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)
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
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