Israel/Egypt Pilgrimage

Well, it’s the end of day 1 (travel day). After an 8 hour layover in Philadelphia and then a 9 and a half flight to Tel Aviv, our 2013 pilgrimage to the Holy Land finally got to touch some holy land. As tired as I was, and am currently, I was amazed at how much life seemed to zoom into my system the closer we got to land. In our seats we had a screen that showed us the GPS of the plane and as we crossed into the Mediterranean it started to become really interesting knowing what we were flying over.
As we got about 30 minutes from landing, the captain informed us that it was time to sit down and put things away. I started looking out the window more and though the sun was reflecting of the wing directly into my eyes, it dawned on me. “That’s the Mediteranean Sea!” Then as I began giggling about how silly I was being, I saw the coast of Israel. “That’s flipping Israel!!!” It hit me where I was and I hadn’t even touched the ground!
After landing, we met up with EO and then began the process of going through customs (by the way, it was thorough, but not a pain). We got our luggage and headed to the bus. Our tour guide, Jimmy, began telling us where we were – Tel Aviv or known in Biblical times as Joffa. It’s where Jonah ran away from God to, grabbed a boat and headed in the opposite direction that he was supposed to be going. We drove for about 2 and half hours and our guide would point out interesting features of the land – this is Mount Carmel where Elijah fought the prophets of Baal, this is the valley known as Armegeddon, this area to the right of the bus is what was known as Samaria and is know called the West Bank. I sat in the bus absolutely amazed by what I was seeing and knowing that starting tomorrow, I’ll get to see it first hand.
Tonight, we’re staying in the city of Tiberius – built by Herod Antipas and named for the Roman Emperor. Historically, it was hard for Jews to live in this city because of Herod’s involvement with Rome, but today it’s almost completely inhabited by Jews – not even many Arabic Christians. Tomorrow we will set out and see some of this amazing area, including Cana of Galilee and several of the places Jesus taught and performed miracles.
Thanks for following along with me – Shalom for now!