Day Four already...

I just have time for a brief update because where we are staying for the rest of the week has internet only if you want to pay 35 shekels for two hours. Which is like nine dollars. Lame. My friend Cody and I are splitting the cost and the time so we can keep people posted and make an important call or two... or just one.

Anyway, yesterday's events: We went to Sephoris (Roman city over the ridge from Nazareth), then one of the possible locations of Cana (water to wine). The we went to my favorite place in Galilee I think. The Arbel cliff overlooks the whole Sea of Galilee -- the view is amazing and you get to stand on the edge of a 200+ foot cliff :) The we hiked down the wadi Arbel (the canyon on the side of the cliff, a major route to Galilee in the good old days) and stopped at Kursi, where the pigs and demons event may or may not have happened. It's funny, both times I have been there it has been the last stop of the day, about 4:30 or 4:45 in the afternoon... weird.
Today we went to Capernaum (Jesus' other hometown/center of ministry), the Mt. of Beatitudes (I recommend the Sermon on the Mount for some devotional reading, it is cool to read without being there, it is even more cool to think about it as you look around the hills and see them decked out for spring, wheat fields almost turning color, flowers, olive trees... awesome). Then we went down to Tabgha, fishing suburb of Capernaum and probably the area that Jesus called Disciples and met them after His resurrection. (Tabgha means Seven Springs if I remember right, they are like pseudo-warm springs).

Then we headed over to Ginosar, where a 1st century fishing boat was dug out of the mud in the mid-80s. It's pretty cool, google it or something. Then came lunch in the very much modernized Tiberias before we headed back up to the north side and Bethsaida. To be brief, the site is almost certainly not actually Bethsaida, but a nearby village that was occupied before and after Roman times, but not really during Jesus' time. There is more to say, but I don't have time, ask me when I get home, it's interesting.

Next the cool part: We got to tube down the Jordan River. Oh yes, it was basically warm enough, they definitely have innertubes for us to blow up and use, and it was the Jordan River and we floated down it. Very cool, enough said.

A quick sketch of tomorrow and then I am done using my internet time on you. We go up to the Golan Heights, to Caesarea Philippi (Banias), Tel Dan, Tel Hazor, and come back down to Chorazim (or Korazim or Chorazin or however you prefer to spell it). That being said, this concludes my broadcasting for now, I may or may not blog the rest of the week so don't worry, I'm not dead yet.

But you could help me out with something, I would love it: Will you do me a favor and pray for me? Two things: 1. it is nearing the end of the semester, there is a ton of stuff in my brain and a lot to do and tons more to learn and I can't hold it all in there on my own. 2. This trip is amazing, but with so many things in such a short amount of time it is easy to overload and check out, pray that I don't.
Thanks seventy times seven!