BYU Jerusalem: Galilee Trip: Nov 20th & 21st

Nov 20^th

Today was a super chill day. We had New Testament Class today for 3 hours in the morning with a long break between. After lunch we went swimming. The water never go deeper than my neck where we were allowed to swim. It was fun. I must say that it took patience and a change of attitude for me to enjoy 'swimming' in four feet of water, when all I wanted to do is swim out far and dive down deep. After dinner we had a bonfire, it was a good time of socializing and playing music.

Nov 21^st

This morning started out with a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee. It was perfect. It was dead winds and glassy waters. We had a great devotional on the boat in the middle after the captain killed the engine. At one point Professor Schade said "Notice how still and peaceful it is?" and he stopped talking and no one made a noise, we were in absolute silence and tranquility. When he was reading the account of Jesus calming the sea, he read "Peace be still" then he paused for a moment and we all understand what that meant as it was dead silent and still upon the waters of the Sea of Galilee. We sang hymns as we continued to cross over to the west side. We went to see a boat that was found in the mud that dates back to first Century. It was pretty sweet. After we drove up to the top of a hill on the northwest shore and visited the Church of the Beatitudes, this site was awesome. My favorite part of this site was the free time we were given. Normally at sites we have instruction and devotionals then 20 minutes of free time. We were given a little over an hour to go find a peaceful place in the beautiful gardens and read and contemplate the Sermon on the Mount. I had a great experience doing this, while I was in my area a Filipino group came and did a mass while I was sitting there silently. I love being surrounded by people from all nationalities coming to worship and see these sites. On foot we descended the hill on a hiking trail to the next site. We went to two churches; the first was the Basalt Church of St. Peter's Primacy, the second was the Fish and Loaves Church. At St. Peter's Primacy we had a good devotional on John 21. We had spare time here as well which was great. We walked to The Church of the Fish and Loaves which was commemorating the feeding of the 5,000. Next was Capernaum. Capernaum was excellent, it was sunset and beautiful. We again had a devotional then explored the site. There was a 4^th or 5^th Century synagogue built on the foundations of a 1^st Century synagogue that Christ most likely taught in. There was a Nigerian group that had been at each site with us today, they were sweet! For some reason iPads hit Africa hard! Every African group that I have seen since I have been in the Holy land, this group included, has had at least half a dozen iPads that they walk around holding up to take pictures and videos, for some reason I find it amusing, iPads in general are funny to me. Anyways, there was a huge structure over a Byzantine Church that was built to commemorate Peter's house. There was another amazing sunset tonight.