First Full Day in Israel...

Hello!

Whew what a full up day today! All our days have been very full of meaningful and wondrous events, locations, and peoples!
After arriving at the airport, we took care of our bags, found the group we were to meet, and hopped on our bus to head to our hotel. We arrived at our hotel, the Rominum in Tiberias, Israel on May 1st. As I mentioned in the last post, there were great gusts of wind flowing around and the tour guide, Ophir, mentioned that the weather was very unusual for this time of the year.

Our tour guide, Ophir, is very knowledgeable about the details of Israel. He was born in Israel, has a wife and four children. He lived in the United States for a while, then moved back to Israel. He has been giving us many wonderful facts and lots of information about the places we are visiting, the geography of Israel, the vegetation of Israel and anything else we are interested in learning about. He seems to genuinely care about his land and the land of his forefathers.

We learned that the population of Jerusalem is about 800,000 people! This is the largest city in Israel. There are many different cities in Israel...some are Jewish, some Arab, some other.

The terrain of the area between the airport and Tiberias is very rocky. Everywhere you look you can see rocky hills with tufts of grass here and there. You can also see a lot more surface dirt and much less green green grass throughout the region.

Ophir told us about some different economic aspects of Israel. An Israeli drug company called Teva, has designed, produced and marketed a pill camera that one can swallow and doctors can use to track and diagnose your internal systems via this camera that you ingest! Israel has got some great ideas--some brilliant minds.

At the hotel, we had a corporate meeting with Jane Hansen-Hoyt and the chief executive team of Aglow. She started it off by saying “Rejoice with Jerusalem!” (will have to look up that scripture reference…) She talked about restoring a sound of worship in Israel and arising to a new level of thinking, seeing, speaking, standing and working. We are involved in spiritual warfare to discover the majesty and supremacy of God. We ended our initial meeting, then hopped back on the bus to head to the Sea of Galilee.

We arrived at the Sea of Galilee and got on two, large boats. Then, the 194 of us—the whole Aglow group—sang and praised and worshipped the Lord on the Sea of Galilee! To sing to the Lord on the Sea of Galilee!!?? The very place where Jesus did much ministry. The place where He told the disciples to let down their nets on the other side and they caught LOTS of fish. The place where He walked on water. The place where Peter tried to walk on water but the storm—what he saw with his eyes—but doubt in his mind and he began to sink…but JESUS immediately lifted him up. In THIS place, we sang and praised and worshipped the Lord! Such an awesome opportunity! Ophir mentioned that Galilee is connected to kenor which means harp.  We sang songs such as “How Great Thou Art”; “How Great is our God”. The Generations group from Washington, D.C. area got up there and sang and danced. They led us in “Moving Forward” and “My God is Awesome, He can move the mountains, Keep me in the valley, hide me from the rain…” This was a great start to our adventure here in Israel.

We then visited Caperneum, the city of Jesus, where He taught and read from the Torah in the synagogue that is located there. It is really awesome to see the different plant life that is found here…pomegranate trees, olive trees, mango trees, date trees. They have a lot of fruit groves. Our bus guide, Ophir, told us that “the land of milk and honey” probably did not mean “bee honey” but was referring to “date honey”. The Israelites use dates for jams, jellies and preservatives. They also have this wonderful recipe that includes carrots, dates, and pineapple—it is delicious!

We then visited the Mount of Beatitudes. There is a visual point on the Mount of Beatitudes with a small ampitheatre where you can see part of the Golan Heights, the Sea of Galilee AND the Carmel Mountains all at the same time. The view is magnificent! Praise to the Creator of it all—the Lord God Almighty!

At the Mount of Beatitudes is where the woman with an issue of blood was healed and two demon possessed men were delivered. Here, we met together again. Sandy Weisowitz told us about a visit she had at a kibbutz. She had went on the wharf with another lady and the fish started jumping out of the water as they started speaking scripture. “The fish are jumping out of the water!”, they exclaimed. So,people came up to see but the fish ceased jumping. This happened twice. She looked over and saw a man fishing with a pole. He put the bait on, cast his pole, reeled it in—no fish. He did this several times. The Lord spoke to Sandy and told her that this is how the church tries to catch fish. But, the Lord said, there will come a day when you will cast your net and fish will jump into the net!

I wonder when some people will get tired of the ineffective methods going on in 100s of thousands of churches. I wonder when people will turn to God and ask Him how to do it…so that when we cast our nets in, where the Lord tells us to, we draw up TONS of fish!

At the Mount of Beatitudes, we sang “I love You, Lord and I lift my voice…” Beautiful sound to a beautiful God. We also sang some other songs. The ladies who speak French were called to sing “I love You Lord” in French on the Mount of Beatitudes. It was beautiful! Zabrina danced on the Mount of Beatitudes. Her dance to the Lord encourages many others to step out and do the same for the Lord our God! He is so worthy.

Near the Mount of Beatitudes, we visited St. Peter’s Church. This is the location where the very start of the church issued out. Where the Lord told Peter on this rock, the church will be established. (Forgive me for no scripture reference yet…will return to input later.) When Peter started the church here, they had no manual. The church was in a very embryonic state. They had to rely fully on God and figure out how to do everything concerning the church as it went along. (Ophir’s words) As he told us this, I thought Wow! What if all the churches worked to take it back to this kind of place…total reliance on God. The results of Peter’s rock of church establishment were explosive! Cool stuff to think about…

After this,we visited St. Peter’s restaurant. We had a choice of fish fillet or a whole fish. Both Zabrina and I tried a WHOLE FISH! It really is something to eat something with it’s head still on it’s body…lol

We then went to the Jordan River. Many people got baptized in the Jordan River. It was awesome to see so many people get blessed! A group of women from China were very joyful and enthusiastic. They broke out in a song in their language as they waited to be baptized. Love the sound of the nations!!! Zabrina and I stuck our feet in the water of the Jordan River. This is the same place Jesus was baptized by John just a few thousand years ago…sooooo awesome to be there in that same location! (Will add pics soon.)

So, that was our first full day of adventures in Israel.

More to come soon!

Shalome from Jerusalem!