Tuesday, March 17

Back at the Hotel

That was our first day, and it felt like we've been through SO MUCH already. It's almost crazy, the amount of information we have to absorb, and still, we hunger for more! guess that's our Singaporean Kiasu side, coupled with true hunger for the things of God. put them side by side, and you've got this bunch of freakky tourists!! hahaha...

checked into our second hotel at Golden Tulip, Tiberias. Quite a nice hotel, but interior decor was rather dark. Not complaining, but i am. hahaha. food had quite a wide spread once again. guess it's just jewish culture? but interesting having kosher food. no milk with meat. even if they're served in seperate trays. they can't even be in the same location! because the bible says so. respect the mother, don't eat its young/produce together with it. or something like that hahhaa..

at night just before dinner, a few of us went to do abit of shopping. so quick to be singaporean. (and seriously, no kidding, this group of 50 shopped BIG BIG TIME) bought some dead sea products, of which i am extremely satisfied with one particular hand moisturiser product by Premiere. love the touch of it, not only, and is well absorbed by my skin. haha..

had an early night. like 9pm?! was wayyy too tired. but happily tired. :)

and there was evening, and there was morning - the 2nd day.

Mount of Precipice

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Mt of Precipice


This is where Jesus was rejected by His fellow Nazarenes after He had preached in the synagogue. (Luke 4:29) "they led him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff."

Custom was they would find a cliff about 2-3 meters in height, throw the damned guy down, and then start stoning him to death. And this place does look like a potential cliff i guess!


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Beautiful Scenery


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just me and my sis


Word was shared by Uncle Sidney too, about Proverbs 29:6 and 17:22.

Nazarene Village Tour

As i've said, the concept of this Nazarene Village is that everything mimics the time of Jesus. Jesus lived in a Kibbutz community. They adopt the very basic communist system, where they all are members of this one community, they distribute the work load evenly, share the same food, split the profits evenly. Interesting that the Kibbutz account for 2% of Israel's population, but they contribute to 20% of Israel's GDP. that's saying something huh.

They brought us through several stations.

Farming. Synagogue. Living Quarters. Work Areas.


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close up disection of their soil and how it's made up of different layers to make it firm.


Few interesting points:

- Nazareth is part of Judea

- Narrow Gate VS Wide Gate. It's now what i thought really. The Narrow Gate is for us humans to enter/exit, whereas the Wide Gate is for animals, flocks and herds to pass through. So when you want to exit, but don't want the animals to go after you, you exit through the Narrow Gate. The cool thing is that the Narrow Gate is actually INSIDE the Wide Gate. They're in that sense one and the same. like how we'd have a little hole for our dog to run through the door? similar concept, just that now, the smaller gate is for us humans, while the larger door is for the animals.

Brings us back to Jesus' teachings on the narrow/wide gate. Matt 7:13-14. Don't take the one for animals, take the one fit for humans!! and here we go always thinking that narrow is pathetic and horrible. But if we read it in the context of Jesus' time, he was actually referring to this concept. He's telling us, Act Like Humans, Not Like Mere Animals!! haha..


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a door within a door


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typical roman armour


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cross with arty lighting


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typical roof of Jesus' time


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So this was what the friends of this lame man had to hack through in order to get to Jesus. Imagine the debris created, falling down from the ceiling. must have been one kind of a mess! But trouble was definitely worth it! ;)


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How sweeeeet... snigger snigger


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Carpentry tools


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Jesus and his father Joseph were carpenters, but being a carpenter is more than that. in the greek, Carpenter = tekton, which means a carpenter, AND a MASTER BUILDER, who deals with stone. Think about how Jesus described himself as a CORNERSTONE. probably from his background of being a "tekton".


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shepherds watching their flock. so interesting. imagine being paid to act like a shepherd


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so i decided to make their job worth while and snap a photo of them behind me.


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and with me =D


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more animals like donkeys can be found. the man in red is our Nazareth tour leader. he's cool, i like! :)


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they not only have animals, but massive olive trees too!


