Tourists at last!

Today we went from Tel Aviv to Jaffa to Caesarea to the Sea of Galilee where we're staying for the next 3 days.

Our tour guide, Doron Bookstein, is an amazing student of Bible history and a great story teller. He seems like he should be a Christian, but when we asked, he said he isn't - yet. He said that's God's work.

Most of us are over jet lag, but we noticed Beth and Barb napping on the bus today. We got appreciation for how developed all the areas are and they have some amazing "national parks". We tasted a salty bush and learned why they write Hebrew from right to left- they had to write on clay tablets and it's easier to chisel from right to left.

We learned that drought in the area means no water, but famine only comes when there is no morning dew, therefore there is no grass for the livestock.

We also learned that the corner stone of a building is at the top of an arch in the shape of an upside down triangle. We learned about the Druz religion. It's almost as big as the Christian religion in Israel. Only 2% of the population is Christian in Israel.

In Jaffa we heard about a long term archeological dig that UCLA has been doing for years. The city is over 6,000 years old! Since they don't have much space. That's why archeologists have such a great time in this region.

We toured Caesarea Maritima. This man made seaport just a few miles north of Tel Aviv was King Herod's headquarters.

We saw Mt. Carmel and the group even prayed together there.

In Nazareth when we were going through the Church of the Annunciation we saw an example of all three religions together. They were celebrating mass in the church, there was a Muslim call to prayer over the loud speaker and Jews were celebrating their sabbath all in the same area.

It's been a tiring, inspiring day and we're looking forward to more tomorrow.

~ Barb & Niel