September 10, 2011

Please forgive me for how poorly written this is. I just don’t have time for edits. Click any image for a larger view.

Today began with a trip to the Church of the Beatitudes on the traditional site of The Sermon on the Mount. While there we read the Beatitudes from Matthew 5. Afterward we sang together. There is something amazing about being with dozens of other groups, hearing them each singing songs in their own tongue as you recognize the melodies and singing along. Being there brought back memories of being there and Rev. Paul Cope asking Laurel to read the Scripture.

From there we went to the traditional location of The Feeding of the Five-thousand. Doran pointed out that this miracle was probably the most well-known of Jesus’ miracles because so many people witnessed it. Additionally, Jesus did this in the Galilee – a poor region of Israel. Providing them with food was scratching them where they itched.

Nearby is The Church of Peter’s Primacy – the church built to recall the place where Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” those three times.

As we stood outside of the church, it was remarkable to read the text and understand that, by the death Peter died, he showed that he did love Jesus with a self-giving, sacrificial love. The church on this location is beautiful.

Next we went to the town Jesus spent most of his ministry in, Capernaum.

We saw the location of Peter’s house and The Synagogue of Jesus. The synagogue of Jesus was destroyed and rebuilt at a later time. It sits right near a archeological discovery that is thought to be the house of Peter. If this is the house of Peter, then, as we often hear, “George Washington slept here,” one might say, “Jesus slept here.” Jesus had no where to rest his head, so he almost certainly would have found hospitality with Peter and in the home of Peter’s mother-in-law.

By the way, in 1986 the Roman Church built a church over Peter’s house. The church is very ugly in comparison to the other churches we have seem. It looks like the Millennium Falcon. Ugh.

Along the way we stopped at the place Doran believes that Jesus cast the demons out of the pigs. We teased a lot about bacon and the like. Doran feels sure this is the spot because it is the only place the pigs could have run off a cliff into the sea. Today, this area is a minefield. Literally. There are mines buried there.

Lunch was interesting. We had the option of fish or fish or pizza. I opted for fish – tilapia or St. Peter’s Fish – head and all. It was good, although the fries were just not what fries should taste like. Someone let me taste her pizza and I was glad I didn’t get it. I have decided that when in Israel, you should eat their national foods – that’s what they are the most skilled at preparing.

Then we headed off the a baptism service at the Jordan. The location was the same one as we used last year, but it was so much more crowded. We had to share our baptismal area with two other groups. I asked Chuck Campbell to help me and he and I baptized 26 people – 2 or three first time baptisms and the read renewal / recommitment. Over the past several days I had been talking to baptism candidates, making sure they knew what baptism is and that they understood what the rededication meant. Before the baptism, I shared my personal testimony and explained how our love for God is a great motivator to be baptized.

We ended our day taking a ship operated by a Messianic Jewish man across the Sea of Galilee. We boarded the boat and I began my devotional.

The weather, however, was extremely breezy. The last time, the boat operator took us onto the lake and shut down the engines. I did that devotional in the quiet of the boat. This time we continued and with the stiff wind, the devotion was, at best, a flop. Afterward, Daniel, the captain of the boat, was preparing to share some music and suddenly a Jet Ski came up beside us and swerving away, sprayed us with gallons of water. One of the people said that it was a baptism by sprinkling! I was soaked. Daniel reported it on the radio and then they came back and hit us again. This time, they sped off into the distance and spilled the Jet Ski. We never saw them again. Daniel presented some beautiful music and a spirit of worship prevailed.

Tonight we are going shopping in Tiberius. I am ready for bed.

What a great day!

Day 1

Now that I have found the free internet, I will take the opportunity to post some information about my trip on this site. Not everyone stops by this site, so if you get the chance, please let anyone who might be interested know there’s fresh data here.

We left rainy Pennsylvania on Tuesday to head to Scranton where we caught a bus to JKF. While it was rainy in Pennsylvania, it was even worse, weather-wise, in New York. Sometimes when you’re leaving on a journey like this it’s hard to leave the familiar, but weather like this makes it easier to say goodbye to your native land.

When we landed in Israel we hit the ground running – literally. After being processed, we got onto the bus where our “first water is free.” We headed off immediately to our first stop – the “traditional site” of the home of Simon the Tanner, where Peter enters a trance and receives his revelation concerning not calling “unclean” what God has called “clean.” I brought a devotional message called, “Hidden Realities,” concerning our need not to miss the spiritual significance of the events that had taken place here. Our Jewish guide, Doran, made a good point concerning Peter’s vision: “So what did he do? He got up and made himself a ham sandwich, right? No – Peter was a Kosher Jew, he never had a ham sandwich in his life! Peter went to the house of Cornelius. The point of the vision wasn’t dietary, it was the opening of the door for the Gentiles!” I’d never thought about that before. While Jesus did declare all foods clean, his point in this context for Peter was that he needed to be willing to go to the house of one who was unclean, Cornelius, and to willingly eat with him. The food might have been clean or unclean; the point was that Jesus wanted Peter to reach people who didn’t belong to him.

From there we went to Caesarea by the Sea and saw the Aqueduct and the Theater along the Mediterranean Sea.  The view of the sea was amazing. We read some Scripture and headed in for supper at our kibbutz, arriving at about 8 p.m., exhausted. The food was great, fish and lamb, the inevitable pickles, and a vast array of vegetables.

I headed off to a long-over-due shower and went to bed. 6 a.m. would arrive too soon.

I don’t even have time to proofread this. Edit the typos out in your head, please!