Reflections on My Trip to Israel - Day 8 of 10

Next morning, breakfast at The Rimonim Hotel was something I will always remember. At the table where Errol and I sat we were privileged to watch the sun rise across the Sea of Galilee.

The fresh, early morning breeze and the rays of the sunrise reflecting on the water and shimmering through the trees were like dancing jewels, and produced a peaceful effect. I wondered: Was it a morning as beautiful as this when Jesus prepared “bread and fish” for His disciples? Did the sunrise reflect on the water just the same and shimmer through the trees just the same when He welcomed his disciples on the beach to “come and dine…?”
Was the water just as peaceful and calm?

After breakfast, Doron took us on a boat trip on the Sea of Galilee. This was something I will always remember. We enjoyed beautiful sunshine, a soft breeze and the knowledge that this was a place Jesus often visited during His lifetime on earth. And at one point, in the middle of the sea, Pastor Peter called for a time of worship and asked the captain of the boat to make a stop. The boat came to a stop and we enjoyed a time of choruses and prayer. But to tell you the truth, I was nervous. In my mind, I was wondering whether the captain, Pastor Peter, the crew and everyone else knew what they were doing.

Remember, I mentioned before that I am afraid of large bodies of water, and as beautiful as the Sea of Galilee is, I would not have liked to go down into it. Besides that, with Jesus not being around physically to help me walk on water as He did with Peter (Matt. 14:29), I knew I would never more be in the land of the living! However, I managed to survive the time of worship even though the boat was rocking from side to side.

We read much about Jesus and the Galilee. And if there was any place I felt His presence it was at the Jordan River and in the region of the Sea of Galilee. To walk in the places where Jesus walked and sail on the sea where Jesus sailed gave me a feeling of awe and humility. Hearing about the Sea of Galilee is one thing, reading about it is another, and actually being there is yet another thing.

I tell you, if ever you visit Israel, and I hope that you will, please make it a must to sail on the Sea of Galilee and visit the Jordan River.

Next, Doron took us to Kibbutz Ginossar where we viewed an ancient boat that dates back to the 1st century AD. This boat was discovered in 1986 on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and experts claimed that this was the type of boat used by people in first century times not only for fishing but also for transport from one side of the lake to the other. A big question is: “Could Jesus have sailed in that boat?” Who knows? We can only speculate, yet it was helpful to us to look closely at an object dating to the time Jesus walked in Galilee and might have used.

Doron, our guide, jokingly warned us not ever to leave the region without eating St. Peter’s fish. He said our trip to the Galilee would be incomplete without tasting that delicious fish and took us to the Ein Gev Fish Restaurant for a sumptuous meal of St. Peter’s fish, chips, and vegetables, complete with Israeli fixings. My goodness, what a spread of food! I tell you, Israel is a vegetarian’s and fish eater’s paradise.

Doron’s insistence about St. Peter’s fish reminded me of a saying in Trinidad about a local fish called “the cascadura” that goes this way: “Those who eat the cascadura will, a native legend says, wheresoever they may wander, end in Trinidad their days.” I wondered if it is the same with St. Peter’s fish and I wondered: Will I end my days in Galilee?

From Galilee we drove to Capernaum, a place that Jesus visited often and saw an ancient synagogue, and the site of the house of Peter. Then we visited the Mount of Beatitudes, the place where Jesus gave His Sermon on the Mount, and drove up the Golan Heights to Caesarea Phillipi.

There is something about the Holy Land that does a work on you, yet one visit is like the seeing the tip of an iceberg. There is s-o-o-o much to see and do. I hope you will make the trip soon.

It was a full day of activities and we were more than happy to be back at our hotel and look forward to dinner and a well-deserved rest for the night. Next day, we visited Mount Carmel where the prophet Elijah defeated the worshippers of Baal.

