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Holy Hot Spot (Part 2): My Tour through the Holy Land of Israel

By Cara Davis
April 10, 2006

The first couple of days of our 10-day trip to Israel were spent in the beautiful region of Galilee. My husband Jeff and I went on this Holy Land tour to be with my grandfather, who has been to the region 30 times—this was to be his last trip.

After a day spent recovering from our 10-and-a-half-hour plane ride, then floating on the Sea of Galilee and trying the tasty St. Peter’s fish, our second night was back at the Nof-Tavor hotel. We were told this was a new four-star hotel. It was new, all right, but was more the equivalent of a Days Inn. On top of that, it was in the countryside of Jezreel Valley in Kibbutz Mizra, near Nazareth. (Kibbutz is the word for “community,” closely equivalent to our meaning of suburb or town).

Both nights we stayed at this hotel we ate at the hotel’s adjoining restaurant, popular with tourists since it was one of the region’s only non-kosher dining facilities. We ate late in the evening and soon after my stomach started churning. I ignored it and went to bed, only to wake up at midnight very nauseated. I had an adverse reaction to some food I ate that night or I actually got food poisoning. Either way, my body began to reject nearly every ounce of food and fluid in my body for the next seven hours.

The front desk had no medication that would ease my stomach. There were no vending machines to buy even a Sprite. We even woke our Israeli tour guide up at 3 a.m. to ask if he had any medicine. He didn’t. There were no nearby stores open. I was miserable.

Jeff and I kicked ourselves for traveling with only headache and cold medicine. Such novice travelers!

As morning came, I lay in my bed as a puny pile of dehydrated flesh, desperate for relief. I thought about where we were going that day: Cana of Galilee—the site of Jesus’ first miracle. I thought and prayed that Jesus would heal me—even if just to prove that He still performs miracles today just as He did back at that wedding where He turned water to wine.

Meanwhile, my husband found a couple who had an anti-nausea pill and some Sprite. I took it and it immediately came back up. I was in trouble. I couldn’t even keep liquid down. Jeff got my grandfather, that couple, and another couple to come in and lay hands on me for healing.

Although it took nearly 24 hours to regain my strength, after that prayer I immediately began to feel better bit by bit, and I began to be able to keep liquids down. I didn’t get sick another time. As we traveled to Cana of Galilee and walked on the quaint streets leading through the village, I thanked God for His compassion and healing.

That day we also stopped by the Nazareth Village, a tourist attraction that recreates what life was like on a farm and in the Galilean village of Nazareth 2,000 years ago. I stayed on the bus to rest, but one of visitors who was with another tour group suffered what she thought was a heart attack. She lay on the ground, grabbing her heart and saying, “Jesus, I know I’m dying. I’m ready!” over and over. Others began to pray desperately while waiting for the ambulance to show up. Another visitor ran up with a Nitroglycerin tablet and gave it to her. He said he had been carrying it around 12 years after he had himself had a heart attack. The woman was taken to the hospital where she quickly recovered.

The doctors released her the next day and told her to enjoy the rest of her trip before seeing her doctor at home. Those in our group who witnessed the event gave God praise for the miracle as they told Jeff and me the story.

As the day came to a close, we traveled to the northern part of the country to Caesarea Philippi, not to be confused with Caesarea, the southwestern coastal city we visited near the end of the tour. Caesarea Philippi sits at the foot of Mt. Hermon (site of the transfiguration in the Old Testament) and is where Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13).

Also here are the remains of the ancient city of Banyas, referred to as Banias (in Arabic, Panias). The spring located here is the start of the Jordan River as it joins with two others at the base of Mt. Hermon. A large grotto close to the spring was considered the birthplace of the Greek god Pan.

Many shrines that were carved into the side of the marbled mountainside are still visible. Ancient people would offer sacrifices to the gods by throwing human sacrifices into the waterfall. They believed if no blood wa seen downstream, the sacrifice was accepted. If blood was seen, the sacrifice was rejected.

That day we also visited Capernaum, the home of Peter, James and John where Jesus called them to follow Him. At this site are impressive ruins of the local synagogue and some excavated ruins of an ancient village and what some believe was Peter’s home.

This is also the place we were introduced to “rock rabbits,” a regional mammal with rat-

like teeth and hoofed feet. They live, obviously, among the rocky landscape and are non-aggressive. Our tour guide likened them to squirrels in our country, but I’ve never seen a squirrel that big so we kept our distance.

Next: The Jordan River, Masada and the Dead Sea

© 2006, Cara Davis

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Cara Davis is a contributing editor to ninetyandnine.com. She is the author of Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot: How to Plan a Church Wedding for Less Than $5,000 (RELEVANT Books).