Golan Heights

The beautiful Golan Heights...what a place! Sadly it was a rainy day the day I went, so I couldn't see an awful lot of scenery...but it was still absolutely gorgeous! So much has happened just within the Golan Heights! So many lives have been sacrificed just for the land! Like for example, 9000 died at the hands of Romans just in one day at Gamla!

We went to Bethsadia first. It was recently found and it costed $50 million to excavate! Thankfully Israel didn't pay anything at all for this excavation! It's quite the thing! It was Peter, Andrew, Philip, James, and John's home town!!! The water used to come all the way up to the towns edge! But there was an earthquake so that caused the water to no longer exist there. While at Bethsadia you can see were Yeshua Cursed the 3 towns. Chorazin, Bethsadia and Capernim. You can also see Kursi and that's were Yeshua cast the demons out of the man and the demons went into the pigs! Then the pigs were crazy so they ran into the lake and died.








We went to a couple short movies. The first one was about the beautiful scenery. It had mist and wind while watching the movie!! It was so cool!! The second one was about how the Romans killed the Jews living on Gamla. It's sickening knowing that a roman would rather die knowing that he killed a Jew than not! 5000 were killed by the Romans and 4000 ran off the mountain trying to escape. That was all in 1 day!!! The Jews were just living their normal everyday lives one day then the next they were all killed!! That would be scary!! You can go up to Gamla and see the original Synagog from when the Jews lived on Gamla. We didn't go because we didn't have enough time and it was raining.

We also got to go to the Olive Factory! You walk in and you see the tools that were used to press the olives back in the day! You also get to wash your hands with an olive scrub! It's smells amazing!! We also got to taste the different types of olive oils! They were yummy!!



















We also went to the original battlefield from the tank wars during the 67 war. They have a memorial site were they have the names of the Israeli soldiers that died there. They also have an original tank from that war! There is something scary about going there though...there are mines still in the ground from that 67 war!! Creepy! WATCH YOUR STEP! lol


Then we went to another memorial site. It's were the Syrians bunkered and shot the Jews living down the hill. They have a list of all the names of the Jews that were killed. Most of the names were from children. SO SAD! The Syrians favorite target was children! Thankfully the Israeli's took action and paratrooped from behind the Syrians and shot them! They won! The Israelis were saved again! It got too dark to see anything so we headed back to the car to head home...but Elijah got lost! We found him and he was SO scared! Well who wouldn't be! It was dark and mom and dad weren't there!! He was fine though. ;) right across the road from the memorial site there is a coffee shop. The coffee shop is owned by a survivor paratrooper! He is still there! We didn't get to meet him though ;)



































So that was our fun educational day!






Below are some more pictures from our trip to the Golan. The first one is a origianl roman sword, the second one is 2000 year old earings found at Gamla and the third one is orginal coins found at Gamla.
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Timna Park

Now, this was an experience! When you arrived at Timna, there are these Egyptian statue things. then you drive a bit and arrive at the gate. When you look past the gate all you see is desert and mountains. So all you think is this is going to be a lllllloooooonnnnnnggggg drive. But you start driving and about 3 minutes into the drive you end up at Spiral Rock! It's a gigantic rock that spirals up! It's SO cool!! Nolan, Dad and I all jumped out of the car and walked towards the rock....*suspense music starts playing* then out of nowhere, dad tripped over his SPIKEY plant bush thing! Ouch!!!!! It was SO SHARP! it reminded me of the crown of thorns that the Romans put on Yeshua's head. But, they were white. Hmm, different.

As we continued our rough journey to Spiral rock the ground was full of rocks and sand. We thought to ourselves that the israelites had to travel through that terrain. But after what...5000 plus much more people traveling through plus livestock, it probably was a cleared path. But I thought to myself that Moses was the first one to walk the path and he probably stubbed his toes lots!! Like having to walk in sandals all the time..that would get frustrating! Lol..I don't know for sure but it's just a thought. ;)

Once at Spiral rock, it was such a cool rock formation! Same with Mushroom Rock which is further up the road. Same only different...but mushroom rock is shaped like well a mushroom!! ;)




















