Tel Dan

After our boat ride across the Sea of Galilee, we drove to the Dan Stream Nature Preserve.  The Dan stream is fed by rain and snow from Mt. Herman and feeds into the Jordan River.

 We began to walk up to where the springs began.

We came upon the remains of one of those places in Scripture referred to as "the high places".  Following the division of the kingdom of Solomon, Jeroboam, son of Nebat built centers of worship with golden calves at Dan (and Bethel) as an alternative to worshiping at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Looking out at Lebanon.  We were at the border.

This is a part of the wall of Laish (later captured and renamed Dan), from the time of Abraham!!  You can see the original door is a rounded door and was filled in and fortified with wooden beams.

During the Israelite times, the gatehouse was the center of life.


II Samuel 19:9 speaks of the gate as a place where the king sat:  "Then the king arose, and sat in the gate and they told all the people, saying behold, the king doth sit in the gate.  And all the people came before the king."

 Al standing on the place the throne would have been and where King Ahab would have judged from!  It just boggles my mind how old this city is!  To think King Ahab, Queen Jezebel and the prophet Elijah would have been in this very spot!

Sea of Galiliee

On Palm Sunday, we got on a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee.

Bill and Louise

 Jim and Brenda

Jim was an MK (missionary kid, like me) from Malaysia.

Neal and Carol

They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and instead of a party, they decided to bring their boys and their wives on a trip to Israel!

 Their kids, Jane and Al
                     and Paul and Carol.

This family has Kansas connections - relation from the Lucas area and Neal and Al both worked in Kansas for awhile.

We all loved Annabelle!  From North Carolina.  She reminded me of Paula Dean!

The Decapolis city of Hippos was on top of this hill.

Perhaps Jesus had this city in mind when He said, 

"You are the light of the world--like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden."  

Matthew 5:14

What a great place for a Palm Sunday worship service!

Lortab looks on.

Dana and Lisa, from Texas

Anna was our main contact person when we were making plans to come on this trip.  She was Jim's right-hand "man".  She grew up in Kansas also and I found out she was room-mates with a friend of mine at K-State!!

The "other side" - Gergesa (Kursi)

Hard to believe I am only wrapping up day 3.  I've done 14 posts already!  Each day we did so much!  If you are reading this post and have never gone to Israel, it is such an enriching experience!!  Please try to go!

To finish our tour for the day, we went to Gergesa, located close to the kibbutz where we were staying.  There are ruins of a Byzantine monastery there.

So, what happened here?

Well, Jesus had told His disciples that they should get in the boat and go across to the other side of the lake.  Since fishing boats usually held 4 people, there were probably several boats.  The disciples were probably not at all excited about this.  They did not want to go to the Gentile side, where the people had temples for idol worship, bath complexes, theatres, rampant sexual promiscuity and a diet of pork and other ritually unclean foods.  That was Satan's realm!  But God had a plan - the Kingdom of God would even include Gentiles who lived on the other side.

As they were crossing, a huge windstorm, called a sharkia blew up and the boats were in danger of sinking.  The winds were screaming - sounding like a tornado or even screaming demons.  I am sure the enemy did not want Jesus coming to their side!  But with a word from Jesus, the wind died down.  There was a great calm.

As soon as Jesus got out of the boat after landing (implying that perhaps the disciples were too afraid to get out?), He was met by a man who came out of the burial caves there.  He had an evil spirit in him and nobody could keep him tied with chains.  Many times his feet and hands had been tied, but he broke them and smashed the irons.  He was too strong for anyone to control him. He wandered among the tombs screaming and cutting himself.

Jesus commanded the evil spirits to leave the man and sent them into a herd of pigs who were feeding on the hillside.  And the whole herd - about 2,000 pigs in all - rushed down the side of the cliff into the lake and drowned.  Isn't that interesting?  Pigs are boyant but they drowned!  Did you know that the running boar is the mascot of the Roman 10th legion?  Well the village was not happy.  They had virtually lost their "401K's"!!

How great is our God, Who is in control over all!  There is no need to fear!  He is powerful and mighty!

We ended the day by going to a fish restaurant owned by the kibbutz.