On Thursday January 18th 2018, thirty one people
left Toronto International Airport flying Air Canada to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion
Airport. Our Boeing 787 Dreamliner with approximately
300 people on board took off at 5 pm and we arrived at 3 am Toronto time which
was 10 am Tel Aviv time. It was a 10 hour flight and after clearing customs and
getting our luggage together we met Doran Hoffman our tour guide and Advid our
bus driver.
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| Pastor Peter, Don & Bev at the Jaffa Port |
From the airport we traveled
a short distance to Jaffa on the Mediterranean coast. Now Jaffa is all one
city with Tel Aviv. It’s a very modern big city and heavy traffic. Cars
are small and plenty of motor bikes. You cannot tell where one starts and
the other ends. In the scriptures it’s referred to as Joppa.
Now Joppa is the southern,
oldest part of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is
famous for its association with the biblical stories of Jonah, Solomon and
Peter.
Joppa was renown as a port city and in ancient times would
have been an important gateway for getting in and out of Israel. The weather today was around 16 degrees Celsius
but the strong winds made it feel much cooler and the Mediterranean Sea was
raging!
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| Today with the wind the Mediterranean Sea was raging! |
We had a light lunch at a bakery in town and then headed to
the Metropolitan Hotel to check in. We’re
having a welcome banquet in the dining room tonight and it’s the beginning of
the Jewish Shabbat starting at sundown till sundown Saturday. Shabbat is the Biblical command for a day of
rest and or cessation from work. As an example how this plays out; we were
instructing to not use the designated Shabbat elevator in the hotel. Pushing an elevator button is considered work
so that during Shabbat the designated elevator will stop at every floor
travelling up and down the 14 plus storey building. I think I might be late for
dinner if I used the Shabbat elevator!
Till tomorrow; blessings to you in our Lord Jesus Christ.
