Day 4: Caesarea and Mt. Carmel
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Because of the early evening bedtime we took the night before, we were able to get much needed rest and also be very awake at 5:30am! We walked down to the pier on the sea of Galilee and spent some time in praise and worship and reading. It was a beautiful time—that of refreshing time in the Word and amazing colors in the sky. 
Corey gets a shot of Donna as she is writing with mittens on (pretty impressive!). 
We arrived at Caesarea before too many tourists hit the site. The first item we came upon was a replica of a stone found that had quite a strong significance. While many people question the authenticity of the New Testament, different items come up that solidify its inerrancy. Such is that of the stone shown in the picture below. Originally a corner stone to a building, this was found, repurposed as a seat (you can see the left side having been chiseled away to fit into place). It was found in 1959 by some archaeologists. The inscription says “PONTIVS PILATVS”, which was Pontius Pilate. Many were saying that there never was a person that existed by that name, but now, could not be refuted! 
We headed on down next to the Mediterranean and sat by the ruins of Herod the Great’s “summer home”. Here we learned more about the history of the change of command leading up to the time when Paul was imprisoned here. In the picture below you will see our tour guide holding one of the “visuals” (this one being “Herod the Great”) used for our history lesson that Tonye had handed out for various individuals to hold up. Resemblance? Nah! 
This picture shows what we were looking out on as we were receiving our history lesson. This was the pool that Herod the Great created on the shore, where he insisted on fresh water filling the pool rather than seawater. 
Here are the four lovely ladies on the trip at the Hippodrome (think of the movie Ben Hur and the chariot races…) 
Corey and Donna at the shore by the Hippodrome. 
Tonye had a bout with elephantitis for a few minutes when his foot swelled up bigger than Ben’s whole body… but it got better when he stepped away from the Roman statuary. 
The theater where Paul gave his defense and testimony to Festus and Agrippa was amazing, and Matt played the part of Paul as he acted out the verses in Acts 25:13-26:32. Corey and Donna enjoyed creeping everyone out, and played Priscilla and Aquilla (being that they were siblings that were married… not that we are siblings by any part, but that we were married, and it wouldn’t be weird for us to play the part). 
Another site to see in the theater was a little friend praying mantis that Christina pulled off of Donna’s shoulder. The mantis enjoyed the show, and was left at the site before we got back onto the bus. 
This one is for Grampy. A Dresman tradition is to spit into various bodies of water around the globe. Here, Corey salivates into the Mediterranean Sea. (Stella/Mommo - for you, we chose not to show the close-up, like we did at the Mississippi River this summer!) 
Referencing back to Herod the Great’s freshwater pool. Here is part of the visionary engineering feat of an aquaduct sloping ever so slightly from eight miles away to get fresh water to the pool! 
We climbed up and took a look at the handiwork and the view. The trench fifteen feet off the ground was wide enough for us to walk through. Pretty darn impressive! 
Next stop was Mount Carmel, where Elijah had his showdown, and schooled the prophets of Baal by the power of God on their home turf (1 Kings 18:17-40)! From here, you can see the valley of Megiddo *(think Armageddon from the book of Revelation). This is where battle that will take place at the end of the Tribulation, where the kings of the world gather themselves together against the Lord, and we are told that blood from the battle will be up to the horse’s bridle. Looking at the valley… whoah! Thirty San Luis Obispos can fit into the valley! 
A different part of Mount Carmel allowed us to take in a spectacular view! These pictures certainly don’t do it justice. Thanks for the show, Lord! 
From here, we could see the entire width of Israel, from the Mediterranean to Syria. 
The show continued as we drove down the mountain. 
Day 5: Culture day!
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We began the morning on a mountain similar to where Jesus retreated up a mountain to pray overlooking Galilee (seen below from here was Magdala, where Mary Magdalene was from). Think about Jesus seeing his disciples struggling on the Sea with a storm, and how he walked out on the water and saved them. 
Here is the group, looking bright and chipper in the crisp morning. 
