Roosters, Messianic Jews and Ice Cream!!

Greetings from the Port Inn in Haifa, Israel!!

This is our second full day here in the Holy Land. We arrived in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon, exhausted and hoping to get a good night's sleep at the Living Bread Ministry House in Jerusalem. Guess what did NOT happen!? A good night's sleep. At exactly 3am a rooster decided it was time for us to wake up. It could have been the Lord...but we really think the rooster just jumped the gun. We named him Gerald. So, all in all, we got about 3 hours of sleep.

Tuesday morning Jennie and Coleman went to rent a car for us. (That is a story that we should let them tell you!) The rest of us (Holly, Jason and Laura) walked to find an internet cafe. We asked the Lord for favor with money and the guy gave us a buy 2, get one free discount!

We finally left Jerusalem at 11:30 for our adventures in north Israel! It took FOREVER to get out of Jerusalem. Traffic jams...streets with no names (U2 anyone?)...Anyway, Our first stop was Caesarea. We were able to tour the ancient city that sits on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The city was built by the Persians in 586 BCE. It is most famous for the rule of King Herod, 37-4 BCE. Gladiator games, chariot races and different athletic events were held in King Herod's amphitheater. Many Christians were persecuted and killed during these events. This was also the place where Paul was brought up to charges and then sent to Rome to be tried before he was imprisoned and executed.

After Ceasarea we made our way to the Port Inn Guest House in Haifa where we accidentally took a three hour nap!! I guess we were tired! Thankfully, we woke up at 7:30pm and went to have dinner with David from "Jewish Believers in Jesus." David's ministry is based out of Haifa and Atlanta, GA. We ate dinner with him and two of his 11 children, Kayla and Asher. David is an amazing man of God. He is a Jewish believer himself and his heart is for the Jewish people to know Jesus as the Messiah. (And in case you didn't catch that, he has 11 children!)

After dinner, the 5 of us went to get ice cream at a place called Booza Booza! The guy who worked there was hilarious. His name was Samir. We talked to him for awhile and found out that he is a Christian!

We got back to the guest house around 11, but none of us were tired after our 3 hour nap! We played cards and the question game until 2am. Maybe not the smartest decision, but we had fun.

We are leaving this morning for Galilee! We love yall and will catch up with you again in a few days!

Jason and Laura