Hesed Israel Video

Jeff Jones has produced a wonderful video of this trip to Israel.  It's available on YouTube at this link.  It was such a joy to reconnect with Jeff and his wife, JoAnne.  The video does a wonderful job of bringing back so many wonderful memories and lessons from this return to Israel.  A higher quality version of the video is available on Vimeo.

Return to Lafayette - January 6 (and 7)

There was no touring today, other than getting from the hotel to the airport in Tel Aviv.  We started with breakfast for a final time at the Olive Tree, and had one last chance to be with some of our new friends who shared life with us over the last 10 days.  We had our bags packed, weighed, and ready to go.  There were 8 of us, plus Kamal, who needed to go to Tel Aviv.  We started by trying to pack into a van, but it was clear that we wouldn't all fit, so we made do long enough to get to where Kamal's bus was parked, about 5 to 10 minutes away, and transferred our stuff there.  It was a pleasant, comfortable trip to the airport.

We made our way through customs without much fanfare, though the agents didn't have much of an emotive side to them at all.  We flew Air Canada back to the States, traveling through Toronto.  Peter and Gail were on the same flight, though we were crammed into the very middle seats on the plane in separate rows, so Joyce and I didn't get out and about much.  We saw Peter and Gail for a few minutes in Toronto before we went through customs to the States, and them for Canada.

We made our way to an extreme end of the airport for our flight to Indianapolis.  We were tired, it was drafty, and our departure was delayed several times, eventually leaving about an hour after the scheduled time.  Again, the flight to Indianapolis was without incident, with both of us sleeping for a good part of the flight.

Alan's brother picked us up and drove us the 15 minutes or so to his house, where we got to meet our newest great-niece, who had decided that in spite of the late hour, that meeting us was more important than sleep!  Of course, her big sister had to keep her company!  After a few minutes of holding a baby, we were on our way to Lafayette, and were quickly and finally to bed by about 2 AM after having last seen a bed about 27 hours earlier!

We will continue to work on updating this blog over the next week or so, filling in the blanks on various days, and adding pictures and information as needed.  If you've been following along at home, thanks for your attention!

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.

Pictures For Day 8

Hesed in Galilee (part 2) - January 4

After rising for breakfast, we began the day with a relatively long bus ride to the northern reaches of Israel.





Tel Dan 

Tel Dan is at the very northern tip of Israel.  At one spot, we were within a kilometer of Lebanon, and could clearly see a Lebanese village in front of us.  One of the most productive springs in the Middle East is here, which is why it was likely a place for settlement dating back to the time of Abraham and before.  The spring provides about half the volume of the River Jordan. There was a skirmish here in 1964 between Israeli and Syrian forces, using a border the width of a pencil line drawn in 1923 for both sides claiming sovereignty over the spring.  It was a reminder of the land disputes between nations in this area that have raged for eons.

Our hike back to the site was over a path that alternated between muddy and large, smooth, slick river stones.  It was a beautiful, overgrown area, clearly watered by the rushing stream that roared past us as we walked along.

We had a chance to see a city gate that dates back to the Middle Bronze period, about 1800 BCE.  From Genesis 14, we know that Abraham, who would have lived in this period, was in Dan. The gate was buried as a typical part of conquering a city in that time, and was unearthed in 1979 and opened to the public in 2009.  The construction is of mud bricks.

We also saw several ruins from more recent times...which we now know often means from the 8th century BCE, a part of the Kingdom period in the Bible.  One of the sites has been determined by nearly all the archaeologists that have studied it as the site of a podium that Jeroboam used for a Golden calf idol, constructed to keep people from returning to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices in the Temple. This is talked about in 1 Kings 12.

One of the information signs at the site stated "Following the division of the kingdom of Solomon in 930 BCE, Jeroboam, son of Nebat, established a cult at Dan as an alternative to the one at the Temple in Jerusalem.  He placed a golden calf in the city and built a house of high places.  In the Hellenistic period, the cultic precinct was surrounded by a wall that is visible to this day.  A bilingual (Greek-Aramaic) inscription found at the site attests to the precinct."

 Banias Springs and Waterfall 
A short distance away from Tel Dan, we came to the backside of the Caesarea Philippi site that we visited on our last trip.  Banias, also spelled Banyas, comes from the cave in the limestone at Caesarea Philippi dedicated to the Greek god, Pan.  The site was originally called 'Panias', but since the area was under Syrian Arabic control for a long time, and they have no sound for the letter "P", it became Banias.  We parked on the Falls side, and as we started down the path, across the way we saw a herd of about 7 wild hogs scrambling up the hillside.

We had a hike back to the falls that involved some climbing, some narrow passage ways, and some more mud.  The site features a relatively new suspended trail attached to the canyon walls. There were several spots where we had to squeeze to one side while large groups of young people went past us on the other side of the path. It was definitely a more natural experience than the other side.

