Baptism Site

When I heard that I could go the actual baptism site of Jesus, I immediately thought of the movie the ten commandments and the river, and the whole scene. It was an incredible image- in my head. LOL Unfortunately, the River Jordan has dropped in water level significantly since there was a dam built on the outflow of the Sea of Galilee, so the river doesn't even make it to the site outside of the winter rainy months. So what I saw looked very sad- it is the picture of the large puddle of water with the stone foundation thing next to it. Yep. So that was dissapointing. The site is not actually a "drive up" site. You park about 1/2 mile away, and walk in groups into "the military zone". That's right, military zone. With real armed security personnel. This area is very hot- not only in temperature, but also politically. This is the zone where both Isreal and Palestine claim to own the land, and really it's on Jordan's land, so there is army guys everywhere. Seeing the River Jordan was cool though. To think this is the real river that flows from the Sea of Galilee through Israel since the time of Jesus was amazing. Once I got to the river, which again, is another walk beyond the baptism site, you see these willow awnings, kindof shanty looking buildings, then you look across the river and there is a MASSIVE stone complex with the banks of the river all terraced and landscaped. That complex is built on Palestine side. This was another moment where I realized that I am on the Islamic side of the river- shanty's made of willow branches. I was literally across the small river from Palestine. If you look at the picture of the women in the water, they were a religous group and they were getting baptized. The River Jordan, seeing the people getting baptized, and realizing where I was became a moment for me, then the women started seeing- really beautiful singing, and I had a moment. It was wonderful.