We have boarded the bus and are on our way to the airport. We’ve had a fantastic day full of surprises. We began at the City of David, the archeological site on the Ophel below the Temple Mount. This place is the original site that David conquered from the Jebusites. We descended into a […]
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For most pilgrims, walking the old city of Jerusalem is the highlight of the trip. Everything leads to Jerusalem. Normally, groups break up the journey in the city into two parts. You descend from the Mount of Olives and down to Gethsemane for half a day. On another day, you walk from Lions’ gate to […]
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Today we descended to the depths of humanity and divinity, the place where God reached down to man, where the word of God was born in Jesus of Nazareth. To get there, we had to travel through some of the worst pain that humanity as ever inflicted on each other—the Holocaust. We awoke to a […]
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“John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.” Today, we departed the hotel in Aman at 7:00 […]
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We began the day in one of the seven wonders of the ancient world– the city of Petra. This place was the capital of the Nabatean empire that ruled this area from the 3rd century B.C.-2nd century A.D. Their name, which means “the carvers,” suggests their legacy. They carved massive buildings out of sandstone that […]
Read More »Yesterday, we retraced Jesus’ steps in Galilee over a brief three-year period of time in the first century. Today, we crossed into new territory. We were like biblical time travelers, spanning centuries of tribal history in just a few hours. At 9:00 a.m. we crossed into the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan at the Sheik Hussein […]
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The Sea of Galilee is the stage for so many performances in Jesus’ ministry. He was full of surprises for the disciples and the crowds. Today, we boarded the boat and journeyed together through so many exciting places on and around the Sea. We even had a few surprises of our own along the way. […]
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Today was homecoming day. We traveled to the regions that Jesus knew best– Nazareth and the surrounding countryside. We visited Jesus’ hometown as well as Sepphoris, the capitol of Galilee during Jesus’ life. Sepphoris is a 10-mile walk from Nazareth and the traditional birthplace of Mary, Jesus’ mother, and one of the cities where Joseph […]
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Lift up your heads, O gates and be lifted up, O ancient doors that the King of glory may come in. Psalm 24:7 We began the day at the ancient port city of Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean Sea. We visited ruins of an amphitheater, hippodrome (horse and chariot racing stadium), aqueduct, harbor, and the […]
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For the next eleven days, I’ll be blogging from Israel and Jordan. Rhonda Smith and I are leading a group of twenty-two on a pilgrimage to Galilee, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Dead Sea, Masada, Amman, and Petra. Please follow us on twitter as well. After a safe arrival in Tel-Aviv, we met our guide, Yair “Jayah” […]
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