Our first day!

     Greetings from the Holy Land! 
     Our first full day here in Galilee, northern Israel, began this morning. We woke up at our hotel in Tiberius, located on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. We arrived last night after almost 24 hours of travel, and didn't have time to do much more than eat a bleary-eyed dinner and go to sleep. But this morning, the sun rose on a beautiful sight -- the water and hills and palm trees of Israel.
      In the morning, we boarded the bus and drove around the perimeter of Lake Tiberius, better known as the Sea of Galilee. As our guide, Johnny, related, it's not actually a sea at all, but a lake--not even as big as Lake Michigan, since we can see all the way across! We drove up into the hills,
passing orange, lemon, banana and olive trees (all producing, at this time of year) and stopped at the border with Lebanon, to gaze across the fence to the hills and farms of Israel's neighbor to the north. We also stopped at Caesaria Philippi, site of the town where Peter made his famous confession of faith, and wandered among the ruins. Our next stops were churches built to commemorate some of Jesus' most famous ministry and miracles: the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount (which we read out loud together), the Feeding of the 5,000, and Jesus' appearance to the disciples after his resurrection. After a lunch of local cuisine, including St. Peter fish, we continued on to Capernaum, the "home base" for Jesus and the disciples during his Galilee ministry. At each site, we read from the biblical texts set in these places, prayed, reflected and took in the views.
    The highlight for many of us was at the end of the day, when we took a boat--similar to the fishing boats used at the time of Jesus--across the Sea of Galilee, back to Tiberius. On the boat we enjoyed singing hymns, learning some Israeli songs, and even the raising of the American flag in our honor! The sun set as we cruised across the lake, and we arrived on the other side to see the lights of Tiberius at night.
     We are settling into the hotel for a free evening of dinner, shopping, spa, or for many of us, sleep! We're looking forward to another day in Galilee tomorrow.

The Holy Land group

Comments

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Sounds like an awesome experience so far, and it's only Day 1! Glad to see you all made it safely there, enjoy tomorrow!