ISRAEL TRIP - JOURNAL
November 24 - December 5, 2007
Page 1 0f 5 - Days 1 to 3
BEGINNING NOTES:
During the trip to Israel, Tom Brimmer our tour guide was always very
clear about what was an Authentic site that is documented
archeologically versus a Traditional site where people have gone for
hundreds of years or simply a site that could have been or at least
would have been close to the area. I will try to pass along that
information on these pages. Many of the sites had Catholic churches or
monasteries built on them or over them that preserved the site.
The other piece that I want to pass along is about the geography of the
land. In our culture, we use up to mean north on the map and down to
mean south on the map so I always skimmed over those little words in
the scriptures not really thinking about what they meant. Let me tell
you, when scriptures talk about going down to Ceasarea and up to
Jerusalem, they really mean DOWN the mountain or UP the mountain! We
climbed more mountains and hillsides in 12 days than I have climbed in
a life time!
I started off taking detailed notes, but hit overload after just a
couple of days so there will be more photos at the end and much less of
a journal!
Some of the photos are taken by my husband Todd, as well as Carol
Carter, the rest I took.
Dee
Day 1 -2– 11/24-25 Saturday &
Sunday Tel Aviv Arrival, Netanya
Todd and I left Saturday afternoon at 2pm from our house and Rob
took
us to Manchester NH airport. We met up with Carol Carter and Joanie
Perkins there at the airport and we flew to Newark, New Jersey, Todd
and I had supper there, made some last minute phone calls to family and
flew out for Tel Aviv, Israel. We arrived in Tel Aviv Sunday afternoon
at 4pm their time, which was 7 hours later, so Sunday morning back
home. All of our luggage arrived with us. We went through passport
control and were picked up by Tom Brimmer our tour guide and Maryls our
trip organizer for Barbara.
Over the trip, we found out that Tom has lived in Israel for 18 years,
is an ordained AG minister, and also an amazing historian. He is from a
small town in New York State originally in the Fingerlakes region. In
one of our times over lunch with him he told Todd and I about being
from a poor family and being visited by Jesus one night in his room
when he was 9 years old! His wife is the head of a non-profit in
Jerusalem, Bridges for Peace.
It was a beautiful evening in Tel Aviv and the cool air was so good
after being so warm and cooped up on the plane. After the rest of the
tour group came in from their flight and we left for Netanya on the
Mediterranean. I slept for a bit on the bus. We stayed at the King
Solomon hotel. We had supper together at the hotel and Todd and I went
for a walk along the walkway by the Mediterranean. Then we dropped into
bed, exhausted.
Day 3 - 11/26 Monday – Caesarea, Roman
aqueduct, Mt Carmel, Nazareth, Mt. Tabor
Our alarm rang at 5:15am. We needed to get showered, ready and be
repacked and downstairs with luggage at 7:15am. For the rest of the
trip our normal schedule was a wake up call at 6am, down for breakfast
at 7am, luggage outside our room no later than 7:15am and on the bus by
8am. It was not a lazy trip.
The banquet breakfast was like I have never seen in my life. I should
have taken a photo of it. All kinds of fresh food, salad ingredients,
mixed salads, fruit, yogurt, pickled fish, white cheese, humus,
wonderful breads and scrambled eggs. That was the Israeli breakfast
everywhere we went. You could get butter for your bread and real
creamer for coffee in the morning when fish was served, but at night,
when meat was served, it was not out.
CAESAREA
We were in the bus by 8am to start the day. We left Netanya and went to
Caesarea by the Sea. The sand had covered over and preserved large
sections of this city. It is an authentic site.
It had been a tiny port until Herod went there and turned it into a
port city, not knowing that it was on an earthquake fault just out on
the shore line. Herod lived a Hellenistic life where hedonism and
aesthetics, pleasure and beauty were worshipped, even though he had
been a Jew who had been taken away and raised in Rome. He was paranoid,
crazy, obese man and the life in the city was full of excess. His
palace had a full size fresh water swimming pool in it, even though it
was right on the ocean. At the theatre they would eat for 2 to 3 hours
straight while enjoying entertainment and there was a “vomitorium” in
the back, so when they couldn’t eat anymore, they’d go throw up so they
could eat some more.
There was a horse race track which was later
turned into a gladiator amphitheater. The Roman soldiers, like the
Caesars were homosexual. It was a violent, bloody, hedonistic port
town.
