Day 9

We had another full day ahead of us. Our first stop was Tabha, the site of the miracle of the Loaves and Fish. We also went to the site where Jesus was standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and told the fishermen to cast their nets on the other side of the boat when they did not catch any fish. Inside the chapel there is the rock where they believe Jesus cooked the fish that was caught. This was the one place where we were able to actually go to the Sea of Galilee and touch the water. We also went to Korazim which was one of the cities condemned by Jesus because they did not believe after he performed miracles there. After that, we went to Capernaum and saw the remains of the house of Peter. After visiting Capernaum, we went to Kibbutz Ein Gev and ate St. Peter’s fish which is tilapia. A kibbutz is a community where everyone works and basically they all take care of each other. After lunch, we rode on a boat back to the other side. It was already about 3:00 by this time and we were now headed to the Jordan River for baptism. Our guide did not know that the place closed at 3:00 instead of 4:00 this particular Friday. We arrived at 3:30. It is specific place on the Jordan River with sites set up for baptism. It has a place for people to sit and watch. You pay $10 and they let you use a robe and towel. When we got there, we had to rush. Those of us who were getting baptized had to get our stuff and change. We changed right away and walked down to the site. About half of the group was getting baptized or rededicated. This was my first baptism. The water was extremely cold. The experience was all worth it. The people who worked there were rushing us. As sson as we were done, we had to run up to the changing room and change. We all got done by 4:15. We went back to our hotel. I had to shower and get ready for dinner. This is probably the day I will never forget because it is the day I was baptized in the Jordan River.

Day 8

This morning I woke up and looked out the window and saw the sun rising above the Sea of Galilee. We had a full day ahead of us, visiting many sites where Jesus had preached or performed miracles. Our first stop of the day was Mt. Beatitudes, the site of the “Sermon on the Mount.” It is a beautiful property that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. After Mt. Beatitudes, we went to Banias (Caesarea Phillippi). The remains of an old temple are there. Also, this is the place where Jesus reveals Himself to His disciples. This again is another beautiful and peaceful place. We then drove up to Golan Heights and looked over the Hula Valley. We ate lunch at a Druse eatery. Druse are groups of people that inhabit certain parts of Israel and believe that Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, is their main prophet. They set up their own businesses in their community. We ate falafel and it was the best falafel I have ever had. Felafel here in Israel is so good. It is crispy on the outside but very moist on the inside. They put 4 felafel in a pita and then you add your own vegetables and salads. It cost $8 for a falafel and a drink. After lunch, we headed back down through the valley on our way to Ginosaur. In Ginosaur, there is a museum that contains the boat they found that they have dated as being 2000 years old. They believe this boat was used during the time of Jesus. We watched a short video that showed where they found out and how they were able to dig it out and transport it. It was not easy and took a lot of work. The only reason they found it was because the sea level was so low. After watching the video, we went into the room where the boat was. That was a pretty awesome sight. We took pictures of the boat and many bought some stuff at their store. They also had 4 computers with free internet so everyone was trying to check their e-mail. That was the last stop of our day. We went back to our hotel for dinner.

Day 7

Today, we woke up in Amman, Jordan. It is a very modern city. The hotel we stayed in was decent. We got up early. When we left our hotel, we headed straight to the city of Jerash. This is one of the decopolis cities that is mentioned in the Bible. It was a Roman civilization that was built in AD 129 to honor the Roman Emperor Hadrian. We walked around the old city for a couple of hours. We walked through the main street (cardo), hippodrome (where they had chariot races), theater, and the marketplace. This city is also known for its relation to the story in the Bible about the demon possessed man. After Jesus commanded the demons to leave the man and the demons then possessed the swine, this was one of the cities that man went to. He told them about Jesus and what Jesus had just done for him. After having lunch there, we got back on the bus and made our way to the border or Jordan and Israel. Getting out of Jordan was easy. Getting into Israel took several checkpoints. We had to take our luggage out of the bus, put them through security machines and transfer to a new bus. We met our new guide Hela. When we got on our new bus and began our drive to Tiberias, we saw our first glimpse of the Jordan River. We drove to our hotel and saw the Sea of Galilee for the first time. We got to our hotel pretty early. We walked to the downtown area before dinner. After dinner, I went straight to bed. I was so tired.

