The Dead Sea and the Baptism of Jesus

Today we would head out to the baptismal site of this fella Jesus. The site was all but forgotten until 1897 when a scholar from Jerusalem discovered the Madaba Map made from mosaics, which we would see tomorrow. The site is right on the border of Israel and was not safe until 1994 when they de-mined this former militarized zone. A few bits of the original churches have survived.





Today each country is allowed to build a church here if they like.





Here is the actual spot believed to be where Jesus got dunked by John the Baptist. It looks like the river Jordan has all but dried up. However, the insecurities of Israel resulted in them rerouting the river so that they could feel important too. Fracturing the energy of the story to take it in the direction they wanted it to go.

Here is the church of Jordan, right on the "new river" banks.

The river is basically the border between Jordan and Israel. The people on the other side are in Israel.



This was amazing to me and I struggled for quite a while to get my head around it. It's just a river, yet all these people are making a pilgrimage to it to be baptized in it. They are reciting verses from the Bible and Torah and singing songs in groups. They clearly had a very deep connection to this place and it was a huge part of their daily lives. I then I realized what it was, it was simply their story. I had done what many others have done over the years that has lead to great conflict. I was judging their story, thinking how silly it was that they have so much faith in this river. They were not doing anything wrong, they were just being who they are. It was me that had a problem, it was that my story that did not understand theirs. I should not be judging what I don't fully understand but instead learning and growing from this new knowledge. What path were they on? What brought them to this point? What brought me to this point? So I knelt down and cupped my right hand, dipping it in the water and pouring it over my head. I wasn't all of a sudden joining the church, but rather learning what I did not understand. If we could all just do this there would be no wars.

There was a group of Chinese people on the Israeli side and I watched as they each got baptized, connecting with the energy of their story to make it part of my story. For example, I think the story of the lady in the dark green jacket in the upper right was that she traveled from China to Israel and just now realized she left her oven on.

A few songs and prayer on the Jordan side.

A few songs and prayer on the Israel side.

We then said goodbye to the river.

Our guide Abraham was awesome and really became part of our group. He wanted to share with us some of the local fare, specifically the Kaek sandwich. It's actually pounced "cock" so we were all very curious to learn what it was constructed from when we stopped here.

I was even more curious when I saw that right next door was the local dental surgeon.

There is some assembly required and you start by picking up this amazing fresh sesame seed bread and breaking it open so you can fill the inside.

Next you peel a hard boiled egg and slice it up followed by slicing some cheese. You cram that all inside along with some tomato and it is really quite tasty, in fact I even went back for a second one.

We returned to the hotel to go for a swim. There were two options, the hotel pool which was filled with water from the Dead Sea or the actual Dead Sea.



Of course we opted for the Dead Sea itself and this would really play with my mind. It looks like water and it feels like water, meaning it did not seem any thicker or dense that any other body of water, however you float. You actually float so much that you are top heavy and tip over to the side. It's a very strange sensation, not to mention that it is all happening over 1400 feet below sea level.

A few words of caution, do not attempt to dive underwater, in fact don't even get your lips wet. While it feels like normal water there is no question about the high salt concentration when it comes in contact with your lips or eyes and burns, and I mean really burns. On the plus side nothing can live in this so there is no seaweed, coral, fish, or anything else that might freak me out should it brush against me.