The waterfall is described as the most impressive one in Israel.  It comes from a spring out of the foot of Mount Hermon, and after flowing a short distance through a canyon, it falls about 30 feet into a small pool area and on to the Hermon River.  Compared to waterfalls we have back home, it wasn't that big, but it still had an impressive flow coming through to the stream below.  We had a chance to observe it from a nice platform built into the side of the canyon wall.  

 We drove past the Caesarea Philippi site that was very popular during the Roman period.  The area was named for both Caesar and Herod's son, Philip. While we didn't stop, we could see the cave of Pan, also know as Hades.  It was in front of this cave that Peter declared that Jesus was the Messiah, and Jesus responded that Peter was the Rock and the Gates of Hades would not prevail against him (Matthew 16).


Leaving the Banias area, we drove a few miles into the Golan Heights and had lunch in a Druze community at the Alsultan Restaurant.  The Druze are an Arab-speaking religious group, that is Abrahamic as a basis, and draws from Christianity, Judaism, Ismaliism, Gnosticism, and others, and also contains a secretive component to the religion as well.  The sect exists in numerous places, and always in a minority, and often persecuted, though they are a part of regular society in Israel.  

Apparently tours with Mike in recent years have stopped at this place, but it was new for us.  We were seated family style at tables, pre-set with some dishes of olives, pickles,beets, eggplant, slaw, sauces, and a few other things.  We knew that there was a set price of $12 US for basically a salad meal, and an additional $10 to add a meat.  The fixings on the table looked nice enough, but we decided to order a meat dish as well, to be shared by the two of us.

The order was taken with the waiter/owner asking "how many for chicken skewers?  How many for kebob?"  Now the servers started bringing out more dishes...and more dishes.  We had pita bread, falafel, humus (at least two ways), a cream cheese/yogurt type dip, lettuce salad, and on and on.  There was barely room on the table for our plates.  They brought out freshly squeezed lemonade, and big bottles of water.  And if something ran out, they brought more!

Needless to say, by the time the meat dishes came out, we were already pretty full!  We soldiered on and managed to eat a lot of food, and were very satisfied.  Then they brought out plates of baklava and little cups of coffee.  Thankfully, the baklava were in small bars, and the coffee was in small cups.  Both were very good.  Who knows, maybe we'll become coffee drinkers after all!  There seemed to be great agreement that this was a wonderful chance to see local people in their natural settings, and it was very much appreciated.

Golan Heights Overlook
As we headed from the far north back toward the Sea of Galilee, we stopped at an overlook that was just a stone's throw from Syria.  In fact, a Syrian village was clearly seen in front of us.  We know from our previous trip that the Road to Damascus runs through this area, and in fact, Damascas was only about 20 miles from where we were standing.


Gamla

This was another stop that was duplicated from our first trip to Israel in 2012-13.  When we got to the top of a small mountain on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee in the central Golan Heights, we had a vantage point that overlooked both the ruins of the Jewish village of Gamla, and a deep valley that is a favorite spot for vultures.

Archaelogical evidence confirms that Gamla was already a fortified town in the early Bronze age, but was destroyed and resettled during the Hellenistic period.  Gamla was the capital of the Golan district during the 1st century.  Gamla was overrun by Romans during the Jewish revolt in 67 AD after several attempts by Vespasian, who figured out a way to attack in spite of the steep hill and high cliffs surrounding it.  This was one of the last holdouts against the Romans.  While we only observed the ruins from across the valley, the synagogue there is considered to be one of the earliest in Israel.

We saw several griffon vultures floating in the air currents through the Bet Tsayda valley.  The vultures are in danger of extinction, so extensive monitoring, observation, and protection activities are carried out to provide protection for them and the environment in this area.

Also in this park are the ruins of the Christian village of Deir Qeruh that dates to the 4th and 5th century.  Some of these structures were still being used at the time of the 1967 war.

We drove past some of the 716 dolmens, Bronze age burial mounds, located in the preserve.  They look like large, heavy stone tables, and apparently mark the burial locations of elite members of the community.

As we made our way back to the Ma'agan Holiday Village where we were staying, Kamal elected to take a 'scenic' highway down from the highlands of the Decapolis.  Alan enjoyed the view, especially of the sunset over the southern end of the Sea of Galilee.  However, Joyce didn't see as much of the view and spent a great deal of time wondering why in the world we were taking this route.  It was very twisty, including a couple of hairpin turns that I'm guessing most bus drivers would not have attempted.  Alan had been monitoring our route on his iPad and saw that the twisty section was coming and warned the folks in the back of the bus with sensitive travel stomachs about it.

Dinner and meeting

After the meeting, several of us reboarded the bus for an Ice Cream run to Tiberias.  It was fun to see some of the night life in Tiberius, and of course, ice cream is never a bad idea!