This is our path too!

Tonight is our last night staying at the Sea of Galilee. We began our day with an experience. We met with a guide named Sarah who showed us what it was like to live in a village of the first century Israel. She helped us set the mood by giving us all first century attire to walk around in! We started by learning the process of making bread. We certainly take for granted how easy it is to purchase a loaf from the grocery store. A lot of sweat equity goes into making the dough. We did not have time to go through each step to completion, but we did get to taste the end product! We then got to explore the inside of a home in the village. They reconstructed some ruins to make it look like a home from first century Israel. It brought some of the Biblical stories to life after seeing what it looked like. For example, the story of the lame man’s friends breaking through the roof to lower him down so that Jesus could heal him has new meaning! This was no easy task; and probably took a good amount of time to break through the tree branches and dried mud that held the roof together. These men had a lot of faith that Jesus could heal in order to go through this tough task.

Next, we traveled north to Dan. This was the Danites second homeland, after they moved away from the land that God had set aside for them when they first entered the promised land. We learned that this move by the Danites was against God’s plan and created big problems for them. We saw the reconstruction of a pagan altar that they built and where the king would sit at the gate. A short walk from this altar stood the remains of the 4000+ year old city gate that Abraham may have walked through when coming to save Lot! It was incredible to see such an old structure and to think that father Abraham may have walked where we were standing.

We also had the opportunity to stop at Caesarea Philippi. This is the northernmost part of Jesus’ ministry. The story of Jesus talking to Peter and telling him that “on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” was said on a mountain side that we were able to hike on. We saw the pagan temple that was worshiped at and the Roman architecture all around. It is amazing that Jesus’ first time telling his disciples about the coming church was in such a pagan place. In the Gospel of Matthew, the story of Jesus continues on from this northern city of Caesarea Philippi and moves with Jesus on to Jerusalem. This is our path too!

Tomorrow morning, we leave the Sea of Galilee and make our way into Jerusalem. Please pray for safe travels and an open mind as we see a lot of sites.