Greetings From Israel!

We have all arrived safe to Tel Aviv, Israel after a slight delay.

We were told we would be packing in a lot of sites and they weren’t kidding. Our guide Miriam opened the tour taking us to the modern city of Modi’in, the hometown of the Maccabees. We stopped for lunch at an indoor Israeli mall.

The Jewish people just finished with the week long Feast of Tabernacles that is called Sukkot. You can see the booths or sukkahs on people’s balconies. Learn more here.

We drove through the Valley of Aijalon where Joshua asked God to stop the sun. Then through Beth Shemesh which is a border city between Judah and Dan. We stopped at the hilltop of Azekah where we had a view of the Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath. Jim Showers, the executive director of The Friends of Israel and our guide Miriam shared how God used the victory of David to raise him in the eyes of the Israelites.

We then stopped at the Port of Joppa to walk around. We saw where tradition says Simon the tanner lived from Acts 9-10. We also saw the ancient ruins of an Egyptian gate. We had a short drive to our hotel and saw the beautiful sunset dropping over the Mediterranean Sea. Had a great dinner was followed by hopefully a great night’s sleep for a busy day tomorrow.