Saturday in Israel is called ‘Shabbat’ in
Hebrew.
When in Israel, we do as the Israeli's do, so our group enjoyed a day of rest. We could not
have chosen a more beautiful place to have a rest day than on the shore of the
Sea of Galilee. Some of us went kayaking in the lake. Some of us relaxed in the
shade and the sand. The weather was perfect, sunny, but not too hot.
The water was blue green and refreshing.
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| Nobody was able to walk on water, so they decided to kayak instead. |
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| Kayaking on the Sea of Galilee. Tiberius in the background. |
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Deborah and Mark kayaking in the Sea of Galilee.
What better place to spend our day of rest than on the beach by the Sea of Galilee. |
In
the early afternoon, we took a five-minute drive to where the Sea of Galilee
empties into the Jordan River. Many of our group decided to be baptized at the
traditional spot where it is believed John baptized Jesus. As is custom here,
they wore white robes going into the water. Don't they look angelic? Each person introduced themselves and said why
they were getting baptized. For some it was the first time and for others it
was a rededication. We laughed when an older Israeli man wanted to take a group
picture, so with a heavy Hebrew accent, he said
“Have
all the Goliaths move to the back row, and have all the Zacheuses move to the
front.”
A little Biblical
humor.
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| Beautiful friends getting Baptized in the Jordan River. |
It
is always moving hearing why people are dedicating their life, for the first
time, or again, to the Lord who loves them so much. There were several people
who were not in our group, who joined us in the water to have Pastor Vince
baptize them. We didn’t know why, but they got in our line and followed along
telling us their name and why they were committing their life to the Lord as
well. We clapped for them, just like we did for our friends. Later, one of the
young women told Vince she was born in Ethiopia, but currently lived in
Tennessee.
She traveled alone to Israel,
and it had been a lifelong dream of hers to be baptized in the Jordan River,
like Jesus. She checked in and rented the robe, but the people in charge
said she could not get in the water unless she had a pastor with her to do the
baptizing. She was extremely grateful to join our friendly group and have her
dream fulfilled. We were blessed to be able to hear everyone’s story and
participate with them in this memorable event.
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| Date farm along the Jordan River. |
After
this, we went to a date farm with an organic grocery store. We watched a short presentation on the history of the Jewish family
who immigrated to Israel 100 years before and cultivated many different types
of dates and other fruit on their property close to the Jordan River. I am not
much for dates, but when they opened several different containers and passed
them around for us to sample, they were heavenly.
Who knew there were so many different types of dates, and that they
could be so delicious?
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| This is the apple cider fruit infusion. Yummy! |
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| Fruit infusions from the date farm. |
We
returned to our hotel in paradise, ate dinner, and had a time of praise and
worship out by the Sea of Galilee. We reflected on our day and shared what we were learning on the trip.
It was a perfect day, full of God’s goodness, and as they say here, His
Shalom (peace).
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| Time of praise and worship by the Sea of Galilee! What an awesome God! |
Shalom
to you reading this. I wish you His peace on your day of rest.
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