Day 06 - Beth Shean, Megiddo, Mt. Carmel, Caesarea Maritima

At a young age, I can remember being in Sunday school and being taught many Bible “stories”. Today, those stories have me feeling like I’m being pulled into the scriptures. The evidence of the existence of Jesus is real and always has been but being here makes more real. I do have to say I was still operating as if they were stories and I didn’t know it until now. I am here and I am going to the places Jesus walked. I am experiencing the reality of how real the words of the Bible are. Definitely how long it took them to get to one place over to the next. I am just in awe of this. The most used word on this trip for me is WOW! As I have been starting out my days with prayer, some worship and devotions and watching the beautiful sunrise. I am able to reflect on the days that have come and the days to come.

Today was last day at Galilee. I have to say it’s been my favorite set of destinations so far. Our tour guide and now friend Ronin has been super helpful with this trip. He has made it fun and has helped make these sites come alive. I feel like I’m in a real life version of Super Book!

This trip overall has been amazing and I will remember this for the rest of my life. We definitely have felt exhausted and the heat can be intense but praise the Lord for renewed strength daily.

My brain feels like it’s gonna pop with all the information we have gone over in the last 6 days. Such great studies, devotions and with this experience my personal devotions been more exciting and I have been waking up extra early to complete them.

One last thing, before I get into the destinations. I need to say something about the food! The food, oh my goodness. I enjoy this food so much, I’ve been doing the happy dance. They serve salad for breakfast every morning, at first I was like that’s strange and now I have enjoy it. The eggs cooked in marinara sauce is really good, and if that doesn’t sound good! Guess what! They have hard boiled eggs, omelettes and scrambled eggs. It is a win win. They have had baked chicken too, if you know me you know I love chicken. Did I mention pasta too! I am totally celebrating this victory. Can we bring a chef with us home? Wink, wink!

Our first destination was Beth Shean and that means House of strength or security. We talked about the 19 civilizations and The death of Saul. We talked how they would set up markets, kinda like a farmer’s market is how I imagine it. We then walked over to where the ancient restroom was when Ronin had Natasha and Eli come sit side by side to show how close some people may have had to sit. We also talked about the Roman theater and the way it worked out. Ronin had Holly race up to the top of the amphitheater, as if she was rocky in one of the films. The whole group cheered her on, it was awesome. Ronin spoke about what it was like and how the actors would put together the shows.

Our next destinations was at Megiddo, Mt. Carmel and then Caesarea Marítima. We walked up to the site and Ronen asked us to go on a statue, With metal outlined horses up front and a stone chariot and act like we were soldiers riding the chariot. We got to go down into a tunnel and 180 steps down into a cool tunnel and to come out the other side walking up 80 more stairs. My favorite spot was at the end when we got to go see the Mediterranean Sea at Caesarea Marítima the view of the water was so beautiful the breeze was nice and cool. We ended up having time to go put our feet in the water. The water was warm! There was mini sea shells everywhere. Right before 5pm, we needed to be outside of the white metal gates. We loaded up the bus and we headed back to point A of the trip and we have now settled into Dan Jerusalem hotel. Dinner was good and I walked around and scouted out my spot for morning devotions. Now I am off to bed good night!