Another early start saw us travelling a little south west to visit Nazareth, now a majority Muslim town of about 80,000. In Jesus’ time there may have been about 200 people. Walking up a fairly steep hill, we visited a site traditionally thought of as the house where Mary grew up and was visited by the angel Gabriel telling her she would give birth to the Messiah. It was wonderful to hear again Luke 1:26-38, that very familiar story read every Christmas.

A huge 2 level Catholic church has been built surrounding and over this house which is now more of a shrine. The Christian community living and worshipping there are unfortunately feeling persecuted by the local Muslims. The Muslims seem to be taking advantage of the visitors, tourists and pilgrims by being prepared to sell rosary beads outside the church but then our guide, Erez, shared the story he had just heard from one of the local Christians he was sitting with as we were walking around, that they are slandered and heckled on a regular basis. A small mosque down the road from the church strongly and publicly proclaims the Muslim view.

We then went to a very worthwhile location to see a replica of a Nazarene village set up as it would have been in the first century.

The owners/guides are all Messianic Jews or Christians and have a wonderful understanding of the ancient times and shared it with us magnificently. When excavating the site they found that it had been an ancient farm, and they have now set up a sheep pen, a wine press, a watchtower, grapevines, olive trees, a first century home with father & son doing carpentry, a woman spinning and weaving, a synagogue, an olive press and even a tomb similar to the one where Jesus would have been laid. They also gifted us with a small oil lamp as we were leaving. A place truly done well.

It was interesting that on the journey today we actually got to the height of sea level; a height at which none of us have been for the past week. Not only is the Dead Sea 472m below sea level but the Sea of Galilee is also 212m below sea level. It’s hot down here!

Another free afternoon to snooze or loll in the Sea of Galilee was the order of the day.

Today was Jewish Shabbat [Sabbath], so our meal tonight was done a little differently, in that it had all been pre-prepared and we had only one waitress serving us everything. What a FEAST!! When we began, on the table were separate plates of potato salad, cherry tomatoes, baked eggplant, hummus, capsicums with olives, mushrooms, bread. Then came rice and vegetables. Then came fish. Then came potatoes. Then came capsicums stuffed with meat & rice. Then came meat balls. Then came chicken. Then came individual plates with two desserts followed by a plate of ice cream. It was all absolutely delicious, but we had to roll each other back to our rooms!!