Long First Day

Day one of touring has come and gone, leaving us exhausted. It's 6:45PM over here and we are preparing for dinner. Our morning started 12 hours ago with a wake up call that came way too early. After a breakfast that included many different kinds of cheese and fresh cut veggies (yes there was cornflakes, too), our day began with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. While on the Sea, we cut the engine to the boat and spent some time reading scripture together. Interesting enough, the Sea of Galilee is not nearly as wide as one would think. It really is just a good size lake, which it is also called Lake Tiberias. Once we landed, we spent some time looking at a 2000 year old boat that they excavated a little over twenty years ago. The moving part was hearing that the same nails that were used to hold the boat together were also used for crucifixion. To see a nail that was the same age as the nails that were used on Jesus...strong stuff.
There was something special today about being in the place of 85% of Jesus' ministry.
We then made our way inland a little ways to the Valley of the Wind or the Valley of the Dove. It contains the old Roman road that leads from Nazareth to Galilee. Remarkably, the land is all very green as we are in the middle of the rainy season, but you would never know it based on our weather today, sunny and mild.
We made our way to several important places in Jesus' life. Standing on the hills of the Mount of the Beatitudes, Matthew's words came alive from the fifth chapter, "When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. The he began to speak, and he taught them..." You could easily see how thousands could have been around him and how he easily could have spoke and they could hear him simply based on the layout of the land. We then went to Tagbha where the Church of the Miracle of Multiplication sits very close to the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter. The former was the site of Jesus feeding the 5,000, with the latter being the location of Jesus appearing to his disciples post Resurrection, reported in John 21. Were these the actually places? Maybe. Probably even. But what we do know for sure was we were looking out and seeing the exact same layout that Jesus could see and boy was it beautiful!
We then went to Capernum, the ancient town where Jesus performed many miracles and spent a good amount of time. The church that is built over the top of what is widely believed to be Peter's home was built in the round with a glass bottom so as to look upon Peter's home. The church contains one of the most beautiful alter tables I've ever seen. I wish I could include a picture, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. The rest of the town has been excavated to show different homes and buildings, and the ruins are remarkably in good shape.
All of this was before lunch. For our meal, we enjoyed several local foods like hummus, cabbage slaw, Turkish Salad, spicy carrots, beet slaw and St. Peter's Fish, which was lightly fried tilapia that still had its head on when served. That made some in our group squirm. (I also think a few had pizza, so don't worry, Joe is eating something, he even tried the hummus and a date.) Our only visit after lunch, thankfully, was to the Yardenit Baptismal site on the Jordan River. While it is not thought to be the exact site where Jesus was baptized, it is very similar and a place where people come from around the world to be baptized or to remember their baptism. While there we participated in a baptismal remembrance. What was so great about the spot was its appearance. It looked like any river you could find in SC. It wasn't very wide and had trees running all along to provide shade. We actually saw a couple of otters playing on the other side. This was vastly different than what many of us expected. All in all, it was truly a remarkable day. Again, just being able to lay our eyes upon the same layout that Jesus would have seen and loved means a great deal. We can't wait to share pictures when we get back. Stay tuned for more...