John 21 and Capernaum

So after the Mount of Beattitudes we walked right across the street to see a church that notes the site where in John 21 Jesus tells Peter and the other fisherman to cast their nets on the other side of the boat and when they do they catch a ton of fish. As we walked up we could hear people having mass outside and singing at the top of their lungs..it was quite wonderful and made me miss my church family at Heritage.
The town here is called Tagba and means 7 springs...all which come down from the Mount of Beattitudes. Six of these ancient springs have been found.
One of our group members Dan Haggerty mentioned to us that in John 21 we have Peter who has gone back to his old life as a fisherman and he has been out to sea all night long and not caught a single thing. But when Christ comes and tells him to turn around and cast on the other side he is able to catch many fish. It parallels our own lives as we keep returning to our old ways and habits when Christ is asking us to turn and try his way. I was encouraged by that. Thanks Dan.

Next we drove just a little ways down the road to Capernaum were Jesus moved from Nazareth to conduct his ministry. THere were several trade routes throughout Capernaum and it was a very busy place. The white synagogue here is the one where in Mark 2 Jesus would have healed the demonized man in. This place of worship was built by God-fearing centurions who were stationed here with the Roman garrison...simply a customs booth.
St. Peter was from Capernaum and many of the apostles were from around this area. In the remains of Capernaum they found a roman mile marker, several olive presses and St. Peters house!!!!
In the house is pottery that dates back to Jesus's time and graffit looking marks that say something about this being Peters house. THere is also a pilgrim record of Peters house being beside a synagogue and this house is. Of course, the Roman Catholics have come along and built a spaceship looking church right over the top of the house but we could walk into the church and look down into the remains of the house.
That's enough for one blog...if you could please remember to pray for us....we still have not sold our house and I haven't heard from any jobs in Texas...we might have to stay in TN longer to get the house sold. Also, please pray for the unbelievers here....there have been so many discussions and some of them are asking questions.....They have become my dear friends and I want them to know my Lord and experience life with Him.

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