"The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men"

We're here! We made it safely and its been quite a trip already. Sorry we didn't blog sooner, but as you can imagine it took a while to get our barrings. Let's start from the beginning...

Eric, my brother, graciously agreed to take us to the airport. After picking him up from his almost oceanside apartment in Hermosa Beach, we were just minutes from LAX. Suddenly, my good buddy Thomas called to wish us well on our journey. Even more suddenly, a not so friendly police officer pulled me over for talking on my cell phone and gave me a ticket. Thankfully, by the grace of God, we still made it to the airport in time to catch our flight to Zurich.

The plane was a spacious A-340 and Sara and I had a row just for two. There weren't any crying babies, just someone with noticeable B.O. The flight took off and we were on our way. The first 2 hours and 59 minutes were fine. At the 3 hour mark the stomach ache began. At 3 hours and twenty minutes excruciating pain. Only 8 hours to go....great. After we mercifully landed in Zurich, instead of exploring the city like we planned, we searched for the nearest doctor on hand.

Thankfully there wasn't too much of a wait and we were in to see a nice, English speaking Swiss doctor [Sara wanted to add handsome to that list, but I wouldn't let her. Checking out forgien doctors in my moments of pain... ouch :( ]. With some tests he confirmed my own diagnosis based on the familiar pain that I had experienced a few years ago, Kidney Stones :(. He gave me pain medication to last the trip and sent us on our way. We would like to note that everyone in Zurich was quite pleasent (doctors, nurses, flight attenants, food court workers). When they found out we were from Los Angeles their eyes lit up and smiles came to their faces. We spent a little more time in Zurich and then we were on our final flight to Israel.

We landed at 3:17am local time, grabed our luggage, rental car, and we're off. We reached our first destination, Caesarea, at 6:00am. We had a nice breakfast at a resturant next to a gas station and saw our first holy kitty. One thing we've been noticing is that cats are just running free in abundance over here and we aren't complaining. We were the first vistors to Caesarea at 8:00am when the park opened. It was spectatular! Much larger than we expected, the city was home to 50,000 people at one time. It's a very important site for those of us that aren't Jews, because Caesarea was the first place gentiles became believers of the gospel. The theater was massive with great acoustics. A few yards away was a replica of the Pontius Pilate stone found in 1961. It's basically a stone dedicating Caesarea to the Governor of Judea during Jesus' time. Until then some doubted the historical account of the Bible because there was no archeological evidence of a Pontius Pilate existing. That stone is just one of the many archeological proofs that confirm what is written in the Bible. Caesarea is also the place where Paul spent two years confined, until he made is appeal requesting the Court of Caesar in Rome here his case. We saw the actual spot where the appeal took place sending him to Rome, never to return.

Next, we drove to the Mount of Carmel. We were very sadden to see that there is little lush mountainside left. Most of it had been burned by the January fires. We tried unsuccessfully to find the Carmelite Monastery and then drove to Meggido.

Meggido (translated Armageddon in Latin and English) was a very cool Tel to visit. This city built upon city, built upon another city (Tels) captures the historical period of each city. From before the Canaanites to Solomon to the Roman period, after each army conquered, they built another city over the remains of the previous city on this strategically important location connecting Africa (Egypt), Western Civilization and Eastern Civilization. It was awe inspiring to look out on the valley where the future battle between good and evil will be (ask me if you want to know who wins).

It was becoming late and we were pretty tired, so we set off for the Hostel without visiting Nazareth. Going up the Safed mountain we reached our destination and were home for the night.
Day Two

After a wonderful breakfast from our hosts (eggs, bread, cinnamon pastry, tea, etc), we set off to Ginnosar for a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. The ride down the mountain from our hostel over looks the Sea of Galilee. It was a spectacular day with the sea glistening. The sunlight shining through the puffy clouds looked as if the fingers of God were touching the Sea. We stopped at the Mount of Beattitudes where the sermon on the Mount was most likly preached. Some of the famous quotes from that sermon are:

• ^{Matt 7:24} “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
• Matt ^6:14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
• ^{Matt 6:20} "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."
• ^{Matt 6:38} “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ ³⁹ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also."

Then we were on to Ginnosar. Ginnosar is a Jewish kibbutz (settlement) where the people gave up all their possessions and worked together for the single purpose of redeeming the land. This particular kibbutz is famous for a museum that holds a 1st century fishing boat that was used during the time of Jesus. It also had a harbor where we met up with a boat called Faith on our maiden voyage on the Galilee. Faith was crewed by Messianic Jews (Jews who have become Christians). Galilee was bigger than we expected and we defiantly see why they called it a Sea. I tried to jump and walk of the water like Peter, but Sara said I didn't have enough faith. I said we're riding on Faith and Faith alone. Isn't that enough? She said "yes, but I'm still not going to let you leave me here on this boat." It was a touching ride, warm, sunny with a whole overview of the Sea. You could picture where the miracles of Jesus took place; the feeding of the 5,000, the crowds following him from place to place, and the numerous healings.

Speaking of miracles, healings and teachings, that's a great transition point to our next location Capernaum. This is where Jesus lived during most of his ministry. In the middle of a town full of ruins is the Capernaum Synagogue. This synagoge was acutually built right on top of the one in Jesus day, so you are on the spot where Jesus did some really awesome things. This is the spot where Jesus declared "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:40). It's also where Jesus looked at the religious people of the time "with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart" (Mark 3:5) because they would rather a person remain disabled than Jesus do something good on the Sabath, which was against their tradition. Jesus healed disability anyway.

After Capernaum, we set out to for Nazareth to go to the 1st century Jamestown of the Middle East"The Nazereth Village" and a place were there was suppose to be cool mosaics. Unfortunately, in the winter things tend to close a bit early here and both places were closed.

As you can probably tell we modified our itinerary a bit to match more of the historical timeline of the Bible during Jesus' ministry. First Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee, next Ceasrea Philipi and Mount Hermon, and finally Jerusalem.

We love you all very much and we feel safe.

Blessings,

Mike and Sara