Nazareth was our next stop. Only about 400-2000 people in Jesus’ day, this city seemed HUGE now, with approximately 70% Arab citizens of Israel, and 30% Christians. This was the first, and only place we’ve seen Christmas decorations in Israel… although some of them were Santa Claus with Bambi pulling the sleigh… weird. In Nazareth, we visited a place where a Christian group re-created what the town would have looked like 2000 years ago. Here is a gate typically seen at city entrances from the period, with the narrow gate inside the larger gate. This reminds us of what Jesus said about how its harder for a rich man to get into heaven than it is for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24). Scholars say that he was referring to the narrow gate, like this. It isn’t impossible for a camel to fit through it, but it certainly would be difficult. Matthew 7:13 talks about entering through the narrow gate. 
The pathway into the re-created town.
A fig leaf covers Corey, and shocked the tour guide and caused him to lose track of what he was talking about… (Corey claims Tonye made him do it!)
Seeing the oil lamp in the window reminds us that we are not to hide our lamp under a bowl, but place it for all to see.
Donkey demonstrates the pressing of olives to create the olive oil
Tonye talked about how the master carpenter would do the intricate carvings, and would have the apprentice look down the lumber to judge its straightness. It sheds a whole new light on where the scripture says to first take the plank out of your own eye before helping remove the speck of sawdust from your brother’s eye. Seeing it from this light, we can see that it is as an apprentice trying to correct the master builder, even though he has less experience.
This is likely to be the size synagogue for Nazareth during Jesus’ time, used for such gatherings as special events to times of reading the Torah. Tonye mentioned how this is a good illustration how a location is used for social events and “spiritual” and how all should be thought as under the guidance of the Lord. This image shows our awesome tour guide, Roni, discussing the differences between synagogues and temples.
Much went into the recreation of this ancient site…including the simulation of what home sizes were and what materials they were commonly made out of (slightly smaller than the homes that we have in the US!!) 
Here is “Joseph” in his workshop. We were reminded that his job was much more than a carpenter—it was one that built and constructed as well as designed structures. (Hey, Corey might be more like Jesus than he knew…as he pursues “archi-tecton” or “master builder”)
Donna was able to feed Donkeys—though slightly scared of their teeth coming at her fingers.
Our next stop was at another location that aimed to remind us of what it was like back in Biblical times. We went so far as dressing the part, as modeled by us!
Just to show how weird we are, at separate times both Corey and Donna flexed their muscles while wearing this ancient attire.(no one, not even themselves are sure why…maybe they felt as if they would have larger muscles back then, because of the manual labor required!)
Corey shows us how intimidating he can look. Don’t mess with this Israelite!
Our tour guide leads us through typical steps to making bread; starting with plowing the field, as demonstrated by “Mark the horse” (the little rocking horse in the picture!).
Corey uses his newfound strength to grind the wheat into flour.
The tour guide balances the tray that contains the dough that is ready to place on the fire to make bread. (He kindly sped up the process and had dough ready for us to bake!)
Donna takes a nice big bite out of the delicious freshly-cooked bread.
After this we ate lunch in the reclined fashion on pillows as our food was placed on the floor between us. It was a delicious meal that prepared us for the donkey ride we took! Here you will see pictures of Donna and Corey on donkeys for the first time.
Here is the entire group on donkeys. What an experience! (Think about Mary on a donkey travelling for at least two weeks while VERY pregnant with Jesus! Whew, what a slow, hard journey that had to be!)
Donna leads the donkey (which started passing the other donkeys…not that it was a race, but Donna sometimes gets a bit competitive in the silliest little things) as Corey enjoys the ride through the beautiful scenic land.
"As I went down to the river to pray..."
--Our final stop for the evening was the Jordan river. Tonye had purchased a pigeon that would deliver an important message back to the last place we and just visited. It was a carrier pigeon, which was the “email” of earlier generations. Here is Ole placing the written message onto the bird. How many hands does it take to place something on a pigeon’s foot? (according to our picture: 5!)
Here is Tonye letting it take flight to head back to its home as we are by the Jordan river.
Below is the message that was carried by the pigeon. (we used current methods of communication to receive a PDF image sent by the receiver of the message!) We are hoping that this message really speaks to the guide we had, hoping that he realizes the fulfillment of prophecies with Jesus as Messiah!
