A 10-day journey to Israel in late May was filled with awe and emotion for Larry and Shirley Robertson, Gas.
“It was the trip of a lifetime to go where Christianity started and walk where Jesus walked,” Larry Robertson said. “It was mind-boggling.”
“I know now I’ll connect better with the Scriptures,” wife Shirley said.
They were in a party of 18 hosted by the Rev. Trudy Kenyon-Anderson, pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church, and her husband, Russ Anderson.
For Larry Robertson the experience had strong impact from two perspectives.
He has spent a lifetime working as a mason, and to see structures built centuries ago that have withstood the ravages of time, was amazing.
“The Romans were brutal, but they also were fantastic builders,” employing extraordinary means without advantage of today’s machines and technology.
Robertson said he was flabbergasted at how large stones weighing hundreds of pounds were moved from quarry to building site.
“They used two wheels with the stone they were transporting being the axle,” he said. “It was ingenious.”
He also marveled at how bathhouses and other structures were heated. Hot air from a fire built in a vessel outdoors was directed though structures in hollow tiles in floors and walls.
“It also was interesting how they bathed,” he said. “They didn’t have soap, so they used oil and then scraped it off with a sharp object.”
Little rainfall prompted a proliferation of cisterns across the country.
“They were very efficient,” directing 90 to 95 percent of rainfall to cisterns through trenches, he said. “One day, we went down 183 steps to reach a tunnel that led to a spring.”
BETHLEHEM, Jerusalem, Caesarea, where Paul was imprisoned, the Jordan River and many other landmark Christian sites were on the tour.
They also saw Masada, enhanced by King Herod and later occupied by Jewish rebels. Romans laid siege and near the conclusion of a three-year battle built a ramp, described as an engineering marvel, that permitted them to break into the hilltop fortress.
