The Mt. of Beatitudes is my all time favorite place in Israel. Today is already a good day because that’s where we started out tour. I know I’m a little bias, but I think its one of the most beautiful places in all of Israel. It is this big octagonal shaped church with beautiful flowers overlooking the Sea of Galilee. I have a weird obsession of taking pictures of flowers and nature, so of course I took full advantage of that and I now have tons of pictures from the Mt. of Beatitudes! (Sparknotes story of the importance of this mount – This is where Jesus walked after the feeding of the 5000 and preached the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5-7:29) Coach Dye was challenged to memorize the Sermon on the Mount by someone who went last year, and being a typical male, he took on that challenge. I am so impressed that someone could memorize 2 and a half chapters of the bible and get it almost word for word perfect. He gave us the sermon outside the church where Jesus would have been. It was so awesome! Needless to say, round two at the Mt. of Beatitudes was a huge blessing and I loved every minute of it.
Tabgha is the site at the base of the Mt. of Beatitudes where Jesus fed the 5000. Now there is a church built there and it is called the Church of Multiplication (get it? Jesus multiplied the fishes and loaves..bad joke?) All over Israel, there are place mats, plates, key chains, and so on that have the word Tabgha and a picture of 4 loaves and 2 fishes on it. A little fun fact about that pictures is that one of the loaves of bread is missing from the picture..any guesses as to where it is? Well, it is said that the missing fifth loaf of bread is in the hands of Jesus as he is holding it up to God and blessing it before he multiplied it. I thought that was very interesting! The story of the feeding of the 5,000 is found in Matthew 14:13-21!
Next, we went to Peter’s Primacy on the Sea of Galilee. This is the place where Jesus told the fishermen to cast their nets on the other side of the boat and they would surely catch some fish. It is also where Jesus asked Peter 3 times if he loved him and every time the answer was yes. Jesus knew that Peter was going to deny him 3 times but he also knew that Peter loved him with his whole heart. Another fun fact! When they cast the fishing nets to the other side of the boat, they caught 153 fish. There were 153 different kinds of fish in the Sea of Galilee and there were 153 nations they would preach and teach the Word to. How cool!
We also went to Capernaum where there was an old synagogue and Peter’s mother-in-law’s house! This is the site where Jesus heals the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12). We saw lots of cats there...joy.
Tonight was THE BEST. As some of you know, Barrett (the boyfriend) is also in Israel right now. He goes to West Point and is here with some other guys from West Point, Navy, and Air Force traveling to all the different military bases and some Holy sites. We planned to meet up one day/night but we didn’t think our schedules would cooperate because we were in different parts of the country at different times. But we worked it out! His last night in Jerusalem was my first night in Bethlehem and the cities are like less than 10 miles apart! Our awesome tour guide Rami worked out all the plans with me and dropped me and Grandpa off at Barrett’s hotel to spend some time with him. I cannot even describe how great it was so see him, especially on the other side of the world! We had dinner together and spent some time with his friends and it was just so great! I am so thankful and so blessed that everything worked out for us to see each other!
Today was such an awesome day. All the sites around the Sea of Galilee are my favorites because they are just beautiful all the time. I got to see some of my favorite Holy sites and my wonderful boyfriend, doesn’t get much better than that! Well it’s past my bedtime and we have a very busy day ahead of us tomorrow! Good night!
Love yall!
*side note: long story short, my camera got wet on the hike of day 1 and is broken..so I’m taking pictures on my phone and I cant upload them til I get home. But I will definitely add some pictures later!
I'm so very excited for you!!!! And I wish I were there! If I had been there with you....you would have asked me if I took the Other loaf of bread....just sayin....... :D
ReplyDeleteoh so happy for you, yeah Sandi would have eaten that bread and share with me :) Also seriously Barrett must be a cool dude to be a friend to a cool dudette. I was thinking of you & John prayed for you too, for safety and more rest for Grandpa John.
ReplyDeleteLove ya,
Anita