May 2nd - Gateway to Ancient Times

We had another amazing history lesson today. Being here and having these places come to life is beyond what words can describe. It’s like reading a book and then seeing the movie. It is never like you had imagined. Somehow seeing things in 3-D and environmental context is like “seeing it in color” as our guide Elie puts it.

We started the day with a worship service in one of the rooms at the hotel. There is just something surreal about worshiping the Lord on the Sea of Galilee. Harold presented a timely lesson on remembering there is beauty in holiness. It is so easy to get caught up in the beauty of what we are seeing. Let's not forget the beauty of worshiping God and giving him glory.

I’m afraid this will just be a quick update for tonight. The lack of sleep is catching up with me, so I’m going to try to get a little more sleep tonight.

Our first stop is the Hazor Tel. Hazor was the guardian city toward the north. This is Solomon’s Gate.

Additional ruins at Hazor include an altar, palace, storage buildings, a water system much like we saw at Megiddo.

 Entry gate to the city of Dan that dates to the 19th to 18th century BC. That’s four THOUSAND years old!

Inner gate and chambers at Dan.

Banias is a large natural spring and a major source of the Jordon River. The water in Biblical times flowed out from this cave. Now it flows from ground springs.

Some believe the Banias region may be the location of Christ’s transfiguration.

View from Golan Heights of UN guard village. Syria is just beyond UN compound.

View of the Jordan river a few miles north of where it flows into the Sea of Galilee.

I took over 250 pictures today, so as you can see this is just a glimpse into another amazing day. I hope yours was great too. I’ll fill in more details tomorrow.