Photos from the Palestine-Israel Learning Tour

I have been very busy since the last posting. I have had lots of thoughts about blogs to write, but other priorities have kept crowding them out. I have had several requests to post some photos from my trip to Palestine and Israel, so I will do that.

While there was much learning to do, walking into the Garden Tomb area, and then having the empty tomb appear before my eyes, was the highlight of my trip. I am posting 3 photos: one from a distance (my first sighting), one close up and one inside (showing the actual place where it is believed that the body of Jesus lay.)
















Our time up in Galilee was amazing. I echo many others who have said this line, but it is true, "I will never read my Bible the same again." By this I mean that being in the places where Jesus was gives a context for the things he said and did.

I have a whole new appreciation of Capernaum. I hadn't noted that Jesus loved being there so much. This is likely because it was the place where Peter lived.













To see the ruins of the synagogue in Capernaum and of Peter's house was amazing. Then to go back to the Bible and read texts from these places was very cool; for example, Luke 4:31-44















There is much, much more to be said, but I will just leave you with one image of the current dynamics of the relationship of the people of Palestine and Israel. It is the wall. I could not believe that in this day of international awareness, a 30 foot wall was being built to divide two peoples. I, along with many Palestinians and Jews, pray that there may be a way to reconcile these peoples so that they may co-exist in this land in peace.