The Med, the Red, and the Dead

We ended the day yesterday with evening baptisms at the Jordan River. A pastor from Canada baptized my friend Cari, another Dallasite, who works at Insight for Living.

As for today, by the time many of my friends are leaving church, if all goes as planned, I will have already taken a dip in the Dead Sea--the lowest spot on earth. No day of rest for us! We're also scheduled to see these sites:

* Qumran - The home of the first century sect known as the Essenes, the transcribers of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

* Masada - We're set to ascend the mountain by cable car to view Herod’s desert fortress and the stronghold of the Jewish revolt against the Romans in A.D. 73. If you have not seen the mini-series about this, time to load it into your Netflix queue.

* En Gedi (Botanical Garden) – We'll pass the desert oasis where David hid from King Saul (1 Samuel 24).

* Jericho Road - We'll travel from Jericho up to Jerusalem, an ascent of 4,000 feet in 13 miles, passing the Inn of the Good Samaritan along the way (Luke 10:24-26).

* Mount Scopus – From here we'll have our first view of the “Golden City,” lit up at night.