First Day in Israel

Wow, what a day!! We saw so much that it's hard to describe it here. But before i go on let me freely admit that none of the sites we visited can be conclusively proven to be accurate, but having said that there is considerable historical evidence that most are realistic.

Pictures listed from top to bottom: Church of the Annunciation, Doors of Church showing life of Jesus, Sea of Galilee, Altar where Feeding of 5000 occurred, and Church of Beatitudes.

After landing at Haifa, we boarded our bus (with a very verbose tour guide!) and headed out. After passing Mount Carmel (Remember Ezekiel and the prophets of Baal?) and another mount which was possibly the site of the Transfiguration, we headed out to: - Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth

- Sea of Galilee

- Church of the Multiplication (Loaves and Fishes)

- Peter's House in Capernum (first Christian house church)

- Site of the Capernum Synagogue where Jesus preached

- Church of the Beatitudes

- Baptism of Christ in Jordan

All in all a very busy day with temperatures in the high 90's and hitting 100 for most of the afternoon. Jesus spent much of his ministry in this area and we visited many relevant sites. The church of the Annunciation had large bronze doors the depicted the life of Jesus. Look at the picture and start in the top left, go down the left side and up the right side to view this depiction. Inside was a cave where Gabriel appear to Mary had been excavated. The church itself was quite new and the walls contained images of Madonna given by many countries.

Seeing the Sea of Galilee was quite amazing. Both Mary and I took way to many pictures of this body of water, but none could really capture the sight very well.

The Church of the Multiplication was quite interesting. It honors the miracle of Feeding of the 5000 using 5 loaves and 3 fishes. I did not know the site of this miracle was known, but there was an altar over the rock where it reportedly happened. It was a very beautiful church and quite elegant in its simplicity.

Our next stop was Capernum and the site of Peter's House which was an early house church back before Christianity was legal. It was quite near Capernum's synagogue where Jesus often preached during his ministry.

Outside of this beautiful octagonal church (one side for each Beatitude) the guide asked for a volunteer to read Matthew 5 and I spoke up! It was quite moving to read that passage on that site.

Our last stop of the day was the Jordan River. This is the reported site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. There were several baptisms going on while we were there, but we walked down another staircase to the river. I took my shoes off and stood in the river on a lower step while Mary just reached down and scooped up some water. It was amazing to see the Jordan River after reading about it so much in the Bible.

So that was our day. Tomorrow is Jerusalem and Bethlehem which should be equally moving.