I just revisited my amazement over Mary’s faith during Christmas when I saw the movie The Nativity. I was struck by how the holy man of God Zechariah questioned the angel so much that he was struck mute until his son was born. But then there was Mary – a 14-year old girl who received quite possibly the strangest news in history, and she simply said ok, if you say so I’m your servant.

We’re on our way to Mount Carmel, passing through Megiddo on the way. This morning I woke up around 12:30 again, but it was because of a drunk yelling on the boardwalk after the Israel-England soccer match finished. The wake-up call at 6:15 was pretty hideous, but we managed to get our luggage out the door by the prescribed 6:45 time so the bellboys could get it to the bus while we were eating breakfast.

Our first stop was Arbel where we went on a small hike of about a quarter of a mile, somewhat up a mountain. They’re called the Cliffs of Arbel I think and it afforded us an absolutely amazing view of the Sea of Galilee, Tiberius, all the way across to the Golan Heights and into Jordan. It was just a phenomenal view and I was wishing I could stay there all day and hike around.

We passed a Jewish pilgrimage site where someone named Maimomenides or something like that was buried. Have to say I sort of missed the point on that one, but it was just a 30-second stop and then the bus driver hit the gas.

Our longest stop so far today was at the Jordan River where about 10 members of the group were baptized. The water was pretty chilly so they were pretty happy for the warm showers in the bathroom.

Next we passed through Cana and spotted the two churches commemorating Jesus’ first miracle, but we didn’t stop because we have about a zillion other stops today.

One reason I wanted to type a little during the day was so I could give more than a travelogue. I feel like we’re seeing so much that all I have time to do is just give a couple highlights from each place, without really processing through my thoughts. So…here’s my thoughts from the Galilee now that we’re leaving it.

First, I can’t imagine living this close to people who want to wipe me from the map. I can’t imagine how they do it – I think if we as Americans had Mexicans or Canadians standing at the border and shooting either guns or 18-mile-range rockets into our country – we’d nuke them so fast they wouldn’t know what hit them.

We just did a drive-by of Armageddon and heard about the long history of battles that have been fought in this valley. Apparently the very first battle in recorded history happened here between the Egyptians and Hittites. Also General Allenby fought a big battle here in World War I and all around the world people thought it was the end of the world.

Ok, all the above was written before noon and now I’m writing from the hotel in Jerusalem after dinner. We went through the valley of Armageddon up to a Druz restaurant on Mount Carmel and had a falafel lunch, then headed to the Carmelite Monastery that commemorates Elijah’s victory over the prophets of Baal.

This visit is an example of what moves me the most about Israel. Since it was Sunday the monastery was closed so we walked up the hill and sat outside on the edge of the mountain overlooking the valley of Armageddon. The tour member who was assigned gave a talk and read the whole story of Elijah and God’s triumph through him. I was sitting on a rock looking up at the sky and, maybe I wasn’t in the exact spot, but I was pretty darn close to where God sent down fire to lick up the offering…and the rocks…and the water in the trenches. And it was just so moving – I’ve heard that story since I was sitting in Sunday School watching flannel graphs – and today I was feeling the earth where it actually happened. It’s true that being in Israel brings the Bible to life, there’s no other way to describe it.

After Mt. Carmel we went to Caesarea by the Sea and that was very cool. They’ve excavated it so you can see a chunk of the old horse-racing track and an amphitheatre. My mom, aunt and another woman sang Amazing Grace from the stage and we all sat around on the 2,000 year old stone seats. Those Romans sitting all day to watch the games were not comfortable, I can tell you that!

That’s going to have to do it for tonight. We have a 6:30 call and I am plain bushed. We get dropped off on the Mount of Olives tomorrow and spend the day riding Bus 11 – which means using our own two legs. ;)

P.S. I had fully intended to post pictures but I'm sorry to say I'm having enough trouble getting a blog written every day, let alone doing anything semi-complicated. And I don't know where my brother got the idea I'd be posting daily youtube videos, but he was way off the mark! :p I'll try to get some pics in tomorrow's post.