Touring Begins

We arrived in Tel Aviv late afternoon Tuesday. On the way to our hotel we stopped at the
old port at Jaffa where Jonah got a ticket to Tarshish and where Peter was staying when he
had the sheet vision. Our hotel was on the Mediterranean.

Wednesday morning we visited Caesarea and stood on the ruins of Herod's Palace where Paul was taken into protective custody when the Pharisees in Jerusalem had a plot to assassinate him. We saw the hippodrome next to the palace where they held chariot races (demolition derby style.) We saw Herod's aqeuduct that is 8 miles long.

We had felafel for lunch and ascended atop the highest point of Mt. Carmel where Elijah contested the prophets of Baal. Mt. Carmel is actually a mountain range 15 miles long north to south and 8 miles east to west. Mt. Carmel overlooks the valley of Jezreel with Nazareth on a hill to the east and Mt. Tabor in the background. From Mt. Carmel we traveled to
Megiddo at the pass where ancient east/west and north/south caravans crossed. Tel Megiddo was destroyed in battles and rebuilt 25 times. Revelation predicts earth's final battle
taking place here.

We visited Sephoris which is 8 miles from Nazareth and probably where Joseph and Jesus plied their skilled trade as carpenter/masons. Nazareth village had 300 residents and Sephoris
30,000. We ended today's visits with a trip to Cana the site of Jesus' first miracle. We
had the serendipity of meeting the pastor of the Christian Church of Cana supported by our
fellowship. We got to see their place of worship. Our hotel for tonight and tomorrow is in
Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee 300 feet below sea level.