Our driver arrived at 8am just as planned. It was Sam who was our driver from the airport to the bible college on Saturday when we arrived. It was nice to see another familiar face. We started out our day heading towards Jericho where we planned to visit for a while. God had different plans for us as the driver buzzed right by Jericho and it would have been out of our way to go back. So our first stop was the baptism site where it is believed that Jesus was baptized.
God provided us with some royal treatment here as we were the only ones at the site so we were able to take our time. Romy and I baptized Tommye first, then John. John then stayed in the Jordan River where they baptized me. I was baptized a couple of years ago but felt like a re-affirmation and declaration to God was what I needed to do. Right as they were baptizing me a tour group was showing up. We spent about 15 to 20 minutes after letting clothes dry a little. After we left here we headed towards Tiberias. This was quite a drive so we made a stop to use the restroom and grab a quick snack to eat on the rest of the way. An Interesting note about the awesomeness of God. Earlier in the week John broke his sunglasses while we were traveling through Jerusalem. When Tommye was getting in the water up came a pair of sunglasses from the Jordan River. The interesting thing about these glasses is they were very clean, no "slime" on them from being in the water. They just came to the top. God provided.
While at the Sea of Galilee we visited a couple of sites. The first was the Church Of Multiplication where it is believed could have been where Jesus multiplied the fish and bread to feed 5,000. We read from Luke 9:10 -17. We walked down onto the beach and put our feet in the Sea of Galilee. We sat and reflected on the reading for a while, listening to the distant sounds of speedboats and music. I was surprised to see so many speed boats and jet ski's on there.
We then went to another site which I forget the name right now. But this was the remains of what was the synagogue where Jesus did most of his preaching. It was at this site where I clearly heard God speak to me. "Walk in my ways my son". Moments after I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Baptism of the Holy Spirit is talked about several places in the Bible.
Then we moved onto the next place which was St. Peters Restaurant which was only 5 minutes away. We went inside and enjoyed Peters fish. We could have it served two different ways, first as a filet, second as a complete fish. Skin, Head, Tale, all of it. This is how Tommye and I ordered it. It was so filling and tasty. I can't wait to visit next time to have it again.
Next was the mount of beatitudes where God blessed us again with only about 3 cars in the parking lot and no one roaming the grounds of the site. We were able to sit in a location in the shade and read from the Bible. Romy had a great cross reference chart that showed us verses of the anticipation, the worldly view and the verses to help give you the right attitude. I plan to post more about this later but for now you get the idea. We had a good amount of time where there was no one. Then as many times before during the week the crowds started to roll in as we were finishing up.
Now it was time to move on to crossing over into Jordan. The last anticipated stressful part of our journey. In order to cross over into Jordan we had to go through Passport control in Israel where if they so desired they would start asking questions about where we have been, what we were doing. If they didn't like the answers it would get a little more uncomfortable. We prayed on the way to the boarder crossing and it all went pretty smooth. A couple of logistical errors on our part but nothing major. When we arrived in Jordan we had to then get our Jordan Visas, go through Passport control then go grab our luggage and go through luggage scanning. Everyone got through good here except me, I had some pottery in my bag as well as some medicine. They had me open my suitcase and explain what each pill was for. This was interesting to do when the person doesn't speak your language as a primary language. We were able to make it through this without too long of a delay. When I got out of the delay Romy had already started working on getting help for us to get to our driver which was over two miles away walking on a slight incline in what was about 113 degrees. It was all paved so it wouldn't have been a major issue but it was still worth asking for help. The Jordan Police were kind enough to help Romy and provided us with 2 taxis to take us just outside the grounds of the border crossing control.
That's where we met Basil, one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. He spoke english very well, was very polite, explain things as we headed to the airport. We made one stop about half way to the airport at a store where we could look at gifts and stretch our legs. Once we got to the airport we still had 2 hours to wait before we could go through to the ticketing agents and get all settled in.
When we were able to we went through and was able to take advantage of the sky priority and save some money on luggage and save some time in the lines. Everyone was very polite and helpful as we worked our way to our gate. The Flight from Amman to Paris was about 5 hours give or take and went by fairly fast since we were all sleeping a little on and off.
Here we are now burning time in the airport in Paris. We grabbed some small pastries for a snack and are about 2 hours away from our flight back home. I am looking very forward to seeing my beautiful wife and daughter, my awesome sons when I get back to Detroit. The family is already at the campground.
A final thought, we are all given amazing gifts from God weather they are spiritual gifts that we know we have yet or gifts of this world. We can water those gifts by spending more time in God's Word, more time in our relationship with God. John 15:7 says "if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."
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