Walking on Water and Other Fun Activities (Tuesday, June 29th)

This morning our first activity was to take a boat across the Sea of Galilee. We got a net casting demonstration and learned a bit about the ecosystem of the lake. It was so pretty and calm and flat that it was hard to imagine storms like the ones Jesus calmed here, but we were told that they can be quite fierce. One storm in the early 90's whipped up waves almost 30 ft. high and damaged parts of downtown Tiberius. Can you imagine Jesus walking out on the water to his terrified disciples in a storm like that and calling Peter out onto the waves with him? On the other side of the Sea of Galilee we saw a 2000 year old boat that was found a few years ago when the sea level was low because of droughts and over use.

After this we went to the church of the Beatitudes and had our own little service there. We got to spend some time alone in the quite of the gardens. It was quite beautiful and peaceful. But I did almost loose my camera!!

For lunch we went to Chorazim where there is a great Byzantine synagogue. It has been reconstructed as have several of the houses (though not quite as completely as Qasrin) so that you can see what it would have looked like when it was in use. This site is not however completely deserted. There are a lot of small furry little creatures there that were all over the site! As we started walking into the site they started fleeing like lemmings. I've forgotten what they are called but they looked a little bit like beavers to me only minus the buckteeth and tails.

From there we went on to Capernaum, the home town of Peter, where there is yet another synagogue. This is not the one that was standing in Peter's day when Jesus went there, it was built over the foundations of that synagogue. However they have dug down deep enough that you can see the old foundations made of basalt (dark volcanic rock) with the white limestone of the newer synagogue on top, and if you go inside they have pulled back the floor stones in one corner so that you can see what's underneath. As you walk around there is a ton of odds and ends from the crumbled remains of the city laid out for you to see including a very large olive grinder and oil press. There is also a site that is believed to be the house of Peter. It started as the site of a home church (possibly started by Peter) and later was leveled to build a church was built over it. That church is now in ruins too and the Franciscans have built a church there but I thought it was neat that they didn't build a church on top of the ruins of the old church but literally over it. It is supported around the outside so that it hangs over the site with the ruins preserved underneath. There is a window in the floor of the church so you can look down on it from above, as well as being able to see it from the outside, looking underneath the building.

Our last adventure today was at the cliffs of Arbel on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. For those of you who know how afraid of heights I am you will understand that this was quite a feat for me! It was straight up and down in places with metal handholds and footholds to use, and it was so much fun! I almost didn't go because of the description we were given of it (which it lived up to) but I was really glad I changed my mind in the end. The story behind the cliffs was that the enemies of Herod the Great hid in them with their wives and families and that Herod sent soldiers over the cliffs in baskets with hooks in their hands to drag the men and their families out to their deaths. The more I learn about these Herod and this period of history, the more I begin to get a feel for the tension that lies behind the stories of the Gospel.