Holy Land Pilgrimage

We left for Rome about 7:45am on Thursday, 20/20.  It was poring rain when we left the seminary.  The picture above is a stairway just down the hill from the seminary.  It looked like a water falls.  There are almost now grassy areas in Rome so everything has to run off.  A small rain is exciting.  This was a few inches.  The forty minute drive to the airport took over an hour.  Some from our sabbatical group planned other destinations for their break instead of going to the Holy Land.  A couple of them left of the airport an hour after we did.  It took them four hours in a cab to get there.  It cost them 140 euros and they still missed their plane.  Rome traffic was at a standstill.  The Holy Land group was very blessed not to have that problem.  North of Rome it was worse.  One city got washed out and five people died in the flood.

Once we landed in Tel Aviv we headed for the Hotel Metropolitan.  It was a block from the Mediterranean Sea.  The picture below was from our hotel window.  Unlike the rest of the sabbatical I had a roommate for the Holy Land trip.  We got along great.

This is a view of the hotels from the beach.

This is our hotel

We had just enough time to check into our rooms and then hurried to happy hour and then to the buffet supper.

The Mediterranean custom is to have a large salad to start the meal.  The selection of vegetable is always great.

There was fish, chicken, mutton, more vegetables, etc.

I recognized Antonio, who helped set up the buffet, as being from Southern Sudan.  She was nice and allowed me to take her picture to show you how much she looked like some of my friend in Nebraska.

The first stop the next morning was at Jaffa (Joppa).  This is where Jonah had fun with a big fish, Peter had a vision of an angel and where he cured Tabitha while staying at the leather tanner's house.

This scene is to remind us of the animals that God presented to Peter by way of the angel to let Peter know that they were all clean.  This was to help Peter what Paul had been trying to tell him, that the Gentiles could become Christians without becoming Jews.

This was the first view of the inside of St. Peter's Church.  There was Mass going on so I had to come back later for more pictures.

From this spot by St. Peter's Church you can see the hotel we were staying at the night before.

The front of St. Peter's

Just a quick note, there were more cats than dogs in the Holy Land.  Cats were everywhere.

This whole area had been built up like a park.  In the middle of it they were doing excavation of more ruins they found.  That is happening all over the Holy Land.

One of the things that Israel has done is plant bougainvilleas all over the place.  They flower best when it is dry so when everything else looks like terrible desert during the dry season, these bring color to the area.  It really helps.  Most of the land is very dry and rocky.

I just call this statue "Party Time" but notice the American flag in the background.

The angel inspiring Peter.

Peter curing Tabitha

The local kindergartners coming for a tour, walking two by two.

The big fish that decided he didn't like the taste of Jonah.

More kids coming for a tour in their school uniforms

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                                              This whole area is on the Jaffa harbor.

I didn't get to go kayaking here but it gave me an idea for later.

Most of the dogs were small but this lazy dog found a nice shady place to stay cool.

The area around Tel Aviv and Jappa was very built up and modern.

Our next stop was Caesarea by the Sea or Caesarea Maritima.  This area is north of Tel Aviv and is where Herod the Great built a city to be the major harbor in the area.  It never worked out because it had no easily accessible fresh water supply.  They had to build aqueducts to bring in the water.  This was not good for wartime because the bad guys could simply knock out the water supply and wait for surrender.

They did have a nice wall.

Herod built a hippodrome for chariot races but it was not quite big enough so they did other athletic events here.  Now it is used for concerts.

One of the things they found here was a stone tablet that said, "Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect."  This was important because there are so many people who don't believe the Bible is historical.

This is all that is left of Herods house overlooking the sea.

Just south of this area you can see a modern power plant.

The whole area has become a National Park of Israel.

Most of what was left of the city Herod built is underwater.

One last look at the concert stage

This was some kind of watchtower.

This looks like the inside of a small church but it was a gatehouse, but it gives you an idea of where much of our church architectural ideas come from.

This was part of the aqueduct system

Our next stop was Megiddo

The center of this picture is of a round altar that was on a spot that seemed to have altars going back for centuries.

The silo had two spiral walkways for entrance and exit as the silo emptied out.

Lots of ruins from different historical eras.

They did have a few of these to decorate the place and give people an idea or the function of certain areas.

This let down to a water source that was way underground.  I did not go down there.

Next we went to Muhraqa or Mount Carmel.

This is where Elijah took out the Baal guys.

Elijah getting food from heaven

You could see the whole countryside from this mountain.  It has become the focus point of the Calmelite Order

Our long range views were not great because of the haze in the air from dust.  It had not rained for a long time.

The Baal prophets trying to get him to light their fire.

God lighting Elijah's fire.

Elijah and the people wiping out 450 Baal priests.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow.