mom and dad's israel trip

Home at last after 6 days away on the Jesus Trail
http://jesustrail.com/

We are told there is now a picture of us on the webpage, we will tell you where when we find it.

This is a 4 day 62 k hike starting at Nazareth where Jesus grew up and ending in Capernaum, where his base of ministry was out of the home of Simon Peter ,the disciple.

The day before the hike we spent in Nazareth at an inn called Fauzi Azar after the Arab Christian family owners. This is a restored Ottoman Era building about 200 years old.

We took a guided tour of Nazareth, whose Old City is getting better, cleaner, more nice shops and restaurants, less vandalism than in the past in part thanks to the Jesus Trail hikers.

Market

Carpenter shop

Ancient caves and tunnels either (old Nazareth or hiding place for people being persecuted) including an altar-- possibly the oldest church in the world.

The synagogue, maybe rebuilt but in the same location as the one where Jesus announced his ministry by reading the weekly portion from the scroll of Isaiah 61:1, Luke 4: 18.19

"The spirit of the --Lord is upon me, becuase the LORD has annointed me to
preach good news to the poor--bind up the brokenhearted--proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners"

And a tour of Nazareth Village-something like Pioneer Village reproducing life in the first century.

The next day we started the trail. It was very "up and down" most of it not too difficult but many places there was no shade so 14-16 k at 30+deg C was exausting by the end of the day.

We stayed at B&Bs or Kibbutzim along the way that were amazing-swimming pools, good food, interesting people, hot shower, good night's sleep.

We visited many places along the way where Jesus would have been as well as other interesting historical and cultural sites-lots more info in the webpage.

Here are a few examples;

Zippori/Shephoris

Roman town where Jesus and his father may have worked on the construction, housing some of the best preserved mosaics (depicting Greek mythology) in Israel and a large paved Roman road, amphitheater and huge aqueduct for bringing water to the city.

The Horns of Hattin-an extinct volcano with remains of pre-Israelite civilization from 1300-1000 BCE, Israelite city from 1000-800 BCE (same place as a battle in Joshua 11- Waters of Merom)
and the place where the Turk Saladin defeated the Crusdaers, in 1067 making Israel Turkish Ottoman Empire until 1917 when it came under the control of Britain.

Horns of Hattin

Looking over the battlefield http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin

The curch in Cana has a huge stone first century jug where Jesus did his first miracle of making water in to wine

A synagogue on Mount Arbel from the 4th century

Climb to the peak of Mount Arbel-view overlooking the Sea of Galilee, climb down the cliff 400 meters from 180 M above sea level to 200 M below sea level. On the way down you can see caves used as Jewish hideout from the Romans. Herod lowered soldiers over the cliff in baskets, to kill the Jews and burn them out of the caves. It was later used as a Sheik palace.

Caves above us

As we walked along the parable of Jesus about the sower of seeds in Matthew 13 came to mind. It is referrring to the different responses of people to hearing about the Kingdom of God, which was talked about by the prophets and by David in the Psalms eg Psalm 103:19

" The LORD has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all"

Jesus said seed fell on the path and was eaten by birds

some fell on rocky ground and had no root so was bunt up by the sun

some fell in thorns and was choked

some fell on fertile ground and produced fruit

Oranges ripening

The hike also gave new meaning to the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet--

(Yay Tevas)

On the last day we finally came to Tabgha, the church commemorating the miracle of feeding 5000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish and supposedly the rock where the bread was broken.