Day 6

We had an awesome view of the Petra valley from our hotel room. This is the nicest hotel we've stayed in so far. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. This morning we got up at 6:00, breakfast at 7:00. At 8:00, we walked to Petra. It was right next to our hotel. We walked through which was like the Grand Canyon of Jordan. There is an old city and buildings that were carved into the mountains. Those who couldn't do the walk could ride a horse drawn carriage but it was $50 roundtrip for 2 people and it didn't even go down the whole way. You could also ride a horse down for $3 each way. We first had to walk downhill for about an hour because our guide was explaining stuff to us. Then at the end of the walk, we arrived at The Treasury which is what Petra, Jordan is famous for. If you haven't heard or seen of The Treasury of Petra, you should look it up online. It was pretty cool to see it. After spending 20 minutes looking around and taking pictures, we had to walk back up. The walk back up took about 40 minutes. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We did a little bit of shopping from some of the vendors before boarding our bus. We were now on our way to Mt. Nebo where Moses was shown the Promised Land. We stood on top of the mountain and had a similar view to what Moses had. We could see the Dead Sea in the distance. After about an hour there, we were on our way to Madaba. Madaba is a small city in Jordan where we viewed Byzantine Mosaics, one of which is the oldest map of the Holy Land. After that, we left Madaba to go to Amman, which is the capital of Jordan. We arrived at our hotel around 6:30 and had dinner at 7:00. This hotel isn't as nice as the last one but the free wireless internet makes up for that. The room is bigger but the furnishings aren't as nice. Tomorrow, we will tour Amman and then cross the border into Israel. With everything happening over there, it may take us a while to cross the border. Once we cross into Israel, we'll be staying in the same hotel in Tiberias for 3 nights. It will be nice to not have to pack up our luggage to move again. We've been in different hotels the last four nights. So far, it has been amazing to go to all these sites mentioned in the Bible. I am now sore though from the Mt. Sinai hike.

Day 5

I got a wake up call at 1:00 a.m. and I had 30 minutes to get ready for the hike up Mt. Sinai. There were about 30 of us in the group who went. We actually did not get to start the hike until 2:30. We got to the base of Mt. Sinai and started our walk up the rocky path. We all got separated, some walked faster than others, some went by camel. It was dark. Luckily, we had flash lights because it was pitch black. I wish I could have been able to take a picture of the sky. I don't think I've ever seen that many stars. The sky was so clear. Well, after 30 minutes, I was tired and sweating already. I had to keep going. Finally, after about 1 hour and 15 minutes, I just really couldn't go any further. One other lady and I stopped where the camels were parked. We sat for 30 minutes but then we started to get cold so we walked up about another 45 minutes. By this time, it was around 5:30 a.m. We found a place where we could see the sunrise and just waited there. It was going to take at least another hour to get all the way to the top. I couldn't make it anymore but I am glad to say that I tried and got up about 2/3 of the way. We started to walk back down at 6:00 and arrived at the base at 7:30 a.m. I have never hiked for such a long period in my life and in 20 - 30 degree weather. It was definitely an experience I will never forget, watching the sunrise from Mt. Sinai. Anyway, to make a longer story short, the rest of our group did not make it back down the mountain as quick and 4 people even got lost for a while. We missed going to St. Catherine's Monastery which is right at the base of Mt. Sinai. We were supposed to go inside and see the actual Burning Bush. They say that it is the same one that Moses saw. I did walk by it on my way down from the mountain but it was too bad that we didn't get to see it up close. We had to leave because we had to catch a ferry to go to Jordan. Our ferry was supposed to leave at 2:00 p.m. We actually did not leave until 7:00 p.m. We arrived in Jordan and had to drive 2 hours to Petra to our hotel. We ate dinner around 11:30 p.m. Tomorrow, we will tour Petra and see Mt. Nebo and then drive to Amman in the afternoon and spend the night there.

Day 4

Today was our last day in Egypt. We first went to the Papyrus Institute where they showed us how to make paper out of the papyrus plant. They had an art gallery where most of us purchased paintings on papyrus paper. Then we were taken to a bazaar where we were able to do some shopping. It was a good place to shop cause you could bargain with them. Luckily, we also have someone in our group who speaks Arabic and she was able to bargain better for us. After we left the bazaar, we were on our way to Mt. Sinai. It was at least a 6 hour drive with on 30 min. stop. We went under the Suez Canal. We stopped in Elim where God provided water for the Israelites. They still have 2 of the water wells there. After making a quick stop there, we went on to Mt. Sinai and watched the sunset over the Red Sea. We arrive in our "hotel" in Mt. Sinai around 9:00 p.m. It really was not much of a hotel. I'll try and post some pics of the place soon, but I might not able to do it tonight. It was cold. We were given the opportunity to climb Mt. Sinai for the sunrise the next day. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it because it is a 3 hour climb one way. There is a path but its very rocky. Our guide told us it would be around 20 to 30 degrees, even colder at the top. After thinking about it, I finally decided I had to try. I don't think I'll ever get this opportunity again, so I had to take it. We had to leave to climb Mt. Sinai at 1:30 a.m. I got to bed around 10:00 and slept a couple of hours.

Day 3

We spent this day touring Cairo, Egypt. We were driven to a church, I believe it is known to the the "Hanging Church" because it was built on top of an old roman fortress. It was the third church that was built in Egypt. We spent some time there and our guide told us the history of the church. We next went to a museum in Egypt where they have a collection of King Tut's collection. There were a ton of people there. We couldn't take any pictures inside though. After the museum, we had lunch at a restaurant in Giza, pretty close to the pyramids. I used to think the pyramids were in the middle of the desert somewhere but they are right next to the city. The city is all around the pyramids. It is a very busy area. It was amazing to see the pyramids and the sphinx. I really couldn't believe I was really there. It was a pretty awesome experience. After the pyramids, we went back to our hotel for dinner. It was kinda nice to get back to the hotel early because we only had 4 or 5 hours of sleep the night before. Also, since we traveled for a day and a half before that, we didn't get much sleep.