Nina's Notes - Wednesday, February 2, 201 Today was a busy day filled with new sights and LOTS of rain. Despite the rain we maintained good attitudes as we explored the Zippori National Park near Nazareth. The remains of a magnificent city were discovered here and some of the things we saw were the remains of city streets, houses, a theater, bathhouses, a synagogue. These date mainly from the Roman and Byzantine periods. The mosaics on the floors of the synagogue and some of the houses are amazing. In the synagogue there is a floor that contains 1.5 million tiles of 23 colors! In between the raindrops we were able to make our way to the Church of the Annunciation. The interior and the exterior of the church are breathtaking. Inside there are murals from countries all around the world depicting Mary and they are truly magnificent! (It may seem I am using hyperbole here, but it is truly hard to describe without it). The lower floor of the church contains another smaller chapel where they were finishing mass when we arrived. Behind the altar is the opening to the cave where they believe Mary lived and received the announcement from the angel that she was going to have a child. The cave had a facade on it orginally, but the living quarters were inside the cave. Who knew? Last night several of us walked back to the Church of the Loaves and Fishes which is close to where we are staying. We wanted to attend evening vespers in the church. It was a quiet, candlelit service of which we understood nothing as it was all in German. It didn't matter to us though as we were able to worship and sense the spirit in our midst even though we couldn't understand the words being spoken and sung. There were six of us who went and we were joined by one other person worshipping and two priests inside this small chapel. I was aware these priests are faithful day in and day out, for this is their work of Love -whether there is one or twenty people that participate. May I be found as faithful in the work that I do. Since traveling in this area, it is a new experience now when I read the gospels. I understand the places and situations of the time better and I have enjoyed reading back through Matthew this week. It has really made the scriptures come alive. When we visit these sites we read the text in the gospels that talks about where we are. That has been extremely meaningful to me as well as our prayer and devotion times we have twice a day. My head is bubbling with new insights and new questions, but most of all deep gratitude for this experience. Peace be with each of you, Nina