Good evening everyone! Another very busy day, finished! When I say we are running sun-up to sunset, I’m not kidding. Our wakeup call at 6am, breakfast in the dining room at 6:30, then loaded and on bus by 7:30. We are usually stopping for a brief lunch about 1pm, then continue on with our day, ending back at hotel by 6pm, with dinner at 7. Whew……
Today we started out with a really cool event. 2 in our group, Jim and Carol, asked to be re-baptized in the Jordan River. The place is known as Yardinet and is specifically designed for this purpose. They have the towels and robes (and a nice gift shop) there. Many many people get baptized there every single day. The pictures will show what I mean. The water was ice cold, but Carol and Jim didn’t seem to mind. Pastor Green said he got comfortable as soon as his body became numb from the cold!
Afterwards, we went on a boat ride across the Galilee, on a fishing boat, similar to what Jesus would have taken over 2000 years ago. The ride was wonderful, the waters were peaceful. The weather, by the way has been fantastic here, sunny most days and reaching 50 to 55 degrees in midday. Upon landing on the North shore of Galilee, we took a trip to the ruins of the old city known as Beth Saida. BethSaida is where about 5 of the disciples were born and where Jesus walked several times. Felt strange to actually be walking on the stones and streets that Jesus himself likely walked upon as well. BethSaida is also the location of the famous feeding of 5000 with 2 fishes and 5 loaves.
Following BethSaida, we visited the ruins of the city known as Capernaum. This was fascinating, we actually walked into the synagogue of Jesus, where he spoke and taught. I think everyone was just amazed to be in there. Following this we traveled to Tabgua, which is where Jesus returned following his crucifixion and fed the disciples breakfast. Next stop was St. Peters church, thought to hold the actual rock used to prepare the breakfast with. Finally, we proceeded the actual location Mount of the Attitudes, where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.
I have to admire everyone on this trip, to be honest. Several are older folks, yet they appear to be holding their own just as well, if not better than I! Although we may not be as bright eyed and ready to go at the end of day as we are in morning, I don’t see anyone asking to slow down yet.
Tomorrow appears to be one of our busiest. We depart this hotel in the morning and will travel to see numerous sites, including the city of Cana, Nazareth, and the East coast of Israel, near Haifa. Then we will proceed thru Bethlehem and finally end up at our next hotel on the schedule, located in Jerusalem. Sounds like a crazy busy day so I am going to end here and try to catch up on sleep.

One note - I want to thank each of you that are watching this blog and looking/commenting on pics on Facebook page. Trust me its been a struggle for Doug and I. The Internet connections here have been extremely difficult. We both find ourselves spending hours each evening trying to upload pics/ maps, and words so we can share our experience with you. Also, thanks for all the great and positive comments. Becky, I am quite honored you would share pics with your class at school. I'll try and remember this as we begine our travels South into Jerusalem/Bethlehem area. Goodnight everyone and God Bless…….Dave

Pictures
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50690&l=80f9c&id=578079683

Map of the Day
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=113407999173617109556.00045f8c6eb780013dbc3&z=10