day 2

Dear caroline and jenny,

            Last night was kind of rough. After I wrote a little, I went straight to bed and it was around 9.40 or so. Around 5.45 or so we got ready and packed our bag for the day and went to breakfast at 6.15. We walked around the kibbutz for a few minutes until they opened the doors for breakfast. It was beautiful. It was warm and the sun was rising over the Sea of Galilee. Absolutely breathtaking.  

                                         This is a picture of some of the rooms at the kibbutz

                                          The view of the pool and part of the Sea of Galilee

            Our first stop this morning was at Bet She’an. The whole city is in ruins, obviously, but they had it preserved and very authentic. There was a giant bathhouse, amphitheater, and church. There is a beautiful view of the Sea of Galilee from everywhere in Bet She’an.

 

                                                 Here is an overview of Bet She'an

This are some of the seats in the huge amphitheater

            Next we went to the Jordan River for baptisms. My grandpa ‘John the Baptist’ and Med, one of the other guys in charge of the trip, did the baptisms. My grandpa did mine and it was incredible. I got a little emotional just thinking about how I was being baptized in the same water as Jesus. I didn’t really think about it before, but the more I thought about it, the more amazing it was. 

Baptism :)

Long story short, the water was freezing and there were muskrats/giant rats swimming in the water. Scott also informed me after, that there were fish like 3 feet long swimming around us…wonderful, right?

                                                                          GROSS.

Next, we went on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.  The boat was very interesting looking, nothing like boats in the U.S. Our tour guide, Rouf, spoke a little bit on the boat and then Med and Don, another guy in charge, talked about all the things that Jesus did on the water and the land surrounding it.

I have lots more pictures of everything and I'll put them on facebooook!

From the Sea, we could see the land where Jesus did 90% of his teaching and miracles.  After they talked for a little while, Michaelanglo played the guitar and sang some worship songs. Then, the  guys who worked on the boat sang and played the violin for us! They were really nice and one of them was pretty cute!

            Lunch was fabulous today. The pita bread is out of this world.  It is nothing like pita bread in the states. And the hummus. Oh my goodness, SO GOOOOD. We had fish and French fries with lots of different salads. It was real good! Soda at the restaurant was $3..how ridiculous is that?

            After lunch we went to the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave his sermon on the mount. Holy cow. It was fabulous! 

The church and the view were absolutely gorgeous. 

            p.s. I have lots of pictures of random cats. You know how we have squirrels running around everywhere? Yeah welllll they have cats. EVERYWHERE. And they are all nasty and mean. A couple of them hissed at me when I tried to take pictures of them..i knew I hated cats for a reason.

ew