Then a few minutes later up the road, there is a site were they found original carvings in the rock probably from the Israelites... not sure. They didn't look anything like Egyptian ones...so my guess is they are probably from the Israelites. But anyways, they were cool. They were over 4000 years old! Wow! I've seen 1000 year old flooring, 1000's of years old roman pillars, 1000's of year old city walls, 4000 year old buildings from king David's era, parts of structures from King Solomon's era and now 4000 year old rock carvings!!! woot woot!!! I'm on a roll!!! lol! Oh, did I mention that I saw original copper mine shafts from the Egyptians like 4000 years ago? lol. It was so cool!!! No, I didn't go in the mine shafts...they were blocked off ;)








While driving in to the main centre in the park, you look to your left and see a replica cubit to cubit structure of the temple from Moses's time!!! Sweet, eh? We went to the centre first to do the free sand in the bottle thinger. It was fun! The sand was all the different sands from the park! Ha! I now have Timna desert sand! lol! After we finished that, we headed over to the temple!!!


Wow! That's about all I can say. lol, just kidding ;) it was SO cool just walking in and thinking that the Priests sacrificed and did holy days in there...okay not in that exact one, but you get the idea. There was a replica alter and a replica bronze basin were the priests washed before entering the Holy of Holies. When in the Holy of Holies, they have a table of showbread and two mannequin's dressed in priestly garments. Wow! It was SO cool to see real life size mannequins in priestly robes! Like life size! Then behind the curtain is a replica Ark of the Covenant with the ten commandments on two tablets of stone with Aron's staff. Now that's too cool!

Afterwords we went and had a wonderful lunch in the main centre. At about 2 in the afternoon we left and headed back to Tiberias.

While on the way back, it was dark not long after sunset and dad took a wrong turn. You never want to do that in Israel. *cough cough* we ended up in Jericho which is an Arab/Palistinian city....now. So we thought it was the IDF (Israel Defense Force) at the city checkpoint. It ended up that the security guards were Arab. You want to know why?! Dad asked him how to get back to the road that goes to Tiberias. The guy told him and then dad said Todah which is thank you in Hebrew. The guy said, OH DON'T SAY THAT!!!!! Were are you from? Dad said, Canada. The guy said, oh...welcome to Palestine!! Me in the back seat, *shiver* help!! So all that goes to say, never ever ever ever say Todah to a Palestinian. lol!!! Just speak english if your not sure!!!

Below are more pictures from Timna Park

Eilat

I can now say that I've been to Eilat. It's not the white sandy beaches with warm salty water I expected from the pictures I saw. It's more rocky and cold. With lots of fish. Okay...I'm not complaining, but it's not what I expected.

We left on Wednesday morning and arrived late wednesday afternoon. Oh my goodness, Eilat has like 1000000000 traffic circles! I got SO car sick from just entering the city! lol! Since we didn't have a GPS...it took us an hour to find the hostle we where to stay at. We went back and forth..... and back and forth. Then when we FINALLY found an Information Centre, the lady gave us a map and we ended up being like 3 minutes away from the info center.

We arrived at the Corrine Hostle at about 4pm...it was the oldest Hostle around. *shiver* Our room didn't even have a proper shower stall. Mom just told us, we are camping! So I wasn't too freaked out after that ;) It was nice though!!

That night we went to the beach just as the sun was setting. It was really nice just to sit on the beach for a few minutes and enjoyed the last bit of sunshine. lol..I admit it was cold. But we noticed here were lots of Muslim's! Like a lot of Muslims! Later we found out it was their three day feast thinger...grrrrrrrr...we came while they were having their (excuse my language) pathetic feast or whatever. But we tried to make the best out if it anyways! We went and had dinner at a shawarma place and it was great! Then we went back to the hostle and went to sleep. Da da daaaaa! hehe

The next morning, we got up and got ready to go eat breakfast. Dad woke up and the bed wrecked him. It was rock hard. It's not easy to sleep on a rock hard bed when you have a sore neck and have for the last 6 years. So Mom, Nolan, Elijah, Benjamin and I all went out for breakfast to Cafe Cafe! What a wonderful place to eat! It was 19°C that morning and we had our ice coffees with French fries. Yes, I like my French fries for breakfast. xD it was great!!! We brought some breakfast home for dad and then left to explore!

