Casazza

Calvary Chapel Israel Tour - Day 2 March 15 - 27, 2009	Back to Home Page

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Day 2 - Wednesday, March 17 This day included the following: Early morning run / The site of the old city of Tzippori / Bluffs over Nazareth / Megiddo (Overlooking the valley of Armageddon) / A visit to a wonderful spice shop
Ken, Lena, and I did a run together very early that morning. There was a trail around the Kibbutz where the hotel was located. We had a good run until we got to the beach, then we sort of lost focus.

Here's Ken ahead of me, running toward the sunrise over the Sea.	Lovely sunrise


The shoreline	Ken & Lena - about the time when we quit running & started exploring


Some parts of the shore were totally covered in these tiny shells	More of the sunrise


	Mt. Arbel in the morning light


Joining the gang for an awesome breakfast	Our chariot for our 10 day trip.

	Tzippori / Sepphoris Our first stop was Tzippori - an ancient city that was being built at the time of Jesus' childhood. It is walking distance from Nazareth and so is possible that Joseph could have worked there as it was being built.

A prison we drove by on the way - looks serious.

Olive trees up close, mango trees in the background	One of the few oak groves left - the Romans cut down many trees in their day


Here we are arriving at Tzippori



There were so many mosaics - this used to be one of the main sidewalks. The sidewalks were covered and there were stores on the far side.


Here the group gets a lesson in the city history.	Here you can see the ruts worn in the street by wagon wheels.


This shows what the street & covered sidewalks looked like.	This was some kind of public building with many amazing mosaic floors.


I couldn't believe they didn't have them better protected from us tourists.	This was a huge mosaic that told a story and contained over a million tiles.


This is a display to show the 5 layers that go into making a mosaic floor.	Here are some great translations. We didn't wet on the mosaic!





Happy Casazzas


This was a toilet in a fancy house they are excavating.


This lady is called the Mona Lisa of the Galilee - it was really beautiful.	Here's a closer shot of her.



More mosaic details - the stones they used were so tiny!	A crusader citadel built on the site.


This shows slits they used for shooting arrows out of.	There were coffins built into all four corners. Not sure why.


Eric, checking out the architecture.	Some of the pottery found on the ancient city site.


Kendall & I having dueling cameras	Eric, taking in the scenery and looking good all at once. He has skills like that.


Chris, going the extra mile to get the shot...	or to create the shot - whatever it takes.


Pastor Ken hitching up some of his techie gear.	Piper, probably laughing at something Chris was doing.


Getting artistic, shooting the scenery through the rock-work border.	Scenery


Some old column bases found in the area.	The upper part of this theater is original, the lower part was reconstructed.


One of the many strange looking toilets we visited. Most had a neat "green" feature of two different flushers so that you could select how much water was required.	Pastor Ken & Zach are not going to appreciate this, but it is so hard to get a picture of Zach that I had to post this one.


Eric, doing one of his favorite things - sleeping.	This was a junk yard in an Arab town. I thought it was neat how they stack the cars up two stories high on lifts.

	Nazareth "And He resided in a city called Nazareth..." Matthew 2:23 Next we went to Nazareth, the town where Jesus lived as He was growing up.
Nazareth is now an Arab town so we didn't go into the city itself. Instead we visited the bluffs overlooking the city, which are described in Luke Chapter 4. I've included that story here: And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." And He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all those who were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to say unto them, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." And all bore Him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. Then all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him unto the brow of a hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way. Luke 16-22, 28-30 I love that ending! He let them think they were in control Him, and then when the time was right, He "went His way" out of the center of an angry crowd. Nicely done!

It was really beautiful up there. This picture utterly fails to capture it.	This looks over the city, including the Catholic church built on the site where they believe Mary lived.



Me & the view from the bluffs	Praise & worship from a beautiful spot


	Pastor Ken, giving his first teaching of the trip. PK told us about the Bible story I shared above, plus more thoughts about how Nazareth was one of the most common places that Jesus could have come from. Many people mistakenly thought that nothing great could come from such a common place.



