What better place to spend the holiday season than in the Holy Land.
That was the opportunity we had in December, along with 25 or so other people from our church. We flew out of Sacramento on December 11th, (except for the 12 people who left on the 8th for 4 days in London) missing most of the Christmas chaos, and arriving home just in time to spend Christmas Eve with family.
It was absolutely amazing!!
I am still wading through the 3000+ pictures that were taken by my family, but I need to start sharing them. At least give you a taste of what we experienced!
So without further ado, our mostly unedited photos from our AMAZING, highly recommended, want to go back, trip to Israel.
My boys had never been on a commercial jet before (in fact they had only ever flown once in their great-uncle's Cessna, and these 2 cried the entire time), and they were a little nervous about it. Well, not LM. He was very nervous about it. So nervous, in fact, that he wanted to stay at Nana's, and not go with us. But we prayed with him, had others pray for him, and introduced him to the pilot of out first flight, and by the time we took off he had his eyes glued to the window!
Day 1
Netanya
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| view of the Mediterranean Sea from the boys' room |
Caesarea Maritima
Herod's Hippodrome
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| Presenting D as Ben Hur |
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| looking down the median of the hippodrome |
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| Pastor Sam teaching in the hippodrome |
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| Herod's pool at his Promontory Palace - He had fresh water brought in for it. |
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| the theater where Paul was tried before Festus (Acts 25) |
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| LV 2nd from left in the roll of Festus |
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| Others from our group re-enacting Paul's testimony before Festus and Felix. |
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| aqueduct built by King Herod approximately 10 miles long with the height decreasing about 1 inch.mile in order to get fresh water into the city. |
Mt. Carmel
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| View of the Armageddon (Jezreal) Valley |
Many battles have taken place here, with the greatest battle yet to come.
Tiberias
The boys were so excited to see something they recognized!
Day 2
Mt. Arbel
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| These 2 were a little concerned about the height. |
At the base of this cliff is the sight of ancient Magdala, the town where Mary Magdalene was from.
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| view from Mt. Arbel |
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| H and me |
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LV
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Kfar Kedem - Galilee
Culture Day
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LM grinding wheat
We all earned our donkey driver's license. |
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| LV and Asa |
This little girl's family works at Kfar Kedem. She was 4 years old and walked right up to our donkeys after we rode and took them to her dad to brush and feed them for the next group.
Nazareth Village
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| tomb replica |
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| from the olive press |
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Pastor Sam teaching in the replica of the synagogue
To be continued... |