We drove and drove then ran across an Underwater Observatory!! Yes, it was during the Muslim thing...so there were lots of them there. But yet again, we made the best out of it! It was SO cool!! You go in and there are lots of buildings and aquariums! They give you a schedule of events so you can go to each thing while it's happening. My goodness, you learn lots about fish! And....*shiver* sharks. Hehe...yeah, it was cool. Then at the end, we went into the underwater Observatory!! It was amazing! But that's as close as I get to scuba diving. lol











That night, we went down to the "party" area of Eilat! It's got like lots of little shops and a big slingshot ride that yes I went on. My face went from all calm to totally freaked out!! lol

We originally wanted to stay for 4 days but ended up leaving early ;) So we got up early on Friday morning and headed to Timna Park right outside of Eilat!!



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Mt. Arbal

Mt. Arbal is known as a High Lonely Place. Yeshua spent lots of his time up on Mt. Arbal teaching his disciples and also spending time alone with YHVH. It's a quiet place up on top of the mountain with one tree. Today, I went there and got to sit where Yeshua might have sat. In fact, I probably did.

When you are on top of the mountain, you can see this passage way through the valley between Mt. Arbal and the mountain beside it. It's called, Via Maris. It's like the trans Canada highway...sort of. Noah and his family went through Via Maris, Abraham and Sarah went through Via Maris, Jacob and his family went through Via Maris, and so did the Israelites when they entered the Land. It's amazing! But, the valley was more lush and green during the time of Yeshua. It's breathtaking knowing that the Messiah was there!

Literally, you can see for miles when your on top of Mt. Arbal!! If you look at an angle towards Tiberias, you can barley see round top mountain off in the distance. It's called Mt. Tavar. On that exact mountain, Thats where Elijah and Moses come down to Yeshua. It's really an amazing sight to see the real place from a distance. I always imagined it but never knew what it really looked like!

Do you remember the story in the book of John were Yeshua walked on water? Well...I can tell you how it happened with more of a scientific point of view. So, Yeshua was spending time with his disciples and sent them down saying, go to the other side of the lake. And when looking at the lake at Ginasor which is on the side Mt. Arbal is on, it doesn't look like anything hard at all! So his disciples were like..sure..we've done it a hundred times! So they went down the mountain and Yeshua stayed at the top to spend some time with YHVH and preform a miracle. When the disciples were about half way across the lake, a storm brewed. Okay..that's impossible when your so low below sea level and the wind only blows in one direction. The one and only way this could happen is if a Sharav wind and a wind from the Mediterranean Sea collide. The Sharav wind comes from Syria. This has never happened since then...I don't think. So, that's what happened. It's also impossible for you to be on the mountain and suddenly appear on the sea within a sort amount of time. It would take like...hours to get down the mountain and to the lake. It's never mentioned in the Torah how Yeshua got down the mountain so quickly. But really since we know of "superman" who "flies", Yeshua either flew or teleported to the lake. So one minute he was on the mountain and the next we was walking on water. Amazing, eh?! He's SO amazing!!

Yeshua spent 75% of his time within the Galilee. That's were I'm staying!! I'm amazed that he put me here where he spent most of his time! But, he never ever went into Tiberias. During the time when Yeshua was on earth, Tiberias was full of Romans and they did sickening things. Also there were no synagogs in Tiberias at the time. It says in the Torah, he went to all the synagogs. So..he went to EVERY SINGLE ONE! Cool, eh?! But when he went, he didn't go for an hour or two..he went all day! That's what they did back then! But now a days, Tiberias is a holy city full of Jews and synagogs. It's amazing how it changes!

When you are on Mt. Arbal and facing the lake, if you look in the corner you can see Tabgha and that's were Yeshua fed the 5000! I have been wanting to see that for so long and I've finally seen it from a distance.

Below are some pictures from Mt. Arbal and the Synagog that was found just below Mt. Arbal. The second picture is a step I stood on that Yeshua Stood on!

Yeshua Boat

So, ever since I arrived in Tiberias I've seen these boats go across the Sea. I knew they were called "Jesus" boats...but I prefer to call them Yeshua Boats because well..that's the savior's name! Yes they are owned by Christians..but still. ;)

A few weeks ago we had planned to go on a boat...but it didn't seem to work out. So we ended up going on a 5 passenger boat just for fun! You see, you have to be with a tour in order to get on one. But luckily our friends that were staying here new a guy who kinda knows everyone, so he got my mom and dad with a few others on one with a tour group! Then a few days later...we all went on one!

