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Mount Carmel Summit
Thaxter Dickey waves to us from the top of Mount Carmel, overlooking the Megiddo Valley.
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Victory at Megiddo
Thaxter Dickey and
Ferrell Jenkins emerge
with their arms raised victorious after climbing the steep
stairway at Megiddo.
Dick Clay captures the
moment on his video camera, while
Ben Kearney moves along.
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Sea of Galilee
Ferrell Jenkins, our tour leader, points out the entry of the Jordan River
into the Sea of Galilee for Thaxter Dickey and Doug Seaton.
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St. Peter's Fish at Dan
Thaxter Dickey prepares to enjoy a "Saint Peter's Fish" for lunch.
Note the shekel in the fish's mouth. When the issue of paying the temple tax
arose among the disciples, Jesus told Peter to catch a fish, and he would find
a coin in its mouth for paying the tax (Matthew 17:24-27). The kind of fish
Thaxter is about to eat is apparently only found in the Sea of Galilee, and
it got its name because it will, for protection, temporarily hold its young
inside its mouth. (The coin in this picture, however, was supplied by our tour
leader.) Note also the Hebrew Coca-Cola can.
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Bridge of Jacob's Daughters
Thaxter sitting on the Bridge of Jacob's Daughters over the Jordan River. We
talked him out of jumping off the bridge. We don't know why.
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The Spring of Harod
A split screen image taken at the spring of Harod in the Jezreel valley. It
was here that Gideon, at the Lord's direction, thinned out his army from 32,000
to a mere 300 men, in order to defeat the Midianite hordes who had invaded Israel.
(You can read how the 300 pulled that off in Judges 7.) The final selection
process required the men to drink from this spring. Those who knelt down to
the water to drink, as Thaxter demonstrates on the left, were sent home from
the battle. The three hundred men who "lapped" the water by bringing
it up to their mouths with their hands, as David demonstrates on the right,
were chosen by God to deliver Israel.
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Palestinian Turkey
Thaxter refuses to believe that the meat served at our Arabic lunch was the
"turkey" that it was claimed to be. It seemed more like beef, perhaps
veal, perhaps . . . something else. Here he tries to get an honest answer from
our Palestinian driver, Sammy. This mystery, like so many surrounding the Bible
lands, may never be solved.
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Camel Rides
Thaxter Dickey riding a camel on the Mount of Olives. We're finding out that
we can get him to try just about anything, except for certain varieties of turkey.
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Church of the Nativity
Thaxter shares a humorous moment with Julian Snell in the Armenian section
of the Church of the Nativity, while the rest of the group looks at the religious
artwork in the background.
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Stones of the Western Wall
In this picture from inside the tunnel, we see just one of the enormous stones
that Herod used for the wall around his temple. The camera is at one end of
a stone, and Thaxter Dickey is standing way down at the other end of the
same stone. This single, quarried stone is measured as 40 feet long, 11
to 14 feet wide, and 10 feet high, weighing 407 tons. As the disciples said
to Jesus as they left the temple in Mark 13:1, "What wonderful stones and
what wonderful buildings!"
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A Tomb
Thaxter inspects a tomb with a rolling stone that may have been like the one
in which Jesus was buried.
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Masada: Herod's Western Palace
Thaxter Dickey inspects the ruins of a wall of Herod's Western Palace on Masada.
The black line he is pointing at indicates the boundary between the original
wall (below the line) and the reconstructed wall (above the line).
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Essene Village at Qumran
Thaxter Dickey and Pat Stagner explore the ruins of Qumran, the (possibly)
Essene village near the spot where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. You
can see off in the hills, next to Pat's head, one of the caves where the jars
that contained the scrolls were found. Thaxter is standing in what tradition
holds was Martin Broadwell's bedroom when he was a member of the sect of the
Essenes during the first century.
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Qumran
Thaxter Dickey,
Catherine Bethea, and
Pat Stagner stroll among the ruins of Qumran.
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Qumran
Thaxter Dickey explores the ruins of
the village at Qumran.
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Bedouin Shepherds
Thaxter fulfills his weeklong quest for a picture of the Bedouin and their
sheep.
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