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This small story unfolded during our trip to the Holy Land in 2004. It was in the town of Joppa, the town of Jaffa in present day Israel. It is the town of the readings from Acts of the Apostles. It had the port through which the cedars from Lebanon were were brought in to build Solomon’s temple.
Here also is the Vatican’s embassy to Israel. There is a beautiful Franciscan church there near the house of Simon the Tanner (from Acts 10:6-15). It is called the Church of St. Peter.
When on pilgrimage there in 2004, there was a beautiful tall Jewish girl outside the church waiting to get in with us. She had just rode over on her bike from nearby Tel Aviv. It seemed to me that she came there regularly by the way she acted. While waiting she struck up a conversation with our handsome young driver, an Orthodox Christian Palestinian. I could not hear the conversation very well. She was talking about a personal decision she was trying to discern. They also talked about the prospects of peace. We went in and they stayed outside talking. The church was beautiful inside too and had a painting of Peter’s ecstasy and vision of the linen sheet with “all manner of fourfooted beasts” over the altar. When we came out the two were still talking. She sounded sad but hopeful. They then exchanged numbers, she went in, and we left.
