Day one of our tour in Israel was amazing. We started out wondering what it would be like to tour not in a larger group, well, God is good, it has proved to be extraordinary!

Our guide Ami, pronounced Army, arrived at 8:30 am and right from the start we felt at home and very special indeed. Ami is a wonderful guide with about 28 years of experience behind him. So we started out from the motel and headed towards Jaffa, or Joppa.

This older part of town was where the Apostle Peter stayed with Simon the tanner and had his vision from God; he went to Cornelius's house and he and his family became the first gentile converts. This was amazing in itself to think that we were standing in the place where St Peter had once been, and had this vision from God.

Jaffa is a wonderful place, This old village stands in great contrast to the modern, bustling city of Tel Aviv right next door. We walked it's ancient streets and soaked up the atmosphere there before we moved on.

Being on a private tour we have been able to vary our sightseeing, we took a detour to the city if Caesarea to see this amazing city of that king Herod built. And amazing it is even today! The theatre, the palace, the place where the chariot races took place, the harbor, this was a beautiful place! this was also the home of Cornelius and his family, and a very important place in New Testament times.

From here we traveled north to Mt Carmel where the prophet Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal and king Ahab and defeated them by calling on the Lord God to come and consume his sacrifice with fire. Now this place just blew us away!

Perched on top of the mountain is a Carmelite Convent, It is a very rocky place. The small chapel is plain but very beautiful, here we sensed again the presence of God. Outside the chapel is a statue of the prophet with his foot on the neck of a prophet of Baal, sword drawn ready to strike and kill him.

We went to the top of the convent and the view, I think, must be one of the wonders of the world. There stretched out before us for miles and miles was the valley if Jezreel, or as Ami pointed out the valley of Armageddon. It is a vast plain and we could see in our minds the final battle being played out in this place; we were, and still are overwhelmed by what we saw. We spent a lot of time just looking and listening to Ami explain the history of this place. He pointed out the Kishon brook where the prophet was fed by the raven and many other stories from this place. Also he pointed out Nain, where Jesus raised the widows son, and Mt Tabor in the distance.

We left this place in absolute awe of its beauty and place in history, but also at the presence of our God!

Again on our way we stopped at a little local " Cafe" for lunch where we sampled the local food, a pita bread pocket with beef and salad and dressing, very nice food indeed.

We headed of toward Nazareth where we visited the Church of the Annunciation, where the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, the catholic church was a mixture of both the old and the new. The new is built over what is said to be Mary And Joseph's house and the first church. It is a magnificent structure, with icon/frescos of the Virgin Mary from all over the world including Australia.

We then went to the Orthodox church, not far from the Catholic church that is also called the church of the annunciation. It is a beautiful little church filled with icons and wonderful frescos. But it is also built over the only fresh water spring in Nazareth. As we stood looking at this beautiful church we could hear the little spring bubbling and went down into the little room to view this spring and were blessed beyond measure as we realized that Jesus said he is the living water.

Both of these churches claim to be the spot where Gabriel came to visit Mary, but the reality is that maybe neither was the place. But the sense of the presence of God in Nazareth is real, it was amazing for us to realize that in this place was where Jesus grew up as a child!

From Nazareth we drove to Cana, the site of Jesus' first miracle. The thing that struck me first was the street vendors, selling wedding wine! Yes, that's right, wedding wine, to celebrate this first miracle of changing the water into wine. This church was a title disappointing in that even in Israel some people have no respect for history or sacred places, graffiti was on the walls of the ancient building underneath the church.

We did see the giant water urns/pots that held the water that our Lord turned to wine, and as we gazed upon this place Mary's words to the servants resounded in our hearts, "do whatever He says".

From Cana we set out for our Motel on the shores of Galilee at the town of Tiberias. Ami took us on the scenic route and we were able to stand at the lookout down onto the lake and imagine the disciples struggling to row across. The lake itself is several hundred meters below sea level, and bounded on both sides by mountains, the Golan heights on one side. It is not difficult to see how storms could quickly come up as the wind howls through the mountains.

Haze, from the heat of the day shrouds almost everything, making visibility limited in places to a couple of kilometers. This is a very hot and dry country, and is taking its toll on us even on this first day. We remain incredibly awed at being here, and also incredibly blessed by the presence and power of God upon us.

Our motel is an older motel but still very nice. After dinner there was a show, singing and dancing by 6 local young people, and even though we could not understand any of the dialogue or singing we recognized that the message was about their freedom, Moses got a mention, and also the current Israeli Army.

By the time we arrived back in our room we were well and truly ready for a good nights sleep.