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a typical room during Jesus' time. pretty bare huh


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the olive press.


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lady weaving


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weaving tools


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me feeding piggie with a huge spatula. just to make use of their tools

Lunch @ The Nazarene Village

We came to this awesome village that was run by Messianic Jews (meaning, Jews who believe their Messiah is Jesus Christ, hallelujah!). Pretty cool concept. They try to rebuild whatever stuff was like during the time of Jesus. Including LUNCH.

Thus, we had a traditional meal, what Jesus would have had during His time. and i actually liked the food. except for the over-burnt pita bread. but bring on the dips anytime!! hommus hommus hommus, yum yum yum.

Just to make you hungry..

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i so love jewish food. miss the food there..


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we took part in the traditional ceremonial prayer over our meal, where the head of the household would pray over the bread, then break it and give it to each person. so dad represented our table, and that's him giving the pita bread out to us :)


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happy family 1


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happy family 2


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mysterious girls


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we later saw the lady actually making the pita bread. ouch for her fingers.


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thank you lady for our food! :)

Armageddon / Tel Megiddo

FYI, Tel means HILL.

Many say THIS is where the Final Battle will take place, because it's so flat, so HUGE, the closest massive plain to Israel. Armageddon.


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cool model


In the past, there were (surprise surprise) no bulldozers. Therefore, to "re-build", they would just cover up whatever was left of the old civilisation, with soil and gravel, and build their new civilisation on TOP of the old one. thus, if you dig archaeologically, you'll find civilisations dating 5000BC even! and that's what they found. amazing isn't it!


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some evidence of ruins


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a manger on display


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one of the pits. has two staircases along the sides of the walls. very narrow. one for going up, the other for going down.



Side Fact: King Solomon was not supposed to have horses, but he did. (can't remember why) Anyway, after that, King Ahab went through many wars and also trained horses.

Question: For a typical chariot, how many horses would there be with it. Not 2, but 3. Because the third one would be a spare horse, just like how we have spare tyres. poor horses huh. literally treated as spare tyres.

Side Fact: In the past, water was extremely important, and to get water from the water source, they would dig a sort of tunnel/trench underground so that the water could flow into the city. they called this a Water Shaft. they had to dig because it would not be safe in times of war to exit the gate in the open to fetch water.

but ironically, that's how David conquered Jerusalem - through the water shaft. Because of the obvious water pipe entrance at the wall, David used it to his benefit and went through the pipe into the city. Thus, to prevent that from happening again, Solomon actually camouflaged all walls with dirt, so they won't be able to tell where the opening is.

Go read "The Source" by James Michener. a semi-fiction story around this.


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so we took a little tour into the water shaft tunnel area.


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into the deep tunnel


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watch my step!


Side Fact: It is believed that Indians are the lost tribe of Mannaseh (way to go uncle anil!), while Ethiopians are the lost tribe of Dan. Judah and Levi are known (in Israel), but the remaining 8 tribes are left unaccounted for. Even Dan and Mannaseh are just guesses. Maybe the chinese really ARE a lost tribe of Israel? hahaha... it would figure..

Side Fact: they had 2 gates in the past. one to fakely lure in the enemy, then closing the first gate, they would be trapped between both gates, and that's when the soldiers will REally attack! cool strategy man.

Carmelite Church

we visited the Church representing the miracle that Elijah did. :)

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dad trying to do an Elijah.


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try harder dad.


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mom and i smarter. just appreciate the act.

Mount Carmel

It's believed that this is the area that 1 Kings 18:20 took place at. A number of reasons.

- There's a spring nearby, explains source of water to wet wood. (V33)

- It's a hill with lots of space, enough to seat 450 prophets. (V19)

- There are ruins of an ancient altar, similar to one that's from the "time" as Elijah. (V23)

- Path leads to Kishon Valley is just beside, with a path leading to it. Where the false prophets fled. (V40)


Another interesting insight.