The Jordan River contains lots of catfish. It is a good thing that Donna was not getting baptized; she would have been seen as “Pentecostal” when she flailed as the water beasts nibbled at her legs!
Tonye and Ben jump in, wearing the white garbs of baptism, and performed a sentimental baptism for Bethany and Ole. We were saddened by the consumerism surrounding this site, it seemed to be a well-oiled machine, but has the possibility of missing the heart of what baptism is all about.
After the baptism, Christina decided to go fishing and tried to catch the catfish with her bare hands! Crazy head!
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Whew! That was a lot of picture! So much to show and tell! Next up: Caesarea Philippi and Tel Dan!
After breakfast we had one hour to ourselves and Donna was dedicated to cultivate some Dead Sea Mud. (It is quite good for the skin!) The night before there seemed to be no mud around at the little beach we all went to so we went on the search (Donna, Christina, and Corey). Jackpot...we found some! As Donna gathered the mud she also tested it out on her arms, legs, and a bit on her face. Nothing like a spa treatment from the ground!
Christina was a pro at gathering mud. She taught Donna how to really get the good stuff!
We scrambled back to the hotel to pack up and leave. Below is Donna riding on the Tram back to the hotel, having a lot of fun on the back of the Tram and feeling pretty happy about successfully gathering several pounds of mud.
Christina, also happy about the successful hunt for mud!
Donna carried the mud back to the room in double lined baggies, inside a back pack, supported by towels. She didn't get too many odd looks from people about the lump on her back, but she did get a few about her "football player" marks on her face.
The team hit the road and our next destination was En Gedi. It was quite dry in Israel, as they have been in a draught, and are very much looking forward to rain.
Ben looks out has Corey snaps a beautiful photo moment that is dedicated to Nicole (his wife at home).
It was a hot day as we crawled around En Gedi just as David might have as he was fleeing from Saul (minus the carved-out paths). Donna "the slug" (as it appears from this picture) doesn't look like she's enjoying this portion of the hike!
As we hiked to different points we read different Psalms through David's life from his simple shepherd beginnings (Ps 8, 23, 19) to when he was fleeing from Saul (Ps 142, 54, 57). We will never look at the Psalms the same way again. Below is looking out unto the Dead Sea.
We were close to the top at this point!
Here, now descending down to the starting point, we took a picture next to this stumpy little tree and two Rock Hyrax jumped out of the tree!
This guy posed for us while the others hid.
After the hike we hit the road to head toward Jerusalem. We read through the Songs of Ascent in Psalm 120-134 as those who were pilgrimaging there would have (though their travels would have taken close to 2-3 weeks and for us it was mere hours). Below is an image taken as we came into Jerusalem. The walls seen in the picture are walls of the "Old City".
We arrived at our hotel and wanted to get right out and explore the city, so we walked the entire parameter of the Old City, along the existing walls.
Here is one of the 11 gates, called the Zion Gate. You can see all of the bullet holes that are left as a reminder of the 6-day-war back in 1967. Only 7 of these gates are open. Interesting fact: One of the closed gates is the Golden gate (not to be mistaken with SF's bridge). In Ezekiel 44:1-3 it was prophesied that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem through the eastern gate. When Jesus entered Jerusalem during the "Triumphal Entry", He came into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives (east of Jerusalem) and almost certainly went through the most east gate, which was the Golden Gate. During the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent's (1520-1566) reign he sealed the Golden Gate and had a cemetery placed in the slopes of the Kidron Valley to prevent the Messiah from entering! (little did he know he was way LATE and that was already done!)
A picture of Corey and Donna's feet walking along the road next to the Old City walls.
Here is a night shot of Southeast Jerusalem. Wow, we are really here!
Another shot of Jerusalem at night. This one you can see the ancient ruins that have been preserved. At the top, a glimmer of the gold dome that is an Islamic shrine , "Dome of the Rock", can be seen.
Later on the team wanted some email time and John-Michael and Abra allowed us to use their wireless! Yay, free internet! Here we are taking the 100th photo that Corey shot that night (trying to get the timer right and all of the fancy-dancy settings on the camera). We were all ready to be done with the picture. The award goes to John Michael for the best camera face!
Much more to come from Jerusalem!!!
