Jan. 16
Today we started our trip to Galilee and Ein Gev, it started out really great with the trip to Caesarea! I really liked this place because it was really fun to see the Hippordromes, those were the best. I think I liked them because of the historical things that came out of them, such as the Herod games, which was really interesting because of the mentioning of it being almost as big as the Olympics at the time! When we were in the palace that looked out over the Sea it was really cool to know that Paul was possibly in or very close to the rooms that we were in at the time! I think that really was my favorite part of the day because Paul is such a great man of God and looking up to him I see him as somebody that went through a lot for the ministry of Christ. I think that Caesarea, other than me falling in the Sea, was a really cool place. We traveled on to Megiddo and that was really cool to see because of the significance it has in the end times of being either the place where the armies of the world will meet against Jesus or where the actual battle will take place. I just think being in a place like that where it has the potential to change everything and where Jesus will gain victory over evil. I really liked this place. Then we went and visited the church in Nazareth that commemorates Mary and Jesus being there. It was cool to be in the place where Jesus grew up and where he learned how to be a kid and a person. That is really cool to me. Then we traveled to our humble abodes where we stayed in Ein Gev. The lodging was awesome to be right along side of the Galilee Sea where so many times Jesus had crossed and walked on the water and preached, it was just cool to finally get to see it and be there! At this point after seeing all of the sites of today I was getting exhausted from all the sites that we were seeing. We just go so fast through it all and then we move on, it is just hard to take it in and really soak in the moment of the facts that Jesus was there and that He preached or lived or was buried there, it is really hard to take that in fully without sitting down and just thinking about it instead of running around Israel.
Jan. 17
Today we started out in Hazor and this place was actually pretty cool. It was really big and contained a lot of people, 200 acres with roughly 20,000 people at the time that it was inhabited in the Iron age and then again during Solomon’s reign and was eventually destroyed in 732 by Tiglath Pileasar III. I really liked this place because of how big it was and because of how preserved the ruins were from this point. The lower city ruins were not really there at all because it would take almost 2000 years to complete all of it, but the ones in the upper city were just amazing! I really like that kind of stuff! Then we traveled up to Dan where we saw a really cool 6-chamber gate. Even after seeing so many of them and knowing what they look like it is still really cool to see them and just know that during jeroboam’s time these were actually in use. It was interesting to see a gate outside of the actual gate; I thought that was really interesting. It must have been from a later time period. I really liked Dan because of all the cool ruins and because of the chamber gates, I thought that was a really fun place to visit. Today was a really fun day, I love seeing all of the ruins and it made the time go so fast though. It is always hard to keep track of which day is which because of how many things like this we see. I think that if we all wanted to go into archeology it would actually work out because we now know a lot about what we are looking for, and we are usually able to tell what things are by now.
Jan. 18
On the third day we took a boat across the Sea of Galilee! That was so stinking awesome! I loved every second of it! The best part was being on the Sea where Jesus calmed the sea, walked on water, called peter on the sea and told a lot parables to His disciples while on the sea! I think that the boat ride really gave some insight to how things were back then and how the culture is now on the Sea of Galilee. We actually got a demonstration of what fishing was like on the Sea of Galilee! That was pretty cool and a couple of our guys went and pulled up the net as well. We docked at Gennasar and went in and saw and awesome ship that was recovered from the time of Jesus. This was a first century ship!! That is so amazing how they were able to preserve it. I think it was a really cool thing to see because it gave us more and more insight into what first century travel on the Sea was like. Then we traveled along the Sea shore and stopped at several sights where people believe that Jesus had either preached or taught! There was a church we stopped at that was built to commemorate the feeding of the 4 and 5 thousand. It is pretty cool to just sit back and think that we were in the place where Jesus actually performed miracles. That is just awesome to think about. Then we traveled to Capernaum, this place was just awesome! I really liked the idea that there were so many ruins there that we could see and below the synagogue there was another structure that many believe that Jesus actually taught in and there was a place where you could see the old temple! So if it is true Jesus actually was in the place that I just saw! So awesome and exciting! I just love that kind of stuff and the fact that there could be a possibility that Jesus was there. Again, it is not important though where the place Jesus actually but what He actually did!
Jan. 19
Today we were on our last day of our Ein Gev trip. It was kind of sad because the lodgings were so amazing, the food was great and everything we had seen up to this point was awesome! Today was no exception! We started out by going to Sepphoris, this place was actually really really cool! I really liked the painting things on the floor that show events or people. I think those are really cool and it helps us understand what was happening with those people at the time. They were worshipping Dionysus, the god of wine, was all over the place. The people here inhabited during the 2nd temple period so also during Jesus’ time. Sepphoris was also known as the capital of Galilee in the time it was a city. There were a lot of rich people here that Jesus did not preach too only a couple miles from His hometown. Jesus missed this place on purpose, when Dr Long was talking about the beatitudes he mentioned that Jesus was so heavy on the poor and weak and the people at Sepphoris were neither of these. The next place we traveled was back to Nazareth where we got to see a really cool view of the Jezreel Valley. It was just amazing to see the sites that Jesus was also seeing at his time!! I love that stuff He is just so revealing in everyway. Then we traveled to our last place Beth Shean. This place was awesome! There were so many ruins here that were so preserved it was amazing! There were theatres, pillars, baths, and a lot more! I was walking down to the place and started taking some pictures of this awesome site. I do my normal climbing on things and as I am getting down from one my ankle completely turns sideways and I hear something like pop but I have no idea if it is my ankle, which is killing at this point, or the rocks so I start checking to see if it is broken but I didn’t think it was so I walked about 200 yards and almost fainted from the pain. I knew it wasn’t broken but I knew it was hurt a lot! I then had to go miss out on the rest of the stuff that I could of seen but at least I am not sitting here with a broken ankle! I loved the day today, even with the bad stuff, but it was still awesome! I love all of this stuff! It is awesome!
Talk about an awesome trip!!! Everyday was something awesome! I love this place so many cool places to see and travel to!! To bad i got hurt but that is what happens when you climb on everything possible, it was almost like i am surprised i am not broken to pieces! It has been a blast and only one more day of actual stuff to blog about! I will post that later tonight!
God Bless and do GOOD!!!
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