Israel - Day 3

We started out day three in Tel Dan.  When I first saw 'Tel Dan' on our schedule, I thought it was just a nature preserve.  It is, but so much more!  It's the ancient city of the tribe of Dan from the old testament - 3,200 years ago, dating back to the time of Samuel and the prophets.  I'll get to the city in a second, but at the beginning of Tel Dan is one of the tops of the Jordan River (there are three sources to the river).

Further down the Jordan the water is only good for irrigation, but at the top where the river starts, it's so clean that you can drink it.  It was both delicious and refreshing.  I'd say it tasted like water, haha

Then it was actually into the city of Dan, which was built with rocks pulled out of the Jordan river, that were smoothed by the river.  All the rocks are rounded instead of square like many other ancient walls that you see - the reason is that it's literally so old that they didn't have the skills to square the blocks.  I actually liked it better though, really cool look.

What was even more unique though was seeing the literalness of something described in the Bible.  The bible talks about how pagan tribes would try to lure Christians away by building altars around the city.  I never gave that a second thought until I saw it at Tel Dan.  In the picture below, the city gates are in behind (where the lady in the pink is), and in the foreground centre-right is an altar built by pagans trying to lure Christians away.  The idea is that everyone passes through this entrance into the city, and therefore everyone would see the pagan altar and possibly be tempted to leave their own faith for that of the pagans.  Talk about temptation.

Finally in Tel Dan, we came upon an incredible piece of history.  This is the gate where Abraham went through to get Lot (Genesis 14).  The wooden part is support to keep the opening open now.  Barely visible is what is thought to be the oldest arch in the world.  It's a few feet above the door, and it's significant because you can build on top of an arch, and this is the first time it was put into practice.

Then it was off to Caesarea-Philippi.  This is an incredible site.  It's the site where Jesus asks his disciples who people said He was, and then who the disciples said he was (Matthew 16:13).  Peter replied that He was the son of God, the Christ.  Jesus said, "Blessed are you...and I tell you that you are Peter (which means rock), and on this rock I will build my church."  Being here though, you realize the imagery Jesus was referring to.  It wasn't just a metaphor, it was an actual rock at Caesarea-Philippi that they could look at to understand what Jesus meant.  Here's the site, and Glen Sye, a salesperson at LIFE 100.3, leading a devotional for our group while there.

After the devotional, we had some time to explore the area for ourselves.  As we were walking around, trying to put ourselves back 2,000 years ago to picture Jesus talking to the disciples, a group of Nigerians were there, and this happened

This was a totally unplanned God-moment.  I was fighting back tears.  Incredible.  I also met one of the Nigerians, Jonathan, and we talked together as brothers in Christ and encouraged each other.  That too was a cool moment, especially as I do the 'Beyond the Comfort Zone' feature on LIFE, talking about struggles that Christians around the world are facing - Nigeria is one of the worst places.  But his - and his group's faith - was just incredible.

Then it was off to our last stop of the day, the Golan Heights where we were on the top of a mountain.  It was COLD up there,  I was surprised!  Anyway, on this mountain we looked across to Syria, not far away at all.

The green part is Israel, everything else is Syria.  Here we said a prayer for the people of Syria who are stuck in a civil war, with thousands losing their lives.  And this was also a war zone in the past when Syria and Israel fought.  We saw a tank in the middle of a field below, left over from one of the wars.  At the top of the mountain were several bunkers where soldiers could look out and fire on incoming enemies.  And at this point came an unexpected highlight for my wife and I.  We came upon one of the bunkers that descended into complete darkness.

We debated entering and decided to go for it with 27-year old Charles and 73-year old Fran from our group.  As we got to the bottom where we couldn't see anything, we debated what to do as it was literally pitch black and we didn't know what was around us in this damp, dark bunker.  We debated turning back, and that's when Fran piped up - "Come on, follow me", and took the front and led the way through the black tunnel.  It was a wild feel, and Fran quickly became our fearless hero.  My wife and I are uber-impressed with her, especially after finding out later today that she went back to school at 60, and then started a successful PSW business after graduating.  This lady is amazing.

Day three, another incredible day. The cool part was that this was the first place so far that we know FOR SURE that Jesus walked.  Excited for day four tomorrow.