Galilee Day Three

June 30
Today we began our day with a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee. It took about an hour and was a really pretty ride. We ended up at a museum that has a boat that was found about ten to fifteen years ago that is from the first century. Some people found it when they were walking on the beach, and when they started digging it out they realized it was a fully intact ancient boat! They showed a video on how they had to be really careful because the wood would disintegrate when the air touched it. They had to keep spraying water on it to preserve it, then put it in this foamy stuff to float it out into the water, then picked it up with a crane to transport it to the museum. There was a guy there from USD who had been doing research on the boat for the last ten years. Wow.

We also went to the traditional site of the Mount of Beatitudes. I really enjoyed this stop because it was a beautiful garden on the hill with a more modern church. It was really peaceful and quiet. It was also nice to have variety from just seeing ancient ruins! Seeing a church fully in tact and functional is refreshing.

This was our last night at our hotel in Galilee. We had a Bible study on the beach, where one of the teachers talked about the biblical representations of the sea. He said the sea used to be perceived as evil, so in Jesus’ ministry he really gave a new idea of the sea and water. He talked about Jesus calming the storm because that would have happened on the Sea of Galilee, where we were!