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Our first meeting of the day was with Bader Mansour at the Nazareth Baptist School. Bader is the General Secretary of Baptist Churches in Israel. Also, Badar is an alum of the school and shared that he came to Christ through one of his teachers. His Bible teacher was kind and loving and he wanted to know more about his teacher. Bader found that only Jesus Christ could make someone truly loving and kind.

The school is the only Baptist school in Israel and evangelical school of its kind. Chapel is every morning and the school has close to 1000 children.  The school founded in 1930s by Southern Baptist missionaries but now the school is privately run.It is one of the best schools in Israel as people register kids 3 years early to make sure their children get into this quality grade school. The school is made of 75% Christian and 25% Muslims.

Bader shared with us some important facts. As an Arab Palestinian Christian, he faces some challenges with the nature of his work. As a minority, Arabs are often treated as second class citizens. Bader enjoys citizenship but there are cultural hurdles.

There are about 3,000 Baptists in Nazareth. Of the 100,000 people in and around Nazareth, most Christians are Orthodox Christian. There are about 25,000 Christians total but it is mainly a Muslim city. One third Christian and two-thirds Muslim.

Israel has about 10 million people total and about 200,000 are Christians. Many churches are a part of the Arab Evangelical Convention. These groups include Baptists, Assembly of God, Brethren, Nazarene, and Christian Alliance. This convention is not official, but rather a defacto recognized group based on verbal agreements. The last recognized church groups were the Anglicans. Many Southern Baptists wanted independent churches but in Israel can’t do that. Churches need to be apart of a large group in order to be recognized to do weddings, funeral.

Next, we went to Mary’s Well. Lots of beautiful icons. This site is the Greek Orthodox site of the Annunciation, that is the angel’s visit to Mary telling her that she was going to bear the savior of the world. There was a large icon where a woman was kissing Mary’s image. A worn spot from people kissing the icon can be seen in the picture. One embarrassing note: There was an American who approached the chancel steps and rather disrespectfully looked into the chancel. A guard came and closed a curtain thereby ending anyone’s view.

Later in the morning, we drove through Cana to the Sea of Tiberius, also called the Sea of Galilee . It is only a 45 minute trip but would have been a 4 day journey if we walked! Check out the picture of the ads in Cana. The region is very mountainous. We pass through olive groves and other agricultural land. We arrived at Tiberius, which sits on the lake. It is mainly a resort town. We took a boat out on the Sea of Galilee and a storm came upon us very quickly. It made me think of the story of the disciples on a boat and a storm came up on them quickly on the same lake. This is of course the famous story of Jesus walking on water. This is also near the area of Capernium

Then, we traveled to nearby Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount address. The top of the mount is a Catholic site and it is very peaceful and lush. In 2000, John Paul II held mass there and there were over two million in attendance. We sat down under a pavilion and the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 were read. It was a moving experience. This is also the area that Jesus would go and pray privately. No wonder Jesus came here often, it’s an awesome place to be. You can see for miles.

Just down the hill, we went to the site of Peter’s Primacy. This is the site that is said to be where Jesus told Peter that was the Rock (Petras) and upon the rock, he would build his church. There is a small chapel there where people can pray and sit. There is a large rock that is inside and the church is built around it. Pilgrims left prayers there, mostly Catholic and Orthodox Christians. We walked down about 100 yards to a small beach. There, I read the group John 21, which is the scripture that tells of Jesus’ post resurrection appearance to the disciples. The disicples were in a boat fishing but caught nothing. Jesus called to them to fish on the other side of the boat and caught a huge load of fish. Afterwards, Jesus feed them fish and bread for breakfast.

Our last stop was Capernaum. Capernaum is an interesting place. Jesus spent a lot of time in and around this area. There are still ruins there from the 5th century. In addition, there is a church built on top of Peter’s house, the traditional site where it is said where Peter lived. Remains of a Byzantine church is below the current church. Next to this church, is a synagogue from the 5th century. The structure was at some point razed and it appears that the remains where reconstructed as the building had modern concrete in spots. This synagogue was likely a place that existed in the time of Jesus. The Gospels mention that Jesus was confronted by a demoniac while teaching there.

It was amazing to walk around where Jesus walked. To think about his journeys around the Sea of Galilee. He looked out the same area we visited. It makes you feel just a little closer to the Gospels then just sitting back home in the States.

Israel Trip Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 5 part I – Day 5 part II – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8