Sea of Galilee

When our team met up with the other Nazareth team mid-way through our projects, we spent a day visiting the Sea of Galilee and various places surrounding it, such as a synagogue at Capernaum where Jesuspreached, the place where he fed the 5,ooo, and so on. When on the boat, moving slowly with a gentle breeze, all sorts of music played, some worship, some comical. Embarassing videos on Facebook depict the fun we had. But soon the boat stopped, as did the music, and someone read from Scripture about when Jesus called Peter to step out of the boat and walk on the water, which can be found in Matthew 14:22-36. It would have happened somewhere close to where we were. We reflected in silence as the words were read.

I thought of how God had called me to be in that place and lead the team, doing kids work, all of which are relatively new experiences for me. I reaised how faithful He had been to us all, in equipping us for the tasks He had called us to. I rededicated myself to Him again and prayed Isaiah's famous prayer once more ('Here I am. Send me. Wherever!').

Peter was walking toward Jesus on the water as instructed, but when the wind came, he began to doubt, and then began to sink. I prayed that for the next week of the mission, with 104 12-15 year-olds at the camp, that our faith would be strong enough to keep us above the water. And I can honestly say that by the grace of God this is what happened. Many people were praying for us whilst we were away, and every prayer I'm aware was prayed was answered. God is so faithful, and I have never been on such a unified, one-minded, healthy, energetic, fun-loving, servant-hearted misson team before in all my life. Happy days!:)

Another highlight from that day was helping one team member to renew his baptism vows, meaning we got to dunk him in the Sea of Galilee. A lowlight was the fish I ate before I went in. It was served complete with its eyes still there. I had to ask someone else to remove its head, and seriously considered reverting back to vegetarianism. But I got better.;)