…

As we kept on following the highways around the Sea of Galilee, we came to the Jordan River, where we got out and had a bunch of our group get re-baptized — and a couple, baptized for the first time. Since I have already been baptized a couple of times as an adult, I opted out, and just played, splashed around, and celebrated with the others getting baptized in the Jordan instead. Very moving experience. Lots of tears of joy…

By the time evening dinner came around and we got back to our hotel in Tiberias, I was dead tired. I showered and ate supper, caught about fifteen minutes of a concert that an Israeli Christian artist was putting on for us downstairs, went up the my room and attempted to blog about the days activities… but fell asleep way before I even got close to finishing. I am actually typing most of this day’s post from the next evening in the Jerusalem hotel. I’m falling asleep fast here now, too.