Adventures in Israel

Adventures TOURING in Israel
Safed. A city on a hill.
Mt. 5:14 “You are the light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot be hidden."
 I should say, that as citizens, we really don't get out of the city very much and there is a lot of the country that we haven't seen! Although my wife was once part of a tour group to Israel, I never was! So my experiences are limited to a few day trips here and there.

As you probably know, since we are a homeschooling family, we have a little more flexibility to explore the country than most public school families.  In order to utilize these opportunities, we purchased a one year National Parks pass for the whole family. National parks in Israel are often historical sites. Since we purchased the pass, we did have a few adventures, but recently we had a great excuse to have more adventures!

With the birth of our fifth son, Gideon, Janice's mom came to help. She was with us for nearly a month and towards the end of her time with us, we decided to show her some of the country. She has been to Israel several times, but like me, has never been on an official tour. So her exposure to the history and landscape was limited mostly to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

One weekend and one day trip allowed us to see a half a dozen wonderful historical and amazing sites.

MIGDAL

Mary Magdalene, was more appropriately called Miriam (Mary) from Migdal. This site was the town where she lived. 


Most of Midgal was not be excavated. This view is of a mansion that existed at the time. It doesn't look so fancy now, but when the walls stood tall, the floors were smooth stone and the walls were brilliantly plastered, I'm sure it was an amazing place to visit.

HAROD'S SPRING
It's now a wading pool, with cool clear water that comes from a spring. This is where Gideon's army was weaned to just 300 men. JUDGES 7:1ff


 THE HULA VALLEY

Maleria was once responsible for deaths regularly in this area. But they drained the swamps.

A man-made lake now stands where the swamps once were. We rode around the lake looking for birds. It is one of the best locations in the world for seeing migrating birds.

We found one bird. We will have to come back in the Fall, when birds migrate...

CAPERNAUM - IN HEBREW CFAR NAHUM, the village of consolation. This is the place where Yeshua (Jesus) lived. 






TABOR MOUNTAIN 
Mt. Tavor is the location where Debora watched Barak defeat the Canaanites from Hatzor. Judges 4.

CAESAREA - where the Apostle Paul was imprisoned.





THE BEACH IN TEL AVIV

 No adventure in Israel is truly complete without a visit to a Tel Aviv beach.



Were we totally out of our mind to take a newborn on these road trips to see the country in the heat of July? Probably! But memories like these are irreplaceable, especially for the boys to have adventures with the Safta (grandma). We really treasured this precious time!

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