DAY 1 GALILEE FIELD TRIP

Here is the scoop on the first day of my unforgettable excursion to Galilee! We were supposed to leave bright and early at 6:30am but had a bit of a late start since the teachers were running around trying to finish up last minute things so this time, it wasn’t our fault. I was so exhausted from a very late night of packing (I’m such a procrastinator) and cleaning the apartment so we didn’t have to come home to a dirty home. Our first stop was Caesarea Maritima which is a beautiful city built by Herod the Great along the Mediterranean Sea and became Judea’s Roman capital after his death. Before Paul was taken hostage by the Romans, Caesarea was a missionary land mine for Philip, Peter, and Paul where they preached to many people and even baptized Cornelius, the Roman centurion. Pretty cool stuff. Next we stopped at Megiddo which Joshua defeated after which he gave the land to the Israelites. Brother Brown, our Academic Director, rambled on and on about some excavations that have occurred there and the process of some filming there that he was a part of and blah blah blah. Bless his heart, but I really didn’t have a care in the world about all of that. I wanted to learn more about the great and final conflict that is to happen at the End of Days and is referred to as the Battle of Armageddon. We ran out of time and had to move on which was frustrating but it was still so sweet to stand directly in the place where the battle is to blow out when Christ returns once again. Our last site was Nazareth where a majority of Jesus’ childhood was spent and where he announced his Messiahship during a synagogue service but the congregation rejected him so he left for Capernaum. It was amazing to sit in the “Nazareth Synagogue” (clever name, I know) and sing hymns that brought the spirit so strongly into the stone cold room. It was incredible to imagine the Savior standing at the head of the room declaring that he was the Son of God who was sent to save all his Heavenly Father’s children. It makes me sad to know that Jesus Christ, my Rock and my Redeemer was unwanted by those he loved so dearly. If the people only knew who this great figure standing before them really was, we may be reading a different story. NEXT POST...RAGING WATERS on the Sea of Galilee.