Hello, readers! Today was one of our longer days on the journey. We left Jerusalem bright and early this morning and made our way northeast to Caesarea, Megiddo, Nazareth, Cana, and finally to our hotel in Tiberias which looks over the beautiful Sea of Galilee. On our bus ride north, we noticed immediately the change in geography as we looked upon more greenery, mountains, and fertile ground everywhere. We arrived in Caesarea and took in the beauty of the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. We got off the bus to see the aqueduct built by Herod the Great and to enjoy some time by the sea.
It was so beautiful that no one wanted to leave! We also ventured to the ancient city of Caesarea which was the entry point into the country, the seat of government, where the Roman government leader (such as Pontius Pilate) lived and lead over the area, and also where Paul was imprisoned at one point in his ministry. We walked through the ancient ruins of the city and stood in the amphitheater which is still in tact and stilled used for events. We stood in the middle and sang some songs to hear how it sounded:
We then made our way to Megiddo, an ancient city mentioned several times in Scripture. The most famous for Christians is that it is mentioned in the book of Revelation as the city where the final battle of good and evil will take place. Megiddo is also known as "Armageddon" if that rings any bells. It was interesting to learn that there have been at least 25 layers of civilizations uncovered at Megiddo. The city is literally an ancient fortress used by many different peoples from different times, religions, and civilizations. There we got to see the archaeological discoveries, and we even climbed down a series of the craziest steps I have ever seen in order to see the water cistern and tunnel where water was sent into the city. We learned how strategic the location of Megiddo is and why so many people chose to inhabit it. If you ruled Megiddo, you ruled over the land! It was also amazing to be on top of Megiddo and look into the Jezreel valley where we could see Nazareth to our left, Mt. Tabor in the distance (also known as the Mt. of Transfiguration) and Mt. Carmel where Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal in the Hebrew scriptures. We also could see the Samaritan mountains in the distance. Scripture and history were literally coming to life all around us. Here is a view from the top of Megiddo:
Our entire Memorial group made it safely down the mountain via the water cistern steps and tunnel. I was really proud of everyone! It was quite a climb, most of it in the dark underground on the steepest set of stairs ever. Not everyone in our bigger group chose to do it, so it was quite the adventure!
We also had some silly fun of course....
After lunch we headed to Nazareth (home of Jesus)...which quite honestly was kind of a waste of time! I was disappointed. We got off the bus, saw the spring in town where some believe that Mary heard from the angel that she would bear Jesus (the annunciation) and then we went to the Church of the Annunciation...which was closed :( At least we got to see people putting up the town Christmas tree, but other than that....eh...
Then we went just down the road to Cana, the spot of the first miracle of Jesus in the Gospels, found in the Gospel of John- Jesus turns water to wine at a wedding. We pulled into Cana and this was the first thing we saw off the bus:
And then we found some "fun" souvenirs.... ;)
And we all got to try some "wedding wine" which tasted a little like sweet kosher wine. Then we visited the church which is built on top of some ruins of ancient Cana where 6 stone jars where discovered- maybe even the ones that Jesus used to perform the miracle, perhaps?! Who knows! We got to see one of the stone jars- much bigger than you might think, right? So that was cool to see and realize how miraculous it would have been to even move and fill one of those jars!
Our day ended with a beautiful drive to the Sea of Galilee where we are now in our hotel using their wi-fi internet for free, thanks to our bus captain and his wife. We have been doing most of our blogging in the Pettyjohns' hotel room (thank you!) and believe it or not, on the BUS, which had free wi-fi for us to use! We are devoted bloggers, right?! :)
Anyway, the Sea of Galilee and Tiberias where we are unfortunately only spending one night, is absolutely beautiful. Tomorrow we will spend our day on the Galilee with a boat ride and taking it all in. I'm really looking forward to it. Then, we will recross the border to Amman (yuck border crossing!) and our flight leaves Amman at 1:15 am. Yes, you read that right, 1:15 in the morning! We will arrive back in the USA at 8:45 on Tuesday night. Needless to say, we will be exhausted, so please pray for our sanity!
I won't be able to blog about our Galilee day until we are back in the USA, so please check back! I'll be updating about our over all experience and share about our journey back. I hope you've enjoyed reading so far and journeying with us. I hope that if you have never been to the Holy Land, that you will consider making the journey for yourself! Let me know if you're interested. Corey and I would love to do this again!
Thanks for your continued prayers and support for all of us!
-Jill
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