Pilgrimage to Israel Day 10

Our last day on the Jesus Trail and quite frankly I was a bit relieved. This trail was a lot harder than what I was expecting. We arranged for luggage to be transported once again (still the best $16 I ever spent) and we set off at 9:00. Another big decision was whether to literally climb over the Arbel Cliffs or take the valley road between the cliffs. Since it has been raining hard all night long, we were told the cliffs might be a little slippery and perhaps even closed, so we took the lower road in the valley.

This also was not an easy path. In order to get to the valley road, we still had to climb down the mountain, over a very rocky terrain. Rocks were everywhere and we had to slowly pick our way down through the loose stones. In addition, everything was muddy and slippery which made climbing over the rocks that much more dangerous. Every ten minutes we had to scrape off the thick mud that had accumulated on our shoes.

It seemed never ending but we finally made it through the valley, with cliffs towering over us. Throughout the centuries, those cliffs have harbored rebels in the caves who revolted against the prevailing government. Many battles have happened on or near this cliff that is so close to the Sea of Galilee.

While we didn't see many fellow walkers, there were companions along the way and we tried to make friends with them. Actually, I let Rose make friends with them first!

Along the road we thought the farmer wouldn't miss one of the delicious grapefruits that was ripe for the picking. So juicy and good!

We caught our first glimpse of the Sea of Galilee, our destination being Capernaum. It was much bigger than what I had imagined!

We trudged through the mud, closer and closer to Capernaum.

We made it to the Greek Orthodox Church at 5:00, 8 hours after we had left. 

The church had a gate that led into the Sea of Galilee. We considered this the end of the trail and gave prayers of thanks for a safe trip.

Then we found the official end of the trail and gave more prayers of thanks. The Gospel Trail, the Jesus Trail had been quite a challenge and with a little humility and recognition of physical and emotional limitations, we had made it. Thanks be to God!

Pilgrimage to Israel Day 9

We had a big decision to make this morning. When we woke up it was raining and our feet were still hurting. We were aware that most of the places along the Jesus Trail offer a luggage service. They will take our backpacks to the next place so we can walk free of that burden. But it meant I had to swallow my pride and ask for help, something that doesn't come naturally to me. Really though, we didn't have much of a choice. If we wanted to to make it safely, with dry luggage, and not permanently injure ourselves, we would have to inquire about this service. It was the best $8 we spent all week!

Feeling much better without our packs, we set off at 8:30 on our 19.7 kilometer day from Ilaniya to Arbel. It started off great with lush green rolling hills. The rain had disappeared and the sun shone brightly down. It was a beautiful day. 

We walked through a military gathering spot, maybe a training area. Tanks were everywhere and there must have been 100 soldiers, men and women. Everyone was very nice but since they all were carrying automated machine guns, we kept our cameras hidden, our heads down, and walked quickly by. It was pretty intimidating.

Then we got the the Horns of Hattin, a mountain that turned the flat dirt pathway into a rock climbing expedition. Oftentimes on our hands and feet, we crawled at a snails pace up this mountain and then slowly and carefully made our way down.  We were thankful we didn't have our packs on! 

By the time we inched our way over, it was 3:00 and we still had 9.6 km to go, another 3 hours or so. But there was a shortcut that was only 3 km. Again, I battled with my pride in "doing the trail the right way" versus doing what our bodies needed. We sat down to eat for 15 minutes to decide what to do, asking for God's guidance.

Just as soon as we sat down, a cold wind started to blow and the clouds rolled in. We didn't even wait 10 minutes until we decided this was the sign we were asking for. A storm was coming and walking 3 hours in the cold wet weather was not appealing. We high tailed it to the shortcut, almost running at times trying to beat the rain. As the wind pushed us on, it felt like God's hand was on our backs gently urging us to go faster. We were only 5 minutes from our bed and breakfast place before the sky burst open and it started to pour. While we were wet, 5 minutes of rain was a whole lot better than 1 or 2 hours worth.

That night we had the best meal ever in Ysrael's Kitchen. Ysrael is a wonderful chef and reservations have to be made way in advance. Thank goodness we had some and we enjoyed a lamb dish that was out of this world. The best thing was that while we ordered the lamb, little side dishes kept coming that we hadn't ordered: green beans, salads, tomato and cucumbers, vegetables, and apricot nectar. Everything was delicious, especially the chocolate cake and homemade ice cream!

We survived another day on the Jesus trail...and made a few friends along the way. 

  

Pilgrimage to Israel Day 8

In the morning we finished seeing the sights of Nazareth before heading out on the Jesus Trail. We saw a great one hour multi media presentation at the International Mary Center but the main attraction is the Basilica of the Annunciation. This is the largest church in the entire Middle East and commemorates when the angel announced to Mary she would have a baby. 

Inside and behind a gate is a cave with steps on the back right side. This is believed to be Mary's house where the angel appeared.

There were different mosaic images of Mary from around the world, but not from the U.S. Of course I had to take a picture of the one from the Dominican Republic.

Part of the church complex includes a series of caves, the "neighborhood" sort of speak, where Mary lived.

Even Joseph got in on the action and had a church all his own, though it was much smaller, tucked out of the way of main traffic, and visited much less.  Poor Joseph!

The Basilica is the official starting point of the Jesus Trail, a 40 mile hike from Nazareth to Capernaum taken from the scripture in Matthew 4:13, "He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali." It is marked in a variety of ways: orange dots in the city and white and orange stripes in the countryside.

So we strapped on our backpacks and prepared ourselves for a three day hike through the territory Jesus walked to make his home on the Sea of Galilee.

