DAY ONE: OLD JAFFA

Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.  He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea (Acts 10:5-6).

At the airport in Tel Aviv we were introduced to our guide, a charming 40 something female who both entertained and informed us about what we were seeing.  Her name was Keren. Keren has a great speaking voice making her easy to listen to Our bus driver was Heim.  To me it is amazing how he could navigate the crowed narrow streets with a tour bus and never put a scratch on it.  We were all very thankful for his important skill as a driver!  We tourists came to love them both.

Jaffa was an old city even during the time of Jonah.  When God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah left Joppa (now Jaffa) headed in the opposite direction.  Archaeologists have unearthed remains dating 2,000 years before Christ, establishing it as one of the world's oldest sea ports.  We saw archaeological evidence that the Egyptians were a significant part of the city's history.

Significant Biblical events happened in Jaffa other than Jonah's disobedience.  Tabitha/Dorcas was raised from the dead here (Acts 9) and Peter had his vision here in which God communicated to Peter that anything that God has made pure shall not be called impure, speaking of the conversion of Cornelius and his family which was soon to follow (Acts 10).

We walked the streets of old Jaffa.  The old streets are dark and narrow and turn alot--it wouldn't be hard to get lost. We met a woman who had moved there from Oklahoma, making Jaffa her home.  We saw the traditional home of Simon the Tanner as well as St. Peter's church where the alter faces west, symbolizing the church's openness to the Gentiles because of Peter's vision.  One of the items of interest is that there are so many cats in Jaffa.  Keren said the British (Brits) brought them to deal with all the rodents.

The Mediterranean coast reminds me a lot of California.  The weather was somewhat stormy that first day, the surf was up and there were surf-boarders surfing.  We had a festive supper, but were very tired, and eagerly went to bed.  March 12 and 13 blended together into one long day.  We spent the night in the next-door city of Tel Aviv.

Our Father's Love,
Tom

This wasn't the 777 we flew in on, but it is amazing to me that we can load up 300 people and all of their stuff and fly them at 500 miles per hour across the ocean.  What an age we live in! Below is Simon the tanner's front door. (A traditional site.)