It was in this place of pleasure and excess and violence, the
Lord came
to the Gentiles. Read Acts 10 Cornelius and Peter It was also from
Caesarea where Saul was sent to Tarsus in Acts 9. Caesarea was the
place where Philip went in Acts 8 and where he stayed, Acts 21.
The theatre was where Paul defended himself in front of the governor
Felix in Acts 24, but it must have held 1000 people. We walked in the
place where Paul walked down the steps to the ship to go to Rome.
We also walked through the gatehouse of the Crusaders at the same spot.
AQUEDUCTS
One of the issues around Caesarea is that there is no fresh water.
Water had to come down the aqueduct from Mt. Carmel mountain range
about 7 miles away. We stopped at the aqueduct of Rome, the Byzentine
age built one bigger right beside the Roman one and the Crusaders built
another one on top of the other two. The Crusaders aqueduct is not
visible anymore.
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MT
CARMEL
From the aqueducts we went up to the highest mountain in the Mt. Carmel
range and where the Carmelites have a monastery. We went through the
monastery to a roof section. It is a traditional site, believed to be
the section where Elijah fought with the priests of Baal. We looked
across the valley of Armageddon and could see Jezreel 25 miles away
where Elijah ran to. And we could see the winding of the little brook
Cherith. Barbara preached and we prayed and one of the sisters on the
tour, Marya played her violin prophetically.
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THE DRUZE
For lunch we stopped at a small restaurant and had falafels stuffed
with wonderful fresh vegetables and salads and fried chick pea balls.
During the trip we often had falafels for lunch and we were glad
whenever we had an alternative!
The Druze are in this area and run this restaurant. They are a minority
religious sect who claim to have secrets passed down from Jethro,
Moses’ father in law. Tom said that they are honest and fierce fighters
for whatever country they live in. Because they could end up fighting
their brothers if they fought to the Syrian north, the Israeli army
only allows them to fight in the south. The older Druze men have some
amazing mustaches. We ate outside in the sun. The breeze was cool, but
the sun was out and warm. It was a beautiful day.
NAZARETH
From Mt. Carmel we went to Nazareth and walked through an a little
narrow market place to the Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation.
It is an authentic site, the documented workshop of Joseph. Joseph was
an artisan, although it is unclear if he was a carpenter, he may have
been. There was a Jewish ritutal bath close to the home and it could be
seen. Then we walked back through the market area and wemt to a Greek
Church that is attached to the synagogue church in Nazareth where Jesus
gave his “mission statement” in Isaiah. We worshipped there and prayed
for each other.
When we were leaving Nazareth, Kellit our bus driver stopped at a
bakery and bought baklava for us all to have. He said that he wanted
everyone to have a sweet taste in their mouths when they left Nazareth.
It is his home town. Kellit is a Christian Arab and he and Todd became
friends over the trip. It was quite sweet to watch.
MOUNT TABOR
From Nazareth we went to Mt. Tabor which is the traditional site of the
Transfiguration. The bus could not go and so we went up in taxis who
take people up and down all day long. There are 13 hairpin turns, but
when I counted, it was more like 14 or 15. People have been making
pilgrimages there for 1500 years and Franciscan monks built another
church over the ancient existing altar and chapels there. Because mass
was being held by the monks who live there, we gathered out on to the
rooftop overlooking the valley and Barbara preached. One of the sisters
on the tour, Marya played her violin prophetically as the sun was going
down. There were 3 chapels there – we went into the ones for Elijah and
we prayed there, and because it was closing we quickly went into the
one for Moses.
I fell asleep twice on the bus that day and was hoping that the jetlag
would be better soon. As we traveled, it is amazing to see what the
Israelis have done. They
have taken fields and hillsides of rocks and stones and turned them
into green producing organic farms. The rocky fields of New England are
nothing compared to the rocks and stones and sand of Israel. 
Everyplace
that is green has irrigation.
We went past the city of Tiberias. We checked into our hotel on the
north side of the Sea of Galilee, right on the lakeshore.
We walked down to the restaurant and had another wonderful
meal, full of things that I didn’t even know what a lot of the food
was.
We
sat with Barbara and had a wonderful conversation over dinner.
Some of
the gang gathered together at a table and started drinking out of
barrels of the new wine and laughing. It was a great gang of folks.
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