Journey to Israel Day 5: Beit She'an, Ein Harod, and the Dead Sea

Today, our group travelled to Beit She'an, a Roman Decapolis city.  They have recovered a tremendous amount of the city in the archaelogical digs.  It was interesting to see the massive columns, beautiful mosaic tiles, the massive theater, spas with elaborate heating systems, and the public restrooms.
Theater:



Heating system for the sauna:

My family among the ancient columns:

Public Latriene:  (I cannot even begin to imagine doing this for reals!)

From there we travelled to Gideon Springs.  It is the only fresh water stream in the north. 

Do you remember the story from Judges 7 where the men drank from the spring? The 300 men who cupped the water were the ones God chose to defeat the Amelkalites who had as many camels as the grains of sand.  God used only 300 men to defeat them to show His might and His power. 

God still uses humble, alert servants for His glory and for His great purposes today.



We boarded the bus and prepared for a long drive to the Dead Sea.  I couldn't help but marvel at all of the beautiful vegetation I saw through the bus windows.  We saw mango orchards, date palms, banana trees, strawberries, cotton fields, wheat, and so much more.  Such fertile soil....oh that my heart and soul would always be this way!


The more we travelled, the less fertile the land became.  Finally, we saw the enormous Dead Sea.  It is the lowest point of the earth and its name means salt sea.  There is no life in the sea oh but there are lots of minerals.  Here we began to see camels in the wild.  And we made a stop at the Ahava Factory.  Delight!  I love to use Ahava hand lotion.  I try to make one tube last as long as possible.  It is good stuff!



It wasn't long before we arrived at the beautiful Daniel directly across the street from the Dead Sea.  A few minutes later my family quickly changed into our swim suits for the much anticipated float in the Dead Sea.  I grabbed a packet of the nutrient packed black mud I had purchased at Ahava and was ready to go!  I lathered that black mud all over myself (except for my face)  and offered to share with my family or anyone else in the group.  No one wanted to try it but they all wanted to take my picture. Oiy! I was the only African American looking person in the group!



It was a cold and windy day, but we were not going to let that stop us from floating in the Dead Sea.  It was so easy to float, really it was hard to do anything else.  I was one of the few who could put her feet underwater and look like I was standing up.  The water was amazing!  My man discovered that he could reach down and scoop up coarse sea salt from the bottom.  Naturally, we all grabbed some and started exfoliating.  It was a wonderful salt scrub spa treatment, right there in the Dead Sea!

We stayed in the water until our teeth began chattering.  Our skin felt like silk and our lips were salty when we licked them.  There is still a fresh glow about our skin and an instant hydration.  Our waiter at dinner told me I looked 19.  Ha!