Tour Stop #3
Quite the day we had on and around the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee. I love, love, love this part of Israel.
We [Northern’s DMin student tour of Israel] began with a boat ride from the shore near Migdal/Magdala out 20 minutes or so into the Sea of Galilee…
… at the end of which Trent Shepherd offered a wonderful reflection on the humanity of Jesus. Rich and suggestive to the heart of the Gospels. (Followed by dancing on the boat — a sight to see and I hope someone posts pictures of it. Kris and I were in the middle of the dancing.)
Following the boat ride we went to the Mount of Beatitudes where Bob Moulding offered a fresh and penetrating paraphrase of the Sermon on the Mount. It was stunning.
The traditional site of the Beatitudes overlooks Capernaum, but between the two was a spectacular scene of flowers that Kris captured.
Capernaum, for me the jewel of Israel, involved three teaching/exhortation times: first, in the synagogue in Capernaum Marlene Molewyk addressed marginalization in the church as counter to everything Jesus did. We were all blessed.
Then I spoke on the Parables of the Lost sheep and lost coin, and then John Rosensteel led us deep into John 21’s sense of hospitality — the Lord of all prepared breakfast for his disciples.
Our wonderful tour guide, Asher, led us to the Valley of the Doves so we could see the beginning of the Jesus Trail. We had never seen it and it was also a valley of flowers. Beautiful.
Our day ended with baptisms in the Jordan at Yardenit. Jesus’ baptism was finished off with the descend of a dove and ours with the arrival of a white throated kingfisher.