Drinking Grapefruit Juice At 11:30 p.m. With The Sea of Galilee Right There

Still on pace with the reading and getting caught up on the accompanying blogging.  In the meantime, I plan to throw in a few stand alone pieces on my happening as we speak Holy Land trip.  This is the third time I've been able to travel here, but the first time with this sort of ability to blog about it.
Today was our first full day and it was full.  We were off at 8:00 a.m. following a breakfast buffet with many things that I did not recognize.  Some were good.  I'll try to find them tomorrow.  We stopped along the Sea of Galilee at the Mount of Beatitudes.  Beautiful place.

We drove to the base of Mt. Hermon to Banias, one of the three sources of water to the Jordan River.  Got to give the devotional there for our bus which was a thrill.

It's amazing to have an opportunity to do something like that on a spot (or in the vicinity of a spot) where some important biblical event unfolded.  Banias is also known as Caeserea Phillipi which is the place where Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was and Peter said, "You are the Messiah."  At the foot of a huge stone cliff there Jesus responded to Peter by saying "On this rock (Peter) I will build my church."  The human rock - Peter - not the giant awesome rock wall right behind him with the altars to the God Pan carved into them.

We drove as far north, just about, as we could go - had lunch in a Druze village - great chicken sandwich - and then drove to a spot overlooking a UN Post on the border between Israel and Lebanon.  The guide pointed us towards the capital city of Syria, Damascus, some forty miles away.  Very close geographically, but you can't get there from here.  The border between Israel and Syria has been and is, closed.
We drove back down to the Sea of Galilee and visited the ruins of the town of Capernaum, the headquarters of Jesus' ministry years in the Galilee.  Awesome to stand in the remains of a Synagogue which dated back close to the time of Christ and which was built over top of the Synagogue that would have been the Synagogue at the time when Jesus was there.  The mind has trouble taking it in.

We also stopped at Tabgha which is on the spot where Jesus fed the 5,000.  Great mosaic of loaves and fishes on the floor there.  Spectacular views of the Sea of Galilee, which I think I could never grow tired of seeing.  Which is why at 11:33 p.m. I'm sitting in sweater and long sleeves on the hotel patio, drinking Jump Grapefruit, blogging and still watching the Sea in the darkness.  Looking forward to tomorrow.

View from Mount of Beatitudes