wed, June 20

Wed, June 20th

Thank God for another beautiful day in his homeland! Today is our last day in Galilee. We headed off to Capernum this morning for mass and adoration at the house of St. Peter. Just to reference, Capernum was one of the three towns cursed by Jesus and to this day is still in ruins, as well as the other two. We had mass in a church on top of the ruins of St. Peter’s house. This was where Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law from fever and then she got up and served them. It is also the place Jesus healed someone from their demons. Maybe the most familiar to us though is Capernum is the town the roman centurion asked the Lord to heal his servant, and his response is part of our mass, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word...” Jesus also preached in the temple there, the Bread of Life discourse, John Chapter 6. I am the Bread of Life...My flesh is food indeed...” All His work here, yet it was still not enough for the people. Lord, Blessed be Your name! You are enough for me!

We traveled through the desert a little ways to the Jordan river. It was very small, maybe 10 feet wide, and you could see the soldiers on the other side protecting the Jordan border. Very different than what I expected. It was hard to visualize that this was the spot that God spoke out of the clouds during the baptism of Jesus. We were all able to renew our baptismal vows. That moment was very special. We were also blessed to witness a little peanut being baptized. Lord thank You for these special moments!

We drove a little further to the desert to the Dead Sea. Beautiful! Very different to see a body of water in the middle of desert, but clear water, and no clouds. There are lots of rules about entering the dead sea. It is the lowest point on the surface of the earth. I think about 400 feet below sea level. It was very interesting. You really shouldn’t stay in for more than 15 minutes because the sea is 30% salt (regular ocean is about 0.25%) It will actually pull the water out of your body and dehydrate you! If you get it in your eyes you have  to get out and rinse your face off. Burning is an understatement. And you really do float. You could sit and read a paper if you wanted to! Very different but all apart of God’s wonder!

Then our really journey began toward Jerusalem. We really drove through the desert. If you know anything about what’s going on in the middle east, this is where it’s happening, “the west banks”. Land previously owned by the Palestinian’s that Israel is in possession of and refuses to return. Think of any movie where they show the middle east...Iron Man comes to mind for lack of a better example. You are very aware that this land is a war zone to put it lightly. When we approached Jerusalem there was a line of cars waiting to enter the city. The city is surrounded by huge cement wall and everyone had to go through a check point. They searched each car, and armed soldiers came onto the bus and checked our passports. Please pray for all our christian brothers and sisters suffering over here. Pilgrims may come and go as they please, but Palestinians, especially the Christians can not. They can not even leave their own city without permission. We are so blessed to live freely!