Israel - Jan.13, 2020 Masada, Angeddi, Dead Sea

Monday

Masada

Romans come take the Jewish city at Masada. 962 people choose death over slavery by the Romans. 

Surrounded by desert with a view of the Dead Sea. At the foot of the mountain we are surrounded by what looks like badlands, miles and miles of Grand Canyon like carved crevices and miles beyond that the Dead Sea. 

We took a cable car to top where Herrod built his fortress. I can see why he would have built it there. Definitely an untouchable and power feeling being at the peak. Quite a bit of the original structures are in tact. And what was not they rebuild with excavated rocks to make it look like they thought it would have originally looked!

We saw a Jewish man writing scripture on scrolls in what was an original synagogue. They basically have a room where someone is always writing. His handwriting was like a computer print. So amazing! He was literally on display in the middle of these ruins for us to watch. Weird, but cool!

We went in an original bath house. The details in the tile floors and other parts of the ruins are amazing and still in tact so you can really see what it all would have looked like. It’s how to imagine how they even built these places let alone the amount of detail that went into the finish. Plaster on the walls, that were then painted. There were Triangular tiles on floors. And where the tiles were missing you could still see the triangle shaped mud that the tiles once laid in. 

The view in every direction was so impressive and I’m sure none of the photos will do it justice. As we walked around the backside we could see the mound that the Romans built so they could push a battering ram up to the gates and bust their way in. That alone was no small task!

Angeddi

1 Samuel 24

This is the place that David and his men hid (“out in the wild”) in a cave from King Saul. Saul and his soldiers were out searching for David to kill him. When Saul went into the cave that David and his men happened to be hiding in, David didn’t kill him (even though he could have and his men were telling him to). 

Anyway, Angeddi is this great oasis in the middle of mountainous desert. It’s set up like a national park now. It has amazing trails and paths from water fall to water fall. When you look around you see desert mountains with big crevices and caves. The not so easy hike is filled with small streams and wildlife and lots of big rocks... this place was so cool!

Most of us were out of steam when we got there, but Ethan and I managed to whine the first half of the hike and from there the view was so amazing we forgot how tired and worn out we were. Bry stayed behind near the first waterfall, as did a handful of our crew.  

Ethan had to stop and take a picture around every turn. There were steep stone stairs, deck bridges over small springs, cave tunnels in the dark with very little dry rock to walk on... and every large interesting rock required Ethan to climb and say, “Mommy! Take my picture!”

Naturally with dozens of rocks and views to get pictures of, Ethan and I were bringing up the rear as usual!

Not too far down the road was our lunch stop. We are pretty much in the middle of the desert with the occasional hotel dedicated to salt spas and baths... people are mostly coming out here for some of the parks like Angeddi and a trip to take a salt bath in the Dead Sea.

Lunch was the usual meat in a pita selection and then it was off to the...

Dead Sea

So the weather this morning said that the Dead Sea would be 68 degrees today. I was trying not to freak out and just keep taking deep breaths as practice for how I would need to breath when the freezing water knocked the breath out of me! I packed all of our suits and just kept telling myself... why would you come all this way and not get in the Dead Sea?!?

We followed the masses and carried out breathing suits into the changing room to get ready to go into the water. Now an interesting fact to know, the Dead Sea drops approximately 1-2 feet every year! So a hotel would build right near the water and have salt spa experiences and then just the Dead Sea beach experience. Well, these hotels were a LONG way from the water! The water has dropped so much over the last years that nothing is that close to the beach anymore! 

SO.... we hiked down more stairs, followed the path, and finally we arrive at Kalia Beach. We get down there and begin to realize just how big the Dead Sea is! It’s 50 miles long and about 1400 feet deep. I believe the south end is not as deep, but then again I’m on information overload.

We bought water shoes just for this occasion. Thank goodies we did! We had no idea it would be so difficult to get into the water. The shore is covered in massive rocks! They’re not necessarily sticking up, but it’s very little mud and mostly rock. The rocks drop quite a bit for your first step. Nothing is even and the rocks have holes all over. As you get into the water, some rocks are slippery and others are all different depths. So basically it takes some serious effort just to get INTO the water!

