Israel Day 3 - Baptism in the Jordan, Mt. of Beatitudes, Capernaum

We started out the third day with an early morning visit to the Jordan River. While this was most likely not the exact same place that Christ was baptized at the beginning of His ministry, it was still an amazing experience. Our pastor and friend, Brett, baptized both Kelly and me. It was definitely a time to reflect on new beginnings in our individual walks and our walk as a couple.

We had to change our clothes and get back on the bus pretty quickly as Benny Hinn was setting up his group's live television feed. We nicknamed the 2500 people in his group the "hinnsters" and we seemed to run into them at every turn. Our bus proceeded to the Mt. of Beatitudes where we were able to overlook the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret). Here we studied about that amazing sermon that Christ gave in Matthew 5. Because of the work He did on the cross, it is possible for us to walk in a whole new way. Here is a side view of the mountain.

We walked down the hill to the lake. From this point on the lake to the mountains seen in the distance is where 70% of the gospels took place. As we walked, we could see the city of Svat which is the city that Christ referred to as the city on the hill in Matthew 5:14.

We came across a small cave that overlooks the lake. Tradition states that Christ used this cave as a place to pray. Of course I had to pose as the thinker...

We arrived at Peter's Primacy at the bottom of the hill. It is called this because it is at this point that Christ restored Peter and asked him to feed His sheep in John 21:16. Hot springs used to surface here and flow into the lake making it a great place to fish. We were able to stand on the shore and meditate over Christ's restoration in our own lives.

To finish off the theme on Peter, we got on the bus and drove around to a kibbutz called Ein Gev where we had St. Peter's fish (Tilapia). Ironically, there was a guy from Lake Oswego that works there...talk about unexpected. As you can see, I really liked the fish :o)

We then boarded a boat to take a trip across the lake. The owners of the boat raised an American flag and played our national anthem. It was really nice but kind of made all of us laugh. Tad gave us an awesome teaching on Mark 6:45-52 and Jesus walking across the water. He summed it all up in that Jesus wants us to see Him and not the waves or problems that surround us.

We arrived at the other side and immediately went into Capernaum. This was an awesome stop as there are some amazing remains of a 3rd century synagogue. This is built directly on top of the foundation of the synagogue in which Christ taught (Mark 2). About 50 yards away was Peter's house and all throughout the area were mill stones. Capernaum was famous for producing mill stones for the whole middle east. After seeing the size of these, it is easy to see what Christ meant in Matthew 18:6.

After overlooking the lake, boating on the lake, and meditating by the lake, we finished the day by looking at the remains of a boat that was pulled out of the lake. This boat is at another Kibbutz outside of which is this awesome stone arch. In 1985, the level of the lake was so low that the remains of the boat were seen. They packed the boat in foam and pulled it out of the lake to create this display. The boat was dated to around the time of Christ.

By this point, we were all ready for some sleep. An amazing day on the Sea of Galilee!

Israel Day 2 - Caesarea, Mt. Carmel, Tel Megiddo

In the morning, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise. Here is the same view from our hotel balcony.

Kelly was able to spot a rainbow while we were standing on the balcony. Great start to the day!

On our trip from the hotel, we drove past the Mossad Headquarters (Israeli Intelligence) and the area where the Patriot missiles were stationed during Operation Desert Storm to defend Tel Aviv from incoming Scudd missile attacks from Iraq.

Our first stop for the day was Caesarea Maritima. Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, lived in this city. He was the first Gentile with whom Peter shared the gospel (Acts 10). Caesarea Maritima was a city that Herod the Great built as a vacation home around 25 BC. This Herod the Great was the same Roman puppet-King of Judea that had all of the children born at the time of Jesus slain in an attempt to kill Christ early on in his life.

3 of Paul the apostle's missionary journeys went through this city and it was here that he was imprisoned before being sent before Caesar (Acts 23-25). We were able to spend some time in the coliseum worshiping the Lord and doing a Bible study before touring the ruins. Here is a picture of Matt, our associate pastor as we look out into the coliseum...

