Day # 4 in Israel...

 

Welcome back to our Israel tour...

 

We are in overload over here and its all been an experience we will never forget!

 

This is the Mediterranean sea on the West side of Isreal…

 

Today was an earlier start for ten out of our group of nineteen. We did the hike up to the top of Mt Arbel and the others came a bit later on the bus and met us there.

It was so beautiful!! I did not take my camera with me but Dave took lots of pictures with his phone that I will share later. I did go to the bus for my camera once the hike was over so these next photos are from the top... I'll share those from Dave's phone once I get home...

Mt. Arbel from the top... This is where Jesus went up to pray. This is where Jews lived out of the caves until Herod's men slew them all hanging from cages off the side of the mountain while he watched from the top of the next mountain! It was almost to horrible to even imagine!

They tell us these red and white flowers are so rare here!! Only a bit in March do they have much of any flowers so its been great seeing them and smelling them to!

I must mention that they have had much rain here in Israel the past month! Last week it rained and poured all week! We are so thankful to be on this side of those rains! God has blessed us with great weather!!

These girls are great together! Eva and Ranessa room together and then Marilyn and Rachel room together.

Pastors here just soak it all up!! This leadership team has made this time here so great!

Orie our guide has been so great!! He takes great care of us everyday! He reads us lots of scriptures and tells us many stories about history here and its all so amazing as we line it up with what we already know about God's Word!!

Read the Word of God!! Everyday!! The more familiar with scripture the more it all makes sense here on the ground in Israel!

It was so great hiking up the mountain all together this morning!! The climb got intense at times and we were going up steep and on rocks many times! They all did great! I can't wait to share more pictures of this hike! It was breathtaking!

I take many pictures of these two and its so fun...:)

Next stop was Megiddo... This place had us deep in thought!! There is so much history here!! Layer upon layer of city was built here! As one empire would fall another would build right on top! Thirty layers of building went on here!! This was the perfect location that was needed but again and again it went to ruins! We saw where they had an alter built and set where they would sacrifice babies!

This is also the mountain that set in the center of the valley of "Armageddon"! The one that is talked about in Revelations where the battle of all battles will be fought! The very last battle! The one we don't really want to talk about because it all sounds so scary!

Walking among the ruins here was an experience I won't ever forget.

What will really happen in these valleys around this mountain in Gods perfect timing!??

Its all so very beautiful here now!! Things are growing in these valleys so full and lush!

The seven species that grow here in this land are all AMAZING super foods that we should all eat everyday! Me being a foodie found this interesting... Pomegranate, (I had a fresh juiced one today!)
Dates, (its often served for dessert here)

Figs, Olives, Grapes, Wheat and Barely. Most food here are all sorts of salads with little meat but most every meal has these foods served one way or another!

Anyway on with the day...

The next stop was Mount Carmel...

This is where Prophet Elijah told King Ahab to gather the 450 prophets of the Baal gods.

The people that served the Baal god made an alter and Prophet Elijah made one just like it. All except Prophet Elijah told the men to put lots and lots of water on his alter yet...

The people prayed and cried to their ball god all day. They even cut themselves. And he sent no fire to his alter like they were expecting him to!

In the evening Prophet Elijah finally had his turn! His God was all together different and today we stood on the very spot that it is believed that the fire came down from Heaven and burnt up all that was on the alter plus the water and even the stones and all! Read it in 1 Kings 18 16-45.

Here are pictures from today on Mount Carmel...

The creek that Elijah had the Baal Prophets brought to where he slew them all was just down below us here...

We drove a about an hour... (We have learned how to sleep sitting up and we now kind of laugh that the bus kind of rocks us to sleep) There is always so much to see though as we drive! Today we drove through a large part of the West Bank!

Our last stop for the day was here...

This was one of King Herod's Kingdoms. It must have been so magnificent back in that day!!
We were questioning if the Wise Men might have stopped here looking for Jesus?

Much history happened here in this kingdom!! To much to share tonight but it was great to here some of it today!


Scriptures were read a few times on this site...

He had amazing pools and all kinds of other luxury here!!

Storage rooms...

We ended this stop with the best ice cream we have had here yet... The dessert here is pretty healthy but this one was the most "American" we had yet...:)

We drove a few hours back to Jerusalem this evening. We have a beautiful hotel here. We are only across the road from the city of Bethlehem and its so beautiful over there! I hope to get some nice pictures around here tomorrow, Tonight was dark when we got back.

You would have found us all doing laundry in sinks and bath tubs this evening. We hung it all out to dry tomorrow. The boys came over with a pile of laundry and I was a bit disturbed because I had told them before we left home to pack plenty for nine days!! Oh well good thing I packed laundry soap...:)

This trip has been so much fun! The days here are winding down! We have our next two days packed out and we are trying to squeeze in as much as we can!

We visit many sites tomorrow including the dead sea and the city of David! We start early and we are enjoying it all so very much!

Thanks for joining in on our journey through these "Holy Lands"

Good Night to all back home!! We miss you Jenika and Javon but over and over again I know you are so much better off where you are these days!!