Mark slipped and fell in almost immediately... people are dropping like flies all around us. We finally make our way and Ethan is the first to float of the three of us. Pastor Tim and Lisa are already floating around and other people from our group are starting to make their way in. 

Because of the rocks at the shore, there is a pretty good 1-2 foot shore break. Normally, that would be no big deal, but when the sea floor is all different depths and textures, it makes it very difficult to keep your balance. Add on top that the water is pretty chilly, so we felt very accomplished when we were finally waste deep.

The recommended strategy is to get about waste deep and just lean back. When Bryan finally decided to float, he leaned back ever so slightly and almost instantaneously his feet were on the top of the water. It’s crazy how quick you flip to the floating starfish position. It’s so funny because you don’t really know what to expect. And then even trickier is to try and put your feet back on the bottom of the sea. You wouldn’t think it would be so tricky... but it is!

We were all enjoying a good float when we hear somebody yelling “help!” We realize one of our older couples are laying the water together and their heads are all wet and their eyes are close and they’re just panicking! Turns out while they were floating just off the shore and trying to paddle their way out a little, one of those baby shore breaks broke right over their head. Again, normally no big deal, but the pain caused by a little bit of this insanely salty water is absurd. Harry (the guy that got water over the head) said he couldn’t see and his vision was blurry if he tried to open his eyes. They were legit freaking out!

Mark and I made our way to Harry and Betsy pretty quick and we both helped them up and escorted them back onto dry land. Their eyes were completely blood shot and they were very obviously in pain. I was so worried we’d end up in the same situation ourselves... or even worse, Ethan!

Almost immediately after that rescue, we had to rescue some stranger that was trying so desperately get situated in the water, but he also slipped and barely smacked his face on a rock. Mark and I quickly grabbed him to help him up. Thankfully his face was ok, but the salt water in his eyes, had to be painful. He was very grateful and he made  another go at it a little while later. I guess he wasn’t gonna be a quitter. Lol.

Our rescue mission continued as we helped some of our other people out of the water. They’d get near the shore, but couldn’t figure out how to get up and out in such shallow water, on top of slippery rocks, and little waves knocking into you.

After all our rescue missions we went back in for one more float. Ethan was dying to get back in, so we figured we’d better make another go at it. We had a great float and I took some fun video from my head with my GoPro strapped to forehead! Ethan didn’t want to leave! And he almost immediately asked when we could come back. Well, son, probably not any time soon!

I think today goes down in the books as the best day of the trip!

We made our way back to the hotel to get cleaned up.

We had a 6pm video and lights show on the side of the city walls. They used a ton of projectors to project right onto the city walls... it was fantastic. We were freezing our butts off, but it was very cool. They told the story of the city basically. The different groups of people and leaders and the structures they built there. The destruction of those groups and the rebuilding. It was about 30 minutes long and was just a sound and projection show. It was a great way to end the night. Just wish it wasn’t quite so cold!

Back to the hotel for dinner and great conversation with our church family over chow time. No wake up call in the morning so we might actually get to sleep in a bit and maybe do a little morning shopping before our day’s adventures!

Good night!

Israel - Jan.9, 2020 Beatitudes, Capernaum, Tabgha, Galilee, Magdala

So much agriculture! We’ve driven by LOTS of farms. There are so many orange and citrus groves and mango trees. We’ve also seen lots of covered banana trees and a huge avocado farm. Miles and miles of groves and tree farms! We also drive by lots of palm trees and of course olive trees. It’s amazing how much of what we see is like home, except there’s all these mountains and hills.

Church of the Beatitudes

Here we were up on the mountain with a beautiful view of the Sea of Galilee. Pastor Tim read us Matthew 5-7 “One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them. God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted....” and so it goes. So there we stood with a lush view of this natural amphitheater on the mountainside below. Although it is no longer accessible from where we walked, you could see how it really was an amphitheater. The church there had done such a nice job creating beautiful gardens with paths throughout. It’s weird to be in such a foreign place, but see so many familiar plants and trees... bougainvillea, roses, palm tress, etc. I think I snapped some pics for my dad. 

