The Sea of Galilee

On Sunday we flew from Cairo through Jordan and arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel. We boarded a bus and drove to Tiberias in Golan Heights to our hotel right off the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Tiberias is a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee founded in 20 AD and named in honor of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. The Sea of Galilee is a spring fed fresh water lake as well as water from snow in winter and is the water source for the region of Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Iraq and is about 8 miles wide by 13 miles long. It is hard to believe that I am in the Holy Land with our team from Buckner.

The Sea of Galilee lies on the ancient Via Maris which linked Egypt with the northern empires. The Greeks, Hasmoneans, and Romans founded flourishing towns and settlements on the lake including Gadara, Hippos, and Tiberias. Much of the ministry of Jesus took place on the shores of Galilee. Jesus came to this place to enlist four of his disciples: Simon and his brother Andrew, John and James. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was delivered on the hillside facing the Sea of Galilee as well as the feeding of the five thousand.

We met with Pastor Jay Abernathy and Steve Jenkins from First Baptist Church of Palestine, Texas and we have been joined by Rev. and Mrs. Munir Kakish of Ramallah Christian Outreach and Home of New Life, a home for orphan children in Ramla, Israel. We arrived on Sunday at the end of the Passover Holiday.

On Monday we visited the Mount of Beatitudes in Capernaum, Cana where Jesus turned the water in wine, Mount Tabor, and Megiddo and later in the week we plan to visit the Home of New Life to consider ways Buckner might be of service to this ministry. We ended the day with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.

When I was a teenager I helped my younger brother, Fred, memorize a verse for a play he was in at church. This was the verse: “What manner of man is this that the wind and sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41) This is the verse following the account of Jesus calming the sea. I was on a boat today on the same sea that Jesus calmed.

We saw several sites that are allegedly the places where the Holy Spirit spoke to Mary, the place where Jesus turned the water to wine; the place where Jesus preached the sermon on the mount and fed the five thousand; the place Jesus told Peter “Feed my sheep;” and the place where Jesus grew up in Capernaum. It was intriguing to see these sites and to see the Holy Scriptures come alive.

I was also intrigued by the multi-national and multi-lingual crowds we ran into every where we turned. The wind and the seas still obey him. Pray that we will obey Jesus when we are confronted with the opportunity to serve children.