A Day in Galilee

After a bountiful breakfast at our wonderful hotel, we loaded up our bus and headed to a kibbutz which houses the Ancient Boat Museum. A fisherman's boat, determined to have been from the time of Jesus, was excavated from the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. The incredible story of how they found it, preserved it in moving it from its waterlogged state to now on display in the museum, was told in a movie that we watched. This is the only boat from that era that has ever been discovered. It is fascinating to think that it may have been one belonging to a disciple or perhaps even one in which Jesus rode!
We then headed to Cana, where we visited the site of Jesus' first miracle, turning the water to wine. Karen led a Bible teaching on Jewish wedding customs and their spiritual application to believers today. We left Cana and traveled to Nazareth, where we visited a replica of a typical village in Jesus' day. It is a working village, and we had a great guide who made several of Jesus' parables come alive as they were set in the times in which He lived.
By this time, we were ready for lunch! We stopped at a buffet-type restaurant and then headed on to Megiddo through the Valley of Jezreel. Megiddo is a tell (archaelogical site) with 20 levels of civilizations built on top of one another, the largest tell ever discovered in the world. We descended into a 2600 year old cistern (now that was scary!) and visited the excavation site where Solomon's horses were kept. Solomon had rebuilt Megiddo during his reign and made it one of his chariot cities. We then returned to our hotel in Tiberias (Scots Hotel) and after dinner enjoyed a multi-media presentation of the Galilee Experience.
Tomorrow holds the promise of more touring in Galilee, including visiting Capernaum and the site of the feeding of the 5000. It is incredible to think that we are walking where Jesus walked and seeing things that, in some ways, have changed very little since He was here on earth!