Israel - Day 10

I need to type very fast this morning as my 24 hours of internet access are just about up. We started day 10 with a visit to Korazin, an ancient city where Jesus spent a lot of time teaching and healing. We examined the ruins and saw a current dig that is being done by students from the local town (which is called Korazin). It was neat to see the young Isreali kids getting the opportunity to discover their heritage.



We moved from there to Tel Dan which is a nature reserve and was absolutely beautiful. Lush green and rushing water from a spring. Tel Dan is also where they found the remains of the main city of the tribe of Dan. This is where King Jeraboam built what we believe to be a close replica of the first temple in Jerusalem when the nation was divided into two kingdoms.

After Tel Dan, we went to Caesarea Philippi where we saw another spring (the one mentioned above and this one are two of the three that feed the Jordan River). This is the ancient Israeli city famous for being where Jesus asked his disciples who men said he was and where Peter replied the Son of the Living God.

We ate lunch at a Druze (another religion in Isreal where their focus is on the priest Jethro - the High Priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses) restaurant in one of their villages on the Golan Heights. It was delicious! They are right on the foot hills of Mount Herman. They are also on a beautiful man-made lake that is used for storing water.

We then drove up through the Golan Heights and stopped the closest we could get to the Syrian border. We talked about the Israeli wars and were able to look down on the United Nations station that lies in the demilitary zone (or no man's land) where neither Israeli nor Syrian can go. It was amazing to see how close we were to Syria. Syria really wants the Golan Heights back so there is a lot of tension in this area.

We drove down from the Golan Heights to our hotel and some of us headed down to the Sea of Galilee to swim. It was refreshing on such a hot day!

At dinner we had the privilege of meeting Ken and Margie Crowell. They own a factory that manufactures a large percentage of the cell phone antennas that you find on cell phones today. They also produce a lot of other types of antennas as well. They are the largest employer in the area. My grandparents first met them 40 years ago and became good friends. They have a neat not-for-profit group where they make little electronic devices that play the entire Bible and allow the user to find verses centered around a particular subject (like loneliness or fear). These radios are being distributed to military forces (mainly US). They are such a neat couple and I feel honored to have met them.

Sorry for the really disorganized and quick post. I am surprised I haven't been kicked off yet and figure it is coming any minute. I keep hitting save to make sure I get up as much as possible. I will probably re-edit this post this evening or tomorrow morning when I get my last round of internet access.