true story: israel post 4

Let's move on to Monday, 4-29!!

We started off the day in an amazing way -- with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee! It was a very surreal moment...there is so much in the Bible that references Jesus being on the Sea of Galilee. He recruited four of his apostles on the shore of this sea. Many of his miracles happened here as well -- walking on water, calming the storm, the disciples and the boatload of fish, and the feeding of the 5000. To imagine being on the same sea, it had such a calming effect on the heart. We rode on boats modeled after ancient boats, and the weather was absolutely perfect. The wind was still, and the water was calm. And the clarity was so clear that morning, we were able to see a far off mountain that actually had snow on top. Our guide said that it is pretty rare that it is clear enough to see that. During the ride, we enjoyed the scenery and a few touching activities. First, the boat crew raised the American flag, and played our national anthem! That was pretty cool! One of our executives gave a little of his testimony and read a little from the Bible, about the Sea of Galilee. And then the best part -- we all gathered around in a circle and danced and sang! It was outrageous and heart lifting! They played some praise music and it was just such a "moment" for all involved.

Me, with the Sea of Galilee behind me, waiting on our boat to arrive bright and early in the morning.

Our awesome boat! We rode on the Noah...

The incredible view from our boat...one thing I really really like about Israel was that most of their buildings were made out of the same limestone. So everything looked consistent and clean and uniform. I, for one, am a fan of that :)

Me and my gorgeous man on the boat!

Getting the net ready to throw over for fish

Throwing out the net -- no fish for us...we needed Jesus on the boat!

After out boat ride, we stopped at the Ancient Boat Museum...on display there was a 2000 year boat that they had uncovered in the area. It would have been like a boat Jesus would have floated in. It was pretty cool to see -- and Chris even got a little replica of the boat for his office.

From there, we travelled to Capernaum. the town, reported to have been the home of Jesus. One Sabbath, Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernaum and healed a man who had the spirit of an unclean devil. So, there is a great chance Jesus actually taught in this synagogue we stood in.

From Capernaum, we headed next to the Mount of Beatitudes. This is where Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount. There is now a Roman Catholic church erected there to signify the location. The chapel was very nice, and the area had a great peaceful essence.

The Roman Catholic church...

Inside the church

A beautiful fountain on the property

Me with the Sea of Galilee in the background, on Mount of Beatitudes. (This was my "modesty outfit"...there were certain areas along our touring where women and men had to have their shoulders and their knees covered. This was one of them.)

I can't even express the beauty we witnessed...

From there, we headed to our final tour location of the day -- Nazareth Village. In the New Testament, Nazareth is described as the childhood home of Jesus, and as such is a center of Christian interest. Oddly enough though, Nazareth is now known as "the Arab capital of Israel"; the population is made up predominantly of Arab citizens, almost all of whom are Muslim(69%). Only 30% is Christian. We saw this a lot during our travels. At any site that had anything to do with Jesus, there was a history of fighting over the area and many time the Muslim population won out. So you will have a Christian site for Jesus that has a mosque right next to it. I found it quite odd. At any rate, Nazareth was a shabby city, but we were able to visit the Nazareth Village. This is a site that is set up to reflect Nazareth as it was back in the day of Jesus. So there were people dressed up from that time, and people "doing work" from that time. Our tour guide was impressive, in her knowledge and her English.

Their icon is the oil lamp, which represents Jesus commanding us each to be a light to the world.

The "shepard" and his family...

We visited the tool maker, and he demonstrated his technique.

Next was the weaver, she was very animated! We enjoyed meeting her!

And then! :) Before we went in to see the olive press, I saw the two donkeys! A mama and her baby. They were up on a hill and I was overjoyed! Chris said this was my biggest smile of the trip! I was obviously the last one in to hear the speech about the olive press! But you know what? When we came out, the donkeys had travelled down and they were on the road right there in front of us!