Thousands again visit Beit Immanuel
Every year for the past three years the City of Tel-Aviv has invited people from around the country to visit the city's historical buildings. The Municipality is encouraging citizens to preserve the memory of the early Zionists who established the "First Hebrew City" in modern Israel.
Beit Immanuel is a crucial link in this exciting history. Our story d ates back to the 1800's. Jews and Gentiles dedicated to Aliyah (return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel) worked together tilling the land, building hospitals, establishing schools and prepared the way for the waves of immigration that flowed through the Jaffa port. It's a story of Baron Ustinov and Baron Rotschild. There is a Princess and a Prussian King, a garden planted by the first school of agriculture in Israel, and a comedy of errors involving the grandfather of modern Hebrew literature, Shai Agnon.
Last weekend approximately 2500 visitors came to hear Beit Immanuel's story. Our staff, dressed in period costume, proudly shared the story of this great city. Visitors heard lectures on the early Zionists and how they settled Tel Aviv in the 19th century. They learned about the Bible believing Christians who helped the pioneer Jewish settlers. We even had a visit by Tel-Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and his wife with a group of family and friends just prior to the Open House.
What a priviledge and a joy it is to serve our city, and our nation, helping preserve the incredible story of Israel's restoration. Many thanks to all of you who stand with us in prayer and support. Each one of you, and all of us together, are a crucial part of that story; that is Israel today.
The Sign of Jonah
A 13 meter (43 foot) whale appeared in Jaffa this week. Marine biologists were stunned when the Great Grey was spotted just a kilometer off the Jaffa coast. "This kind of whale is thousands of miles away from where it should be," said Dr Aviad Scheinin of the Israel Marine Mammal Research & Assistance Center.
Normally the Grey whale lives in the eastern Pacific, migrating between the waters of Alaska to Baja, California. Experts are only guessing, but they think that the melting ice in the North West Passage through the Arctic Sea allowed the whale to turn south down the eastern side of the North Atlantic and from there through the Straights of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean.
The next time someone snickers about the story of Jonah and how the "great fish swallowed him up," send them this video link.
Then read these verses from Matthew 12:39-42 . . . .
"An evil generation seeks for a sign, and no sign will be given to is except the sigh of the prophet Jonah. Far as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaeching of Jonah; and indeed a greater that Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgement with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater that Solomon is here."
Then pray with us that more and more people in this generation will come to know, and trust him, the one who is greater. |
