Thursday June 9th

Last night I had my first full night of sleep so I am all adjusted now.  We started the day fairly early. We went to Ginosar and boarded a boat for a ride out on the Sea of Galilee.

Sea of Galilee

We stopped the boat and cast a net.  There were no fish on either side of the boat.  We stopped for a moment to reflect about the many biblical events that happened around the Sea of Galilee, such as the feeding of the 5000 and the Sermon on the Mount.  Ron talked about the many times Jesus had crossed this lake.  That this entire area of Galilee was his platform for preaching.  We focused on the apostles and their reaction to the time when Jesus was sleeping on the boat and the apostles were fearful for their lives during a storm.  As in a previous lesson Jesus was once again reminding the Apostles not to be afraid and to have faith.  We returned to port and they had a actual 2000 year old boat that was found on the shores of Galilee.  This would have been a boat from Jesus' time

From there we went on the the Mount of Beatitudes.  We had another brief lesson on the Sermon on the Mount.  I took the time to re-read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) while sitting on the mountain from which it was originally preached.  It was quite amazing to think I was reading the same sermon that was preached by Jesus on this same hillside nearly 2000 years ago.  This was a very moving experience.

We continued to Capernaum.  This is the location of Jesus' synagogue and Peter's house.  It is the most mentioned place in the bible in reference to Jesus..  Many of the miracles Jesus preformed occurred at Capernum.  I just never stopped to think that just like I have my home church, Jesus also had his home synagogue.

Jesus' Synagogue

The synagogue that stands there now dates to the 4th century.  But it is built on top the synagogue that would have been there during Jesus' time.  Just to know I am walking the same grounds as our savior is quite an experience.  I am so thankful that I can reflect and enjoy on the historical significance of a place without worshiping the site itself.

For lunch I had St. Peters fish.  It is kind of a touristy thing to do to eat a fish from the Sea of Galilee.  It was very boney, but not bad.  The other food I've had while being here was better than the fish.

After lunch we went down to the river Jordan at the south end of the lake.  Four of the people in our group chose to be baptized in the river.  Two weeks ago I was watching an old 8mm film with my dad of him being baptized in the Jordan and now I and here in the same spot.

Our day ended with a non historical stop but a current event that is making an historical impact.  The group I am with is an organization called HCJB global.  Their ministry is spreading the gospel through media.  We visited a company, here in Tiberius, called Galtronics that has a close working relationship with HCJB.  They produce small solar powered hand held radios that are given away so that people can hear the Gospel.  It is amazing to think that through a company in the region of Galilee that the Gospel is still being heard world wide.  They are also producing a small inexpensive digital media player with the entire spoken bible, in different languages, for distribution to the third world where the majority of people can not read.  But they can still have the word of God.