This simple, ancient way of living

"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." -Romans 6:3-4

Good day everyone! We had another great day here on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. We started out our morning with something truly amazing, baptism. Five people out of our group as a whole wanted to be baptized in the Sea of Galilee, some of which this is the second time and others of which this was their first. It was a great sight to witness on the shore of Galilee and something that these people will remember for the rest of their lives. You can hopefully watch the videos that I took at the end of this post.

Once we made it to the bus, our daily journey began with places that were all relatively close to the resort. The first of which was Ancient Katzrin and here we stepped back in time. The group upon arriving at the site were given the official dress of the time and we all proceeded to make our way through the ancient village this way. We toured a reconstruction of a home from that time period, a synagogue, and an olive press. To end the journey of what seemed all too quick we ate bread that we helped prepare over the fire. Before long we had to come back to reality and leave this simple, ancient way of living behind as we made it to the bus for our next stop. Our guide through this village was great by the way and was quite knowledgeable on the subject of the Katzrins.

From here we got to go to less of a historically place and somewhere almost off topic from the trip yet it was very interesting and fun, this was Olea Essence. Olea Essence is one of, if not the, finest olive oil presses in all of Israel. Israel has the best olive oil in the world and it is exported everywhere. A nice surprise was that the owner and founder of Olea Essence was there today and was happy to come out and meet with us for a short time. He seemed like a great man and a true friend of the United States. He talked much about the politics involving Israel and the US but also how he still goes out everyday at 4 in the morning to trim the trees in the orchard. As Dan told us, "Although he is a man that wants your business, we wants to be your friend first." After talking with him for some time, we started our tour of the factory with a 5 minute video, a walk by the lab, and lastly a time to taste test some olive oil. They make many of things with this olive oil and they are also the first to use the black water from the olives and turn it into soaps and moisturizers instead of dumping it and letting it contaminate the earth. If you have the chance, look them up, it is amazing.

We made a quick stop shortly after the olive press at a roadside like park and from here was a viewing point to the boarder of Syria. The scenery was incredible but it also was a sad sight to witness. Throughout the morning Dan had been telling us of how Israel became the way it is today with the land and nations surrounding it. Because of the civil war in Syria, the towns that we could see on the coast of Syria were abandoned and probably will be for a long time for fear that if these peaceful citizens return home, they will come across as traitors and be executed by their own people. A very hard time for Syria and those that are refugees from here.

The last place that we visited before lunch was Caesarea Philippi, the city of Pan and where Jesus spoke the famous words of Matthew 16. Here we were able to see the amazing cliff palace/temple of Caesar Philippi as well as hear about the pagan traditions and beliefs of the people living here. There is also a cave that the mouth of a river once flowed from and this was called the "gates of Hades." This may sound like a familiar passage of Scripture to you all as it says in Matthew 16:18, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." It makes more sense being able to stand at "the gates of Hades" and see that this is the exact place that Jesus spoke these words and that they had historical and physical meaning as well as spiritual meaning.

At this place, we ate lunch and after having a short time to relax and catch up on what the day has brought so far, we climbed into the bus to see some more great places.

From Caesarea Philippi, we made our way to the ancient city of Tel Dan, the second home of the tribe of Dan. After the tribe of Dan was pushed out of their land in the Old Testament, they relocated to this spot here. This was where king Jeroboam was once at and where some amazing pieces of architecture and archeology were discovered. This city was amazingly fortified and was almost impossible to penetrate. It had an amazing arched entrance and this was also the only place in history where the name of David was ever found. A large monument put up by a king that took over the city of Tel Dan for a while that read how he had conquered the house of David which was found scattered and hidden throughout the site. We also got to hike and see the place where they disobeyed God's commands yet again and followed pagan tradition by building an alter in which animals were sacrificed to the golden calf as found in 1 Kings 12:25-33.

From here we made our way back to the Sea of Galilee where we had a boat waiting for us on shore to take us on a short trip for sunset. The ride was peaceful and the sunset was beautiful. Here Pastor Mike read to us the story of how Jesus calmed the storm in Mark 4:35-41. It was unreal to actually be sailing the Sea of Galilee and to think that Jesus did the same thing 2,000 years earlier. I don't think we will look at the story the same again.

Once the boat ride was over, we made our way to the restaurant to have a nice fish dinner waiting. Although it was not everyone's favorite, I think we all enjoyed the idea of eating fish caught in the Sea of Galilee while being right there to enjoy it.

We broke up after dinner as some went back to Aroma coffee to get a quick drink and others of us stayed back at the resort to hunker down for the night. Although it was a busy day, we saw a lot and learned much more.

Please be in prayer that even though Syria is not on good terms with Israel, that Syria, those who are being persecuted, and the refugees of the land would find refuge and strength, whether that be physical or spiritual.

In Christ Alone,
Keegan Mebert