DAY Four: Part One

DAY Four started
with Baptisms in the
Jordan River. There
were four people in
our group who had
never been baptized
before and a bunch
who were being
baptized again. It
was a really exciting
time. Each baptizee
wore a white gown over
their clothes and received
a certificate saying they
had been baptized in
the Jordan River.












Next we drove 2 hours to the Dead Sea. It was amazing leaving the greenness of the Sea of Galilee area to the rocky deadness of the Dead Sea. It reminded me of a lesson that I taught my students when I was in Sri Lanka. In the lesson we were talking about living a lifestyle where you give to others as well as receive from others...there's an ebb and flow. I gave them an analogy of the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Galilee takes in water but it also gives out water. It is surrounded by lush greenery and full of life...it receives from others but also gives out to others. The Dead Sea on the other hand only receives water, none is given away. The Dead Sea does not support life and the surrounding area is rocky and scrubby. It's a powerful depiction of life. I will say however that the Dead Sea is still a blast! We had fun floating around and covering ourselves with mud.
Andrea and I covered ourselves in awesome Dead Sea mud. The water feels like oil because there is such a high salt content. There are no living organisms in the water so the squishy mud at the bottom was tolerable knowing it wasn't algae. It was crazy how hard it was to actually get your legs underneath you in the water. We also visited the Ahava Factory Outlet while we were there. It's a company that makes wonderful beauty products from the minerals in the Dead Sea. Below is a picture taken from the water of the Dead Sea up the beach. The mountains in the background is the mountain range where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.