February 15, 2015
Sunday School Taken to a New Level
written by Don Baker
I will never forget the beautiful setting of the Mount of Beatitudes and our drive through the low mountains past Mt. Carmel and Cana…
David Carr preached that “everything important in life we learned in Sunday School.” The trip Debbie and I took to see the Holy Land made much of what we learned in Sunday School come alive in a way we never could have imagined.
The first big highlight was Ephesus, where engineering and archeological marvels impressed upon us the realities of life in the Apostle Paul’s day. We could just sense Paul walking the streets and standing in the big amphitheater preaching the Word to the people of this important city as described in Acts 18-19. We then visited Israel beginning with Jerusalem. We saw the Garden of Gethsemane, Via Delarosa, the Wailing Wall, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (which amazingly encases both Golgotha and Jesus’ tomb). Just as we arrived, the tour guide played over the bus’ speaker system the song “Jerusalem” which sent chills up and down our spines as it solidified the feeling that this truly was the Promised Land. The second day we traveled to and around the Sea of Galilee starting at the south end Jordan River baptismal site, then traveling north along the east bank past the Golan Heights to Capernaum ruins where Jesus operated from during much of his ministry. Following that, I will never forget the beautiful setting of the Mount of Beatitudes and our drive through the low mountains past Mt. Carmel and Cana, finishing in Nazareth.
Egypt was the next stop, including Cairo; the pyramids; the Suez Canal; and Luxor, home to the Valley of the Kings. Then it was on to Aqaba, Jordan, where we were impressed to learn about the Bedouins (another great civilization near Israel), the Petra archaeological ruins and Wadi Rum (the desert area of Lawrence of Arabia). There is wide belief in Jordan that the Magi in the Bible were Bedouins from this region, noting that their major commodities were incense, frankincense, and myrrh.
We are so thankful the Lord provided to us the opportunity to see His creation.
Please enjoy our day in Jerusalem via a 25-minute narrated presentation (which we would recommend you watch first). Or, if you are already familiar with the sites, we made a shorter 5-minute slideshow accompanied by John Starnes’ famous song “Jerusalem, the Holy City.”
A Day in Jerusalem narrated by Don Baker (25 minutes)
Jerusalem in Pictures (5 minutes)