Second Day of Touring (Part Two)

Next we went to Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in these caves...

 This is a Mikveh, which was a pool used for ritual purification. Here the Essene Community separated themselves from the world. They called themselves the Children of Light and the religious leaders of their day they called the Children of Darkness...

 The Dead Sea was our next stop. It is 28% salt and it is impossible to sink. Steven is floating here...

 Joan and I are the two people near the middle (I'm waving to you)

Here along the banks of the Jordan River we renewed our vows of Baptism. There was a young man sitting near us as we read through our vows (Cindy shared her copy with him). He had traveled to this place to be baptized by immersion. The problem was, his taxi driver was a Muslim and he didn't have a Pastor with him. God had that all worked out even though we were unaware of it before we came. The young man asked one of the Pastors in our tour group, David Parker, to baptize him, which he did. It was a definitely a God moment!!

The Jordan River wasn't deep and wide today, but to stand in the spot where Jesus was baptized by John, near the same area where the waters parted for Elijah before he was carried to heaven in a chariot of fire and also for Joshua and the Children of Israel to cross on dry ground when they entered the Promised Land... well, we took off our shoes - we were standing on Holy Ground!!

 Our final stop of the day was Jericho, the oldest city in the world. This tower and other excavations dated back 10,000 years.

Joan and I were blessed to walk where Jesus walked when he called Zacchaeus to come down from the tree... and to marvel at the events that took place when Joshua marched around this ancient city and the walls came tumbling down.

Tomorrow we are leaving Bethlehem and headed for the Galilee area.