Day Two in Galilee

January 12 (Monday)
This morning we started out by revisiting Tabgha so that we could see the Church of the Multiplication where Jesus fed the 5,000. Dr. Tuttle actually lived at this monastery for two months with four monks while writing one of his books.

The altar is built over a stone said to have been where Jesus laid the loaves and fish to bless them.

This mosaic is famous and captured on everything from postcards to refrigerator magnets.

The next stop on our tour was Caesarea Philippi. This town is located in the Golan Heights area on Mt. Hermon. The Hermon Springs here is one of the feeders for the Jordan River and the water was ice cold! Our devotional was on-site today as well here.

This area was known for its idol worship. This grotto was at the back of a temple to the god Pan. This is the site where Jesus chose to ask his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" There were also a lot of other little temples to gods here that are now in ruins, including the temple of the dancing goats.

These little guys hanging out just off the path weren't afraid of us at all.

We continued our journey in the Golan Heights by visiting Tel Dan. This town lies on the northern border of Israel, next to Syria. It is a huge archaeological site which covers the spectrum of Israelite history. To get there we did a one hour nature hike.

One city gate found here dates back to the time of Abraham and would have been used/seen by him as he pursued those who had taken his nephew Lot.

The other gate dates to the time of Joshua. The city used to be known as Laish, until the tribe of Dan conquered it as the Israelites divided up the Promised Land.

Dan was also the site of a huge sacrifice altar built by the northern kingdom of Israel to keep folks from going all the back to Jersualem.

We were so close to Syria it was on the otherside of the fence. Here part of our group is standing on top of an old bunker used by Israel during their last war with Syria.

We came down for lunch in Magdala before heading northwest to Nazareth. There we visited the Church of the Anunciation, where the angel is said to have visited Mary at the well and told her she would give birth to the Messiah.

Through this window is supposedly the steps where the angel sat. Many people put in slips of paper with prayer requests.

And here is supposedly the well where Mary was sitting when she received the news.

After visiting the church, we drove around Nazareth and made our way to Mount Precipice. This is the place where people tried to throw Jesus off the cliff because of his preaching when he visited his hometown.

Another great day! We got back to the hotel for dinner and had our meeting. Then it was time to pack up because in the morning we were heading out early for the last stage of our journey.