Or should I say, Joppa? Let’s do even better, for your Hebrew name means “beauty.” You and Tel Aviv are port cities, stationed on the Mediterranean. It was in your city where the cedars came down from Lebanon in route to Jerusalem for the building and then the rebuilding of the Temple. You harbored a ship that Jonah boarded to get away from God. I’m sure you saw his frantic fears as he charted his escape. God was asking something significant of Jonah that seemed too hard and running away seemed like the best plan. Peter brought Tabitha back from the dead in your city as written in Acts 9. Then he stood on a rooftop here and received a vision from God - a vision that has implications for the whole world. He heard God tell him to take the Good News to the Gentiles (non-Jews). 

Your port city teaches me that God uses places to bring in and send out the Gospel. You are a passageway to building the Church and a place for healing and miracles. 

Jesus began His ministry by (1) proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God and (2) healing every disease and affliction. (Matthew 4:23) When He called the twelve disciples together, He gave them power and sent them out to (1) proclaim the Kingdom of God and (2) to heal. (Luke 9:2)

Just as this was true of your port city, may this be true of my port city, San Francisco. May it be true for the places of those reading this letter. Together we ask for a vision like Peter and a calling like Jonah. Together we pray for our cities and towns to be a place:

To build His Church

To bring in and send out the Good News of Jesus, and

To speak healing over disease and afflictions in the powerful Name of Jesus. 

And as for you, Tel Aviv, thank you for waiting up and receiving me. I appreciate you leaving the lights on when I arrived. 

A tired, but Christmas Eve-like sleeper of a sojourner,

Shauna 

P.S. Facts shared come from the Scriptures and from the tour with Insight for Living Ministries.