Day Five: April 13, 2006: Israel Trip
Another Camping Nightmare
Well shortly after the "nut" ordeal, the Palestinian youth arrived again with their loud techno music and the Russians trying to grill and set up their tents a little too late. We thought we'd ask nicely at the guard stand about having them shut off the music, but the four Palistinian young guys there were in on the techno conspiracy. It eventually stopped (to our surprise) by the time we had half torn down our tent in the fear the teenagers would come seeking revenge. In the tent-tearing down process, Dieter lost his wedding ring at which point I started quoting (very spiritually of course ;-)) Psalm 22: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsake me!!!!!!!". God was nice at that point and Dieter promptly found his ring. We slept in the car in a far corner of the campground away from the crowd. I slept well, but Dieter, poor guy, didn't sleep a wink. So Dieter started driving toward the city of Tiberias while I was still half asleep. The city was rather run down and ugly. We had a cheap coffee and drove on to the Mount of the Beattitudes.
Mount of the Beattitudes
Driving there I kep trying to imagine what the rolling hills would be like without all the telephone poles, radio towers and electricity lines. They remind me a lot of the hills surrounding Yorba Linda where my parents live. On the mount itself we were met by a load of German tourists - we keep moving to keep away from the preachers who felt the need to keep preaching around us :-). There was an Asain group singing charismatically- that was cool. The church itself was quite quaint, Catholic with little nuns walking around with baskets, hoping for donations. What is sad is that they are trying to make money off of people who want to see where Jesus was. It's hard to find peace here and reflect-but I think I'm going to take a break here and read the sermon on the mount before we go on to Capernaum...
Well didn't finish the passage-it's too loud...but slowly the connection of the brothers and sisters here is amazing. There's a lot of people from CVJM (German YMCA which is very christian in Germany) all over-there was that really on fire Asian group, some Americans with a priest, and a girl from Vineyard in Heidelberg just came up to us (!). God convicted me that this is a special gathering of brothers and sisters from all over the world longing for the same thing-to see where Jesus walked-so this is not a place for reflection but it's a gathering, a special gathering of brothers and sisters from all over the world and some that don't know Him yet. We can pray that they are touched and meet Jesus here.
Capernaum and Tiberias
We went on to Capernaum-the ruins were quite intact and it was amzing to think that Jesus probably stood where we were standing. The Catholics had built a huge church over where Peter's house had been. Don't think Peter would've thought that was so cool. Today is Passover (?), I guess- I got it wrong before. So after Capernaum we drove to another city in the Golan Heights for lunch in an amazing Steak House. We left stuffed and didn't have to eat anything the rest of the day. We finally found a place to stay in Tiberius at a terribly run down youth hostel. (Can you tell I didn't like Tiberias?) Maybe we'll venture out to the Internet Cafe. Tomorrow we'll probably do Nazareth and Cana. I'd like to also see where Jesus was supposedly baptized in the Jordan. The sun rose, the sun set, that was the fifth day!
Well shortly after the "nut" ordeal, the Palestinian youth arrived again with their loud techno music and the Russians trying to grill and set up their tents a little too late. We thought we'd ask nicely at the guard stand about having them shut off the music, but the four Palistinian young guys there were in on the techno conspiracy. It eventually stopped (to our surprise) by the time we had half torn down our tent in the fear the teenagers would come seeking revenge. In the tent-tearing down process, Dieter lost his wedding ring at which point I started quoting (very spiritually of course ;-)) Psalm 22: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsake me!!!!!!!". God was nice at that point and Dieter promptly found his ring. We slept in the car in a far corner of the campground away from the crowd. I slept well, but Dieter, poor guy, didn't sleep a wink. So Dieter started driving toward the city of Tiberias while I was still half asleep. The city was rather run down and ugly. We had a cheap coffee and drove on to the Mount of the Beattitudes.
Mount of the Beattitudes
Driving there I kep trying to imagine what the rolling hills would be like without all the telephone poles, radio towers and electricity lines. They remind me a lot of the hills surrounding Yorba Linda where my parents live. On the mount itself we were met by a load of German tourists - we keep moving to keep away from the preachers who felt the need to keep preaching around us :-). There was an Asain group singing charismatically- that was cool. The church itself was quite quaint, Catholic with little nuns walking around with baskets, hoping for donations. What is sad is that they are trying to make money off of people who want to see where Jesus was. It's hard to find peace here and reflect-but I think I'm going to take a break here and read the sermon on the mount before we go on to Capernaum...
Well didn't finish the passage-it's too loud...but slowly the connection of the brothers and sisters here is amazing. There's a lot of people from CVJM (German YMCA which is very christian in Germany) all over-there was that really on fire Asian group, some Americans with a priest, and a girl from Vineyard in Heidelberg just came up to us (!). God convicted me that this is a special gathering of brothers and sisters from all over the world longing for the same thing-to see where Jesus walked-so this is not a place for reflection but it's a gathering, a special gathering of brothers and sisters from all over the world and some that don't know Him yet. We can pray that they are touched and meet Jesus here.
Capernaum and Tiberias
We went on to Capernaum-the ruins were quite intact and it was amzing to think that Jesus probably stood where we were standing. The Catholics had built a huge church over where Peter's house had been. Don't think Peter would've thought that was so cool. Today is Passover (?), I guess- I got it wrong before. So after Capernaum we drove to another city in the Golan Heights for lunch in an amazing Steak House. We left stuffed and didn't have to eat anything the rest of the day. We finally found a place to stay in Tiberius at a terribly run down youth hostel. (Can you tell I didn't like Tiberias?) Maybe we'll venture out to the Internet Cafe. Tomorrow we'll probably do Nazareth and Cana. I'd like to also see where Jesus was supposedly baptized in the Jordan. The sun rose, the sun set, that was the fifth day!
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