  

We hopped on the bus and started our long drive toward the Sanctuary of Pan.

We drove by a big hot air balloon... it was cool cause I’ve never actually seen one close up. They do a fair amount of bird watching in this area. Over 800 million birds migrate through this area every year!

Driving towards the North border we’ve got mountains immediately on our left hiding Lebanon and off in the distance to our right is another mountain range that disappears into the rain clouds which hide Golan Heights... where the snow ski slopes live.

They don’t call Jordan a river here because it’s hardly a river... it’s more like a stream. But it’s such an important stream of water it has become known as a “river.”

We’ve had so much rain to this point that there has been major flooding going on around the country. We haven’t seen anything too crazy, but today we’re driving into Banias at the foot of Mount Hermon. We go over a bridge that crosses the Banias River, which is one of three major waters that feed the Jordan River. They had so much water that the park sidewalk paths along the river are FAR under water and the river is flowing much wider than usual!!

We arrive at Hermon River Springs and get to explore many dimensions of history here.

Archaeologists uncovered a shrine dedicated to Pan and related deities, and the remains of an ancient city founded sometime after the conquest by Alexander the Great and inhabited until 1967; the ancient city was mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark by the name of Caesarea Philippi. So as you can see, it gets a little confusing because the names of places and people change over time. So although we are in one place, everything has different names depending on who was inhabiting it at any given time in history. It’s a lot to keep straight! So much so I had to google random facts from my notes just so I can get my story straight for my journal. Ha!

Temple of Augustus was built at the mouth of a cave that was considered to be the gateway to hell. The pagans would throw sacrifices into the natural abyss of the cave that reached to the underground waters. If the victims disappeared in the water, then the god had accepted their offering. If signs of blood appeared in the nearby springs, then the sacrifice had been rejected. Lovely, isn’t it! Lol.

Although we can’t see much of these original structures, we can see the grounds they were built on and remnants of the structures - an occasional pillar or wall, some niches carved into the mountainside rock where statues were once displayed. The detail carved on all these things is incredible when you realize that all of this was built more than 2,000 years ago! So fascinating!

Here we read about Jesus time with Simon Peter... where he referred to the gates of hell (the cave that we are standing at as we read this) and references to the pagan worship (they worshipped Pan) Matthew 16:13-20 - When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

This is where we were!!

Capernaum

This small fishing town is the home of Peter, James, John, Andrew and Matthew. Capernaum is the home base of Jesus and where He performed many miracles!

We get to see what’s left of Peter’s house. We imagine Jesus coming over to Peter’s house because his mother-in-law is sick and he asks Jesus to heal her.

We also know that Jesus stayed with Peter at his house, which means we’re looking at what’s left of rooms... one of which Jesus stayed in. Crazy!

There are so many ruins here. The coolest to me, is that we are looking at the homes of Peter’s neighbors! This is THE neighborhood where Jesus does so much teaching. And it’s hard to imagine what life was like back then, so to see an actual neighborhood, or at least he foundations of it, you really start to get a sense of the community that was there.

So many of these amazing places in history are buried under history, which is buried under history, and so on. So, over top of what may have been the church of this neighborhood stands a synagogue from a much later period. It is also impressive and rich in history, but history tells us this is not what the church of that time would have looked like. For starters, this is far too big. You can also see how it has been built over top of other homes in the neighborhood. The number of artifacts surrounding this site is amazing. So much of it we get to see in place and the entire perimeter of the site is covered in random pieces that have been discovered all over the property.

Amazing to think this is where Jesus’ ministry begins and goes out to the world. We are right on the shore of the Sea of Galilee... so literally the word goes out across the Sea and continues out into the world. Pastor Tim did such a great job creating this mental picture as he shared this story and scripture with us. Acts 1:8 - But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 

Tabgha

Next stop is the Church of the Fish and the Loaves at Tabgha, the traditional site of the feeding of the 5,000 (Luke 9:10-17) and where Jesus is thought to have come down from the mountain and walked on water. Again, we read these scriptures together and imagine these things taking place right before your eyes. Sometimes these moments are very moving and sometimes it’s just surreal... could this really have happened right here?!?

