Joppa

Joppa, also spelled Jaffa, is the southern most and oldest part of Tel Aviv.  It was a fortified port city for over 4,000 years.  King David & his son, Soloman conquered and ruled it.  It was here that Soloman received the cedars cut in Tyre and shipped to the port of Jaffa, to be used in constructing the first temple in Jerusalem.   2 Chronicles 2:16

Joppa is also the city where Jonah hitched a ride on a boat in an attempt to flee God.  As a storm threatened the lives of the men on board, Jonah told them it was his fault for being disobedient to God, and told them to throw him to sea.  He was swallowed by a giant fish who puked him up onshore 3 days later.  Book of Jonah 
This story also appears in the Qur'an where Jonah's name is spoken with praise by Muhammad.

 
 

No one really knows where the true house of
Simon the tanner is located but everyone likes to
 tout their house as being the original.

 
 
 

In Acts 10 we read about Peter's vision on the rooftop of Simon the tanners house located in Joppa, a city by the sea.  This leads him to Cornelius the Centurion, and the realization that God wants him to share the message with Gentiles as well as Jews.

Tel Aviv

We arrived at Tulsa International airport around 11:00 in the morning, flew to Chicago, then Newark, N.J. where we caught our flight to Israel.  We arrived in Tel Aviv around 4:00 pm the following day.  After traveling 24 hours we were tired but that didn't diminish our excitement one bit.  We checked into the hotel, ate dinner, and immediately set out to explore the city and watch the sunset over the Mediterranean.
Tel Aviv is not much different from any other metropolitan city across the U.S.  The one difference that really stood out to me though, was the number of stray cats.  They were everywhere!  It almost looked like a cat convention, seriously!  I asked one man who was walking around setting out food for them why they had so many cats, and he told me the question I should ask would be why don't we have so many cats in the U.S.?  He asked me why we kill our cats?  Hmmmm...population control?  Stopping the spread of disease?  Keeping them from dying slow deaths of starvation?  Anyway, they don't have animal control centers so the cats just roam wild everywhere. 

Stray cats.  They were everywhere, in the park, by the beach, near the shops.  All of them were skinny, and shy.  None of them would come to us, but they weren't really afraid either.

The city looked much like any other large city complete with the golden arches of a McDonalds, although they don't have cheeseburgers.  It's not kosher to serve cheese with meat.

 

 

 

A New Adventure

Mike and I have been blessed to travel half way across the world to Israel with Lamb & Lion Ministries.  We heard, learned, and saw so much that I wanted to share it with anyone and everyone.  Sooooo....buckle up and fly with me to the HOLY land as I tell you about our experiences through pictures, history, and Bible verse!