As I begin today's BLOG, I must first say THANK YOU to both the Rev Scott Hennessy and Chuck Woodward, whom I am told is a pretty cool organist, both of of St Paul's, Norfolk for organizing this great trip!
Tuesday, as I said, began wonderfully with a huge breakfast buffet. We headed out into Tel Aviv-Jaffa ... and I must admit that our bus driver can work miracles behind the wheel!
Tel Aviv-Jaffa has an interesting history as to how it began. Sixty Jewish families living in Jaffa were tired of being discriminated against and decided to build their own city. These families went out to the sand dunes just outside of Jaffa, and bought them, becoming a city in 1909. They cast lots to decide who got which sand dune. The name Tel Aviv generally means "old layers" with "new". The two places are known as the combined Tel Aviv-Joffa.
We went to visit Independence Hall, where David Ben-Gurion declared Israel an independent country on May 14, 1948. The details of the story are quite interesting, including the fact that the current building was an art gallery, with the original home of Ben-Gurion having been incorporated into it. In recent rennovations, walls of the original building are being uncovered as the inside walls. The declaration took place in it, as it was the only building in Tel Aviv build of stone at the time.
Food is big here - meals include lots of cheeses, beets, fresh salads and orange juice you can watch being squeezed.
We headed out to Jaffa (Joppa), which is next door, and from which God tried to send Jonah to Ninevah. This is also where Peter had his vision from God concerning what is clean and unclean (Acts 10). We walked up to the Jaffa Overlook, which offered fantastic views out to the Mediterranian, and over the towns. At the top, a monument gave homage to Abraham's story, the Battle of Jerico, and Jacobs dream of angels ascending & descending from heaven.
We descended, and went to the Church of St Peter, dedicated to his raising of Tabitha from the dead there, but had a restricted view due to the interior being restored. Just off shore was Andromeda's Stone, a flat rock in the sea, upon which young maids were sacrificed to pagan gods.
Lunch was next ... a smoked salmon sandwich on a fresh bun ... yummmmm!
Then we headed to the clandestine munitions factory, at the Ayalon Institute in Rehovot (a bullet production facility). The whole munitions factory was built underground beneath the laundry facility and bakery in a kibutz. It took a tremendous dedication of the workers to work in such conditions of noise, heat, and light deprivation.
After returning to the upper world, we drove to the Valley of Elah, where David and Goliath held their famous battle. At that valley, two long ridges met, and the two armies each held a ridge. Whoever came down to attack first, would loose, as the other was still on high ground ... and so the two champions came to battle. Of course, you know the rest of the story... David won using a sling shot and stones from the stream we drove across. We enjoyed ourselves as we role-played the scripture of the confrontation, found in 1 Samuel.
Got some goodies from our tour guide Mike ... a good map of Israel, a hat, and a flight pillow ...
Agriculture is big here ... drove by wheat fields (a wheat area since before King Saul), olive and orange groves, banana and grape farms.
We arrived at Ben Shemish Tel (a Tel is an area where one city has been destroyed, and another is built on top of the rubble). The Ark of the Covenant was located at Ben Shemish after it was retrieved from the Phillistines.
After all this, we arrived back at the City Hotel, Tel Aviv, ate dinner ... and headed to a shower and bed!!!!
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