Shopping and a kibbutz

Monday we traveled to The Mount of Olives. This area is controlled by the Arabs but is open to Christians and Jews. This is so they can sell items. We bought a map of the area for $1 even though the price is $2. This is above the large Jewish graveyards where many Jews will be taken to Heaven. The Kidron valley is between the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem. Messiah will enter through the Golden gate, so the Muslims have made a cemetery in front of the gate. We continued Beit She’an, the city where Saul and Jonathon were decapitated and hung on the city wall. This city was in one of the main travel routes and served as a warning to travelers as to how strong the people of this area were. I believe they were Philistines. The ancient city has been excavated and the ruins were quite impressive. They were only found because the one unbroken pillar was sticking partly out of the ground. All the other pillars had been broken in an earthquake hundreds of years ago. Once again there were many bath houses because the Romans loved the baths. There are many models of what the city looked like centuries ago. That is really a help in understanding what things looked like. For example, there are no remaining roofs but had to be there. A special treat was to find a special place for baptisms and an amphitheater for athletic contests. We found 2 special places: the Roman bathroom and the vomitorium. The Romans loved to eat and had to vomit so they could continue. There was also an amphitheater where music was performed. One of our group sang Old Man River. And on the way out I thought I should have sung the 3^rd verse of It is Well with My Soul. We found a picnic table and ate the lunches we had brought from breakfast before continuing to The Jordan River. There were many people from foreign countries, especially Orientals and Latinos. It was thrilling to see so many receiving the seal of the Holy Spirit on their souls. We drove around the Sea of Galilee that is used for recreation to the town of Capernaum, Jesus’ home town. We looked at the reconstruction of the Synagogue where Jesus taught. We drove on to Tiberius where we spent the next 2 nights.