What we weren't prepared for was the first 406 steps of the trip: all stairs uphill. It felt more like 4,006 steps! We were tired before we had even begun.

Then we got to the countryside which was beautiful. Now this is what we thought it would be. Grass, trees, flowers, a dirt trail. We were on our way!

We left at 11:30, got out of the city by 12:30, but much to our horror and disbelief at 1:30 we realized we were at the same junction we had been at 12:30. We had made a wrong turn off the trail, didn't know it, and made one big circle. Ugh! It cost us about 45 minutes of precious time. As we walked the path a second time we realized the fateful junction where we had made the wrong turn.

We walked and walked, hardly stopping for a break and took only about 15 to eat some granola and an orange that we called lunch. Now we were way behind our anticipated schedule. Which is no big deal except that it gets dark at at 6:00 and we don't want to be walking while it is dark. We keep walking trying to pick up the pace but also careful not to lose the trail, which we did several more times that day. We finally made it to Cana at 5:00 and took advantage of seeing the church that commemorates Jesus turning the water into wine...

as well as the water pump that is part of the church symbolizing this first miracle of Jesus.

We now had to make a tough decision. It was 10 more kilometers to our accommodations for the night. That could take 3-4 hours and it would be getting dark in one hour. Regrettably, with sore aching feet and feeling frustrated that the trail wasn't marked better, we had to find a ride to the goat farm in Ilaniya where we had reservations. Homemade soup, salad, and potatoes were waiting for us and needless-to-say we slept very good that night.

We had walked the official 13.5 km of the Jesus Trail plus another 2.5 km in unexpected detours. We had walked 5 1/2 hours almost nonstop with a backpack. It had been a frustrating day. A day of unexpected and unanticipated events. We started later than we wanted to. The day was full of wrong turns, detours, and looking for the markers. And it even took us over an hour to find a ride from Cana because it was Saturday night and no taxis were running. I guess some days are like that. Life doesn't work out quite the way you had planned. There are wrong turns and decisions despite your best efforts. And you just have to be flexible and "roll with the punches" and keep making the best decisions you can. But recognizing your limitations, physically and emotionally, is also important as well as keeping safety in mind. Although not what we anticipated, we had finished the first of three days on the Jesus Trail...and felt God's presence along the way. 

Pilgrimage to Israel Day 7

Pilgrimage to Israel Day 7

We packed our bags and said goodbye to Jerusalem. What an amazing city! Full of so much history and religious significance for so many people. We hopped in our rental car and drove north to Nazareth...but there were a few things to see along the way.

First stop was the Inn of the Good Samaritan. Of course the Good Samaritan story is a parable Jesus told when asked "Who is my neighbor whom I should love?" It seems that an inn was established just after Jesus' time along the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, where the parable took place. This provided rest and refreshment for the many travelers and pilgrims who were on their way to Jerusalem.

Second stop was the archeological park of Beit Shean. Here excavations have unearthed an entire city. 6,000 years ago it is mentioned in scripture as King Saul is defeated on nearby Mt. Gilboa (2 Samuel 21:11-12 "Beth-Shan") 2,300 years ago it was rebuilt and thrived for 1,000 years until an earthquake destroyed it in 749 so it was an active city in Jesus' time.

Our final stop before Nazareth was Mt. Tabor, also known as the place of Jesus' transfiguration. It was hard enough to drive up this mountain, much less imagine Jesus and three of his disciples climbing it. Jesus was in shape! The view was spectacular. There is a church commemorating the event recorded in scripture (Matthew 17:1-13)

When we arrived in Nazareth we saw quite a few sites. Nazareth was where Mary and Joseph were living before getting married and where they returned after coming out of exile in Egypt.  This is Jesus' hometown.  The Greek Orthodox faith believe Mary was at a well when the angel came to announce her unexpected pregnancy. We saw "Mary's Well" where that event is remembered.

There is also a church that has "Mary's Spring" running through it, a small stream that passes through the front of the church. How would you like to hear a babbling brook during worship. I guess that's better than a babbling preacher!

Another site we saw was an ancient Roman bathhouse, quite likely where Joseph, Mary, and Jesus went to take their baths. We actually got to crawl underneath and see the tunnels where the hot air of the furnace heated up the water to steam to create a sauna and the pipes that carried the water to the different chambers. Pretty neat to be in the same bathhouse dated back to Jesus time in the village where he grew up.

But the highlight of Nazareth today was the Nazareth Village. Christians have re-created an entire village of what life was like in Jesus' day. Volunteers (including children when they are not in school) dress up in appropriate clothing for that time and do the work people did back then. There is the vineyard where grapes are grown and the rocks where the village would gather and smash the grapes with their feet while the juice ran into small channels and collected at the bottom. No, we didn't try any of that wine. The watchman stands guard to protect the crops.

We saw an ancient oil press, where olives were put and then a donkey pushed the wheel around to smash them and created the oil collected in the cloth baskets and then strained and pressed to get the oil out of the baskets.  Guess who the donkey is!

We saw the herbs and spices of the day - lavendar, rosemary, and others.

We witnessed wood workers using replicated ancient tools and fixing the cart that had broken a few days earlier. The actors are real wood workers who own a store in Nazareth so they knew what they were doing.

A woman was spinning cotton into thread and then weaving it to make beautiful blankets. Back then, different dyes cost different amounts of money, purple being the most expensive and blue being the second most expensive.  That's why only royalty wore purple (no wonder purple is my favorite color) and wealthy people wore blue.

Overall we were thrilled to be in the city where Jesus grew up and learning his way of life. Maybe he resembled this picture.