My Adventure to Israel: Chapter 1: Calming the Storm

Saturday, April 21
My roommate Haley and I were semi settled into our hotel room and had gotten about 2 hours of sleep before our alarms rudely awoke us. We got ready and headed down to a disappointing breakfast. You see, we had arrived early Saturday morning, which to the Jews, is the Sabbath, or Shabbat. On the Sabbath, they cannot work to do anything that would be considered 'creating', just how God rested from creating on the 7th, or Sabbath day. In short, heating things up with fire and cooking are not allowed on the Sabbath. So, our options for breakfast were mostly fresh fruit, yogurt, bread and coffee kept in a heater from the previous day. Although the yogurt was really good, I just wasn't feeling well, I found myself feeling alone again.
Suddenly, Pastor Troy, who I'd noticed earlier was sitting at the table to my right, saw me and said, "Hey girl, I didn't know you were coming, did your momma come with you?"
"No." I answered.
"I'm so proud of you, being a big girl and coming by yourself!" He said enthusiastically.
I smiled and said thanks before I left to wait for the group in the foyer. I felt like crying, Troy's words were encouraging and just what I needed despite the fact I didn't feel brave at all.
I suddenly realized I was thirsty, but wasn't sure how soon I could get a water bottle. Our bus had them for a dollar each, but I knew we wouldn't be getting on it anytime soon, seeing as how the first thing on our itinerary was to sail across the Sea of Galilee that morning.
Suddenly, I saw Darrell Knight, Troy's brother-in-law and Mission's Pastor at Open Door. I knew him and his family well. When he saw me, he came over, gave me a hug and asked how I was. I said I was fine, but needed to get some water.
"Here I know a place right across the street where we can get you some water." He said, and we exited the hotel, turning right and then crossing the street to a little shop that sold bottled water, soda and even had a slushie machine. Darrell kindly gave me some shekels (though I would have gladly bought my own water) and I purchased two water bottles. I handed Darrell his change and we headed back to the hotel.
I would like to take a second and say a word or two about Darrell. He's amazing, that's plain and simple. If you're ever stuck in a foreign country with him and don't know what to do, he's got your back. He's so sweet and such a rock star! (Love you Darrell, thanks for looking out for me!)
Eventually, Ron Cantor, the Israeli Pastor who was hosting this trip arrived. We all received our own name tags attached to lanyards, a navy blue ball cap and backpack with the logo of the Sar-El tour company our group was booked with, and a map.

We then exited the hotel, and walked a few blocks to the pier on the Sea of Galilee, where we were to board a boat that would take us across to the opposite shore. As we walked it began to rain lightly, I stopped briefly and put on my rain jacket, then continued. That's when the first exciting thing of the day happened for me:
I have this thing where I always looked on the ground when walking a street, hoping to spot any coins or other things I might want to collect; and low and behold, as we turned a corner near some shops, a few yards from the pier, I saw it:




A small gold coin with the number '10' on the back and a Menorah on the reverse side. It was 10 Agora piece, basically Israel's equivalent to 10 cents, because 100 Agorots equals 1 Shekel. I was so excited because I had just been hoping and praying that I'd find a coin on the ground!
We walked down a ramp to a dock, where we boarded a boat, I could worship music playing and saw that chairs had been set up for us. We had a time of singing and worship, during which I looked out across the giant lake and was hit with the full realization that this, THIS, really was the Sea of Galilee! I was really here! This was where so much happened during Jesus' time. This was where He WALKED ON WATER!!! I started crying because of how overwhelmed I was by just being here, it was so awe inspiring! In fact, Susan, one of the other tour guides on this trip, explained that about 80-85% of Jesus' ministry happened in this area.

After worship, Ron came up and began to talk. He spoke about The  Last Days and that in Them, God was not only bringing His people home, but also showing them new, supernatural and natural discoveries. Within the past 30 years, archaeologists found a boat dating back to the time of Jesus, perfectly preserved under several layers of mud at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee (more info on it here). God was allowing this generation the privilege of discovering all these new and exciting hidden things. In fact, later on that day we were to visit the site of an archaeological find that was barely 12 years old!
We were nearing the middle of the lake by now, right around the spot where Jesus calmed the storm and walked on water (Troy told us that the reason why the disciples thought Jesus was a ghost walking on the water was because the old fisherman of that area told tall tales and ghost stories to pass the time; and Peter and some of the other disciples would have heard them).
Ron then began to talk about the time when Jesus calmed the storm:
"Imagine these huge waves rocking the boat and getting everything wet, and there's Jesus, sleeping comfortably over there in the stern," Ron was saying. "Now picture the disciples freaking out and yelling, 'Jesus! Don't you care if we all die!' And Jesus you know wakes up and stretches and is like, 'I was having such a good dream about my Father, and you had to go and wake me up.'" Ron continued, "Listen! God is not scared! He's not freaking out about your storm, because He's got it! He's not worried about the problems your facing. You worried you're not gonna be able to pay bills next month, God's not worried! He's got it all under control! Don't worry about tomorrow because He is the God over the storms in your life!"
I looked out over the calm water and tried to imagine the storm and the waves, I tried to picture Jesus as He walked on the water, wishing now more than ever that those Biblical events were happening right now.
Ron pointed to the southeast shores of Galilee, where the ancient region of Garasenes, where Jesus had cast several demons out of man into a herd of swine that then ran down into the water and drowned. "And archaeologists," Ron was saying, "have done excavations in that area and found pig bones. Now, you should know that that region was populated by pagans, because only they ate pig. Who else would own pigs, not the Jews, because Jews don't eat pigs. And another interesting thing is that because it was pagan land, the Jews would often just refer to that region as The Other Side, which is why in Scripture, it'll say, 'And they sailed to the other side.'"

We still had some time before our boat docked, so Elana, Ron's wife, a beautiful Jewish lady with naturally curly dark hair, offered to teach us a traditional Jewish dance. I watched as most of the people on board joined hands in a large circle and followed Elana's lead:

Not wanting to miss out on the fun I quickly jumped in. I'm not gonna lie, I loved it (and felt like an extra in Fiddler on the Roof!)
A few minutes later, our boat docked, we walked up a ramp and then some stairs that lead to public restrooms. Our buses were waiting in the nearby parking lot for us. There was a white bus and a red bus. Susan was the tour guide for the white bus, which Darrell, his wife Mendy and daughter Mykah were on, including Ron and Elana. Roman was the red bus's guide, which had most everyone I knew from church on it, like Haley and her parents, Lisa and Les, then Troy and his wife Leanna.
I hopped on the red bus, looking forward to our next stop.