Israel - Day 7

Day 7 was a short day so there's a little less to write. We started by heading to the Judean Wilderness for some reflection time. The wilderness is completely barren as far as the eye can see. It is amazing to think that the Israelites were out there for 40 years and the bedouins continue to live out in these conditions. The area was filled with bedouins trying to sell us items. It was neat getting to talk to them. The boy in the picture below was certainly not shy around tourists. He walked right up to Adrienne and snagged her camera from her to put up to his eye. Notice that he is not wearing any shoes. This is incredible when you think of the rocky landscape. He slid down a loose rocky hill and it didn't even phase him. The rocks are very sharp - my feet wouldn't last 20 seconds! I intentionally left the photo close to full size (when you click on it) so you can see his feet.



The bedouins had a burro that I thought was cool. I had to have my picture taken with him. He definitely liked people. Notice how the background is white. The sky was so hazy yesterday that you couldn't see very far out over the mountain we were on. From the vantage point of the camera, all you could see was white off in the distance. It was a bit of an eerie feeling.



We went from there to the Spring of Harod. Notice how in just a short drive we went from harsh desert where nothing could grow to a beautiful lush area with a multitude of different flowers. This is a natural spring that comes out of the mountain and feeds a small stream. The water allows the area to remain fertile while the areas around struggle to grow any vegetation.



Here is the actual spring. It is normally a lot higher but the water levels are really down this year. Our tour guide was shocked and is not sure exactly what is causing it to be that low. We are in the dry season but that should not be affecting the spring this much.

This spring is the spot where God had Gideon wittle his army down to just 300 men to go in and fight the Midianites so that he would know his victory was reliant on God and not on their military strength. The way he decided on the men to go in fight was based on how they drank from the stream (lapping up the water or cupping their hands and bringing the water up to their mouths.



We moved from the Spring to our final stop of the day which was Bet She'an. The area we were in had two different civilization areas. The first is a tel where they have found the remains of 23 different civilizations. The area around the Tel is where the ancient Bet She'an city of the Roman Empire was built. This was one of the 10 cities of the Roman Decapolis. It became a very large city for the time with a population nearing 40,000. Below is a picture of the theatre that would have been one of the primary pasttimes for the residents.

While the majority of the group toured the Roman city, a select group decided to climb the Tel to get a better view of the area from the top. While the Tel was very steep and would have been a difficult time, they made it easier by putting in a staircase to the top. While long, this made the hike fairly easy.

From the top, you could look down on the remains of the ancient city. This is another photo that I left large so you could see more of what is below. You can see the sky was still extremely hazy.

After eating a late lunch (after 2:00) at Bet She'an, we headed to our hotel on the Sea of Galilee. We were settled in by 3:30 and had the evenings to ourselves. As this is the half way point of our touring, it was nice to have a little recoupe time to gain some more energy for the remainder of the trip. Some of our group headed down to the Sea of Galilee to swim but most stayed back to just relax. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at the hotel with a painful quantity of different desserts (no way you could possibly taste all the ones that looked good - very troubling!).

Today we are off to attend church with Eitan Shishkoff, a local rabbi. We are going to get to visit with him afterward and then will head to Mount Megiddo. We are scheduled to meet Pappy's friends, the Crowells, this afternoon but I'm not sure if that is still going to happen. We shall see!

Internet is a problem at this hotel because they want to charge $20 per day and I am cheap. I am going to try to blog this evening (Israel time) about today and then not get internet tomorrow. Then I will do the same on Monday (blog about Sunday in the morning and about Monday in the evening) in order to save some costs.

Talk to you later!