Jesus Trail - Day One

The Jesus Trail. Day one, the beginning...

Today we start our journey on the Jesus Trail. I am nervous. I am filled with anticipation. I am nervous!! What will this day bring?

It it hot outside, but the cool breeze is pleasant. As we gather in the foyer of Fauzi Azar and leave together for the giant stairway that marks the start of our journey I can not help but feel God in our midst.

I tend to be a little bit of a slow walker, and I like to think that it is because it takes me a while to process my surroundings. Nature and I have always "clicked" and it is where I experiance God's voice the clearest. The breeze along the grass, whispered encouragement to the whole group as we walked up and down the rocky and hilly terrain. We saw all sorts of wildlife including camels, tortises, storks, and butterflies and bugs. It was beautiful!

Today we walk from the guest house Fauzi Azar to Cana. Today we walked 20 km. We walked to an amazing site at Sepphoris where there were many mosaics. These ancient mosaics were largely intact and are some of the best kept mosaics of their time. The ruins of the city of Sephoris were amazing. This was a highlight for me because I had seen some of the mosaics in textbooks and being able to see the original made the images come alive for me!

The site at sepphoris is exceptional because it has had a diverse and historical influence by many peoples including Assyrian, Hellenistic, Judean, Babylonian, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader, Arabic and Ottoman. It is said that the Virgin Marys parents (Anna and Joachim) lived in this city. Some notable building are two early Christian churches, a crusader fortress  and upwards of forty different mosaics. I was stunning.

After viewing the site at Sepphoris we had lunch and walked the second half of our journey towards Cana. As we neared Cana we sat down and looked at the cityscape as we discussed our devotional for the day. The topic was on healing. Mosaics are made up of many broken stones in many different colours and all those stones create a beautiful image even though they are just broken rocks! People are the similar because even though sometimes we are broken or something breaks us, God helps rebuild us into marvelous mosaics with his healing power.

I will leave this blog with a quick prayer for the group and for our audience...

Dear God,
Give us strength today for the brokeness we feel.
Use your healing power to free us from the bondage of evil.
Rebuild our spirits and renew our souls.
Make us into marvelous mosaics of your love and grace.
Amen. 

Emily Enns