Time Line and pictures of touring day 2, Thursday, May 8th

For todays journal and pictures, I am doing the blog a little differently. I wanted all the photos and journaling to be under the same heading. It has taken me longer to do it this way, but this will probably be less confusing for you all. Hopefully I am doing this correctly.

Time Line: touring day 2, Thursday May 8th

1. Boat ride on the Sea of Galilee
2. Ancient Boat tour (Jesus Boat)
3. Tabgha: Church of the Primacy of St.Peter / Mensa Christi
4. Capharnaum
a. Peter's House - where Jesus healed Peter's mother n'law
b. Synagogue
5. Caesari Philippi - Canaanite and Roman shrines
6. Syria border
7. Golan Heights

First up for today, was the boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is where Jesus walked on water. Just as we were starting out, they raised the United States flag, and we sang the US anthem (talk about a tear jerker). Then they raised the Israeli flag, and played the music for their anthem. It was a nice peaceful time of silence. Once out on the Sea, pastor Russell had them stop the boat, for a devotional time. Then we sang "Here I am to Worship". The tears started streaming, uncontrollably, down my cheeks. This was the first place that I felt the spirit. Just looking out on the Sea of Galilee, and picturing what happened here 2000 years ago. Pure BEAUTY!!
After arriving in Kibbutz Nof Ginosar, we did a tour of the "Ancient Boat". Please visit www.jesusboat.com and on the left side of the website you will find a section "news". Click on "Galilee Boat" for detailed information about the famous Jesus Boat. This boat was found and dug up, and has been dated back to Jesus' time. We can never know for sure if Jesus actually rode in this boat, but there is a chance he could have. Please visit the website for more details, it is well worth the read.
After leaving the Jesus Boat tour, we did a little shopping (well a lot for me and my mom -LOL)then headed up to
TABGHA:Church of the Primacy of St.Peter / Mensa Christi
Tradition establishes this as the place of the miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fishes. Today there stands a small chapel displaying a lovely mosaic that depicts this event, dating back to the 4th century. This is also the place which marks Peter's encounter with the risen Christ, as recorded in John 21:1-19. There is a statue, near the church and Sea of Galilee, which depicts Jesus forgiving Peter, for his denial in Jerusalem. We do not know exactly where this event took place, but scriptures place it along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. I have posted 4 pictures that were taken here (statue, church, my mom touching the Sea of Galilee - where we all also collected some sea shells, and inside the church with the rock where Jesus multiplied the bread and fish).
From Tabgha we were on our way to Capharnaum. I always remember hearing about Capharnaum, when going to see the plays at church, at Easter time, so was looking forward to this part of our tour. Capharnaum was Jesus' ministry base in Galilee. The Bible records when Jesus left Nazareth, He came to Capharnaum, and it became the center of His ministry for the last 18-20 months of His life on earth. Jesus performed more miracles here than anywhere else.
First up, after entering the gates of Capharnaum, was Peter's house. Peter's house was where Jesus healed Peter's mother 'n'law. Found in the house, were also Peter's and Jesus's names carved in the rock. Also, we went into the synagogue, where Jesus came to meet and pray, whenever He was in Capharnaum. (I have 4 pictures here, the sign of Capharnaum, 2 picts.of Peter's house, and 1 pict. posted of the Synagogue).

After our visit in Capharnaum, we headed out to a fish restaurant. Dad told us about this restaurant, and mom ordered what he wanted her to. A WHOLE FISH!!! I couldn't have the head, so I ordered a headless one. Here are 2 pictures of mom's food, before and after her lunch.

Next, we headed out to Caesari Philippi (I spelled it differently on purpose, so we won't get this place confused with Caesarea). Caesari Philippi is where we saw the Canaanite shrines to the Baal Hermon and the Roman shrines to the Greek god Pan. Pan is the mythological god, who was half man and half goat. It was here in Caesari Philippi that Jesus asked "Whom do men say that I am?" (Matthew 16:13-20) It was also at this place that Jesus began to explain to the disciples how He must go to Jerusalem and suffer and die.(Matthew 17:12). It is here where Herod the Great stood outside the cave "the gates of hell" (or Hates).

next you will see a picture of a goat herd. As we were driving in the bus for our next destination, a goat herder had his goats crossing the street, and stopping traffic. I have a few pictures taken, but this was the only good one. The rest of them had the reflection from the bus window.

The last picture is of Syria. We were on the border of Syria here, and we were told some scary but true war stories here. If we would have walked out 50 feet or so, from where we were standing, there was a fence. That fence was the border from Israel and Syria. On the other side of that fence, is a field of land mines. We were on Israel soil, but behind us on a hill, stood some Syrian satellites (the pict.didn't turn out very good, as we were passing by on the bus. We were politely informed not to take pictures of the satellites and Syrian station, while standing outside, as we were being watched carefully. So, I took a quick picture as we were leaving.) We were told that Syria is making nuclear weapons now, and at any moment, any time, Syria can take over the Golan Heights area. SCARY!!!
From here, we went back to the Sheraton Hotel in Tiberias. We passed by Israeli army bases and old buildings from the Yom Kippur war (Oct.1973)that were shot at and run down. There was also one point on the drive back to the hotel, where we were driving on a road, and on both sides of us were land mines. One side was the Syrian side, and the other the Israel side.

Ok, now I am anxious to see if this way worked, in blogging today. Hopefully it did turn out the way I wanted it to.