We went into Israel by bus via the Allenby Bridge crossing, so we passed by Mt. Nebo in Jordan, where Moses saw the promised land. There is a small chapel on the mountain (pic above), and the view was just amazing (pic below), you can see the whole of the Jordan river and the dead sea separating Jordan and Israel. Jordan is mostly desert, and the valley just beyond the Jordan is just so green and fertile, i can imagine how Moses must have felt. It was truly exhilarating! The day we were there was very clear, and we could even see Jericho in the distance.
After the border crossing, we had lunch in Jericho (which is in Palestine – left pic), after which we visited the ruins of Jericho, which is still being excavated to this day. We spent the night in Nazareth, and visited the Mt of Beatitudes the next day.
Most places where something important happened (or close to the place where something happened) is commemorated by a church, usually a Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox church. The church on the Mt of Beatitudes is beautiful (pic above), and the gardens even more beautiful. It overlooks the Sea of Galilee, and we had our first service there.
That was really a fantastic experience, there were many little parts in the gardens where Christians from all over the world were worshipping. So by the side of us was an American group praying in tongues, while on the other side was a Spanish group singing songs of praise in spanish, it was just so fantastic, all of us worshipping
God at once like that. It really moved me.
Then we took a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee to visit the ruins of Capernaum, and the house of Peter’s mother-in-law where Jesus healed the boy who was lowered through her roof. Then we went to the church of Peter’s primacy (left pic below), which commemorates the place where Jesus re-instates Peter. We walked to the neighbouring church, the Church of the Miracle of Loaves and Fish (right pic below).
The next day we went to Mt Tibor, where Jesus was transfigured. There was an amazing church there (right pic and above), really amazing. The view of the Jezreel valley from Mt Tibor was awesome, it’s apparently the most fertile land in the whole of Israel. Then we went on down to Migado aka Armegeddon, which was in ruins. Then we went down to the Jordan river (left pic below) where there were busloads of many people getting baptised. Er… sometime during our stay at Nazareth, we went down Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding feast (pic of the church commemorating the miracle on the right below).
