A Drink of Home from the Sea of Galilee

One week in to our trip, on our first "optional excursion" day, we had a guided tour to Galilee. Much of the day was a repeat of the whirlwind taxi-driver-led Galilee day Kraig and the girls and I had in October, but a few stops were new. Those included the absolutely most beautiful place I have ever seen, St. Paul's Primacy, a church nestled on the beaches of the Sea of Galilee, the site of the Sermon on the Mount, which had closed just as we arrived in October, and a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.

I'm going to address the topic of religion several more times in these blog posts, and each time I feel a need to include the following disclaimer:
I went to this seminar knowing very well that Judaism was going to be the religion of focus. I mean, HELLO. Israel, the Holocaust... I'm not stupid. I was very interested in learning more, as I feel that my pretty basic knowledge is a little lacking in that section of my Holocaust Lit class. I will also say, up front, that there are many aspects of Judaism that I think we Christians would do well to adopt, aspects such as the attentiveness to the history and many of the traditions. I have in the past, and probably will more in the future, celebrated certain holidays and observed certain traditions. The part I did NOT expect from this experience (and again, bear with me while I explain) is for all of Christianity to be lumped together in one sect: Catholicism. Certainly I didn't expect much in the way of evangelical, Pentecostal tradition, but at the very least I assumed it would be generic Christianity and thus include Protestantism. TO MY CATHOLIC FRIENDS, this is in no way meant to be any sort of slam at you AT ALL. I do not take anything away from your faith and beliefs as fellow Christians, just as I really do not take anything away from Judaism. I am just pointing out that I was caught off guard by the lack of reference to anything Protestant and the assumption that all Christianity was Catholic. I think a lot of my naiveté probably had to do with where I live. I am heavily in the majority where I live and Catholics are a tiny minority. (It should also be noted, and likely will be explored in a later post, that this was one of my first and only experiences in being the minority in ANY way, which I also found to be a helpful experience as I teach the Holocaust and other social issues.) OK. Now that we are all on the same page, let me go on.

Something really strange happened to me on the boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. I had been looking extremely forward to it because A. I have a massive crush on that body of water and B. I love boat rides, but it ended up being so much more than that.

The ride itself was soothing to my soul in a way that only being on water is to me. There is nothing on earth as peaceful as being in a boat, watching the gentle waves lap against the sides, and feeling the calming breeze. At that point, only one week in, the rest of the group was still pretty unknown. I was close to my roommate, Tiffany, and had talked to a few other people, but largely I still felt somewhat on guard in the way that you do when you are faced with the unknown. I leaned back against the wooden side of that boat and just felt the most tremendous release. The boat captain had already told us that his company is the only Christian company on the Sea of Galilee and that he would like to share his story at some point in the journey.

Once we got out into open water, he stopped the boat and told us his own salvation story and that his salvation had happened on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Then he told us he would like to play some music for us as we returned to the dock. That is when, for the first time in a week, I realized that I had been homesick for MY faith, for MY Jesus. He played "How Great is Our God", "Here I Am to Worship", and several other songs that are songs I HEAR ON SUNDAY MORNINGS! :) I'm not even kidding, I came pretty close to a Pentecostal experience out there on that boat. (I'm thinking THAT would have shocked some people, for sure! HAhahah!) I just sat and let the words pour over me, seep into my spirit, minister to my soul... Looking out on that water and knowing that His feet walked across those waves, hearing "You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me"... It is a moment I will never forget as long as I live. This on a trip of MANY of those moments... I will always be grateful to that Christian boat captain (of a boat named "Faith", in fact) for providing me with a time to renew my strength and drink in a little bit of HOME.