Shawn's Israel trip - Day 7 - Nazareth, Ceaserea

[Shawn Cuthill]

Day 7 - point form

- Nazareth village (tree that springs up at the scent of water, parable of the soil, sewing on

the terrace, winepress, old wineskin, lady from markham, cistern, olive tree, cross/JW stake, brethren.
- shoppers drug mart in hebrew
- church of the annunciation,
- ceasarea

Day 7 -

- we checked out of the "gai beach" this morning. I'm so glad they changed that name
- another great view of the valley of armageddon.
started off the morning with a trip over to nazareth. It was a test of shlomo's driving, he did U turn right in the center of town that was phenomenal
- we drove by a town called "umm-al-fahm", i took a pic and thought it was a funny name. Could they not come up with something? Umm..
- he parked and then we walked through an open market, saw lambs heads for sale and got to our first stop which was the church of the annunciation?, the priest was cool, shook all our hands, the synagogue jesus read the scroll in, singing "how great thou art", reuben explaining.
- next we were off to Nazareth village for a few hours (tree that springs up at the scent of water, parable of the soil, sewing on the terrace, winepress, old wineskin, lady from markham, cistern, olive tree, cross/JW stake, brethren.
- nazareth has the larges christian population of any city in the middle east- 20,000
- shoppers drug mart in hebrew
- ate lunch at a stop on the road. had a sandwich, no pringles
- Ari came with us at this point and went over how he could help us in the future. He also said that we were priveleged to have Reuben who is "one of the best tour guides". I'm not sure if Ari was presented with anything, but he mentioned his plans to be in charlottetown in October for the FOI conference! Sweet stuff. There is also some chat about Reuben coming over, but that is not yet confirmed.

- ceasarea - next we went to ceasarea. i didn't know much about this place before today to be honest. I was more familiar with "ceasearea philipi" in the north. it was quite interesting to read how Paul had his 3 court appearances here. Felix, Festus, Agrippa. I was there. We went on a multimedia tour with a nice tour guide that was very informative. I slept through some of it though. We saw these very interesting touch screen displays.After the multimedia, we went
.
outside to view the ruins themsleves. They were a pretty impressive collection of above and underground roman columsn, palaces and theaters. The tour guide pointed out to us the difference between a theater (half moon) and an ampitheater (360). After reading through Act 25:1-12 where Paul appeals to Ceasear we realized this was our last stop on the journey. Somberly Danny prayed and thanked God for our trip. As soon as we were done John Plantz was suggesting a song "pray for the peace of jerusalem", which we hobbled along with. We realized that that staff of the park was closing down for the day (what else is new) but someone suggested that before we leave john plantz could sing to us as if on stage at the theater. So we raced off up the big concrete slabs to our seats in the theater and john belted out "pray for the peace of jerusalem". Pretty groovy. Then we bolted to the bus.

- since this was our last stop, there were some emotional and ceremonial presentations on the bus. First Danny Robbins presented Reuben and Shalomo with a silver lighthouse coin from atlantic canada, produced by the royal canadian mint. Danny gave a very appropriate speach about how jesus is the light of the world, and our guide, and how rueben had been our guide for the trip, explaining the word of God to us.
- up next was John who tearfully presented a hebrew bible (provided by John plantz) to Reuben. John fittingly choked out the words "the jewish people have given us so much....we wanted to give this to you....as a token of our appreciation...."
- After that Steve Bray got up and gave Reuben and Shalmomo their "cards" with their "tips'.
- Reuben was very appreciative, and thankfully shalomo did not get up and take a bow

- that was our last stop for the day so we headed down the coast to Tel Aviv, passing the slimmest point in Israel (with the west bank only 10 KM from the sea). It made me wonder how this "fence" is going to actually work. Will "fencing off" suicide bombers prevent attacks, or will it just force them to get more creative? My bet is that in a few months/years we will be seeing, sadly, an increase in rocket attacks. I hope i'm wrong but there is no easy solution to this problem.
- On our approach to Tel Aviv, we were told that in 1948 it was simply used to be a sand-dune on the outskirts of joppa (mark twain said that or something). now it's the busiest richest city in israel. we drove by and gawked at apartments that would go for 1 million US!! Ouch!
- we arrived at the hotel around 5:30, and were given a briefing about the departure the next morning. OUr wake up call was coming at 1:30AM so we were to eat and sleep quick! Rueben also helped us alot by describing in detail what the security situation would be like at the airport as well as promising to go with us every step of the way. That Reuben is an awesome guy
and had time to get changed and eat dinner.
- some guys walked to the mediterranian, i got a wireless connection in the hotel and was away.
- john mckim wanted to send an email so i tracked him down. he was on the way, with steve, to present danny robbins with a silver minorah as a thank-you for all danny's video/camera work. I'm sure we are all looking forward very much to see that DVD/video of the trip!
- John and then mike came to the room and feasted on my wireless goodness and I was able to chat with my lovely hayley (interesting how those words rhyme) for about another hour. She told me how Lukas had been to the "sick kids hospital" that day and it took them 4 tries to get an IV in to him Poor little guy.
- At one point i sneezed and Gerald shot up in bed, dazed and 90% still asleep and began talking to me in french. It was quite funny to watch, but I sadly didn't have time to snap a video
- I logged off at about 11:30, knowing that in only 2 hours I would be up again! nighty night
- it was about 11:30 when i logged off

[Shawn Cuthill]

Shawn, you mentioned a discussion while you were in Israel of the cross v. stake method of crucifixion for Jesus. Care to elaborate?

