The Galilee

This past weekend we had a small vacation from our stay in Jerusalem…. we visited the Galilee area in the north! It was so funny because Jerusalem has begun to feel like home to us now even after just three weeks. Not in the sense of wanting to live here permanently but because we have made this apartment feel like our home for the duration of our stay. Our children are very good at this and upon our return to Jerusalem, they all said how nice it was to be back 'home'!!! I love that they are so flexible in the midst of what could be a very unstable time for our family. Ultimately Jesus is our home and while we are dwelling in His land, this truth has become more apparent to us than ever before. I remind myself often that Jesus did not have a home here because His home is in heaven with the father and how important it is for us to keep this perspective.

Our three nights away were lovely. It was actually refreshing to get out of the busyness of daily life in Jerusalem. Jeff made the mistake of going to the grocery on Friday morning before Shabbat….. he vowed never again! It took him almost an hour just in the checkout queue! Everyone here runs around buying food and getting prepared for the Shabbat which begins at sundown. It is very busy but once the sun goes down, everywhere becomes very peaceful and still. We left Jerusalem just before lunch and drove two hours to where we were staying in Tiberias overlooking the Galilee. We were so blessed to stay in an apartment which literally had a view of the Sea of Galilee…. breath taking!

We visited the Golan Heights which overlooks Syria and Mount Hermon and the Valley of Tears. While there, we heard many explosions coming from Syria which was disturbing. There were UN Peacekeepers there watching the Syrian border. The boys and Eliana had fun exploring a bunker which was pitch black and claustrophobic! The views are amazing and the coffee shop sells great coffee and a shelter from the wind….. it seriously about blew my head off but was also very refreshing because it is certainly much warmer in the Galilee! Also there was a local man selling delicious honey which we had trouble resisting and ended up buying several kinds including grape honey to try for the first time. Pretty nice!

On Saturday we attended a congregation on Shabbat and met with other believers and many visiting believers. I still find it fascinating listening to worship in hebrew. Truly very beautiful. I think I would find it very difficult having 'church' on saturdays instead of our traditional sunday. I always feel like I lost a day for the rest of the week.

Sunday was an exciting day because we took a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee and the captain is a believer and even sang a couple of worship songs for us. We were the only ones on the boat so it was very special to just be there together as a family. Jeff taught from Matthew 4, Matthew 14 and Mark 4 and we imagined how the disciples must have felt when they saw Jesus walking towards them on this very water that we were sailing on.

Afterwards we headed to the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus read the entire Sermon on the Mount to us while we ate our lunch. I was surprised how much this had also changed since I was last there; there are banana trees growing where we stood 18 years ago! We finished our afternoon with a water park complete with huge slides and a wave pool. Jeff's back is still bruised from riding down a vertical drop slide. Finally in the evening we had dinner with some new friends which turned out to be one of the best meals we have ever had! If you ever have the opportunity to visit 'Decks' in Tiberias, you really must. They serve the best salmon I have ever tried!

The food truly is incredible here. So healthy, so tasty, so fresh and raw and very good for you. I had a quiche which was made of spinach and ricotta and just as good as any homemade quiche I have tasted, quinoa salads packed with goodness and shakshuka which is a dish with eggs cooked in a tomato, chilli peppers, onions and spiced with cumin and over yummy spices that I loved! It is believed to be of Tunisian origin.  I have had amazing chicken cooked with vegetables and I am constantly making notes of things that I would like to copy. I finally picked some lemons from the tree outside and made a lemon cake but my baking skills here are left wanting! I am not sure if it is the oven or the ingredients but I have never seen my cakes come out with such sunken middles! I shall keep trying though until I get it right. Apparently the cake flour does not rise very well here. We have a couple of birthdays next month so I shall need to get it right by then.

Th quiche that I could eat again!

This restaurant in the Galilee (I cannot remember the name now), had chocolate deserts galore!

The lemon tree in the garden at the apartment in Jerusalem.

The lemon cake.

The fig tree in the garden with the wall that I climbed.

This is a very exciting week here in Jerusalem… it is their New Year which starts on Thursday so we shall be celebrating New Year's Eve, (tomorrow) with some friends here. It will certainly be the first hot New year that we have ever experienced. Temperatures are still in the mid to high 80's, so for those of you getting ready for the autumn, we are still feeling like it is the height of summer here! But there is no humidity in Jerusalem so we are thankful for that!