Day 05 - Katzrin, Mount Bental, Caesarea Philippi, Tel Dan

Today we traveled into and around the Golan Heights.

We saw actual cows of Bashan (Amos 4:1) grazing on the hillsides on our way to visit the archeological finds of an ancient village in Katzrin. We were provided period dress and toured village with a synagogue that Jesus may have taught in and a stone home from the second century. We were then treated to the educational experience of what it would have been like to make bread and other foods of the region. We cooked the flat bread on a metal dome coal fire then ate it with goat cheese, regional olives and jam. Simple and delicious!

We continued to Tel Dan the site where the tribe of Dan went against God’s choice of land for them at Bet Shemesh to a land they found “better” (Judges 18). We saw the Dan waterway (1 of 3 ground water and surface runoff waterways) that feed the Jordan river headwaters and saw the ruins of the synagogue built there to worship the golden calf made for them by Jeraboam (1 Kings 12).

Next we traveled to Caesarea Philippi where Peter declared Jesus to be “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:17) and saw the  water springs from Mt. Hermon that are the origin of the Jordan river.

Our final site was Mt Bental that gave us views of the borders of Syria & Israel. 

The final event of our day was baptism in the Sea of Galilee - a profound and unforgettable event for everyone of us who was baptized here today. Praise be to God!

Liz Samoylenko