We get off the bus and enter the walkway down towards the Sea of Galilee…another site built right by the water.
We are immediately greeted by peacocks and other migratory birds as we’re walking toward the spot where we will eat our box lunches picnic style.
Of course, Evan and I aren’t as hungry as we were after the Pizza Hut yummies, but we enjoyed the scenery immensely and shared some of our tastier morsels with the local feline contingent. They were most grateful. All in all, a beautiful place for a picnic.
Pastor might have been trying to engage the peacocks…
And check this out, like the biggest Ficus I’ve ever seen.
Then we walk this cool almost like tunnel of flora and fauna to the entrance of the Orthodox Church on the grounds here.
If you remember the last Orthodox Church we visited, they are characterized by artwork on every possible surface.
An entrance like this…opens into a room like this.
Eitan explained to us that on the wall that only the priest can enter, the first picture on the left will be Mary, the first picture on the right will be Jesus. The second picture on the right will be John the Baptist, and the second picture on the left will depict the person or group specifically being honored by this particular church. In this case, it was the 12 disciples. This church was a Russian Orthodox, which means they will speak Russian for the liturgy and it will be the same worldwide. Same for a Greek Orthodox. I didn’t know that.
I was particularly intrigued by this story of satan depicted…
The red river flowed to hell (the part behind the nun). The part in the shadow of the door looked like this…
That is satan with Judas on his lap, about to be eaten. Very graphical story-telling. There was a man and what appeared to be his son in the church while we were there. Eventually, we were able to glean that he was actually receiving last rites. It was moving to see, but had we known what was happening, we would have gladly left them in peace for this. Still an active church, on such beautiful grounds.
Next up is a drive around the north end of the Sea of Galilee toward the Golan Heights near the Jordanian border. We would ultimately drive all the way around the Sea, but we were able to make a stop near Kursi. What happened here? Keep reading….