Israel Trip - Day Two

Dear family and friends~

We got up at about 6:00 am, freshened up, and had a breakfast of pita bread, slices of turkey, tomatoes and cucumbers, and a warm hard-boiled egg.

The first picture is the view from St. Margaret's Guesthouse terrace. You can see the city of Nazareth.

We were on the bus by 8:00.
Today we toured the Galilee region. We drove through Cana (where Jesus changed water into wine), then on to the Sea of Galilee. We went to the Church of the Beatitudes, in the area where Jesus preached: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth".... We walked down a path toward the lake, where Jesus may have walked, to the Chapel of the Primacy of Peter. What an amazing feeling to think that Jesus was RIGHT there.

We traveled by bus to a kibbutz*, where we got on the Jesus Boat and sailed out into the Galilee. Our guide Tony explained the importance of that lake in Jesus time, and everything that Jesus did there. When we were out in the middle of the lake, they stopped the boat and we had Communion. It was a powerful, and very emotional experience.

We had lunch at the kibbutz*. Our last stop of the day was Capernaum. There have been archaelogical digs which have exposed homes from Christ's time. We saw Peter's home, where Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law and others. The second picture is of one of the excavations, with Peter's home (beneath the church) in the background.

There is a beautiful Catholic Chapel built over Peter's home. The center of the chapel is open to the view of Peter's home below. There is a synagogue very near, too. The foundation stones are the same ones there during Jesus' time.

Tonight dinner at 6:30, then time to be together with the group. Tomorrow: Bethlehem.

Love,
Dawn and Chuck

*Kibbutz - A collective farm or settlement in modern Israel.