Trip to Galilee

Yesterday Margaret and I went with the Serve Nazareth team on a day trip to Galilee. what a delightful time we had together. The trip was organized by our team leader, Christine Farah, and we had in our company her supervisor, two Americans, a Brit, and a Romanian. We all piled into a VW min-bus, whose driver was Arab. We first drove to Cana, where Jesus turned the water into wine. We entered a little church there where some excavations displayed first century ruins. There was also a huge vat on display. Exiting that building we swung by a souvenir shop where the proprietor was very gracious. Breakfast was zatar on bread that was wonderfully delicious. Our next major stop was Arbel National Park. We climbed down a steep descent down a cliff, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Pictures don't capture the image as well as seeing it in real! Besides the trail, there was a castle/fortress to explore, a cool stream to wade, and ripe cactus fruit to taste! We then visited a number of churches. They all commemorated an event in Jesus ministry. The Mount of Beatitudes, the feeding of the five thousand, the place where Peter was asked 'do you love me', the ruin's of Peter's house, in the ruins of Capernaum, where Jesus did most of His ministry, and the place where Jesus called the disciples. Before returning to Nazareth, our driver took us to Tiberias, and we boarded a wooden boat for a 40 minute ride on the Sea of Galilee. This was followed by a delicious supper at the Heritage, a rather fancy restaurant in Tiberias. It was the icing on the cake of an unforgettable delightful day, all planned by Christine. We all retired for the night, tired but happy, thinking of all the sights we had seen, most of which was great scenery, which probably had not changed much in 2000 years. The other great assurance of the day was that the Bible and the stories of Jesus, are rooted in space and time. The Bible is not a just a collection of myths, but occurred in real time.

On top of Mount Arbel before our hair raising climb down!

Ruins at Capernaum

Climbing down Mount Arbel. Thankful for ropes to hang onto!

Looking out of a cave on Mount Arbel.

The beautiful Sea of Galilee.