Day 1 in the Holy Land

During our time in Israel, Michelle and I were told about a Gospel that we'd never heard of before. It was brought to our attention that there were not 4 Gospels, but in fact 5. As you can imagine, this brought up some red flags for me and made me wonder what was going on. But before the trip was over, I had come to agree with our teachers. There were actually 5 Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the last being...the Land. As we traveled to the places Jesus would've taught, performed miracles and sacrificed himself for us, we learned so much more about the other 4 Gospel stories. And what an experience that was. Over the next few days, I will try my best to share just a little of what this experience was like. But in truth, as they say, you had to be there. So I encourage any of you reading this to make it a priority to some day make the same pilgrimage that we did. You won't regret it.



So we begin with day one in Galilee and looking out our hotel room window over the Sea of Galilee as the sun rises above it. What a beautiful site.

Breakfast was then had, and we realized at that moment that we were going to be fed very nicely. I will say that I gained 4 or 5 pounds and at the same time brought my blood sugar down. It was amazing. I ate and ate, but it was all fresh vegetables and food that was good for me. The food was worth going for if nothing else. But there was something else waiting as we left the hotel.

The bus took us just down the road where we loaded onto a pontoon-like boat and headed out to sea. Of course putting out to sea in the Sea of Galilee is like going out into a big lake for it's only 13 miles long and 9 miles wide at it's widest. But heading out into the middle of this body of water, I had no idea what kind of Holy Spirit moment awaited me. Our teachers brought it to our attention that fishermen in Jesus' day would not travel into the deep waters of the middle of the lake. This is because it was too dangerous. We had the luxury of engines to take us where we wanted to go, but they didn't. Each village had its own cove in which the village fishermen would fish from. So even though there are 35 varieties of fish in the lake, they would have caught only the smaller ones that would've come closer to the shore.

As I looked over the rail to the northern part of the lake, I was taught that this is where Jesus travels would have been. We also were pointed out the general areas where he would've fed the 5,000 and taught those wonderful lessons we now call the Sermon on the Mount. It was at that moment I had my first "Holy Spirit" experience. I looked out over the lake to the place where he would have sent the disciples across after feeding the 5,000. As Matthew, Mark and John all describe, after sending the crowds home, he found a place to pray and then went out on the water...walking on water. As this came to my mind, I realized that in my eyesight somewhere out there, I saw the actual place where Jesus walked on water. And it brought chills to me. I felt like I could actually see my Savior out there. And I cannot truly explain what the feeling was like, except to say that I didn't want it to end.

And this was only the beginning of the day. At the end of the day we had traveled to Capernaum, Kursi (traditional place where Jesus sent the demons into the swine) and Bethsaida. We had lunch at En Gev Kubbutz where I ate St. Peter's fish (Tilapia) fromt the Sea of Galilee (it looked back at me as I ate). And I learned that at Capernaum it was not the poor people who accepted Jesus', but some of the more wealthy like a Roman Soldier, Jairus and Matthew the tax collector turned disciple. So all in all it was an eventful day filled with learning and Spiritual experiences. Thanks be to God.

In the love of Christ,
greg