Israel

We returned from our trip to Israel late Wednesday night and I wanted to post a few pictures. Actually I'm going to post a lot of pictures so get ready. It was quite a journey for us and I don't just mean in miles. I really didn't know what to expect from this trip. I read about Jesus, I pray to Him, I praise Him, I sing to Him - but now I've been to the place where he was born, where he walked on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where he preached the Sermon on the Mount, where he died. It was kinda overwhelming and very real.

So I think I'll just post Day One today and the others as I have time.

We started our first day in Caesarea - an ancient city on the coast of the Mediterranean. A lot of what we saw was built by Herod the Great to impress the Romans. First we visited the theater where Herod made a speech in his royal robes and Acts 12 says he was immediately struck down and eaten by worms because he didn't give glory to God. Anyway our guide says most likely a public address like that would have been here.

This is our guide Heni an Arab Christian who pretty much overwhelmed us with information the whole time.

Our preacher Jeff Christian reads from Acts 10 about Cornelius getting a vision from God to send for Peter - he was living in Caesarea.

Here's Greg taking it all in.

Herod built an amazing palace on this point.

Herod's swimming pool - freshwater.

Paul also made his appeal to Caesar in Caesarea and was sent to Rome from here. The next picture is the aquaduct that served the city. One of our group decided he could stack some rocks and climb on top.

We, however were not so adventurous and walked down to the beach to touch the Mediterranean. Oh and please don't judge my hair in any picture you see of me. I couldn't get my curling iron to work the whole time and I need my curling iron.

Haifa was our next stop. Heni said it's a city known for it's religious tolerance in this violent country. We went to an overlook - the Ba'Hai temple is in the background along with Mount Hermon. Again the hair - it was windy ok?

We drove to Mt. Carmel and had lunch - I ate a falafel every day at lunch - Greg ate something called a schwerma which is chicken in a pita. Anyway good food. On to the site where Elijah had his confrontation with the prophets of Baal. Heni read the story from 1 Kings 18 .

A view from the top of the mountain down into the Kishon Valley - Elijah had the 450 prophets of Baal slaughtered there.

On to Meggido (also referrred to as Armageddon) - one of the most ancient sites ever excavated on the planet according to Jeff (our preacher). "It is actually an artificial hill formed by thousands of years of building, each new city being built directly on top of a recently destroyed one." (Jeff again).

The Solomonic Gate - obviously built by Solomon.

A Canaanite alter.

As I took this flower picture, a large group of F-16's flew over with all their power and noise. Just a reminder of how complex and unsetteling Israel can be.

SOO - a little long. I'll try to reign it in on my next posts. We were there for nine days and I took around 400 pictures. Just think it could be worse!