Leaving the hotel by 7:50am we travelled a short distance to board a boat for an hour on the Sea of Galilee. It was a magnificent morning with beautiful breezes off the lake which made the already hot day quite bearable. We all revelled in being on this sea which we have read so much about in the Gospels. The crew was fantastic, and even hoisted an Aussie flag and played the national anthem over the speakers. Erez shared with us some of the geography of the lake and pointed out the various towns we would visit during the day, all of which are very close to each other. The only big town on the lake these days is Tiberius, and all the other ancient towns are now only memorial sites where visitors and tourists gather.

On our relatively small boat we had a wonderful time of reading various Scriptures, interspersed with singing and praying together. We all found this time together, in this special place, a moving and powerful experience. As we heard about Jesus performing healings around this area, we also prayed for those in our group with some ailments – aching knees, a torn ligament, congestion. We trust in God for healing in His time. None of us wanted to disembark, but it was time to move on to Capernaum.

Visiting the ancient town of Capernaum, which Jesus called home, it was amazing to see the ruins of Simon Peter’s home where Jesus healed his mother-in-law after preaching in the synagogue. We saw the ruins of the 1st century synagogue at a lower layer, with another 4th century one at current ground level.

We then went to Tabgha, the site commonly agreed as that of the feeding of the five thousand. A Benedictine monastery has been built there so there was a need to filter the hundreds of years of tradition and imagine the crowds being very simply but powerfully fed by Jesus’ miracle. Again we read the Bible story as we stood there together.

We then moved on to the Mount of Beatitudes where it was believed that Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. Erez told us that on this particular hillside it is possible to hear a speaker for a huge distance, due to the shape and lie of the land. The view over the Sea from there was absolutely magnificent. Again a Roman Catholic church has been built on the site, so imagination was necessary as we looked across the vista. Erez also shared that in ancient times, a ‘city on a hill’ was not far away to the north, and would have been visible to those hearing Jesus mention it in his sermon.

Our next stop was a real eye-opener as we saw the ruins of an ancient boat discovered by two brothers as recent as 1986. Following a severe drought, the waters of the Sea of Galilee receded significantly, and as these two local fishermen wandered across the shores they came across an ancient nail protruding out of the sand. The began digging in the same area and came across some buried wood, and soon realised they had come across something of great archaeological significance.  Soon a team of archaeologists was brought in and the painstaking process of preservation began. Many years later the preserved boat is now on display. It was wonderful to learn the story of this find, and to see the dimensions of this simple but average and common sailing vessel from the first century. How many more finds might there be under the sands and stones of the shores of this lake?

We then made a drive through visit to the city of Tiberius, an ancient town named after the Roman Emperor. The town of today is built upon the ancient city, so the visible ruins are minimal.

We made a quick visit to a newly created place on the Jordan River made available for people wanting to be baptised. The more traditional site believed to be where Jesus was baptised by John which we visited yesterday in the south, is now only a narrow and fairly dirty part of the river due to reduced flow because of a dam. This does not make it an attractive place for baptisms to happen these days. The newer place is in a much wider portion of the river and is much more conducive for full immersion baptisms. The Jordan is a very beautiful river with wonderful reeds all along the banks.

Upon our return to our hotel, we had a couple of hours of free time to catch up on washing, or to swim in the Sea of Galilee. We had a good group time prior to a wonderful buffet meal which we all enjoyed.

We all felt very blessed as we bid each other goodnight.