Hearing the Stories

Today we continued our tour of Galilee. We spent most of our day in the Decapolis, which is located on the east side of the Sea of Galilee and then ended in northern Israel. We started by visiting a 4th Century church in Hippos that is right below the cliffs. People believe this is the spot where Jesus healed the demon possessed man and sent the demons into pigs. It was amazing to get to sit there in an old historic church and hear the story told on the location.

Then we headed to place that had a replica Hebrew village in the 1st Century. We got to sit in a room and see what it would have been like for a typical family of that time. Chris told us the story of the paralytic man being lowered into the room and we got to experience first hand what it would have been like to see a roof caving in. This totally brought the story to life.

Next up was the Golan Heights. It is a huge plateau on the northeastern border of Israel. It was interesting to hear how Israel took this fertile and beautiful land from the Syrians in the late 1960’s to protect themselves from being shot at by snipers. We visited a bunker on Mt. Bental. We got to hear tons of stories about how Israel protects it’s boarders. There was a great story where a commander who only had one tank left realized that the Syrians were listening to his radio transmissions and tricked them by sending them in different directions. It is crazy to realize how much God continues to protect and bless this nation.

We cruised down the Golan Heights to Caesarea Philippi. This would have been the religious center of the Romans and Greeks of that time. Here they would have worshipped different gods and participated in many pagan rituals and sacrifices. In Matthew 16:13-28, there is a story of Jesus who takes his disciples here and asks them who they think He is? In a place full of other gods, Peter responds by saying that you are the Messiah. This also is where one of the 3 springs that flow make up the Jordan river starts.

This next place was probably the biggest WOW of the day. We went to Tel Dan. It is the northern most city in Israel. Did you know that the tribe of Dan actually moved? Yeah, crazy. They left the land God promised them to avoid all the battles with the Philistines and headed all the way north. They ended up wiping out a peaceful Canaanite village and setting up shop in what is now called Dan. The amazing part was how big it was. It had a huge temple where they would have done sacrifices (since they couldn’t go to Israel when the kingdoms split). Plus, it had two huge city gates that we haven’t seen at any of the other sites. And to top it all off, there was a 4000 year old city gate (yes a 3rd one) that Abraham would have visited when he went to rescue Lot, his nephew.

On our way back to the Kubutz, we did a quick stop on the Jordan River and 3 of our youth pastors got baptized. What a great way to end the day! It was a special thing to witness. We can’t wait till tomorrow. It is supposed to be even better. Hard to imagine.

Travis Sybert

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