April 7, 2006
From the 22nd to 30th of March, we joined our church group at Pasadena Community Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, on a tour to the Holy Land. It was an amazing experience, both historically and spiritually. Places mentioned in the Bible came alive for us; many peaceful moments were spent as a church group sharing the scriptures, singing, and praying in places where Jesus had walked; and a much better understanding was gained of the present day Israel and Palestinian situation. Only within the last six months have tour groups started to return to Israel after a five year drought due to the violence. Everywhere our presence was appreciated.
Wednesday morning, March 22, we flew from Rome, Italy, to Tel Aviv, Israel, onboard El Al airlines. Instead of the normal airline check-in counter, El Al had for security reasons an entire room set apart for the check-in procedure. Once in the room each person, couple, or family was taken aside and questioned at a different location. Our interview lasted about twenty minutes as we didn�t fit the normal profile. Not many people live in Rome onboard their sailboat planning to join their church group from Florida in Israel. Upon our arrival in Israel we took the local train to Netanya, about 25 miles north of the airport, where our hotel was located. We met our church group at breakfast the following morning.
There were thirty in our church group, and we were fortunate to be part of a very cohesive and loving fellowship. It made our memories of the Holy Land that more special. Besides our pastor, Cliff Melvin, we were led and ministered to by a Palestinian Christian tour guide named Sam, who was knowledgeable in both history and the Bible and fluent in five languages including both Hebrew and Arabic. He made each place mentioned in the Bible come alive for us. From Sam we learned that with the conversion of Queen Helena, Emperor Constantine�s mother, to Christianity in the 4th century A.D., many churches were built over Christian holy sites in the Holy Land, and inscriptions were marked into the mosaic floor documenting for posterity many of the places in Jesus� ministry. This practice continued on throughout the entire Byzantine period. Many churches we visited on our tour were built over sites marked by these early Christians.
Thursday, our first day of the tour, we visited Caesarea, Mt. Carmel, and Megiddo. Caesarea and its port were built by Herod the Great and named in honor of Caesar Augustus. It was in Caesarea that Peter baptized the Roman centurion Cornelius and his entire household, the first Gentile converts (Acts 10) and Paul was imprisoned for two years before being sent to Rome for trial. In our visit to Caesarea we saw the reconstructed Roman theater, the old port, and remains of the Roman aqueduct that carried water from Mt. Carmel to Caesarea. |