Valley of Jazreel, where Elijah fled to from Ahab (V46), is just below Mt Carmel. Many people question how Elijah can OUTRUN chariots! and Moshe proposed this reason. Before Elijah fled, he actually called rain down from heaven (V45), and if you see the slope down to Valley of Jazreel, it would be almost impossible for the chariots to move along quickly with all the rain and muddy soil. Which is probably why it would have been faster to move on feet as compared to chariots. Which is logical. Not that God didn't give Elijah grace, but He might have gave it in a logical way, by sending the rain! ;)

guess we'll never know, have to ask God ourselves when we reach heaven!


Carmel means RED. it also means fertile and rich soil.

Once again, location location location. From Mt Carmel, you can see a good view of the other countries. 100 million muslims against Israel. o.O

had worship here, interesting to sit where Jesus sat, on a bed of holey rocks. the power of God to overcome indeed deserves our utmost praise! =D

unfortunately, didn't take enough photos, so just some scenic zi-lian ones.

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like of my sister and me, again.

More Stories From Moshe

While we were on the bus travelling, Moshe would from time to time educate us bunch of shamefully poor-in-bible-literature-and-current-affairs people. and here's one of them.

Israel has the advantage of LOCATION. no natural resources, or anything else. the only advantage it has is that of LOCATION. good for trading, business. Philistines had the upper hand because they were equipped with iron, while Israelites were equipped with only bronze. David was the one who won the Philistines for good. with 5 stones. Why 5 stones though? Besides the reason of 5=grace, which pastor prince has consistantly taught us, Moshe brought further interpretative light.

the act of David picking up 5 stones prophetically implies that he will in time to come knock down the 5 cities of the Philistines. Namely, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath. Which he did. interesting huh.

Philistines VS Palestinians? Nothing in common besides the name. Interesting to note that Palestinians and Jews can actually be good friends, unlike portrayed in the media these days.



also, along the way, we passed by some tomb stones..

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rolled away.. hallelujah! =D

Caesarea Maritima, Roman Amphitheatre

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Caesarea Maritima
Roman Amphitheatre.


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piggie and me


Difference from Omnitheatre being Amphi is half a circle, ie, semi-circle, whereas Omni is 360degrees all round. The extra wall that the Amphi has helped to provide greater sound accoustic.


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My mom and my sis


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the most gracious seat of all. kidding haha.


This particular Amphitheatre could seat 4000 people.

Food and Entertainment were the two most important things at that time. It kept the people happy. At this place, they had gladiators, animal fights, and it was here that Paul was locked up, just like how animals were locked up.

so we climbed down this deep stairway to see the cages below.


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still-crazily-happy me


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cages where animals used to be locked up. watch the pig and the lamb.



But Paul was smart. He used his excuse of being a Roman Citizen to save himself, and then went to Rome for trial, but for the greater reason of preaching the gospel. how noble!

Interesting Fact: It was the Romans who introduced the tax paying system, ie, Pax Romana. which literally means Peace Romana. Concept being you pay us tax, we let you live here in peace.

Also, Pontius Pilot, the Roman Governer, lived here. He would travel to Jerusalem to "judge people" (including Jesus).


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this is a "map" outline of what a chariot race track would have looked like.


Other Interesting Facts:

- AD66, Jewish people were very unhappy. Romans were taking over their place, people, and they even changed the name of the country to Palestine, JUST to spite the Israelites, as the name Palestine was chosen after the Philistines - Israel's enemy #1. see how much trouble they've created now.

- The capital of Palestine is Caesarea.

- AD1948, country was renamed ISRAEL. hallelujah!! =D


Acts 10 - it was here that Paul preached to Cornelius, the first of many Gentiles to be saved. It was here that they began speaking in tongues first - lesson being let God arrest your tongue first. speak positivity. it's the fingerprint of God. THE CROSS - "+"


more pictures..

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sista lookin cool


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me looking crazy


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beautiful seaside - this used to be the port area remember..