It’s been twelve years since we visited Israel, but the memories and the pictures are something I return to often. (The pictures are a great help with visualizing the stories I write.) We took about 1400 pictures during our ten day trip, and at the time I uploaded many of them to Facebook, but the journaling I did of what we saw and did there is exclusively here. There are seven parts to that journal, originally posted in March 2008 and again in September 2017, but as always, things change and I decided it was time to update parts of my website.
These journal entries are one of them. So if you’ve read them before, perhaps you will enjoy the repeat. If not, that’s okay. I do hope you take a walk through the photos if you have the time. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. You can also view 184 photos of the trip on my Facebook Page under Photos – Album – Israel Trip.
March 5, 2008 we arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, bleary-eyed and suffering from jet lag around 7:30 p.m. or 19:30 Israeli time. (They keep military time, which took a bit of an adjustment when reading the tour bus clock.) Our flight was delayed due to weather in Detroit and Atlanta. I have never seen such black clouds up close and personal. Outside our window the sky was a sea of black with an orange tint bracketing the horizon.
At times the blackness rose up and blotted the color raising angry wisps of smoke our way. We flew on through it with a bit of a bumpy ride. I was amazed at my total lack of fear. Part of the way I put my iPod (before the days when I would have just used my iPhone) on shuffle and the first song to play was “It Is Well With My Soul.” Every song that played through that flight was one of trust and peace. I have always found solace in music and God never fails to speak to my heart through song.
Once we did arrive and headed to our tour bus, some of our group had trouble with passport control, causing us another delay, but we eventually made it to the hotel around 9 p.m-ish.
After we dumped our luggage in our rooms, our first adventure was a mile walk through Tel Aviv to the 4000-year-old town of Jaffa (known as Joppa in the Bible.)
Jaffa means “pretty” and I would agree this area along the Mediterranean Sea is a pretty sight. Our guide pointed out a bush there that medical researchers are exploring as a possible help for people with diabetes. Interesting…
The walk through this area within Tel Aviv took us down what seems like a typical city in any other town in the world until you get to this little section that has stood here for 4000 years. Jesus would have known this spot, as would David and probably Abraham if they went that far over to the coast.
But Jaffa (Joppa) is most famous for the place where Jonah caught the ship to Tarshish when he ran away from the Lord’s command to go to Nineveh to preach repentance to the people there. (Interesting that God has always called people to repentance, even those who seemingly don’t deserve His grace—as Jonah thought of Nineveh. Jesus preached repentance too—something we miss sometimes when all we focus on are His miracles.) Joppa is also known in the book of Acts as the place where the apostle Peter prayed and God raised the woman Dorcas from the dead. (Acts 9)
By the time we finished our quick tour of Jaffa, we were thoroughly exhausted. Even my attempts to journal the events show a shaky hand because I could not stay awake! The next day was even busier, but more on that tomorrow…
Shalom~
