Entering Galilee

First day out in Galilee--and goodness, was it BLAZING hot! Our first stop was at Beth-She’an, where we oriented ourselves to some of the mountains in the region, saw the ruins of an Egyptian governor’s home, as well as the fantastic ruins of the Roman city of Schytopolis.

Canaanite art—or rather, a copy of a discovered piece. It’s actually made of Styrofoam. =/

The tree featured in the movie, “Jesus Christ, Superstar.”

Schytopolis

Me and Schytopolis

Schytopolis and an earthquake—no, really, I’m not kidding.

I’ve got my reading material for the ancient Roman public toilets.

Sometimes we struggle with the smiling.

There, that’s better!

A Roman sauna. They would place a floorboard over those stumps, and heat water underneath so the steam could rise.

Next, we went to Megiddo, the city most well known probably for its mention in the End Days of Revelation 16. But more than just for its apocalyptic significance, it was an important historical city as well, because it was the most direct route in the region. Therefore, possession was greatly contested by the kings of the surrounding nations.

It takes four Israelis and a machine to set one stone. And how long did it take them to build the wall of Jerusalem?

I think these are the first cows I've seen in Israel.

It was a sad day when I had to tell Jon he finally outgrew his beloved crib.

Aubrey told us she had a surprise for us on the way to our next stop. We were all hoping it was ice cream. Instead, it was this tomb.

At Mt. Carmel, we listened again to the profound story of Elijah vs. Jezebel's prophets of Baal.

For our last field study stop of the day, we stopped at a mountain peak right out outside of traditional Nazareth.

Mt. Moreh in the distance

The black domed church in the middle of the picture marks the traditional site of ancient Nazareth.

Looking across the valley at Mt. Tabor

Aubrey's husband, Vernon

I think they were doing a live broadcast to their church or something...

Standing on the ledge of the mountain where it is believed Luke 4:28-30 occurred. The Jews wanted to stone Jesus by throwing him off the cliff and dropping stones on him, but according to the biblical account, he just walked right through them. Tradition says that Jesus jumped off the cliff; therefore, they call the it the Leaping Mountain.

After the long day, we took a walk down to the Sea of Galilee, where it was surprisingly quite the bumpin’ boardwalk. Haha. We’ll have fun here, but first we have to survive the hot, hot days!