Earlier this year, we started a discipleship ministry. The purpose of the ministry is to bring students over to spend an academic year studying and volunteering in ministries. The idea is that the students will grow through their studies and through their experiences here and that the students will have a real impact now through their ministry work here. God blessed us with three great students and the program has been going really well.
A big part of the program is the opportunity to learn about the Bible here in the land at the places where the events occurred. As a part of that we went to the Galilee for three days earlier this month. Israel is a pretty dry country, but the Galilee catches a good bit more rain than the rest of the country. Because of this it is a beautiful land of green mountains, springs, and streams. It is also where Jesus spent the vast majority of his ministry years.
We saw a number of amazing places. We saw Gadara, where Jesus cast the demons into the swine. Gamla (pictured), where the Roman legions assaulted a Jewish town during the rebellion in 67 AD. Caesarea Phillipi, where Peter proclaimed Jesus to be the Christ. Mt. Tabor, where Deborah gathered her troops. And, Mt. Carmel, where Elijah called down fire amongst many others.
The possible highlight of the trip was seeing Capernaum. Capernaum was Jesus's hometown throughout his ministry years. It has been well preserved. The synagogue where Jesus taught was renovated later but is still there. You can stand in the middle of the room where Jesus taught. One of the other amazing things at Capernaum is that you can actually see Peter's house. There are ancient Greek texts that said the ancient Christians built an octagonal church on the remnants of Peter's house. When archaeologists started digging around in Capernaum they found foundations from a house that had foundations of an octagonal church on top of them. The foundations combined with the texts are very convincing.
The amazing thing about traveling through the and with a Bible and a map is that the land supports the Bible in every way. If the Bible says that David and Goliath fought in a valley with a stream and that David could have walked there then all of those things are there. You go to Gadara and there is a cliff from which the pigs could have jumped into the lake. Every story you read is confirmed by the land. At the end you realize how foolish it is to think that the Bible was somehow modified or faked later. No forger outside of the country could have gotten every single detail of the geography right.
In the end we had a great time and our faith was built.
A big part of the program is the opportunity to learn about the Bible here in the land at the places where the events occurred. As a part of that we went to the Galilee for three days earlier this month. Israel is a pretty dry country, but the Galilee catches a good bit more rain than the rest of the country. Because of this it is a beautiful land of green mountains, springs, and streams. It is also where Jesus spent the vast majority of his ministry years.
We saw a number of amazing places. We saw Gadara, where Jesus cast the demons into the swine. Gamla (pictured), where the Roman legions assaulted a Jewish town during the rebellion in 67 AD. Caesarea Phillipi, where Peter proclaimed Jesus to be the Christ. Mt. Tabor, where Deborah gathered her troops. And, Mt. Carmel, where Elijah called down fire amongst many others.
The possible highlight of the trip was seeing Capernaum. Capernaum was Jesus's hometown throughout his ministry years. It has been well preserved. The synagogue where Jesus taught was renovated later but is still there. You can stand in the middle of the room where Jesus taught. One of the other amazing things at Capernaum is that you can actually see Peter's house. There are ancient Greek texts that said the ancient Christians built an octagonal church on the remnants of Peter's house. When archaeologists started digging around in Capernaum they found foundations from a house that had foundations of an octagonal church on top of them. The foundations combined with the texts are very convincing.
The amazing thing about traveling through the and with a Bible and a map is that the land supports the Bible in every way. If the Bible says that David and Goliath fought in a valley with a stream and that David could have walked there then all of those things are there. You go to Gadara and there is a cliff from which the pigs could have jumped into the lake. Every story you read is confirmed by the land. At the end you realize how foolish it is to think that the Bible was somehow modified or faked later. No forger outside of the country could have gotten every single detail of the geography right.
In the end we had a great time and our faith was built.
