End of Week One

The weekend has ended, and our second week in HaAretz is already well begun. How quickly the time has left us, the long days are gone too soon. But this is life. Anyways, Thursday was more of a relaxing day, which included a lot of driving. We drove through Tsafat (Safat) but didn't get out. The place was CROWDED and my dad pointed out that everyone had pants and long sleeve shirts. Even the men were wearing pants! We could've made do with some scarves and whatnot, but it was hot and we didn't really feel like shopping anyways. (Though I'm sure Sarah would beg to differ).

 Saba wanted to stop at the Mt. of Beatitudes, and so we did. We didn't go into the little Catholic church thing (the gate was closed and some lady in a car gave Abba a stare-down) but walked around and saw the view that Yeshua saw when giving his most famous sermon. Then we went to Capernaum, where we encountered an abandoned tourist place down one road, and a bunch of people down the other road. No shorts were aloud, and that applied to most of us, including Abba. It was certainly cool walking were God as a man had walked 2000 years ago. The Sea of Galilee is very low this year, by the way.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast near the cliffs of Arbel, a wonderful little place. Of course we went to take a quick look at the cliffs before checking in. The cliffs are very beautiful despite their brutal past. Herod had people of his army lowered down the cliffs in baskets to exterminate the Zionists hiding in the num

 

 One of the workers at the guesthouse, “Grape”, pointed us in the direction of some old synagogue ruins. I almost stepped on a turtle on the way there. Henny occupied herself by searching through some pottery, and the rest of us marveled at what else could be buried beneath our feet. The arch was made of one single giant stone.

Turtle

  

  That, along with a hearty dinner, pretty much sums up that day. The next day, Friday, our first stop of Beit Sha’an, the largest archeological sight in Israel. It was incredible and massive, I see why Abba has always wanted to take us there. I really thought the tell was cool, which included 20 layers of different civilizations. That was where Saul and his sons' bodies were hung on the walls of the city by the Philistines.

Israeli Breakfast

View from the tell

After that we headed over Gan HaShlosha, three pools fills with spring water. The water was an exceptional blue color and a refreshing 82 degrees. It was so nice to just swim again, especially after being away from Hawaii from so long. When I was swimming with Abba, Henny, and Sarah, we put our feet down in a shallow area, and soon there were cries of "Something touched me!" We soon found out that the little fish love to nibble on people's feet. Henny and Abba were pretty much the opposite of fans. I actually liked it, after I got over the tickling factor. I have heard that spas in Asia have fish pedicures, because they remove the dead skin. Now my feet are nice and clean. :) Just kidding, not about the nice and clean part, but attributing it to the fish. Who knows! Anyway, it was super beautiful and fun.

 

That evening Shabbat started, which we welcomed by the breaking of bread and a hearty dinner.

For Shabbat we drove all the way over to Haifa to go to our friend Mr. Joe's congregation. The service was great and, as to be expected, in Hebrew (I was the one sharing a transator with Sarah, which made understanding the message a great deal harder). As with the other congregation we had visited the week befoe, it really was encouraging to see believers in The Land getting together for a service. Afterwards we went to this really sweet older Romanian couple's house for lunch. The man is an opera singer, and his wife is a pianist, but we didn't get to hear her play because it was Shabbat. They had many miraculous stories of people being saved.
 She first served us a tomato stew. Henny, who doesn't like tomatoes, was able to secretively swap bowls with Abba. Abba and Saba didn't realize that the soup wasn't the main course, and were surprised when potatoes with chicken and salad was brought out. Yum!

 Afterwards Abba, Saba, Henny, Sarah, Mr. Joe, and I hoped in the car and drove to where Elijah called down fire from heaven. The Carmel Forest was beautiful, and we were able to see where the wildfire had destroyed so much not too many years ago. It is already green again. That was very cool, and after dropping Mr. Joe back off we took the long drive back to Arbel. It was a wonderful Shabbat, full of fellowship and relaxing.

 So, if you are wondering why there is a lot less photos on this post, there an explanation. I regret to inform you that I lost my IPod (or it was stolen) on Sunday. I had just bought it a couple weeks before this trip, and one misplacement has caused me to loose all the pictures I took. :( Another thing to note is that back when we were in those Druze villages (or more of outside), some of us almost died. A massive truck wasn't pulling back into his lane and Abba had to scrape the guardrail to avoid an impact that could've killed him and Henny, if not all of us. There was less than six inches between us when he passed! Baruch HaShem that we didn't become Just a Dead Family.

 I will try to find time to write about Sunday, Monday, and now Tuesday! Keep your eyes open for the next post.

Ella