Starting in Galilee

What I day that I was able to have today! Starting off things right in Galilee is the way that they do it around here, and I’m so grateful to be able to have such a great program that is so well thought out and planned according to the student’s wants and needs. This is going to be the first big trip that I get to have with Bro. Emmitt as a teacher, and I’m excited to get to know him and learn from him.
But anyway, so start off with the things that I did today. First of all, I didn’t get much sleep last night because of a project that I was helping out with. It was really cool and I’ll have to tell you about it later, but anyway, 2 hours of nap later it was time to wake up and get going because we had to leave at 630am to get to do everything that we were supposed to. Leaving for 10 days can be stressful at the very least, trying ti figure out what to bring and make sure that you haven’t forgotten anything…not fun. Luckily for me I was able to sleep for most of the 2 hour drive, as did most of the bus. I don’t think that I have ever had the bus that quiet before on any trip! I would like to mention my bus mate, Allison, and the wonderful time that I had with her today. She is tons of fun when she is sleep deprived!
So the first stop of the day was in a place called Caesarea Maritime, a quite impressive deep-sea harbor that was built by Herod the Great up north on the coast of the Mediterranean. A movie showed us what the establishment would have looked like in the days of Herod and I was quite impressed. He had used this special cement that hardened in water to built these foundations in the underwater sand, and then build these huge establishments on top of them! Nature too k its toll of course though and after falling into disrepair and being conquered by 2 civilizations before finally being razed by the Arabs and being burned to the ground. Now there is quite the town there and of course the great tourist locations!
You may know of this place by the account of Paul and the changing doctrine that happened when we had the dream of being told to eat unclean animals to tell him that the Gentiles should be taught. This is where the soldier that he met came from. Although I have to say that the most compelling story that I think comes from this area is the one of Paul standing before Festus and King Agrippa to defend his faith. I stood in the place where Paul defended his testimony to those leaders and saw where Agrippa would have said, “almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” I tell you what, This is one of the best stories from the post-Jesus apostles, and I am grateful that I was able to stand in that holy place and remind myself of the testimony that I have of Christ and His salvation.
Our next stop was a quick one to look at some aqueducts that the Romans had left behind in the area, and then we were off to the highlight of my day at least, Nazareth. This is a nice clean town that is composed of a lot of Arab Christians and so many masses around town are offered in Arabic as well as English. The biggest church here of course in the Church of the Annunciation which is built over a grotto that is thought could be the place where Mary lived and so then where the angel Gabriel appeared to her to tell her the wonderful news. So the lower level has a shrine that is built inside of the grotto, and then the upper level is a place where the actual church part is. The whole things is huge and it is very beautiful as well. Because this is not just a place for those in Israel, there are depictions of the Virgin Mary all throughout the church from many different cultures, each depicting her in their own unique way. I really thought that it was a beautiful church and very grand in its design, and I could really feel the spirit there as well. It made me think a little bit about the reasons that we feel the Spirit, because I don’t know if that was a real site or not, but at the least, I was being reminded of the sacred nature of the event that this church was trying to depict.
There were a few other church’s as well in the area that we stopped by including ones to St. Joseph, the father of Jesus. This was really neat because we just don’t know that much about Joseph, in fact there are only about 7 verses that really tell us about what kind of man he was, but in this church you could really tell that those were important attributes to have as a father. I’m sure that Joseph was chosen to be the father as carefully as Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus. Also we went to the Synagogue Church which is the place where the family of Jesus would have gone each week to worship and where Jesus would have made the first real announcement that he was the Christ. The last cool place that we went is the Greek location for where the annunciation happened, which is Mary’s well. The interesting part about this is not the well, but the Church of Gabriel that is near by it. The church is over the place where three springs converge to go down to mary’s well, and so here you can actually tap the water, fill up this tin cup that is provided, and drink from the well. I was glad that I was one of the first ones there, although I guess I don’t know how many people where there before me!
At last we got to the Sea. After gong to a great lookout spot where we could see almost the whole thing as once we went and drove to our kibbutz. Now I am living for the next 10 days in a place that is right on the coast, and where I can watch the sundown every night right over the lake. We had FHE here on the coast of the Sea of Galilee, right here!! I never thought that such an experience could be mine. This is a sacred place, not the kibbutz itself, but the whole area. It is said that Christ made it this way because of the many miracles that were performed in the area of the vital body of water. If the holiness of a miracle sticks, that’s great, but at least for me this place has a spirit. I know that for me it is sacred, and I know that this is going to be one of the best times that I’m going to have to get to know my Savior. I hope that I will be able to give you all a little taste of this wonderful place over the next few days. I love you all!