When you arrive at the centre which is called Ginasur (not sure how to spell that) you walk into this big open place with a gift shop and a cafe. Then you walk in further and you see a model of a boat. Then you turn to your right and there are these sliding doors. You go in and you are looking at an original boat from Yeshua's time!!! Amazing, eh?! Then you get to watch a short show on how they found it and got it to the centre! It's really amazing how it survived that long under the sand!!

Sadly, we were rushed and had to get on the boat. So we JUST made it and it ended up being an all Chinese tour going on the boat. So, it was all in Chinese and we couldn't understand anything. So we just took lots of pictures ;) But near the end, the owner of the boat sang a few tunes and then sold his CDs and Jewelry. Man, that guy can sing! It was great! It was quite an experience!! The boat was so neat!!

Below are some pictures I took from the boat and some of the original boat. Also some of the nails that were found that were in the boat..but just think! Those went through Yeshua's hands! They are NO small nails!

Jerusalem!

My family just got back from a short but exciting trip to Jerusalem! I never imagined it to be like it is!

My dad and brother Nolan left to go to Jerusalem last Friday at 4am. They went with a friend that toured them around. They went to the dead sea and a few other places. My mom, Elijah, Benjamin and I met up with them on Monday morning. We had to take a bus..it was kind of like a Greyhound bus. We left Tiberias at 7am and arrived at about 11am.

My, my! It's twice as busy as Tiberias!! It's mostly because of the feast of Sukkot. Every night in Jerusalem and Tiberias, there is singing and rejoicing! From children to the elderly, they would rejoice during Sukkot! Ive never heard such praising!

The first place we went was to the old city. What a place to go to! Some of the stuff is from the King Solomon era! It's amazing to see things that are SO old! Some of the flooring is 2000 years old! People are still living in the old city. It's just rebuilt up a bit from the 1967 war. You see all kinds of Jews just within a small section of Jerusalem. But apparently it's soooooooo expensive to live in the old city! Some flooring in the people's houses is over 2000 years old!! No wonder it's called the old city!


My favorite part of being in Jerusalem was touching the Wailing Wall and saying a prayer. That was a dream come true for me! It was beautiful! There where little prayer rolls in the wall people had stuck in. The men and the women were split into two different sections. The men were on the left and the women were on the right. On the men's side there were big Torah scrolls in beautiful cupboards against the wall. On the women's side there were bookshelves filled with prayer books. It's just amazing!!

While we were at the Wailing Wall the Israeli Soldier was freed! But the palistinian soldiers were freed also. So on the other side of the wall on the palistinian side, the palistinian's were shooting off some kind of fireworks. It sorta freaked me out! lol but I guess they were just happy..and I was mad that the palistinian soldiers were freed. I'm so glad that the Israeli Soldier was freed though!!

Oh my, the doughnuts in Jerusalem are the BEST!!! They are huge!! But SO good :) I posted a picture below.

Another thing that you would never see in Canada is that there are soldiers everywhere in Israel! My goodness! I'm starting to get used to seeing them with guns! Like M4's which are like machine guns I guess..I don't know a lot about guns. lol on the bus we took to get to Jerusalem and back there were Israeli soldiers on the bus with guns..I felt kinda safe!

One thing that is big to eat here and when I say big I mean big! Crapes! They are like a thin pancake with chocolate and coconut with much more! They are over rated though..well in my opinion they are..lol I couldn't finish mine because it was too rich!

The last night we were in Jerusalem, we went to a light show in King David's original tower castle house thing. (I'm not sure what it was..lol) but it was amazing!!! I enjoyed seeing how those walls were rebuilt and what they went through! The graphics were great!

I'm loving my experience so far in Israel! It's been such a blessing!

Below is the Wailing Wall

Can It Be?!

Ever since I arrived in Israel, I've been eating lots of Pita and Hummus. At the store you can buy all kinds of hummus! Medertrainian food is big here so I've been eating lots of yummy Shawarma's! You see, I've been allergic to wheat ever since I was a baby and all of those foods are full of wheat! I usually react to wheat at night and I itch and itch my legs! So I completely went off wheat. Now that I made it to the Holy Land, my legs haven't reacted once! Yes, I've only been here a week but still! I usually stay awake at night itching but I haven't once here! I'm just feeling blessed that I can eat all the yummy foods here! It's either the climate I'm in or I've been healed! I pray I've been healed! Please pray it's true that it's gone forever!