Sure, it was during our visit to Nazareth on Day 7.
We were at the "nazareth village", which is a christian tour site. Since Nazareth has the largest Christian community in the middle east they decided to get together and build this place to show what Nazareth would have been like in Jesus' time. Very cool spot:

http://www.nazarethvillage.com/

So while we were walking around outside the tour guide was talking about Jesus carrying his cross or something that triggered my mind to ask about what a first century cross looked like.

The tour guide said that almost EVERY inscription that archaeologists had found, ALL had a T shaped cross and not a stake. He said the stake was used before Roman times, and also pointed to the verses that talk about the "print of the nails" in Jesus hands, not the "nail".

Hope that helps, I'll go over my audio tapes to see what else I can find.

[TheRussian]

OK, dude, thanks!

[Jezreel]

- another great view of the valley of armageddon.

Isn't the valley beautiful?

started off the morning with a trip over to nazareth. It was a test of shlomo's driving, he did U turn right in the center of town that was phenomenal

Our bus driver (Benny) was awesome. He took us to one place that was on a hill, stopped the bus, put it in neutral, and we rolled UP the hill. Incredible!

- nazareth has the larges christian population of any city in the middle east- 20,000

We didn't spend hardly any time in Nazareth - I would have liked to.

- ceasarea - next we went to ceasarea. i didn't know much about this place before today to be honest. I was more familiar with "ceasearea philipi" in the north. it was quite interesting to read how Paul had his 3 court appearances here. Felix, Festus, Agrippa. I was there. We went on a multimedia tour with a nice tour guide that was very informative. I slept through some of it though. We saw these very interesting touch screen displays.After the multimedia, we went
.
outside to view the ruins themsleves. They were a pretty impressive collection of above and underground roman columsn, palaces and theaters. The tour guide pointed out to us the difference between a theater (half moon) and an ampitheater (360). After reading through Act 25:1-12 where Paul appeals to Ceasear we realized this was our last stop on the journey. Somberly Danny prayed and thanked God for our trip. As soon as we were done John Plantz was suggesting a song "pray for the peace of jerusalem", which we hobbled along with. We realized that that staff of the park was closing down for the day (what else is new) but someone suggested that before we leave john plantz could sing to us as if on stage at the theater. So we raced off up the big concrete slabs to our seats in the theater and john belted out "pray for the peace of jerusalem". Pretty groovy. Then we bolted to the bus.

Some of the folks in our group sang there too. It was neat.

- since this was our last stop, there were some emotional and ceremonial presentations on the bus. First Danny Robbins presented Reuben and Shalomo with a silver lighthouse coin from atlantic canada, produced by the royal canadian mint. Danny gave a very appropriate speach about how jesus is the light of the world, and our guide, and how rueben had been our guide for the trip, explaining the word of God to us.
- up next was John who tearfully presented a hebrew bible (provided by John plantz) to Reuben. John fittingly choked out the words "the jewish people have given us so much....we wanted to give this to you....as a token of our appreciation...."
- After that Steve Bray got up and gave Reuben and Shalmomo their "cards" with their "tips'.
- Reuben was very appreciative, and thankfully shalomo did not get up and take a bow

Our guide, bus driver and guard (yes we had guards on our trip) got all kinds of gifts - especially our guard who was a handsome, young soldier finishing his term with the army. He and my husband, brother in law and I got along very well, and I still miss him.

- that was our last stop for the day so we headed down the coast to Tel Aviv, passing the slimmest point in Israel (with the west bank only 10 KM from the sea). It made me wonder how this "fence" is going to actually work. Will "fencing off" suicide bombers prevent attacks, or will it just force them to get more creative? My bet is that in a few months/years we will be seeing, sadly, an increase in rocket attacks. I hope i'm wrong but there is no easy solution to this problem.

I believe it was just after the time you went that the whole disengagement happened with the Gaza and west bank. Until Christ returns, there will not be peace between the Arabs and the Jews. The Arabs wish to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth, and the Jews just want their land.

That Reuben is an awesome guy
and had time to get changed and eat dinner.

Food?

- some guys walked to the mediterranian, i got a wireless connection in the hotel and was away.

On our last full day in Israel, my husband and I went to play in the Mediterranean where the aqueducts are.

And I went back to Canada feeling like I was leaving home....