Category Archives: Isreal
Israel | Day Three (part 1)
Our guide. A great man, Munir
It was hard to imagine that our next day could compare to Day 2. However, everything continues to amaze us. We have a native guide and bus driver, therefore, they know many locals and have inside connections that other tours don’t have.
The pic above is Munir (bus owner and driver) and Zaire (our tour guide)
This church was built on the ‘Mount of Beatitudes’. The place believed to be where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. The pic below is our group sitting on rocks on the side of the mountain and me speaking to them. I read part of Matthew 5 and we prayed here.
Here is an ancient boat discovered in the mud of the Sea of Galilee. It is from the first century.
The ‘mountain’ in the center of the pic is where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount.
Fresh squeezed Pomegranate juice! So good. $2 a cup. Worth it!
We need a sign like this at church! At all holy places, they do not allow immodest clothing or other things shown here.
The small village on the hill here is where Mary Magdalene was from.
Here was my breakfast. That is a serious Jalepeno!! This is the land of milk and honey and large peppers. Remember, how big the grapes were in the Old Testament.
These remains are Capernium, the city where Jesus lived most of his adult life. Many amazing things happened here in Jesus’ life. There is a church built on what is believed to be Peter’s home. The ruins here are actually from Jesus’ time period. It was in one of these homes that the man was lowered from the roof and Jesus performed a miracle in his life.
Please excuse my typos and misspellings. I am doing good to get posts up. More later…
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Robin
Israel | Day Two
Today was incredible! We woke up at 6am and hit it hard from the start. Unfortunately, our hotel has a problem with the Internet so I can’t post very many pics tonight (check out a few at bottom). Hopefully I can tomorrow because I took some fantastic pics and video.
We drove from Tel Aviv north (up the coast) to Caeserea. They have a bunch of ancient sites to look at. An amphitheater, Herod’s temple, Roman Aqueduct, plus other really cool spots. Paul was in prison here for 2yrs. This is also where Peter spoke to Gentiles for the first time and Cornelius was converted. (Acts 9-10)
Then we drove to Mt Carmel. We saw the location where Elijah called fire down from heaven and it devoured the the sacrifice. As a result, Baals prophetess were killed also. This is a beautiful spot in the north west corner of Israel. From the mountain, you can see many places in Israel.
We are lunch at a local place in the countryside. We ate all local food: falafel, olives, grilled chicken, fresh bread, peppers, fresh hummus, and salad. So good and so much good!
From lunch, we headed to the Valley of Meggido where Revelation 16 says the final war on earth will take place. We didn’t have time to stop.
Next, we went to Nazareth and saw a recreation of an old village. They had people in traditional dress and actually working the trades of that day, Shepard, carpenter, seamstress, etc. We saw the only wine press in the village so it is clear that Jesus would have been at this exact location. The wine press was hewn out of the rock so it is obvious that it is over 2000 yrs old. We also saw their olive press. The procedure o obtaining olive oil was incredible. The technology for that period blew our minds.
We went from the old village to the location of Mary’s and Joseph’s home when they heard from the Angels. Both locations have Catholic Churches built on them.
At this point it was about 5:30pm and we traveled to our bus driver’s church in Nazareth. They were getting ready for Wed evening service. We were able to meet many of their congregation and join them for a few worship songs and prayer. Thy are very passionate and open to God’s Spirit.
After service, we sat down and each of us were able to talk one on one with people. What a great time to actually learn culture and make connections.
By this time, we were so tired! It was time to leave Nazareth and head to our hotel on the Sea of Galilee in the town of Tiberias. It was about a 40min drive. When we got here we dropped of our stuff and ate a late dinner.
As we did last night, the guys took off for a stroll along the Sea of Galilee. Our hotel is literally on the shore. Amazing!
Hopefully, the Internet works tomorrow and I can post some more pics.
+robin
To see all the posts from Israel, click here.
Israel | Day One
We are so tired. Started our travel on Monday, 11am and just now going to bed for the first time.
We flew out of Austin and went to Newark, NJ. We had about 4 hours before we loaded the plane for Israel.
There are 11 of us. 10 from PromiseLand San Marcos plus Ani Simonson from Nigeria. He arrived about 2 hours before we did. What a great sight to see our dear African friend and be a part this journey with him.
There were quite a few Jews on our flight that wore traditional clothing and practiced prayer rituals during the all night flight. It was interesting to see them in action. We arrived in Tel Aviv at about 5:30pm Tuesday and it was already almost dark. I was shooting video in the airport when an Israeli security guard came to me and told me to delete all my pics/videos of the airport.
We left the airport in a sweet 20 passenger bus. We made a stop in Old town Joppa. This is where Paul met Simon the tanner. This is also where Jonah disobeyed, got on a boat, and eventually ended up in the giant fish. Tel Aviv is on the Mediteranian Sea. It is a very modern town with Mc Donalds and many other America things.
Will Krauss, Mason Murphy, Pastor Ani and I went for a late night stroll down the beach.
Now, to bed! Tomorrow, we will see Peter’s home in Caeserea, Mt Carmel (where Saul lost his life and Elijah called fire down from heaven.) We are also visiting a Christian Church in Nazareth that evening.
To see all the posts from Israel, click here.
Robin Steele 