Day 7 - from the Galilee through Samaria to Jerusalem

Our last three days have been very full so I've not had time to add much to the blog. Day 7 took us from the city of Tiberius on the shore of the Sea of Galilee to Nazareth where we visited the beautiful Church of the Annunciation which remembers the angel Gabriel visitng Mary in Nazareth. The church is built over a grotto that is said to be the home of Mary and possible childhood home of Jesus. The church is stunning from the front doors which display many of the Biblical stories to the mosaics of Mary throughout the church that have been given by countries throughout the globe. You see those below, along with a statue of Mary, the grotto in the church and finally the ruins of ancient Nazareth underneath the church.

Nazareth is now a large city, having grown from 400 or so in  Jesus day to over 200K today. From this bustling city center we headed to Samaria, stopping along the way to buy this enormous head of lettuce our guide bought on the road side.

Samaria is modern day West Bank so we traveled through several checkpoints until we arrived at our lunch location, complete with camel rides! The Palestinians who live in this region are very gracious and  thankful for aid from the US that has helped build up their infrastucture.

As we travelled through Samaria we saw lots of beautful countryside and had our final stop at Jacob's Well and the church that sits over the well. This is the well where Jesus met the Samaritan Woman at the well and so we read that story as well as the parable of the Good Samaritan. It was a powerful time as we pulled water from the well and used it for special blessing prayers. Following this service we headed for Jerusalem and this young Palestinian girl greeted us on our journey. You also see the interior of the church below and some photos from the service we did at the well underneath the church.