Israel - part 1

For the past 2 weeks, we have been on an incredible journey (and that's an understatement) in the beautiful country of Israel. We were traveling with Chuck and Cynthia Swindoll and Insight for Living. 600+ others joined the tour, filling 14 buses. Each day would begin with breakfast, getting on the bus by 7:15, visiting 4-5 sites a day, back to the hotel for dinner, and then an evening of entertainment of some kind. Are you getting tired just thinking about that? No doubt, our days were full. But we really got to experience everything, and surprisingly, never felt rushed. And when you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like this one, you don't want to spend your time doing anything else!

In the next several blogs, we're going to give a pictorial tour of some of the highlights of this trip. Here we go . . .




This is a photo of Caesarea by the Sea. Much of Paul's ministry was here, along with 2 years of imprisonment. A beautiful place on the Mediterranean Sea.







This is the Valley of Armageddon, where the final battles in Revelation will be fought. The valley is next to the city of Megiddo. Interestingly, there were other battles fought here through the Old Testament.





This is an area called Tavga. What makes this special is that tradition strongly suggests this to be the place where Jesus met the disciples after rising from the grave. The disciples had fished all night on the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus was grilling fish on these banks when they saw Him. If you remember the story, Jesus asked Peter "do you love me" on this particular morning. While we were there (also early in the morning) some fishermen approached in their boat, doing their early morning fishing. Can we say perfect timing? (Notice the fishermen's net. Remember when Jesus told them to cast it on the other side of the boat? Talk about scripture coming alive!)








Dick playing for Steve Green, with Chuck Swindoll in the background. This was in the coliseum where Paul, while imprisoned, was brought before Herod Agrippa as a prisoner and delivered his amazing defense (Acts 26).





One of the oldest gates to a city that has been found. The Canaanites built this, and it was (very probably) traveled through several times by Abraham.





A column still remaining in the city of Capernaum. Much of Jesus' ministry happened in this city.





These are the head waters of the Jordan River. Yes, THE Jordan River. Isn't this beautiful?


That's all we'll show for part 1. It's hard to really capture everything we saw and learned and experienced. And it's wild to think that just a couple of days ago, we were there! If you EVER get the opportunity to visit Israel, DO IT. It's
heart-changing and inspiring to watch the Bible go from black and white to 3D!