Our Day 1 in Israel continues!

Before heading to the Jordan River, we stopped at a place called Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  Just beyond the building where copies of the scrolls and jars were in are on display, is the actual cave where the scrolls were found.

A young shepherd and his goat were walking across the flat space at the top, when the goat wandered down and fell into the small hole at the top left side of the mount. To save the goat, the boy let himself drop down into the cave – and found the jars with the scrolls.

Not knowing what they were, but figuring they were worth something, the local shepherds widened the holes to get the jars out, and then sold the scrolls in bits and pieces (to make more money than selling them all at once) to a local antiquities dealer.  Until someone figured out their incredible value and whole world found out.

Next, we traveled the short distance to the Jordan River, which separates Jordan and Israel; the land by the water is filled with date trees and palms!

At the top of the picture is a covered walkway down to the river – from the Jordan side....

From the bus we walked past a yellow “park” building, where a sign warned us not to wander because we were in a military zone!

We took the stairs down to the front, where we were told that anyone who wanted to be baptized in the river could do so, but they would need to remove their clothes and rent white robes inside for the experience.

Even though it was a sunny and pretty warm February Day, we were all perfectly happy to stay in our clothes! We headed on down to the river, where we prayed, then had a group picture taken before it.   The river looked very muddy but we all stepped barefoot onto a cement path that ran the length of the area, to let the river water washed over our feet and legs.  It was perfectly clear!

The river is smaller than it used to be, we were told, because the water was diverted some years ago.

Across the river was a beautiful church … that turned out to be the Church of John the Baptist.  It turns out that John actually baptized people on the Jordan side of the river!  That side of the river is mostly dry land now, but people use the walkway to get to the baptismal site.

We stopped next for lunch. In Israel there are eateries designed specifically for bus-loads of people – and the food is terrific!

After lunch, our guide Leo asked if we’d all remembered our bathing suits (most of us did) – because we were heading off to swim in the Dead Sea!  (a great story for Monday)