Journey to Israel Day 3 (Part 2 of 2): Mt. of Beatitudes, Tabgha, Jordan River

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to Israel!  Where did I leave off?  After our boat ride on the Sea of Galilee and visiting the Jesus boat, we headed up to the beautiful Mt. of Beatitudes where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount at the natural amphitheater. 



Mom with Rachel and Hannah:


The Mt. of Beatitudes is so beautiful. We saw parrots and a lot of gorgeous flowers and palm trees. It was very peaceful. From the Mt., you can easily see the Sea of Galilee. After a little while, we boarded the bus and drove down to Tabgha, the site of the multiplication of the fish and the loaves. We saw the Church of the Rock which is where Peter's reconciliation took place after he denied Christ 3 times.





Tabgha is also where the disciples were fishing on the Sea of Galilee but were not catching anything until Jesus told them to cast their nets to the other side. They obeyed the Lord and caught 153 fish to be exact. I did not know this, but our guide explained that the number in Hebrew means, "I Am!" I have chills as I type that. Because, He most definitely is the Great I Am!

Mom, the girls, Nonnie and I (my daughters with their momma and both grandmothers) put our feet in the Sea of Galilee together. Three generations together with our feet in the Sea of Galilee!  Amazing!! Naturally, I had to bring home one of the small rocks we were standing on:

I took this next photo of my beautiful mother here too because this is one of her favorite places...and I totally understand why!


From Tabgha, we travelled to Capernaum-the home base of Jesus' ministry. In Capernaum, Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law, cast out demons, and healed so many. We stood among the columns in the tabernacle and sang, "Surely the Presence" and oh how we felt His presence there.









Here we saw an ancient olive press...and we were enlightened that Jesus is our olive press.



I could have stayed in Capernaum all day long but we still had one more place to visit before dinner. We had the great blessing of going to the Jordan River for baptisms.

My Dad, who is a pastor, offered to baptize anyone in our group that wanted to participate. My husband and our girls were baptized and I had the great joy of taking their pictures. I think 18 were baptized from our group that day. Yes, those baptized were already believers and had already been baptized, but how incredible to be baptized in the Jordan River where John the Baptist baptized our Savior. It was an incredible way to end the day.







A special, special day for all of us! 

See how green the Jordan River looks?  It is not, it really is crystal clear.  I know first hand because me being the wonderful, graceful creature that I am (please hear the sarcasm in my voice), wanting to retrieve some of the crystal clear water from the Jordan River, fell down the slippery rock steps and nearly fell in the river myself.  The bad part, is that I was by myself and the wind was completely knocked out of me.  It was only a matter of seconds before help arrived and thankfully, Aunt Margie encouraged me to breath out of my nose which really seemed to help.

I was instantly sore, scraped and bruised, and I may have broken my tailbone, but thankfully I was alright.  Poppie graciously filled up my water bottle for me with Jordan River and my dad did too but we didn't know it at the time.  When we got back to the hotel, Dad brought us a water bottle.  In the middle of the night, my man got thirsty and took a huge drink from the water bottle only to discover it was Jordan River water too!  Ha!!!!  It really is crystal clear water.  I know because I proudly have both bottles in my kitchen.