Galilee and Beyond

I don't even know where to start when it comes to the time I spent in Galilee. It was an incredible, beautiful, and peaceful (for the most part) place. We spent 10 days in a kibbutz on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and spent the days in classes or touring the land round about. I think I'll just highlight photos and give you a little bit of an overview of some of my favorite sites.

This first picture is of Paul defending himself to Felix and Festus (except that I'm Paul and my friend Catherine is Felix, and Festus) in the city of Caesarea Maritina. This city is one of the few ports in northern Israel and was an important trade city. Because of this, Herod the Great built it up into a fancy schmancy city with all the finest and fanciest adornments. Then he named it after his benefactor (Caesar). It is here that Peter came and taught Cornelius after recieving the dream to take the gospel to the Gentiles. It is also here that Paul spent much time (in prison) and from where he left for his final journey and trial in Rome.

The second picture was also taken in Caesarea Maritina. This is us taking a bath in the Roman baths. We got used to seeing and learning to appreciate Roman ruins while we were in the Galilee region. Caesarea was particularly cool because they had mansions, bath houses, a large theater, and a hippodrome (where they had olympics and chariot races and such), all really well preserved.

This third picture is of the Church of the Annuciation in Nazareth.

I had to give a little report at this site, so it's near and dear to my heart. The church is supposedly built over the place where Mary lived and was visited by the angel Gabriel who told her that she would conceive the Savior. Whether or not you want to believe the story, the church was really nice and I liked it better than many of the other churches we've gone to. Intestingly, Nazareth is one of the largest populations of Palestinian Christians. We also ate fresh pizza baked on freshly cooked pita here. It was one of the best lunches yet! Ever since Egypt I've had a hard time stomaching the bologne sandwiches they often pack for us.


One of my all-time favorite places I've seen on this whole trip was the city of Dan. It was absolutely beautiful! The city marked the northern most reaches of the Israelite's control (during Old Testament times) and is also near the source for the Jordan River (which feeds the Sea of Galilee and eventually ends up in the Dead Sea). Behind me in the fourth picture is a metal frame of a pagan alter that was built at Dan. It's huge! You just never think about the fact that the alters were so big. The one on the Temple Mount would have been even bigger than this, because sacrifices would have been burning all the time and the priests would have walked on it and everything. Dan also had remnant of other Old Testament ruins, including a gate that they figure Abraham would have walked through when he was in the area.


The other picture is of a group of us eating lunch at Dan. I'm sitting next to my religion professor and his wife (the Drapers). Actually, I had a really great talk all about Middle Eastern cuisine with Sister Draper while we were walking around this site and I just got hummus and pita recipes from her last night. I can't wait to try them!


Another great place we visited was Nimrod's Fortress, a massive castle that has passed through various hands for millenia. I explored down some dark stairs and ended up crawling out a window to get a cool view of the fortress from outside it. This is me with the Golan Heights (kind of exciting, huh?) behind.





On one of the days we took a day trip to many of the sites of Jesus' ministry. We started it off by taking a boat across the Sea of Galilee and reading the account of Christ calming the waters. We also went to other places like the Mount of Beatitudes or Saint Peter's primacy (where Jesus said Peter was the rock). I really loved this day. It was nice to sit at the sites and read the scriptures and feel the Spirit. We don't always get that with how busy our schedule is here.

Fortunately for us, the professors built a lot of time into this trip to go swimming. This is a picture of my friend Moriah and getting so happy to get to swim in some natural hot springs! We were especially happy because our towels and suits were full of sand from swimming the day before. Life really was sweet in Galilee. We just kept saying that it felt like a vacation from our vacation on a vacation. Most afternoons that we weren't doing fieldtrips I just swam in the Galilee, layed on the beach, or read the New Testament and did homework. It was wonderful!



Another night we went to a famous (at least to BYU students) fish restaurant and ate St. Peter's fish. Afterwards we walked around Tiberias and ate icecream. I thought the fish was pretty good, especially with a lot of lime on the top of it. Most people just thought that it looked so gross that there wasn't any way that they would actually ingest it. Sometimes I just don't get the people that travel but don't want to try any of the culture. For example, the people who don't like hummus, or lamb. How do they survive here? It's a wonder to me.

A lot of people don't know that the church actually has a branch house in the city of Tiberias. The branch is really small, only 4 or 5 people attended when we were there on Shabbat (including a girl who was on leave from the IDF) but it's beautifully situated and really quite a blessing to have it. I've never had such wonderful views during sacrament meeting as I have here. I think more of our church houses ought to consider this. This is a group of us on the back porch with the Sea of Galilee behind us.

After going to church we stopped by one of the traditional baptisimal sites along the River Jordan, not where Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, but where he would have done baptizing. It's been somewhat commercialized by the state of Israel, but people do baptisms there even today: by immersion, self baptism, sprinkling, you name it. Actually, I watched a man perform two baptisms by immersion there. He put his hand to the square, said his little bit and dunked both of his parishioners. Something felt a little bit off to me until it hit me that he doesn't have the authority to do that ordinance. I feel so very grateful for not only my knowledge of the Savior, but also for my knowledge that the authority to act in his name has truly been restored.

On the way back to Jerusalem we stopped at a few sites and cities. One of them was Akko, a wonderful crusader city on the coasts of the Mediterranean. This is a picture of Moriah, Catherine, and I with the Mediterranean behind us. Also on this day we stopped at Haifa, which is where the church had a mission home in the 1800's. Several missionaries came here and we heard wonderful stories that just made me get the chills to think about how much the Lord loves all his children. This cemetary was one of my favorite spiritual sites, and an excellent example of how the Lord can see the whole picture, so much more clearly than we can. (It's late or I'd tell it on here. Ask me if you want to know the story and I'd love to get the chills all over again and tell you about it.)

Overall, Galilee was a wonderful highlight of this experience. I felt my testimony grow deeper, but not necessarily because of where I was geographically located. I'm realizing more and more with my time here, that I can feel the Spirit stronger when I'm reading my scriptures on my little bed, than I can when I'm in even the most "sacred" shrine or church. It isn't necessary to come here to draw closer to the Savior. I'm grateful for the chance I've had, but I'm also grateful for the knowledge I have that this experience can keep going, even as I leave the Holy Land.

I discovered the "sunset" setting on my camera. I thought a dance would be appropriate.