Eric always has to go out to the edge and beyond. Here Lena looks on. She can provide better physical therapy if she sees the injury happen.	Here we are, safely back from the cliff with Nazareth behind us.

More attempts to capture how pretty it was. The wildflowers, grass, and rocks were set up like a giant floral arrangement.

	A Crusader Chapel on top of a hill. It is not this blurry in real life.



Glimpses of America. There were lots of McDonald's there (they do well because they tailor their menu to the country they are in.) The Israelis like a sandwich called, "McRoyal" which is like a Big Mac but has really big patties. I only saw a couple of KFC's and a couple of Pizza Huts. Of course it is difficult for a company like Pizza Hut because of the Kosher rules against mixing dairy with meat - you can't do it. So I guess they have egg pizzas and maybe fish pizzas - yuck! The other picture is (obviously) a Coke can, written in Hebrew.


Here Chris feeds some stray cats, despite the fact that I had shared my story about being bitten by a cat in Turkey when I was doing the same thing. He survived the event unharmed.	Pretty much every time we stopped walking, Kendall caught a nap.
	Megiddo / Armageddon From Nazareth, we headed to Megiddo, which means Place of Troops. The Biblical name Armageddon comes from the Hebrew "Har Megedon" or mountain of Megiddo. The area is also known by the names: Plain of Esdraelon, and Valley of Megiddo . Today it is one of the most important archaeological sites in the center of Israel. They have excavated the great water system dating to King Ahab's time (which we got to walk through.) There were many battles here in Old Testament times. It is also where the last great battle between good and evil will be fought, as is described in the Book of Revelation.

This was a staircase that the people could use to get into the walled city if the gates had been closed. It got so narrow at the top that you were essentially crawling through a hole, so it was easy to guard against invaders.	These were the city gates. Those rocks were huge.


Here's a millipede or centipede, I really don't know which - but it was large. I put my toe in the picture for scale. They have these in the Wichitas too, and we saw them in Cambodia also. Never in OKC though!	I thought those trees were pretty.


This was a trough, and probably looked similar to the manger in which baby Jesus would have been placed.	Eric, Rigert, and Chris - deep in thought.


This was an altar used by pagans for idol worship. Bad things are said to have happened here like the sacrificing of children.	This was a type of grain elevator, but instead of going up like ours do, this one went down, more like a grain well. There was a spiral staircase running all along the inside wall.

This shows the valley all stretched out below us.

	Teaching: Pastor Ken - "Clean Hands & Pure Hearts" Pastor Ken told us about many places where this place is mentioned in the Bible by its many names, including: Zech 12:10, Zech 14:1, Rev 6:15, Rev 9, Rev 16:8. Many of these references described the area as a battlefield. He reminded us that our battlefield is in our lives every day - there is a battle for the hearts, minds, and souls of each of us. We must fight against things like ambivalence, justifying our own actions, and taking the easy way through life. Revelation 3:14-21 describes a message from Jesus to the church of Laodicea. In verses 15-17 He says, "I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." Wow. But take heart, He follows this in verses 20 & 21 with, "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne." So even though their behavior disgusted Him, he still stood at the door and knocked, asking to come in to save them. We are told in John 3:17, "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." How awesome is that?!



Here Amir uses Chris & Eric to demonstrate something - I've forgotten the point but remember that it was quite funny.


These are the stairs leading down into the water tunnel.	Here is a diagram of the water system I mentioned, it was used to ensure a safe supply of water inside the city walls during a siege.


I believe they said this water tunnel was all hand-carved. Amazing.	More of the tunnel.


Here we are, coming out on the other side, and with a view of a small Tel behind our driver Yehuda.	Scenes of the southern end of Sea of Galilee as we drove back.


Here I was trying to capture how the Israelis make the desert bloom. They produce so much there and they don't waste a square inch of land.


These were scenes from a spice shop. I wish I had bought SO much more here. The food was wonderful in Israel and I really enjoyed a lot of the spices I brought home with me.

An exit sign on the bus that I thought was interesting.






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