Day 6 Sat Mt. of Beattitudes_Jordan River Baptisms

Today we went to the Mt. of Beattitudes where Jesus met with his disciples and spoke in parables. This hillside is farmland now, but part of it has large rocks under large shade trees where we sat and were reminded about the parables he gave his disciples. There is a church built on top of the Mt.

Dad at Mt. of Beattitudes                                     

Max in Yamaka-we were at a holy site, long pants and head coverings were required.


Hillside where Jesus would have taught his disciples


Learning on Mt. of Beattitudes

Day 5 Fri Bet She'an, 5 Loaves 2 Fish, Korazim

Day 5 (This is Janai-I'm posting for Gail and family, and for some reason there's no day 4 description-Gail is sending me updates and I am just posting them:)

Just saw a 3000 yr old city-Beit She'an

This is a view of the main street...columns on each side would have had a roof over them for the main street Palisade. Do you see the skinny tree on the VERY TOP of the hill to the left? It was planted there to be used in the Broadway musical "Jesus Christ Super Star" which was filmed here. More pics on that to come. Pat, Max, Andy and Daniel walked to the top to check it out.

Amazing what an ego-centric environment these people built!  This city was all about self- indulgence! We were amazed at how intricate the art was! Mosaic tiles floors! Bath houses and heated pool (sauna). They had marble-faced shops -barbershops, spa, shops, brothel, pedicures, theatre that seated 5-7 thousand people at 3 levels high! Winding staircase- unfortunately a huge earthquake in 749 which knocked down a lot of the columns. The main street- Palladius street- was a colonnaded walkway! Walks paved with mosaics! How did they raise those stone and make columns!

Sauna! They had a spa...I can explain later how this works, but it is very sophisticated technology

This is a public "lavatory"...no kidding...and GROSS!! various sized "stoops" for all sizes..again...GROSS!

Notice the Detail on these columns...imagine the time

The city was under government from  Byzantine to greek- roman to philistine-

On our way to lunch now then the center of Jesus' ministry-- CAPERNAUM AND KORAZIM

2000 year old fishing boat! This was found in the sea of Galilee! It's amazing the process they used to preserve this. Check it out online. 

The cover banana trees to protect them from bugs, sun, etc. They spend so much time and energy to cover these! The fields go on for acres!

We Visited a place called Tabgha~ the place where Jesus fed the 5000 men with 5 loaves and 2 fish. We dipped our feet in on this side of Galilee! It was amazing!

Day 4 Thurs Tell Dan, Bania, Caesarea Phillipi

We visited Bet Hillel, and army base. We met a platoon of young men who were very interactive and generous with giving us their time and chatting with us.

Near the rushing waters in Tell-Dan Nature Reserve. Our guide, Teesha, speaks to us about the prophesies fulfilled in Israel and the dividing of the land.

We saw the beautiful reserve of Tell-Dan. This was a refreshing walk and reprive from the sun! The water was rushing and just as loud as it looks here in this picture. :).

Newer discovery. Every time they turn over a stone in this country, it's a potential excavation site! They more recently found this 3-gate deep entrace. They are under excavation still, but belive this to possibly be where Abraham walked through to rescue his nephew, Lot!! Amazing!

....more to come...stay tuned..

Day 3 Wed Caesarea by the Sea, 2000 year old Herod's Theatre and more!

Day 3 - As predicted by Shawn, speaking from experience, most of our group reported waking up at 2am or 3am local time. Our bodies are still adjusting.
WEDNESDAY, June 27
We have learned so much from our guide, Tisha! There is so much history that I have taken notes on and want to share with you, but because of time and limited internet coverage from my room I am being brief for these first few days.
Tonight we are staying on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. We have learned that it is 7miles wide by 13 miles long. We will be driving around this area for the next couple of days, but these are the grounds Jesus walked so many days of his life. He hung out on THESE shores with fishermen!
We went to the ruins of Caesarea by the Sea.

MVCA students at Arena, Mediterranean Sea backdrop

We started our morning off sitting on the stone seats that made up the arena where people would have watched chariot races. The students read scriptures that apply to THIS VERY GROUND! The scriptures are literally coming alive to us! There are so many proofs that support the Bible and we are seeing and touching them!

We sat on this 2000 year old arena where audiences would have once watched chariot races and olympic games and Shawn unpacked each scripture that pertained to this specific area of  the land

Students read the passages that were relavant (Melissa)

Students reading (Alexis)

Reading of scripture in thsi arena (Gavin); you can see the center of the track in the sand behind him.

We made our way to "Herod's Theatre". This 2000+ year old theatre has amazing acoustics. How they figured this out with so few resources is amazing!

Isn't this amazing?! Thousands of years ago! They still have questions as to how they built much of what they built!

Justin reading a relavant scripture. Worship team preparing down on the stage.

The Vomitorium into the theatre...Notice the arch

Daniel plays guitar, while Robert and Shallie lead worship in this 2000 year old Theatre in Caesarea by the Sea built by Caesar and sat in by people such as Pontius Pilot and Herod! As Justin would say "no big deal" 

The acoustics in this theatre were amazing! How did they do it?

Day 1 & Day 2 TRAVEL and Tel Aviv, Mediterranean Sea

Updating this in the corner of my room where I can sit precisely and hopefully keep coverage long enough to update this blog! :) We have had very sketchy internet and it's dial up. 
Day 1 & Day 2: TRAVEL...We left Cincinnati after 2 long delays around 6:30pm, and made our connecting flight at JFK where they were waiting on us and we were wheels off the ground at 9:30pm on Monday. After a long flight, fighting sleep, we arrived in Tel Aviv at 3:45pm on Tuesday. So we started our first day in Israel on our second day of our trip! :)

We stayed in Tel Aviv at a beautful 5 star hotel! However, no internet in the rooms. We were on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea! We swam in the Mediterranean Sea! It was a beautiful shore, warm water and large Rock walls protecting the shore from the strong currents just beyond. Of course, all of our boys and several girls climbed the rocks to catch a glimpse of the crashing waves on the other side!  The water was very warm and very safe. The rocks protected the swim area.

Dad in Mediterranean Sea; Hotel in background

Gail in Mediterranean Sea! Very warm water!

Max  & Pat swam out to the outcropping a ways from the shore, but still fairly shallow water

Pat & Max on the rocks in the Mediterranean Sea, now others are making their way

Most of our tour group made it to the rocks!

View of hotel facing the beach

It was beautiful, but after a dinner of a very long list of Mediterranean delights, we found sleep to come easy! And it was the end of the second day of travel, and we slept!

Pre-Trip Map of Israel

Pat, Gail, Daniel, Max & Andy, and Gail's dad Don Mackey are headed to Israel for a trip of a lifetime.
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