Wow…what a day. Or has it been two days? Anyway…overseas travel is always interesting. I left the house at 6:15AM Central Time on Tuesday, and I am writing this at 8:15PM Israeli Time on Wednesday. I'll let someone else do the math to figure out how long it was, I'm a bit too tired. But, between those two times I had a one hour flight from Huntsville to Atlanta, a two hour flight from Atlanta to New York and a ten hour flight from New York to Tel Aviv. And I'm glad to say that my luggage made the same exact trip.
But, it is great to be back in the land of Israel. I have only been here for a few hours, but I've already learned so much more. This is going to be an exciting ten days and I can't wait to get it started early tomorrow morning.
We are staying tonight in the city of Netanya, which is along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, just north of Joppa. Joppa is associated with many stories in the Bible, including the story of Jonah. Jonah tried to flee God by boarding a ship at the port of Joppa.
I took tonight's picture a few minutes after we checked into our hotel. The sun was just setting on the horizon. Seeing this, it made me think more about Jonah. After he boarded that boat, I wonder if his view of the Mediterranean sunset looked just like this. Knowing the local climate, it probably did. He probably went to sleep that first night on the boat thinking that he had been successful. Of course, we know that he was not.
Tomorrow is a big day. We will start the day at Caesarea Maritima, where Paul spent two years in prison. Then we move on to Mount Carmel, Megiddo, Nazareth and end up at the Sea of Galilee. The same sea where Jesus walked on the water. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow morning.
But, before I can do that, I must get some much needed sleep. Until tomorrow….