Israel, Day 5 - Friday, Feb 10, 2012

Israel, Day 5 - Friday, Feb 10, 2012

Up early to see a cloudy sunrise over the Sea of Galilee.  after breakfast  we left other kibbutz at 0800 and headed toward Nazareth.  There was quite a bit of rain around.  On the way Ezra, our tour guide, suggested we stop by Zippori.  Our hosts agreed so we visited the National Park at this important archeological site.  The city was much larger than Nazareth in the first century and legend tells us it was where Mary's parents lived.  It was also an important place for education, so conjecture is that Jesus may have studied here.  Fascinating ruins with amazing mosaic work.

Next stop was Cana where Jesus performed his first miracle of turning water to wine.  It was also the home of Nathaniel.

Next stop Nazareth, now a city of approximately 170,000 people - one third Muslim, one third Jewish, and one third Christian.  We visited the Church of the Synagogue where Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah to begin his ministry, the Church of the Annunciation, and Joseph's workshop.

Stopped for lunch on the way to Jerusalem.  Ran into a contingent of Methodists from Michigan and we have some Methodists from Michigan with us so it was old home week half way around the world!

It's nearly a two hour drive from Nazareth to Jerusalem so there were many of us sleeping rather soundly.  As we began to make our approach to the city the anthem The Holy City was played over the PA.  Just as we rounded a  corner to get our first view of the city the chorus began for the first time, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, lift up your gates and sing, Haosanna in the Hiqhest, Hosanna to your King!" There may have been some dry eyes on the bus, but they weren't mine!

We stopped by Mt Scopus and the Mt of Olives to get our first view of the city.  We then checked into the King Solomon Hotel, our center of operations for the rest of the trip.  

I came up to the room after dinner  to work on blogs and pictures.  My roommate woke me up 3 hours later and told me it was time to go to bed!

Kevin Phipps,  Sent from my iPad