Galilee - Mount of Beatitudes, a boat ride and a look at a preserved boat from Jesus’ time, Capernaum, lunch featuring St Peter’s fish, and finally baptism in the Jordan.
You could see how Jesus could speak to a crowd on the Mount of Beatitudes - large rocks in the untilled portion of the land, good for sitting on. (Wonder if many had been cleared from the field over the intervening 2000 years.) But very real.
The boat ride gave a feel for how the lake - err, Sea of Galilee was for fishermen in the first century. You could see home most of the time, but if a storm came up, visibility would be lost, and it could be frightening. And the vessel in the boat museum looked little bigger than a rowboat (12 men in a 15’ long boat?). I don’t know how they steered those vessels - the rudder wasn’t used on seagoing vessels until about the 1700s. Waves wouldn’t be too high (the lake is too small) but choppy, windy and dangerous with a storm.
Capernaum also was very much a hands-on experience. They’ve done a lot of excavation at the site - the foundations of houses all rebuilt to show where they’d been. The synagogue is the same as when Christ taught there - rebuilt after the Jews were driven from Jerusalem, but in the same spot, and with the same foundation.
The lunch was pretty good - fresh St Peter fish (a species of Tilapia) at a Kibbutz on the East shore, below the Golan Heights. (We’re due to go there tomorrow, with some Israeli ‘67 war history.) Lots of people didn’t want the whole fish - eyes staring up at you, etc. Cheese pizza for the weaker ones.
Baptism was a highlight. Lots of others getting dipped, but there was enough space for us to have a good, cohesive time. COLD water, but you’ve got to suffer some to appreciate it. 22 people were baptized, including Phyllis. Steve may try to upload some pics to the Crossroads web site tonight.
A good day.
The pics wouldn't upload again, so I created a photo gallery. Click here to see the pretty pics.
http://cid-f4486a935d4a5aa2.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Israel?authkey=An*EHCkNlTI%24&ct=photos
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