Well, it is Saturday morning here in Israel – about 8:00a.m. – that would be midnight in Abilene! My body has adjusted to the new time pretty quickly since I do not sleep well on airplanes.
Speaking of airplanes, many of you may remember my airline experiences when we went to Maui for our incentive trip – I had total airplane delays of 12 hours! Yesterday, we only had 3 hours of delays – I am not holding my breath, though, because we still have to travel home! Trust me, I am not looking for a new world delay record!
Our journey started when we arrived at the DFW Airport at 7:10 a.m. on Thursday, July 28th. Here was our schedule: DFW to Atlanta (layover), Atlanta to NYC (layover), NYC to Tel Aviv, Israel (10 hour flight). By the time, we arrived at the camp where we are staying just outside Tel Aviv, it was 5:10 p.m. (Israel time) on Friday – 26 hours of travel!!! Israel time is 8 hours ahead of Abilene time for future knowledge.
On our way to camp, we stopped at a grocery store to get a few supplies, and they would not allow us to come in because it was too close to Shabot – the Sabbath. As you know, Israel is a Jewish state, and so they celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday (actually, sundown Friday to sundown Saturday). During Shabot, almost all businesses shut down and work virtually ceases (kind of like America used to be on Sunday, decades ago). We settled in at camp, had a delicious meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tomatoes, and olives, and after tossing the baseball around with Drew, we went directly to bed.
Today, we will be touring in Joffa (also called Joppa – you can read about what Peter did in Joppa in Acts 9:40-43). I will report more tomorrow. For now, I’m signing off – thanks for your prayers and for your interest in the Seale Family journey to Israel!