I spoke last time of the wonderful travel guide we had in the Galilee, or Galil as it's known here, Alon Barak. A wonderful man, gifted in teaching as he went, explained many things to us from Scripture, confirming much of what we already knew. Alon was an educator in California, and in the L.A. area he had started three private schools. Long before he became an administrator, he was a regular middle-school and high-school teacher. A student of his was Dusty Rogers, one of Roy Rogers & Dale Evans sons. It was great hearing of his relationship with the Rogers family, as Roy and Dale were always people I admired greatly. Alon went out to their ranch occasionally, and learned plenty himself from Roy and Dale, many things Biblically. One thing Alon is passionate about is Scripture, and each place we stopped along the road he had knowledge of Biblically.
He had us stop at an olive mill tourist area,and was excited for us to see what a millstone looked like. He reminded us of the Scripture from Luke 17, when Yeshua said, "It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So, watch yourselves." The millstone was a tremendous hunk of hewn rock, used to crush olives to a pulp. Later on, Alon took us to an "8-star (as he put it) hotel", The St. Andrews, in Tiberia, overlooking the city and great view of the Kinnerett Sea. Here he showed us an antique anchor, which would have sunk anyone to the bottom of the sea just as effectively.
We spent a lot of time at "Ancient Galilee Boat Museum", where the skeleton of a rotted boat was recovered from deep mud situated close to the shoreline, presumed to be one like the Boat Yeshua sailed in with His disciples any number of times. We watched a video on how the remains were carefully unearthed by a team of archaeologists. The remains are now kept inside with a ramp around the area so people could view, but signs are everywhere not to take photos, but of course, everyone but us took photos.
We finished our 4 days with Alon and Ronit in Tiberia, celebrating new friendships at a wonderful sidewalk café, named Cherry. Days before we met Alon, Jerry and I stopped along the same sidewalk, ate a meal at a different restaurant, and we were sorry we hadn’t discovered the Cherry first! As I love to cook and get presentation ideas, I had to take a picture of my "French Onion Soup." Joining us was a young couple from Haifa, who were in Tiberia visiting their dentist. They chanced a call to Alon to see if they could meet them for lunch there, not knowing they were already in the city. Amanda and Fernando had a sweet 3-month old son, Isaac. Fernando, like Ronit, made Aliya from Brazil, and his wife Amanda came from Pennsylvania. They grew up together as childhood friends, and after Fernando finished his education, he came a'courtin' Amanda and won her heart. It was great meeting this beautiful young couple, who also have a tremendous love for Yeshua, yet adapting well into life in Israel.
Giving hugs around the table, making these new friends in such a short amount of time, we made our return trip to Alfe Menashe. I did a major clean-up of the Frank house, spent a couple of days visiting with Yonatan (the Frank’s son), then left for the airport to pick up Boaz and Rinah from their 2-week Lubbock, Texas tour. This is part of the livelihood for the Dreyers, leading tours. We heard the tour was really great, but we already knew that anybody from Jerry’s birthplace HAD to be wonderful! We took a very tired Boaz & Rinah back to Be’er Milka and we returned to our tiny little B&B (may it ever be so humble), where we remain now till our departure. The clock is ticking, we are now counting the days when our long tour of Israel will be complete.
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