VIM Team Traveling Day #1

VIM Team Travels South Towards Bethlehem
[June 15, 2006] Today we begin relocating our team to Bethlemhem. Leaving Ibillin was difficult inasmuch as we have made friends here: Patrick, the German volunteer; Hanah, the elementary teacher and guide; Michael Chacour, nephew to the Archbishop; and others who we have come to see as friends.
We are stopping in Nazareth tonight, having spent the day traveling as well as seeing some of the significant Christian sites along the way. We stopped in at Cana (site of the wedding feast at which Jesus performed his first miracle of changing water into wine) to see the church built upon the ancient synagogue where the wedding feast took place. In Nazareth, we also visited the Cathedral of St. Gabriel's (built upon the site of the well at which Orthodox Christians believe Mary received the 'Annunciation' from the archangel Gabriel) as well as the Basilica of the Annunciation, built upon the traditional site where the Virgin Mary had her home. Within the Basilica is a grotto where Mary's home is believed to have been, and in which Christian pilgrims (including us) came to worship and pray.
Tomorrow, we will go to Tiberias on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and will have lunch at the site of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (probably fishes and bread) . -Paul -