And here's the one from Thursday...
We landed late Wednesday night into Tel Av-iv safely, however one of our groups flying out of Durango had plan issues and did not arrive until Thursday morning, and was able to catch up with us by evening. They had a great guide who was able to get them to all the sights and then they arranged for all of us to be together in one bus by Friday morning.
The picture above and to the right are from our hotel balcony at night and in the morning. This area is significant to our faith as the church in many ways has some of it's beginnings here. The Apostle Peter lived in this area and did many healings in Acts 9 as the town of Joppa was just down the road. Joppa is also where Jonah departed as he headed for Tashish, running away from God and his call to go to Nineveh. Peter would eventually be called out of this region, north up the Mediterranean Sea, to Ceasarea Maritime, which was our first destination Thursday morning. On the way, we stopped to see this famous Roman Aquaduct which carried water from Mount Carmel down towards the coastal cities in the first few centuries.
The ruins of Ceasarea are to the right and we spent time remembering that this is the place where Peter met Cornelius in Acts 10 and his entire family was baptized, setting the stage for the church to continue to capture hearts in the Roman world. Paul was also imprisoned here in Acts 26 and shared the gospel in his testimony before being shipped to Rome for trial before Caesar. We remembered in our time together here those scriptures and the truth that the Gospel was meant to be a word of hope for those outside the faith, and those who feel imprisoned by life. I also couldn't resist adding the photo below of Pastor Karen and Stacey enjoying the ancient Roman toilets!
Our next stop took us to the top of the cliffs above Nazareth, where Jesus was taken to be thrown off after preaching his first sermon in Luke 4! The Mount of Precipice has beautiful views and was a great place to focus on Nazareth as the home of Jesus for the first part of his life, but becoming painful as he began his public ministry. We read from the scriptures and remembered how God promises to be with us even when we feel rejected at places that used to feel like home. We also talked about the fact that Nazareth was a town no one expected a Savior to come from! You can see the view in the photo on the right.
We then traveled into Nazareth to the Church of the Annunciation, built over the top of the cave where tradition says Mary lived. You can see the worship center dedicated to her below. All around the church are works of art from different nations depicting Mary such as the ones below. Underneath the church you can see the ancient ruins of Nazareth and remember the role of this special town that no one believed would matter to anyone.
We ended our day on the shore of the Sea of Galilee at our hotel, where the sunset lit up Mount Arbel, a place we will visit on Saturday, and gave us beautiful sunrises in the morning from our balcony. I leave you with these images and will share more tomorrow.
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