MamaCez: The Ancient and the Now

For 15+ years we've been wanting to go to Israel with our former Pastor and his wife. They've been taking a group every 5 years.

With Pastor Sherman & Marti in Corinth

We haven't been able to go previously because the girls were either too young or it was the wrong time and the girls were in school. This time it was perfect! It was right after school ended and the girls were old enough to be seasoned travelers. Also it was rumored that this might be Pastor's last time taking a large group. So when we heard, we jumped on the bandwagon, roped in some of our dear friends, and off we went.

People were short back in those days

We knew that this would not be a relaxing vacation. (Come on.. does 69 locations, 8 flights, 5 hotels in 16 days sound relaxing to you?!?!) We were on a very tight schedule: on the bus by 8am sometimes 7:30am which meant breakfast at 7am which meant wake-up call at 6:00am every day and we get back to the hotel for dinner by 5:00pm. Our evenings were open but I was so darn tired I always opted to go to sleep after dinner. My introverted nature desperately needed some alone time. Traveling with 41 people all day long was very tiring sometimes, not that I didn't like the company. I so loved the company and was thrilled that we were able to travel with other families whom I have gotten to know and cherish!

This is Gamla: which has been called the "Masada of the North," where the Jews fought off the Romans several times before falling.

This was the first time that Pastor took whole families along and that was such a blessing! Youth want to hang around youth not their parents. We were so fortunate that this group of kids hung around together a lot!

Our group of 'young ones'

This is their usual section of the bus.

Our next stop: an ancient Talmudic Village and Synagogue in Katzrin Park.

Katzrin is an ancient Jewish village located in the Golan Heights.

This showed us what a traditional village/home would have looked like during Jesus' time.

Some buildings have been reconstructed to show how they lived at the time.

Fancy door or window?

As you can see it's made of stone and was underground to keep cool and safe. An integral part of the village was the synagogue where the people would gather to worship.

We were also able to see the Syrian Border, which is just on the other side of the white UN buildings.

It was very sobering to think about and pray for the Christians that are currently being persecuted there, knowing that and it was just a hop, skip and a jump from where we were at.

We also met two young men from the States who were serving in Syria with the Flying Doctors of America. They were sharing about the atrocities they saw there and we could not help but pray for these men and the country.

We met Cody and Michael, two Americans on medical missions serving in Jordan and Syria.

I got baptized in the Jordan River along with 11 other wonderful people from our group.

The Jordan River is fed from three independent springs: Banias (Caesarea Philippi), Dan (Tel Dan), and Lebanon (Haspian). All three pour into Sea of Galilee which also flows into the Dead Sea.

I was sprinkle baptized when I was 23 and I knew this was acceptable in God's eyes, but when the opportunity of getting immersion baptized in the same place that Jesus was baptized, I overcame my fear of water and dove in.

All 12 of us ... four were couples!

Life is too short for missed opportunities and I didn't want to miss out on anything and especially didn't want to feel like "I Should Have.. but didn't" when I came home. It was really a once in a lifetime opportunity.

With my friend Helen at the Baptismal Site of Yardenit on the Jordan River

And to have Pastor Sherman baptize me with my husband behind me it felt so right. Definitely one of my highlights of this trip.

It was located just south of the river's mouth to the Sea of Galilee. The water was warm, with fish nipping at our feet.

Afterwards we all loaded onto a boat and took a cruise around the Sea of Galilee.

Galilee cruise: The US flag was raised to our national anthem, followed by worship songs as we cruised on the waters.

Pastor gave a sermonette challenging us to to think about what were we trying to 'catch' as we threw out our net in our life.

The warm waters were calm but the wind can pick up the waves. It is a freshwater lake; there is no word for 'lake' in Hebrew thus they named it a Sea. It is roughly 8 miles wide x 13 miles long.