Today started out poorly. I left my camera in the restaurant of our last hotel we stayed at, Yad HaShmona. I realized it pretty quickly, and we called them to let them know (we will be back there at the end of the week so I could get it then). But that does mean that even if they do find it (which hopefully they will, it’s a Christian community there) I won’t have it for Galilee, which is a bummer. One of the girls on the trip has told me that I could use her camera to take some pictures and I think I will take her up on that. At first I thought it would be silly to use someone else’s camera, but not having my camera today I know that even though I can get pictures that other people took, I want some that I take on my own.
Today was a relatively light day, we had three major stops.
Our first stop was in Aphek. Aphek is a city whose name doesn’t come up a lot in the Bible, but it is a city that has a lot of importance. There was one major international highway that ran through the coastal areas and plains of Israel, it was the highway that connected Egypt to Mesopotamia and to Greece. This highway had two branches, and those branches merged into one branch at Aphek. So even though there were only a few stories that mentioned Aphek it was a city that had a lot of importance to Israel, and it was a city that a lot of Biblical people travelled through to get to their destinations.
After Aphek we visited Caesarea. Caesarea was built by Herod the Great on a sandy beach with no harbor. He built a massive harbor out into the ocean and then built a city to match it. It is pretty incredible to repeatedly see the amazing things that Herod built. Caesarea had no natural harbor, and after Herod built the city, it had a harbor as large as the harbor in Athens.
Caesarea was a city where a lot of stuff happened in Acts. It was where Cornelius the Centurion lived, who was the first gentile to become a Christian (Peter came to his house after he had the vision from God saying, “take up and eat…” it was also the city where Herod Agrippa was hailed as a god and when he did not give God credit he was struck down and died. And it was the city where Paul was imprisoned for two years waiting for a trial and then eventually appealed his case to Caesar and sailed for Rome.
After we left Caesarea we drove up to Mt. Carmel, which is where Elijah had his showdown with the prophets of Baal. It was cool to read that story sitting up on the mountain, around what may be the area where it happened.
After that we went over to our driver, Yo-el’s house for dinner. His in-laws made little Arabic pizza’s for us and we had hummus and tabulie. Then we came inside and drank tea (we had Arabic coffee with dinner) and sat around and talked. It was really kind of him and his family to make time (and room) for us, and it was a good time.
Until tomorrow, thanks for reading.
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