We were then able to walk through the ruins of the city and see the remnants of Herod's Great Hall and the large freshwater pool that he built overlooking the ocean. Here is a picture of Kelly standing in front of a large portion of the site.

The Hippodrome was the place where they would meet to have horse races. Seven horses would race side by side on this track. This was later turned into a gladiatorial stadium. Herod was the man who instituted the medal system we still use today in the Olympics (Gold - 1st, Silver - 2nd, and Bronze - 3rd).

Our next stop was Mt. Carmel. This was the site where the prophet Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of the Pagan god Baal to a duel to find out which God was real. The story can be found in 1 Kings 18. Here we are on Mt. Carmel.

Long story short, God proved true and Baal proved to be a false god, and Elijah slew the prophets of Baal in the Valley below. Not coincidentally, this valley that you could see from Mt. Carmel is the Jezreel Valley, also known as the Valley of Armageddon (Rev. 16).

How could this be the Valley where the final battle between good and evil takes place, right? It looks so peaceful, right? Just as we were sitting there meditating on what God has done and will do in this place, we saw four Israeli F-15s fly right overhead. Very surreal to say the least!

At this point in the day, we left Mt. Carmel and descended down it's slopes to Tel-Meggido. A Tel is simply a hill where one conquering group builds its town upon the remains or ruins of the town that was conquered. Tel Megiddo has 3 main levels, the first of which dates back to 1500 BC under Canaanite ownership.

There is a huge underground water system that we were able to tour through which King Ahab of Israel commissioned as well as a giant altar on which animal sacrifices for the pagan god Baal took place. The next picture is of the remains of Solomon's stables which were also in this area. King Solomon was the most powerful, wealthy, and wise king of Israel's history. During the height of his kingdom, he had a great number of chariots and horses, some of which were kept here. You can see the remains of the columns as well as the feeding troughs in between each column.

After spending a few hours here (not nearly enough time), we departed for our stay that evening at a hotel on the Sea of Galilee. From Mt. Carmel, you could see Mt. Tabor, Nazareth, and many other biblical sites of importance. As we drove to our hotel that night, we passed through the city named Nazareth with a beautiful view of the oncoming weather.

By this point we checked into our hotel, had another fabulous meal, and hit the sack early to get ready for the big day ahead of us. An awesome first full day of touring in Israel!

Israel Day 1 - Travel

Hi Everybody! Well, we made it back safe and sound. Sorry we weren't able to update the blog while we were gone.....too much to talk about and not enough speedy network connections in the hotels to keep up.

So as we take a look back at our trip through our pictures, we will update the blog in chronological order so you can follow along on our adventures. The trip was more amazing than we can even put into words or pictures but we will try our best to give you a glimpse :o)

We had an amazing group of 47 people that we toured with. They were all wonderful traveling companions and we were so blessed to fellowship with all of them. Here we are getting ready to fly out of PDX airport. We are on the left....

After a 4 hour flight to Atlanta, a 3 1/2 hour layover in Atlanta (enjoying some TGIF fried cooking), and then a 13 hour flight to Tel Aviv, we disembarked in the wonderful country of Israel. Here is Kelly and one of our friends, Colsey, getting their picture taken at the passport stations. About 5 seconds after this, we were told by the security guards that it was not ok to take pictures in this area.....oops.

The area the airport is in is called Lod, right outside Tel Aviv. It was also known in New Testament times as Lydda. It was here that Peter healed the man named Aeneas of palsy (Acts 9). Right next to Lydda was the city of Joppa. Here Peter raised Tabitha back to life (Acts 9) and was given the vision to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ not only to Jews but also to Gentiles (Acts 10). Needless to say we were all excited to be there.

We went directly from the airport to the hotel in Tel Aviv called the "Dan Panorama" overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and the skyline of the city. Here are some views out of our room that night.

After checking in to the room, eating an amazing dinner, and getting reunited with our friend Tad (our missionary Pastor living in Vanuatu who flew in to tour with us) we decided to go out for a nice evening walk. We walked along the Mediterranean Sea and stopped to get some frozen yogurt. Here is a picture of us outside the shop...

