It’s always a bit of a concern with you are woken up by gunfire, but that was the case today. It was accompanied by cars driving by constantly honking horns, so we assumed it was some sort of celebration.
As it turns out, it was school students celebrating the grades given at the end of the semester. Sounded a little thin to us, but none of our windows were shot out.
Speaking of dodging bullets, we dodged the rain bullet today. We got a car and driver who took us past Mt Nebo, down into the Jordan valley, the far to the north. I have never been on this side of the Jordan before and it was interesting to see the contrast to the Israeli side. This was also a market day, so we got to see a lot of local color. These smaller towns tend to be a bit run down and a little “second” world by our standards.
We visited three sites. First, Gadara, one of the gentile, Roman cities near the Sea of Galilee, and a part of the story of a demon possessed man/men that Jesus cured (Mt 8:28). It was cold and windy and the view to the west too cloudy for good pictures, but it was interesting to walk a city that was a part of a Gospel story.
The next site was a place called Tel Mar Elias, a hilltop with Byzantine church ruins in the Gilead hill country that the Biblical prophet Elijah was born and raised in. The church is probably not on the exact spot of Tishbe, but it seems to be in the general area. It site has an interesting rock cut tomb and a baptismal fount for children.
Finally, we visited Jerash. The town has no real Biblical connection, but was a large and amazing Roman ear city with fantastic ruins. Here is where the rain finally caught up, but we got to see most of the site before it came in force.
