Catching Up Day 1 & Day 2

It’s Wednesday night and jet lag has been kind to us today.  Yesterday we caught a quick look at Tel Aviv as we traveled south along the coast to the old city of Jaffa (Joppa).  We took a group picture at the port of Jaffa with a nice view of the coast and Tel Aviv in the background.  It was from Joppa that Jonah took off for Tarshish and there was a fun whale statue in the center of town in honor of Jonah’s fateful trip back to shore.  We enjoyed an incredible lunch in a local restaurant where they brought lavish amounts of hummus and other side dishes to make shawarma.  That was our first meal as a group and it was festive and delicious.  From there we traveled on to Ashkelon (was a major Philistine city where Samson brought some excitement with a riddle about a dead lion and honey and killed 30 Philistines and gave their clothes and belongings to his friends who solved his riddle) where we spent the night.  Many of our group had just arrived that morning so everyone was looking sleepy.  Brent was determined to keep us awake until after dinner so a cup of hot tea and walk to the beach did the trick.  After our Mediterranean lunch we knew we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to dip our toes in the Mediterranean Sea before dinner.  Beautiful and refreshing.  Sleep came easy that night and we woke up feeling rested this morning.

 

Our tour guide, David, is a vibrant believer and has kept us thoroughly engaged, sharing key insights along the way.  His conversational style has brought the Scriptures to life and has helped orient this girl who is ordinarily directionally-challenged.  Today’s focus was “In the Desert with the Patriarchs.”  Our travels took us through the Negev Desert and on to Tel Be’er Sheva (Beer Sheba).  Deep wells played an important role as surface water was in short supply.  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived in that area because it offered good grazing lands for their flocks and herds.  Abraham dug a well that was confiscated by the Philistines and after he complained to Abimilech, the ruler at that time, they made an agreement to live together as friends and share the water supply.  To seal the agreement, Abraham gave seven lambs from his flock.  The name Beer Sheba means the “well of an oath” or literally, “well of seven”.  We were told that Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in that area and built an altar to worship the Lord.  It was fun to see the plentiful tamarisk trees in that area and to walk down to the depths of the cistern near the well.  This site was the first place archaeologists found a horned altar.  The original was moved to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem for preservation but we saw the replica.  It was fascinating to see the ruins there as well as in Avdat, an ancient caravan city of the Nabateans.  We learned quite a bit about the life of Bedoins, past and present, and completed our journey for today going through the Wilderness of Paran to visit the grand Mitzpe Ramon Crater….incredible!  Our pictures don’t do it justice. 


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