Sea of Galilee

It’s pretty much been raining on us all day, but we’ve been making the best of it. We all got pretty soaked at Tabgha and now we’re supposed to go for a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. Doesn’t seem like the most ideal situation, but hey, how often do you get to cruise the Sea of Galilee?! 

Before our boat cruise we stop for lunch. Most of our lunches seem to be at “restaurants” that aren’t really restaurants at all. They are more like buffets. However, there is no buffet line. We walk in the door and there are several rows of LONG tables with places settings for 20+ people at each. The table is covered in food. There’s hummus (which everybody says is way better than American hummus, but I still think it tastes bad), “salsa,” “coleslaw,” cream sauce, “salad,” other sides, and lastly... pita bread! You’re supposed to take all these goodies and dress your pita however you like. I really like the salsa because it almost tasted like salsa... so I basically ate that with pita as if it were chips and salsa. Everybody devoured all the other things, most of which didn’t float my boat. Lots of things were similar to American food in the way it looked, but typically tasted nothing like we expected, BUT everyone seemed to enjoy. 

This particular place is famous for serving a fish filet with the eyeballs still in the fish. I think everyone was afraid of so only a few people ordered the fish. Turns out, they only served us fried fish (no eyeballs), chicken, and lamb kabob (which really turned out to be lamb burger sliders with no patty). My chicken was pretty good. The boys were pretty disappointed when their kabob didn’t come on a skewer and was slightly over cooked and well, just not that impressive. It was a feast nonetheless!

Soon after we were off to the boat, which was at the end of the driveway for the restaurant basically. A few people stayed behind, after all we have no idea how wet we’ll be getting.

Turned out we cruised on the biggest boat out there. We saw all these amazing boats that were basically replicas of the boat they may have sailed on in Jesus time, however, out boat was nothing like the cool wooden ones. It was rather ugly, BUT it was 2 story and gave us a great view of the Sea and surrounding areas... AND we got to look at all the other cool wooden boats out on the water. I’m pretty sure our boat was much dryer and had far more space, so I’d say we lucked out.

When we first “set sail” they played our national anthem and had Ethan raise the American flag on the upper deck, alongside the Israeli flag. That was kind of cool... and also a little strange (like so many of our experiences on this trip).

One of the crew members on the boat was telling us that this was the most rain they’ve seen since 1999. Aren’t we so lucky?! 

On the walk back to the bus we walk through a really cool part of the property there. So many Florida plants and trees again. You might have thought your were on the shore of the Indian River. This was the first time I saw a Pony Tail Palm here. 

Magdala

Magdala was once home to Mary Magdalene. This site has such a cool story. A new hotel starts breaking ground when they found a some ruins. The whole project comes to a halt. They have to find the funding to excavate the site and come up with a new plan for the hotel. 

In 2006 they uncover the Magdala stone and eventually reveal a 1st century synagogue. They’ve even found the original tile floors. Amazing! It’s really impressive how they’ve preserved the area and made it nice to enjoy (which isn’t always the case since so many of the churches built on top of these sites). Once the site was preserved, they made a new plan to build the hotel just beside it. Construction picked back up in 2013 with the new plan and the hotel just finally opened in October or November of last year.

Walking trail to church. We’re in front of a 300 year old Olive Tree.

Also on site is... you guessed it, another church. The entry room is dedicated to the women of the Bible, who’s names are written on the pillars. One pillar is blank to signify women of today and the future. There are several small meeting rooms off the main entry. Each with a dedicated mosaic from a story in the Bible. They’re amazing! The main part of the church has giant windows at the front overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Certainly one of the nicer churches we went in. 

We ventured downstairs into a replica of what the 1st century synagogue would have been like. It’s a small round room. The early church was more like a small group. Someone would teach, but there would be discussion. The room obviously is designed for such teaching and dialogue. One of the most impressive pieces of art was in this room. A very large rounded mural on the wall. The artist intended for you hand to be in line with Jesus hand. This was a theme throughout several pieces in this church. The artists wanted us to become a part of the art and extend it into “real life.” Cool idea and seemingly effective. Our guide Mark encouraged pictures to demonstrate this concept.