On our walk back to the hotel we saw a monument to a number of young people who were killed at a discotheque that was bombed on June 1, 2001. It was a sad reminder of the violence that occurs in Israel on a regular basis.

The beauty of the boardwalk helped us to focus on the exciting day to come. We decided to play around with the camera as our friends Jon and Stacey walked through a cool part of the boardwalk.

Bungee Jumping!!!!!

So for some insane reason, we decided to bungee jump the weekend before our big trip to Israel. Actually, our friend Chris asked if we wanted to go and we thought what better event to start our vacation off right! This is the gate to the bridge where we would jump off a perfectly good bridge.

This is the perfectly good bridge. Notice the lack of railing to one side. That is the side you DO NOT want to fall off if you are not bungee'd in.

This was the view to the 1 ft-deep creek 200 feet below the bridge. Don't look down!

And here is the little tiny platform that you get to jump off of. What were we thinking :o)

This is Chris....he's the crazy guy that asked us to go with him. Here he is flying off a ramp that he ran down and then jumped off.

Here he is after his second jump where he basically stepped off the platform backwards. He was obviously enjoying himself :o)

Here I am getting strapped into my harness. The guy doing the work is the owner of http://www.bungee.com/. He is a real joker. The waiver form asked if we wanted cremation or open casket!

So then it was my turn. I read a really cool verse in the book of Psalms that morning that gave me peace. Psalm 71:5 says "For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth". Oh well, here goes.....as you can see, I was a little nervous by the sweat. What can I say, I am scared to death of heights.




























Your first jump is a swan dive. As you could see by the smile, I loved it and conquered my fear of heights. The second dive is backwards. Plummeting backwards is very different because you just see everyone on the bridge falling away from you. Crazy!




























After I jumped, Kelly turned to me and asked, "Do you think that I could jump?". I immediately said she could totally do it. What she told me later is that she wanted to do it since the night before but didn't want to psyche herself out. So she grabbed a harness, signed her life away, and got in line to jump. Here are some pics of her first jump. She did awesome! No hesitation!

















The owner made a comment about Kelly, "Boy when she decides she wants something, she really goes after it doesn't she." He doesn't even know the half of it :o) I was so proud of her. At the beginning of the day she wasn't even going to get up on the grating on the one side of the bridge. By the end of the day, she is jumping off the bridge. Here are some pictures of her second jump:




























As I said earlier....awesome way to start our 2 and a half week vacation. Now on to Israel! Keep an eye out for pictures from the Holy Land as the Lord blesses us with the trip of a lifetime!

Israel Itinerary

In 11 days we will be leaving for Israel!! We are so excited, it can't come soon enough! Some of you have been asking for our itinerary, so here it is. Also, Israel time is 10 hours ahead of Oregon.

Here is our flight itinerary:

Date	Flight	Location	Time
Monday, November 5	Delta 1288	Depart Portland	11:50 AM
		Arrive Atlanta	7:21 PM
	Delta 152	Depart Atlanta	10:50 PM
Tuesday, November 6		Arrive Tel Aviv	5:20 PM
Saturday, November 17	Delta 153	Depart Tel Aviv	11:25 PM
Sunday, November 18		Arrive Atlanta	6:00 AM
	Delta 1237	Depart Atlanta	8:35 AM
		Arrive Portland	11:00 AM

...and here is our hotel itinerary...

Tuesday, November 6
Dan Panorama Hotel, Tel Aviv

Wednesday, November 7 - Friday, November 9
Holiday Inn, Tiberias

Saturday, November 10
Taybet Zaman Hotel, Petra (Jordan)

Sunday, November 11 - Monday, November 12
Crowne Plaza, Eilat

Tuesday, November 13
Le Meridien, Dead Sea

Wednesday, November 14 - Friday, November 16
David Citadel, Jerusalem

A map of Israel:

And here is a map of Jordan that shows where Petra is: