Israel Trip Day 4
I need to start this blog with another bump in the road after we arrived! We looked for the insight for living people that were supposed to meet our flight after we cleared customs but were unable to find anyone for quite a while! Finally we found someone that knew what we were talking about & this person was with inspiration cruises so he accompanied us out to the bus that was to take us to our hotel! And there we sat for an hour & 1/2 waiting for others to clear customs! By the time we got to the welcome dinner, the program & dinner were over half done! This was very frustrating & upsetting to all involved! After the dinner we were taken to our hotel in Tel Aviv! We had such a nice room—a bath & 1/2 plus 2 showers, 2 balconies, in addition to a living room & bedroom! Too bad we were so exhausted from the day we barely had time to enjoy it! We had to be ready to go the next morning by 7:30 so we had to pack up & have suitcases by the door by 6:30 am!
We got up early & repacked our luggage & backpacks & headed to Caesarea by the sea where we had an excellent monologue from a gentleman who portrayed King Herod! This city was founded by Herod the Great! Caesarea was also home to Pontius Pilate! We also sang some hymns with the group & then listened as David Phelps sang with his incredible voice! Then Chuck Swindoll gave a short sermon! I was able to have my picture taken with David Phelps after this session was done! We toured the grounds there & then headed up to Mt. Carmel, the highest peak in northwest Israel! We had amazing views from there! There was a haze in the air so the views of the jezreel valley were not as great as they could have been but it still was pretty amazing! There is a statue portraying Elijah when he killed all the prophets of Baal up there! We went from Mt. Carmel to Megiddo where we enjoyed a delicious lunch! After lunch we hiked to the top of Megiddo as we learned about 26 different cultures that have been unearthed here! The city of Megiddo was very large & guarded a strategic pass through Mt. Carmel! One of the first recorded battles in history was waged at Megiddo so it is only fitting that the last great gathering of armies just before Christ returns to earth will take place here at Megiddo! Then we began our descent into the Megiddo water cistern finally reaching the lowest point after 187 narrow steps! Thank goodness for hand rails! Our ascent wasn’t quite as bad as we only had 80 steps to climb to get out of the cistern on the other side! After this we headed to our new hotel in Tiberius by the Sea of Galilee! Our room was not nearly as fancy as the room in Tel Aviv however it is still very nice with views overlooking the Sea of Galilee! We took a short nap & changed for dinner with the entire group over at the other hotel on the beach by the Sea of Galilee! After dinner we headed back to our hotel & retired for the night!