The view from the monastery roof gives a good look at the mountain as well as the stream below where Elijah slaughtered the Baal prophets. Ordinarily you can see a lot farther but unfortunately the haze crept in again and limited our view.
Below is a statue of Elijah found on the grounds. For those of you from N&M, this is the same guy who is in the olive wood carving on my file cabinet. Elijah has always been one of my favorite Bible characters. This was an enjoyable destination for me.
From Mount Carmel, we went to the Tents of Mercy, a Messianic Jewish synagogue near Haifa. You can see below part of the worship service. The worship was in Hebrew but you could see the English translation on the screen.
As part of this week's service, they celebrated the Bar Mitzvah of one of the boys. It was very interesting to see this ceremony from a Messianic Jewish viewpoint. In the picture below, the boy is reading a portion of the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament).
After the service, the staff was kind enough to provide us with lunch while we socialized with some of the people. They all spoke English which made it easy to get to know them. They were such a sincere group of people, I know we all walked away feeling like we had made some good friends. Eitan Shishkoff, the Messianic Rabbi, and some of the elders from the church talked about their huge ministry to the local community. They are involved in outreach to the people migrating to Israel, to single mothers in the community, and to local women caught in a web of prostition because they cannot find a way to make it in their new country. They are doing a lot of things right and really had my respect and admiration. We were actually at the synagogue for 5 hours and ended up having to cut out the rest of our afternoon and just come back to the hotel. I wouldn't have traded that time for anything though.
Below is a picture of Eitan with Pappy. They are very good friends and really enjoyed seeing each other again. (I also found out that Eitan shoots Nikon so we had a definite bond)
Tonight we plan to go down to the Sea of Galilee after dinner to sit and enjoy the Sea with a bonfire (which will be intersting considering how hot it is here!). Tomorrow we take a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, visit a kibbutz on the opposite shore of the Sea where we will supposedly eat the best fish you can get anywhere in the world (yes, this is the one where I have to eat it while it still possesses its head). There is also a boat that is 2000 years old at the kibbutz that was preserved in the mud on the Sea and recently found. We will do some more shopping there and then head back to the west shore. Once back, we will head to the Jordan river where a few people in the group will have the opportunity to be baptised. Should be another exciting day!
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