Friday, friday gotta get to synagogue on friday!

So today is  Sabbath and it is so windy and wet in Galilee. The lobby at the Kibbutz has free wifi, so we've all become facebook junkies with 50+ new friends. hahaha I'm trying to not do to much on there so I don't waste all my time in "Jesusland" on facebook. As it is the end of the week I will do my best to give a good Galilee sitrep.

So on Monday we left the JC at 5:30 in the morning to fit in all of our activities and get to the Kibbutz in time for dinner. Our first stop was Bet Shean.

Bet Shean means house of safety in Hebrew. Which I find slightly ironic as every major nation in the Near East conquered this city. There are ruins from Greek, Egyptian, and Roman ruling classes. It's nice because now I've seen the ruins from major civilizations without even having to get visas! This trip is all about more for your money's worth. According to 1 Samuel this is where Saul and Jonathan's bodies were nailed to by the conquering Philistines. ehhhhh...

This city is not specifically mentioned in the New Testament, but Jesus may have walked here en route to Jerusalem throughout his life. So I think it's perfect that we stopped here on our way to Galilee.

We had a grand time wandering about the ruins. We hiked up to the top of the Tel, and were rewarded with a grand view of what as been uncovered from digs city. Amazingly, what was uncovered was only 10% of the full city. We were so excited to be on our way to Galilee and study about Christ. When our teacher called Galilee "Jesusland" we laughed. When were driven to the Bet Shean dig on a disneyland tram... we were believers! hahahaha I was wearing my disneyland sweatshirt too which added to the magic!

Our next stop was Nazareth. The shrines and churches here mark the boyhood of Christ, and honor his earthly parents. We stopped at the Basilica of the Annunciation, which honors Mary. This church was built in 1968, on top of a Roman Catholic church, which was built over a crusader's church was was built over a Byzantine church. All have preserved a small grotto which might have been the home to anyone living during Christ's time. It may have even belonged to Mary's family!

K I'm going to go walk on the beach before lunch and church! I'll post more about our trip and