Second Day Seaing the Galilee

Check it. I'm punny! ;-)

So we started our second day with a field trip around the Sea of Galilee. Our first stop was a boat ride across the sea, which was really quite rad. 

We began our boat ride by raising the American flag and singing the national anthem... I love this picture of Sawyer and the boat worker guy raising the flag... haha--we sailed on the Sea of Galilee with an American Flag flying...

The beautiful Sea of Galilee 

Check out my cast! haha

Sarah--she was such a great sport this trip! She was my roommate and helped me do quite a bit :-)

also, she sometimes does this...

Eden and Sawyer

I somehow always end up with a ton of pictures of me laughing... oh well...

If she wasn't engaged, we would be in love... haha just kidding... ;-)

Romeo and I actually are in love... platonic love..

More laughing pictures...

I love Rachel. and also the rest of these people (Romeo, Tess, Rachel, Courtney, Kari, Tori, and Spencer)

This is a cute one...

Romeo getting all "little Mermaid" on us...

I have friends.

We read the accounts in Matthew 14 of Peter walking on water

and in Mark 4 of Jesus calming the waters

and we sang Master, the Tempest is Raging.

This was way cool.

also, a boat.

Sleepy Lindsay and Tye and John... and then there's Kara...

and again with the Sea of Galilee

Next we headed to Mt. Arbel

So when we got there, there was a perfect photo-op in the parking lot... haha

Rachel and I joke that we are married... because sometimes we act like it...

then Rachel tried to kiss me on the cheek and things got weird... haha

Sarah and myself at the top of Mt. Arbel

sick picture of Lindsey Newman...

Mt. Arbel

Next, we went to Tabgha to the church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes

This mosaic (loaves and fishes) is from the Byzantine period

The church was built in 1982 on top of the remains of a Byzantine church.

The cloister/courtyard

arches

Lindsay taking a little nap...

The church commemorates the story in Luke 9:10-17 of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes to feed the multitude

more pictures outside the church...

Next we headed to Capernaum which was a town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee and was home to Peter, Andrew, possibly Matthew, and Jesus lived there for a time too and referred to it as "his own city" (Matthew 9:1)

This is a statue of Peter

I think these signs are so funny...

We sat on these steps in the synagogue and talked about the biblical events that occurred in Capernaum

Lindsay taking another little nap ;-)

Then we sat on the edge of the sea and had a devotional there too

love this of Jenessa and Lindee

This black basalt stone would have been used at the time the Savior was there

picture in the bible of Capernaum :-)

Our final stop of the day was the Mount of Beatitudes

This church has 8 sides, each one has one of the beatitudes (found in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7) written on it

The church of the Beatitudes

Sarah with the church behind her

I think this church is so beautiful!

You can see the Sea of Galilee behind those trees. Although this probably was not the exact spot where the Sermon on the Mount was given, it is still nice to commemorate the occasion

So when Romeo saw these fish, he said "No wonder Jesus was able to feed 5,000--look how big the fish were!"

I rode the bus to the bottom of the hill, but the rest of the class climbed down the mountain.

I bet that was a pretty neat experience :-)

Spencer rapping to us on the bus on the way back to Ein Gev...

That night after dinner we had a bonfire! It was so much fun!

Sarah and I being lions? I don't know...

We had a TON of laughter this trip (shocker...)

roommates :-)

playing sport-type games and chilling by the fire--perfect evening!

and the sunset was stunning.

This was another wonderful day!

-E

Adventures in the Galilee: Day 1

Greetings from Galilee!!!

Last night we got back from a 10ish day stay in the Galilee. It was great! We stayed at a resort called Ein Gev which is right on the Sea of Galilee, and had many field trips and plenty of class time up there. It was great! So now I am going to post a bunch of blog posts about my time in the Galilee :-)

Our first stop after leaving Jerusalem was Beth Shean, which was an important city in Roman, New Testament, and Byzantine eras. It has 18 stratum (layers of archaeological evidence from different time periods).

I was lucky enough to bring this wheelchair to Galilee--Most of the sites were roughly wheelchair accessible and way easier to navigate on wheelchair than crutches. You can see the Tel behind me (the hill--a Tel is an archaeological site where the ruins are covered up).

So while everyone climbed up to the top of the Tel Beth Shean I stayed at the bottom. Sister Clayton gave me her hat to block the sun... I look pretty cool, huh?

this one is a photo for the scrapbooks...

The main street in Beth Shean--it's hard to tell, but the street is triangularly shaped (pointed up in the middle) as a drainage system. Pretty neat!

This is the bathhouse in Beth Shean--there would have been flooring over those little pillars and then between them they would heat or cool the floor by using air and fire and stuff...

The theater

pillars at the Bathhouse--look, I'm standing up! ;-)

Our next stop was Nazareth, which was really cool!

We went to the Synagogue Church which is built on the traditional spot where Christ taught as a boy in the synagogue and then later announced that he was the Messiah (see Luke 4: 14-22)

 This church dates back to the Crusader age (12th century AD)

so cool.

and here is another shot inside the church--even if it isn't the spot or the church where Christ taught, it is still pretty neat to commemorate that event.

The outside of the church

Just down the hill from the Synagogue Church is a modern Roman Catholic church-- The Church of the Annunciation which is the largest Christian church in the middle east. This church commemorates the angel Gabriel's annunciation to Mary that her son would be the Savior of the world. (see Luke 1:26)

Jacob found his name on the door :-)

All along the outside (and inside) of the church there are these mosaics given by different countries of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. It is a really cool church!

while we were waiting to leave Nazareth, we saw these two little boys doing this... hahaha--I guess kids are the same all over the world ;-) [sidenote, this is a bit gross, but the dark spot on the tree is urine, those little guys got it above their heads! that might be talent] haha ;-)

Our next stop was to this boat museum on the Sea of Galilee to see this boat from the time of Jesus. The Ginosar boat was discovered in 1985 when a severe drought caused the water in the Sea of Galilee to recede considerably and this boat was discovered. It is likely a boat that was used in the battle of Magdala (during the first Jewish Revolt) but would have been the same type of boat used by the apostles who were fishermen on the sea of Galilee during that era.

pretending to row the boat...

these artifacts (lamp, pot, some arrowheads) were discovered inside the boat.

Our next stop was St. Peter's Primacy. This is inside the church--the rock here (the Mensa Christi--Latin for "table of Christ") is the traditional site where Christ appeared to his disciples after he was resurrected and where he served them breakfast (see John 21)

Myself and Sarah outside the church at St. Peter's Primacy--apparently Christian tradition says that the three times Peter said he loved the Lord when he appeared after being resurrected "undid" the three times he denied the Christ before the crucifixion... 

Chaille and Myself in the church at St. Peter's Primacy

St. Peter's Primacy

The church is right on the sea, so we were able to sit right on the edge of the lake for some reflective time... I really like this picture of Spencer

Sitting on the shore of the Sea of Galilee

love this shot of Emily :-)

Our final stop of the day was to Yardenit, one of the baptismal spots on the Jordan river. We were able to take some nice pictures with the Jordan :-)

The beautiful Jordan River

love it.

Me, Myself, and I.

Me with the Jordan River

They have the account of Jesus' baptism written in a bunch of different languages all over the complex, which is pretty cool. (see Mark 1:9-11)

On the bus ride after the Jordan river, Taylor and I were joking that I should write a book about my experiences. She drew this book cover for me. We decided we would call the series "Wheelchair in the Holy Land" and the volume on Galilee would be titled "Rolling on Water" haha ;-)

What a great start to our time in the Galilee!!!

-E