Last Day in the Galilee

This was our last day in the Galilee.  The Scots has been a marvelous home for the past three nights.  We visited both Biblical and post-Biblical sites today.  It gave us an historic and present understanding of Israel's security situation.  We climbed the 3000 feet up out of the Galilee valley to the Golan Heights.  After crossing the Hula Valley, we stopped at a kibbutz called N'ot Mordekay.   I've included a picture of their bomb shelter.  They sit in the shadow of Lebanon.  We were able to buy some of their products in support of them.  We then visited the ancient tel of Dan. One of the northern most cities for ancient Israel, Jeroboam set up a worship center with Golden Calves here.  A thousand years earlier, Abraham visited here as he chased down the kings who kidnapped Lot and his family.  A picture of the gate of his time is included.  We also saw how Dan is one of the headwaters for the Jordan River.  We traveled on to Caesarea Philippi or Banias.  A pagan city in Jesus' day, it was in this region where Peter gave his confession of Jesus as the Messiah. (Read Matthew 16).  It is the second of three sources for the Jordan.  Following a lunch of swarma and falafal, we traveled to Gamla, known as the northern Masada.  It is an amazing place.  Throughout our journey today, we were by the Lebanese border, the Syrians boarder and the Jordanian border.  It gave us a real understanding of Israel's security issues.  Tomorrow we head south to the Dead Sea.