At 7:00 a.m. the next morning we went to Allenby Bridge over the river Jordan near the place that the children of Israel crossed.

As they crossed over, the Lord held back the waters and they crossed on dry land. The Jordan is a small stream except when the spring floods come.

It took four hours to get through customs across the border from Jordan into Israel. How clean Israel was compared to Jordan.Arriving in Jericho, the city of Palm trees, we saw the foundations of the walls of the old city.

Jericho is in a fertile valley and gorgeous purple flowers formed a backdrop for our lunch in an outside restaurant.

We saw the tree where the taxman Zacchaeus climbed up to see Jesus and who learned that Jesus was coming to his house for a meal.

We stopped at the Dead Sea, believed to be the site of where Sodom and Gomorrah was located before God rained brimstone and fire from Heaven on them because of their great wickedness. The Dead Sea is also called the Sea of Lot and the Salt Sea. It is the lowest point on earth, 1300 feet below sea level and is seven times as salty as the ocean; its thickness keeps swimmers afloat. Nearby were the caves where David hid from Saul and where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered at Qumran on the northeastern shore. The manuscripts were discovered between 1947-56 in caves near Wadi QUMRAN, on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. They were left there by a Jewish community that lived in the area around the time of Christ.

Our next stop was Masada, a great mountain where nearly 1,000 Jewish persons committed suicide to avoid capture by the Romans. We traveled to the top by trolley and viewed the spectacular countryside from the top of the huge rock mountain. The natural rock fortress of Masada, on the western shore of the Dead Sea was the final outpost of the Jewish zealots in their revolt against Rome during the 1st century AD.

In 39 BC a fortress was built on the site. In A.D. 66, at the beginning of the Jewish Revolt, it was held by a Roman garrison. This garrison was expelled by the Zealots, who maintained control of the fortress until 73, when the Romans conquered it. During the final siege, 960 Zealot resistors committed mass suicide. The mountains that surrounded us included the Mount of Transfiguration, Mount Tabor, where Jesus talked to Moses and Elijah.

That evening we stayed in a hotel in Tiberias.

Our view was the beautiful blue Sea of Galilee. Jesus was known as "the Galilean" and was raised and spent most of his life in the Galilean city of Nazareth.

Galilee was the northern province of ancient Palestine. The Sea of Galilee is also called the Sea of Tiberias.

I was wakened by the fantastic music the next morning of little feathered singers who chirped a cheery tune. Our breakfast consisted of cottage cheese, cucumbers, rolls and hard-boiled eggs. There were also tomatoes but we were told to avoid them.

A boat ride on the Sea of Galilee included a beautiful service in the middle of the lake.

Three preachers were on the boat and we had one of the most touching services I have ever attended.

As I looked across the sea the thought of seeing Jesus walking on that water was mind boggling.

We got off the boat and went to see Capernaum, the Apostle Peter's hometown. Capernaum, a city of ancient Palestine, during New Testament times was a center for administrative and customs offices.

A second or third-century synagogue has been excavated there. This is all that is left of the house where Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law and the synagogue where Jesus taught.

We drove through Nazareth where Jesus was raised. It is in the lower Galilee and has stone houses. The Bible states "And being warned by God in a dream, he came and resided in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled,'he shall be called a Nazarene." Matthew 2:22-23

Then we went through the Megiddo valley, the place where Armageddon will be fought. The Israelites have taken this valley from a bare desert and turned it into a lovely green, fruitful valley.

We stopped at Jacob's well, the place where Jesus talked to the woman at the well.

The poppies grow wild in the countryside and it is believed those are the flowers Jesus was talking about in Matthew 6:28 and 29, "Why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."