Reflections on My Trip to Israel - Day 7 of 10

In a massive restoration project for the land of Israel, since 1902 more than 280 million trees have been planted, and to help this project, in connection with the government of Israel, Pastor Peter Youngren has launched the Grace Biblical Forest.
Pastor Peter upholds that the planting of the Grace Biblical Forest “is a unique opportunity to be part of a deeply meaningful, prophetic fulfillment” (Isaiah 32), and he is planting 100,000 trees, many of which are fruit-bearing. To this end, Errol and I grasped the opportunity to leave a tree planted in Israel in our names. So we have a tree, basking in the sunshine of Israel and serving a worthwhile purpose in that land which means much to us.

We drove through the Jordan (Rift) Valley to Beit She’an, an ancient city that has existed since the time of King Saul and visited the remains of a Roman theatre (circa 1 AD) that has been excavated there. On that day it was blazing hot, and as usual, at every place we visited, I looked for two things: a cool, shady spot and a place to sit, but this time I did not find either of that, so I just had to deal with the heat as I admired the view.

I could just imagine the grandeur of Beit She’an and the Roman theatre in its hey day 6,000 years ago. The theatre boasted a semi-circular design cut into the hillside and seated 7,000 people in rows of limestone seats. In my imagination I could see the crowds and sporting events, and other entertainment of the day. In that place in particular, we were so close to ancient history, we could almost touch it.

There are still ongoing excavations taking place in Beit She’an. You can see the remains of the theatre in one of today’s pictures….who knows what else will be unearthed! If ever you go to Israel, Beit She’an should be a must-visit place on your list.

Another must-visit place on your list should be Nazareth Village, which is very interesting! This is a village scene created in Nazareth that shows the way the community looked in Jesus’ early years. It is a live scenario that really gave us the feel of first century living, with a show-and-tell atmosphere. Visit their website here www.nazarethvillage.com.

It is not as hectic Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Church of the Nativity or even the Via Dolorosa, but it is a quiet, rural setting with shepherds and grazing sheep. However, there was much uphill climbing on rocky, rough terrain.

Imagine how it was in those days…no supermarkets, no refrigeration for food, no fast foods, and all work was manual with home-made equipment and carpentry tools, and every meal was prepared from scratch.

At Nazareth Village, men and women wore traditional first-century garb, moving around gracefully as they demonstrated how chores were done in those early days. They showed us how wool was spun, dyed and woven to make clothing. The cloths were dyed with onion skins for brown colours, and specific fruits for other colours.

They showed how garments were made, how wine was made, how grain was ground, how olives were pressed to extract oil, and how sheep were raised. It was a step into the past to catch a glimpse of how life was in Jesus’ boyhood days.

Another interesting stop on that day was at Cana of Galilee where Jesus did His first miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding. Frankly, I always wonder why Jesus bothered to turn water into wine for the guests at the wedding. He could have easily told them to go home because the wine had run out…

We saw Mary’s Well where tradition says that Mary, while fetching water from the well, received the announcement from the angel Gabriel that she would bring forth Jesus, our Saviour. The well is fed from a spring called Mary’s Spring. And though the place of the annunciation is not recorded in the Bible, the traditional account is very ancient.

Then there was baptism in the Jordan River. One can never imagine the feeling of being at the very river where Jesus was baptized and the Spirit descending like a dove upon Him. We might not know the exact spot of Jesus’ baptism, but we know it was the Jordan River, and knowing this does something to the believer’s soul. I lost count of how many were baptized by Pastor Peter Youngren in the Jordan on that day, but I know there were many. In some places the Jordan is just a mere stream but at the place for baptism it is a mighty river.

We spent that night at the Rimonim Hotel and were in time for the May 14th celebration of Israel’s 63 years as a nation. It was great to be in time for celebrating Israel’s national birthday with her. As I reflected on the occasion, I realized that Errol and I chose the right time to visit Israel: just at her national birthday. At a park near our hotel there was a lot of celebration going on. Partygoers had a great time in the park all night having fun, fireworks, singing and dancing.

That evening, after dinner, we had another dynamic teaching by Pastor Peter and eagerly looked forward to the next day when we would be going on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee!