Thursday, June 7 2007

by Richard Boyer
Ein Gev, Galilee
It was so great to finally get a full night’s sleep last night! We are pretty much over the jet lag of the trip here. The only evidence of remaining jet lag is that people have trouble staying awake on the bus, but maybe that would be the case anyhow. We got our wake up call on this morning at 6 a.m. and met for devotional with our group at 7 a.m. We have devotional before breakfast to be certain that everyone is out of bed and to plan the day. We sang Tell Me the Stories of Jesus, had a spiritual thought (One of the men told of being on Bear Lake when a storm came up and how similar it was to what it would be like when a storm comes up on Galilee. In fact the geography is very similar – the lakes are of similar size ringed by mountains. One big difference is that Bear Lake is high in the mountains and Galilee is below sea level.) and some instructions from the Paces. We were on the buses before 8 a.m. to begin our Galilee adventure. It was great to not have to pack and move out.
We drove a short way to a neighboring kibbutz and boarded a boat for a trip across the lake. The boat was about 40 feet long and had an open deck with benches around the outside and patio-type chairs lined up in the middle. It easily handled the 45 or so number in our group. It was a gorgeous morning with the sun coming up behind us as we motored from the southeast to the northwest corner of the lake. The mood was festive for our group – lots of pictures, talking, laughing and enjoying being together. We are bonding as a group and getting to know each other well. The nucleus of our tour group is the Bud and Lorraine Pace family from Cache Valley. They account for nearly 30 of the group with children, in laws, a few grandchildren, extended family, and friends. The next largest group is associated with our family, a total of 15 of us, including 4 Rices and Hal Waldo. I’ve met only one other couple who did what we did – signed on to this tour because of the timing without any prior knowledge of the Paces. So we are trying to reach out to each other – the Boyers to the Paces and vice versa and to include the few that are not part of either group.
We stopped in the middle of the lake to have Brother Pace teach us about what happened there. We read of Jesus crossing the lake with his apostles and being asleep in the back of their fishing boat, probably considerably smaller than our small ship, during a storm and how his followers, even though seasoned fisherman who had made their livelihood on this lake, were afraid for their lives. “Master, carest thou not that we perish!” He calmed the storm with a word. We sang Master the Tempest is Raging and talked about how the Savior calms the storms in our lives. He also read the account of Jesus walking on the water in the 4th watch of the night after his followers had toiled for 8 to 10 hours to row 120 furlongs (3-4 miles) and how Peter was able to also walk on the water to Him. It is a great story of faith and courage! (Lori and I recalled our first trip here in 1979. As we took a similar sized boat from Capernaum to Tiberius in the early afternoon, we saw a cloud to the west that filled the sky in less than 15 minutes and deluged us with rain. The waves were 4-5 feet high crashing over the front of the boat and we understood first-hand what storms can be like on the Sea of Galilee. We were impressed at the time that our guide, Brother Dan Ludlow, was able to arrange that storm for a teaching effect. He thought of everything!)
Our trip across the lake was over too soon. In less than an hour we docked on the other side at a wharf where there is a museum built around a wooden fishing boat that was recovered from the bottom of the lake a few years ago. It is thought to be about 2000 years old – contemporaneous with those of the time of the Savior. We hadn’t planned to visit the exhibit, which was pretty expensive, but we got some glimpses of it as the doors would open to let people in or out. It was not very large to be on the lake in a storm!
Back on the bus, we drove along the north shore of Galilee and wound part way up the hillside to the Mount of the Beatitudes, build to commemorate the Sermon on the Mount. It should be called, “The Sermon on the Hillside.” The Savior spoke to a “multitude” of people on a hillside north of Galilee probably near where we were. There is a church there with paintings depicting the beatitudes, but I didn’t go in. I find the spirit stronger and it is more peaceful outside of the churches built to commemorate the sites. Fortunately, many of the churches have created shaded meeting areas where a group can gather to talk and teach. A white-clad nun directed us to a lovely spot at the bottom of the well-kept gardens where we gathered as a group. Brother Pace took us through the Sermon on the Mount touching upon the highlights. (He actually started talking about Capernaum. He was a little mixed up, but his wife got him back on the right track. He is a little like my dad in his older age playing tennis. Long after he could hear, keep score or get to the corners of the court, if the ball came near him, he could get it back. We used to say that “his strokes are grooved.” The same is true for this seasoned veteran gospel teacher who has spent his whole career teaching the gospel. He may be a little confused momentarily between Capernaum and the Mount, but once you get him going, his strokes are grooved and he is an excellent teacher with wisdom, wit and testimony flowing.)
After his discussion of the Sermon and his testimony (He always concludes his teaching vignettes with his testimony and closes in “the name of Jesus Christ”.), Lori, our daughters, Lesli Rice and a couple of others including one brother sang the lovely hymn I Wonder When He Comes Again. It was well-done and brought the spirit to our group. Brother Pace suggested that we take a few minutes to walk quietly alone or as couples back to the bus and feel the spirit of the place. I walked alone and it happened for me – I felt the spirit of this holy place and had a small, but very real outpouring of the Spirit into my soul. It brought tears of joy and gratitude. I’d been praying that I would be sensitive to impressions from the Lord in the places we would visit, not knowing when and where the Spirit might manifest itself. It was wonderful and filled my heart! Even if it doesn’t happen in any other place on the trip, I felt to say within myself, “Thank you, dear Father. This is enough to make the whole trip worth it!”
We then drove northward through the Golan toward Mount Herman. Yesterday, I was surprised to see no evidence of a military presence, but it was very evident on this road as we passed military camps, large cannons pointed toward Syria to the southeast, war memorials to fallen soldiers and warnings of mine fields. We crossed the Jordan River coming in to the top of Galilee, which was the border between Israel and Jordan until the Six Day War of 1967. This land is now occupied by Israel, much to the anger of the Palestinians and Jordanians. They took it back briefly during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, but the Israelis reclaimed in before the end of that three week conflict. Our Jewish Israeli guide described it as a miracle. I suspect the account would be different if he were a Palestinian Israeli.
We had lunch outside of a Druze Village. I passed up the falafels and went for the pita bread covered in a sort of cream cheese and olive oil mixed with sesame seeds then rolled and heated. It was pretty good, but I gave half of mine to Jennie.
We arrived at the base of Mt. Herman, which rises over 9000 feet, high enough that there is a ski resort on its slopes. It is the source of the headwaters of the Jordan River. We gathered at a lovely spot where one of the main sources of the Jordan comes out from under the limestone rock of Herman. It looks like clear, cold water and is a substantial stream as it flows from under the rock. (It reminded me a little of Big Springs near Henry’s Fork in northern Idaho.) In the hillside is the remnant of the temple to the god Pan and the place where human sacrifices were thrown into the grotto in the mountain. If the stream flowed clear after the sacrifice, the gods accepted the offering. If the stream was colored red by the blood of the offering, the gods were displeased and the offering was not accepted. It was at this spot, near the town of Caesarea Philippi (named for Herod Philip, one of the sons of the despicable Herod the Great), where Jesus asked His disciples, “Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” prompting Peter’s great declaration of faith and testimony, “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” We talked about the Rock of Revelation and about the priesthood. It was a wonderful discussion!
Next we visited a garden/nature reserve where some other springs of the Jordan have created a dense, lush almost jungle-like forest. We had a delightful walk through the lovely foliage and over foot bridges. Lesli Rice harvested some seeds from a huge hollyhock to take home and grow.
Back on the bus, we drove south back toward Galilee. We were trying to get to the place known as the Primacy of St. Peter, a church on the north shore of Galilee commemorating the occasion after the resurrection when the Savior was on the shore as his apostles were fishing and he cooked fish and provided honeycomb for them. Unfortunately, we were a few minutes too late and the gates were closed. (I would gladly have given up the walk in the jungle to have visited this.) Brother Pace gave his teaching about this site as we drove in the bus back toward our kibbutz. Unfortunately, most of the people on the bus were asleep and missed it. It was on this occasion that the Savior three times asked his senior apostle, “Simon, Son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these (motioning to the fish he had just caught)?” Three times Peter replied, “Lord, thou knowest I love thee.” Then came the commission to Peter, “Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep.” This was the call to Peter to leave his nets again and go into all the world. And it is a call to all of us to leave behind anything that we love more than we love the Savior and to feed His lambs.
When at this site with Brother Ludlow 28 years ago, he told of the experience a few years before that with my grandfather coming to this place. Grandpa wanted so much to feel the water of the Sea of Galilee where his Lord had loved to be that he rolled up his pants to the knee and without taking off his dress shoes or socks waded into the water up to his knees so that he could reach down and touch the water with his hands. As one of His modern apostles, Elder Richards loved the Savior as much as those who were fisherman on this lake and he wanted so much to connect there with his Lord.
Brother Ludlow also commented that, as we walked from the bus to the shore at this location, we would surely cross the path that Jesus would have taken many times to walk around the lake and thus would definitely have “walked today where Jesus walked.” I’m sorry we didn’t get to visit there, but I’m not in charge.
Back at Ein Gev, we went to dinner at a fish restaurant at a nearby restaurant. It was a lovely setting on the southeast shore of Galilee with the setting sun across the lake. Of course we had to eat “Peter’s fish” for dinner. It was fried tilapia fish and was quite good. Adam even ordered his with the head on, but didn’t eat it. A few of the lesser hearted had such Biblically significant dishes as pizza or spaghetti. (You can lead a horse to water . . . But that’s ok. I wouldn’t have eaten the fish at their age, either.)
One of the most enjoyable parts of our trip, in addition to all that we are seeing and learning, is the chance to be together as a family. We are on the bus together all day. The Boyers have pretty much staked out the back of the bus. No one else seems to want to sit there anyway. Martha and Adam have a seat for Marian’s car seat just behind the rear door. There are five seats across the back of the bus, usually filled with Joe, Anna, Spencer, Jennie and Hal. Sometimes Melissa and Sammie are at the back; other times closer to the front. Lori and I move around on the bus so we can get to know others and not just be in a family clique. We also are together for our meals. I’ve given each of our family a gummed stack of 100 $1 bills so that they can buy their own lunches, treats and incidentals. But we usually sit down together wherever we are for lunch. And we eat together for breakfast and dinner at the kibbutz or hotel or restaurant. So every night is a big family dinner. It is so fun just to be together, to watch their interactions with each other, to reflect on the day and laugh and talk with each other. I hope so much we’ll have the chance to bring the others of our family who aren’t on this trip here someday, maybe next year with the Boyers and Ostlers. That would be awesome!
We didn’t swim after dinner tonight. Anna has a bad burn on her leg from the exhaust pipe of one of the little motor scooters that they used for transportation in Uganda. It looked really bad tonight, so I was able to borrow some supplies from a nurse in our group and clean it up. I’m sure it hurt like heck, but she was a good sport, but there was no swimming for her so the others decided not to swim either. We are dead tired each night and usually crash by a little after 10 a.m. We have another big day tomorrow. Tomorrow in Jerusalem! Shalom!