Hesed in Samaria - January 5

After breakfast and loading the bus, we drove north through Tiberias to Magdala.  Magdala, near present day Migdal, is located on the western coastline of the Sea of Galilee at the eastern foothills of Mount Arbel near Tiberius. A complete 1st century city includ
ing a 1st century synagogue was recently discovered. A Catholic priest felt a calling to build a retreat center and pilgrimage guest house at the site. Before any new construction can happen in Israel, the site must be explored for possible significant ruins. The 1st century city and synagogue were discovered.

Since Magdala was an important port in the 1st century and close to Capernaum, Jesus' base when in the Galilee area, it is  likely he spent time in Magdala, perhaps even taught in the synagogue.

Archaeologists were able to authenticate the site with coins found in the different layers of soil as they excavated. We saw floor tiles from Jesus' time in one area of the synagogue and tile from later in the 1st century when they probably redecorated. The walls had some decorative frescoes that very well might have been there at the time of Jesus.

We saw a replica of the Magdala Stone, one of the most exciting recent archaeological finds. The Magdala Stone holds clues that will help scholars establish a more complete picture of 1st century Judaism. The stone contains carvings on all sides and the top of decorative symbols relating to the structure of the Temple and ceremonial Jewish objects.

While we spent most of our time in Magdala near the synagogue, there are ruins of a complete city with evidence of a market, shops, and ritual baths. The baths were rectangular in shape with steps leading down into the bath. With recent rains, there was water in the baths aiding our imaginations as we thought about Jesus and His disciples visiting the city.

From Magdala were drove up to near the top of Mount Arbel. From the bus is was a 10 to 15 minute walk to the cliffs overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Magdala, and Capernaum.  While we didn't hear anyone saying it, I think we all knew that this was one of our last stops for teaching and contemplation as a group.  We had been at this spot on our last trip to Israel, but this time we climbed a bit higher.

David and Michael led us in a teaching time focused on Mary Magdalene.  There is an apparent myth that Mary was a former prostitute, and thanks to Dan Brown, Jesus's wife.  What we do know is that Mary of Magdala was part of a group of women who supported Jesus during his time of ministry.  Luke 8 tells us that Jesus freed her from the possession of 7 demons, and several gospel accounts have Mary at the crucifixion.   Mary and the other women also were identified as the primary witnesses to Jesus's resurrection (it would have been unheard of for 'unreliable' women to be witnesses, and would not have been a very smart move to include if the story were made up.).

From our location, we could see a good bit of the area where Jesus had his ministry in Galilee.  The route of the Via Maris (Road by the Sea) ran below us and would have carried travelers back and forth from Egypt, Damascus, and points East.  Below our location, some of the last holdouts in the Jewish revolt against the Romans around 70 AD were massacred in their cave hideouts.

We joined Mike in singing "Joy in the Journey", a pretty appropriate song for our last teaching time out on the road, overlooking one of the most significant roads in history, and the location of the most significant ministry the world has ever known.

On the way back from the overlook, we came across several of the Rock Hyraxes that we had seen so often along the roadside in Galilee, both this time and last, but were so elusive to photograph.  This time the posed on the rocks to the sound of lots of shutter clicks, and 'oohs' and 'aahs' from us observers.  These critters are also known as Syrian Bears around here.


After a lot of pictures of the scenery and each other, we made our way back to the bus for our climb through the afternoon up to Jerusalem.  We took a route through Samaria, present-day Palestine, which isn't often done, unless you have a Palestinian Christian bus driver.


We made our way up a hill to the community of Sebastia for another family-style lunch.  The owner of this restaurant was an alum of the University of Alabama, and we were presented with another plentiful meal with humus, olives, pickled vegetables, sauces, goat cheese, pita bread, a naan-like bread, chicken, lentils, and the presentation of a steamed rice/chicken/vegetable dish that was presented with some ceremony and flair.  We were pleasantly surprised that the meal ended again with small samples of Turkish coffee.



There was a small shop as we exited that carried a broad array of painted ceramic plates and bowls, as well as women's scarves, locally made.  Outside, we could have ridden a camel alongside the ruins of a Roman-era set of columns.





After boarding the bus again, we rode through several larger towns in Samaria.  It was clear that there was probably a lot of unemployment, based on the number of young (and not-so-young) men we saw along the way.  It was pretty clear that there was a different level of economic opportunity than we had seen in Jerusalem and the coastal cities.

As we got closer to Jerusalem, Kamaal pulled the bus in next to a small bakery in Huwwarah.  Not surprisingly, he knew the owners and immediately got behind the counter to start delivering samples of several kinds of small pastries.  Some of our favorites were a bar that reminded us of the flavors of baklava, maybe with some pistachio nuts as well.

As we were heading back into Jerusalem, it was announced that Kamal was willing to take any who wanted to do some shopping to Bethlehem.  This was good since we hadn't gone there on this trip, and the chance
s to purchase souvenirs, had been pretty limited.

Joyce and I decided to go, since we remembered the shop, run by a Christian family, that we were going to, and knew that they had some nice pieces.  The trip to Bethlehem was a little exciting.  Bethlehem is really a suburb of Jerusalem, and the trip should have only taken about 20 minutes.  However, it was near the end of the work day and Shabbat was upon us.  We were just a few blocks away from the store when we came to a stop in the middle of the road.  It turned out that the road we needed to take was blocked traffic, mostly developing after a couple of cars parked in one lane on a two-lane street.  After the store owner came down and directed several cars and vans to back out of the street, we made our way the last couple of minutes to get to the store.


After some long looking, we decided to purchase an olive wood nativity set; the deal was sealed by the salesman giving a great discount on the list price. We also wanted to buy some dates to take home.  The gift store didn't have them, but Alan went a couple doors down to a local grocery where he was able to get a couple of boxes.  We made our way back to the hotel, and gathered all of the items that we had left on the bus to take upstairs to pack.  As Alan was exiting the bus, the step was evidently bigger than he anticipated, and subsequently hyper-extended his knee.  He hadn't worn a brace since the first day or so.  He was in quite a bit of pain for the remainder of the trip, but thankfully, this happened on the last time out of the bus!

We had dinner with the group one last time in the Olive Tree Restaurant with their amazing buffet.

We gathered in the Mount of Olives room, as was our custom, to talk about the day.  We added some discussion about what worked well, and not so well for the trip, to help the planners with future trips.  It was hard to come up with many things that could be left out, and nearly everything that we did received rave reviews.

We closed our time with a period of Communion together.  Kristina had put together a nice plan, which included Alan and Joyce initiating the breaking of the bread.  Mike led a couple of songs to close us out.

Except that we really weren't ready to leave.  Jacqui and some others, had devised a surprise 'Kard Karaoke' event.  Alan had several Michael Card albums on his phone and found a way to connect some speakers.  A couple of songs were suggested, and we sang along with the recording.  Mike told us that his favorite song was 'Come Lift Up Your Sorrows' from the Hidden Face of God album, so that ended up being our closing song.  There is a phrase in the chorus that seemed to fit our experiences of the last two weeks:

There in your wilderness

He's waiting for you

To worship Him with your wounds, 

For He's wounded too.

We exchanged hugs and well wishes around the room and retired to our room to finish up packing for the trip home.