A Tour Of Roses Israel, Day 1

(L-R-Front Row) Sunny, Evi, Lura, Yara, Karen, Annie, Khalida, Sally
(Back) Ingeborg, Robert, Dave, Eric

Dear Friends of Improbable People Ministries and A Tour Of Roses,

As you can see by the 12 beautifully assembled visages above, the entire ATOR contingent has landed in Tel Aviv, tired but glad to be, at long last, in The Promised Land. Apparently, it’s been an eventful day. Unfortunately I have only sketchy reports on what has transpired as most have gone to bed. While I sit in the air conditioned comfort of my home at 7 PM Central time, our weary travelers are mostly fast asleep. To give perspective, those of you readers in the Eastern Time Zone–Israel is 7 hours ahead of you and it’s already Sunday. Add another hour for the Central and the difference is 8 hours. And those of you shaking and baking on the West Coast are a full 10 hours behind God’s Chosen People. No wonder you’re so complacent. How will you ever catch up?

As I said there is not too much activity to report on this first day on the ground, but a Facebook post caught my eye on my wife Sally’s timeline. It read:

 

 

Well, that’s one way to picque my interest. I suppose if you were a clothing bag playing hooky, you could do worse than tarry in the world’s most romantic city, right? I was able to coax a few lines from my bride of 37 years on FB Messenger and she informed me she would be without her bag until at least Monday. As we used to say in the 60s, “Bummer.” This, of course, was not the only mishap of the day. It seems a couple of the ladies got locked out of their room Saturday evening, Sally included, and the front desk was closed for the night. So far too many women per bed capita were going to have to sleep in one room. Easy for me to say, but again—”Bummer!”

If the New York tabloids got hold of this story, I’m thinking they might have taken these innocent factlets and created the headline:

 

Sally Klein O’Connor Locked Out Of Hotel Room With No Clothes

 

I know. I know. My mind works in odd and mysterious ways. The important takeaway from Day 1 is that despite these setbacks the team will one day look back upon and laugh at, everyone arrived safely and on time. Connections were met. All bags but one delivered to rightful owners. Transportation was procured at Ben Gurion Airport and the team is ensconced safely in a comfortable location for a few days in preparation for receiving the first batch of roses on Sunday.
Before she conked out Sally was able to share a couple thoughts on the day’s minor activities:

SALLY: “It’s been an extremely challenging day. Much warfare in small and bigger ways. I wondered if we would even be able to make it to Succat Hallel since only Robert had a phone with GPS working properly. But only by the grace of God we made it. Had a wonderful time worshiping the Lord. Lura danced with flags, so did Sunny, Ingeborg and Khalida. Some of us went out for a lamb burger after, and the rest of us went to a market and made sandwiches.”

One more thing. Despite the bumps in the road the group was able to make their worship date on the first evening at Succat Hallel. We know this because of Yara’s beautiful photo of the evening’s worship session:

Thanks for coming along for the ride. It’s our pleasure and privilege to have you with us.  —Michael O’Connor