Hi From The HOLY LAND - General info and Day 1

Well, I know it has been since August that I have posted, but I finally realized this would be a great way to not only share our trip, but to document it as well. It is now about 9 pm on December 8 (monday) in Jerusalem - I think it is about our 6th day here. It should be about 11 am on the 8th at home. I will start with the evening we arrived and continue on from there as I have time and access to an internet connection. We left Spokane very early on December 2 - Tuesday last week. After 2 plus hours to Denver; 2 plus hours to Chicago; 8 plus hours to Frankfurt, and another almost 4 hours, we arrived in Tel Aviv on the evening of the 3rd. Before checking into our hotel, the Metropolitan, in Tel Aviv, we went directly into Jaffa, the 'Old City' of Tel Aviv. This is the port through which logs came from Tyre and Sidon to build King Solomon's Temple and the 2nd Temple during Cyrus the great of Persia's reign - Solomon's rule was during 957 BC!!

Ok

wow

that's nearly 3ooo years people!! This is also the port from which Jonah fled and was swallowed by the 'great fish'. New Testament Times; this was where Peter healed Tabitha and stayed at Simon the Tanner's house and also had his vision on the roof - with the white sheet and the animals - you know, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat" no more food restrictions. I don't have many pictures here, it was dark. But I do have a shot of Simon the Tanner's house:



OK - so very frustrating

Uploading pictures right now is a tremendous problem; so I will load the pictures I have of Jaffa later. Let me finish with a little perspective. The US is, what, about 240 years old? In less than 2 hours in Israel, we visited ONE site and connected incidents from 3000 years ago through about 1600 years ago.

Bible references for today's post: if you have interest and time :)
2 Chronicles 2:15-16
Ezra 3:7
Jonah 1:3
Acts 9:34-36
Acts 10:1-23

Blessings to you all from the Holy Land - we love you and are excited for the remainder of our trip, but also anxious to get home to everyone