Sunday, February 18, 2007

Hello friends, family, and faithful blog checkers! How wonderful it is to communicate with all of you, even though we are on opposite sides of the world. Today, as expected, was another extremely fast-paced day. From our dining room this morning, we were able to see Mt. Hermon in all of its snow-capped glory. From our kibbutz, we headed to our first stop: Tel Dan. Tel Dan is another layered city, like Megiddo. Dan was a tribe that moved North in Israel to an isolated Phonecian town. They took over the town and made it an Israelite city. It started to rain just as that dated back to the days of Abraham. We were walking where Abraham's sandaled feet may have stepped! We were able to see where the gates and the courtyard were. Mike told us just what a crucial role the gates of cities represented through several scriptures (Genesis 23, Ruth 4, Amos 5:11,12).

Our next stop was the Golan Heights. These mountains used to belong to Syria and served as a lookout over Northern Israel. Eventually, Israel regained these mountains. We were all able to walk at the top of one of these mountains and look out into both Lebanon and Syria. It was breathtaking. Mike was able to broaden our horizons with some historic perspective by discussing with us the military actions that have occured in Israel's brief history.

After another falafel lunch, we moved even closer to the border between Israel and Lebanon. We were able to see land mine sites and even more spectacular views. Our final stop of the day was at Caesarea Phillipi. This was built by Phillip, one of Herod the Great's sons. The third tributary to the Jordan is found here, Banias. The word is dervied from "Panias", coming from the god Pan. This was an extremely Paganistic region where Caesars were revered as gods. It is in this town that Jesus visited with Simon, who later became Peter. Dr. Harter read for us Matthew 16, where Jesus tells Peter that he is the Rock upon which the church will be built. The cliffs of Caesarea Phillipi represented the earthly rock, which has no comparison to the Rock that Christ was explaining himself to be. The Cave of Pan represented the gateway to hell, or moving away from the Rock, Christ Jesus. Bill tells us all the time that seeing Israel is like experiencing the "fifth" gospel. Truly, I don't think any of us will ever read the bible or hear Jesus's words the same way ever again. Our perspective has been turned upside down. Blessings are abounding here.

Tonight, Mike is going to give us a lecture on contemporary Israel and afterwards we are going to share our last fantastic meal at the Kibbutz. Tomorrow, we move into Jerusalem. We'll write more about it then! Thanks for the posts-keep them coming! And to Chris Lombardozzi-Happy 18th wedding anniversary! Tracy didn't forget! Love to all!