Page 16 - Holyland Magazine - 2010 Edition
P. 16
THIS OLD HOUSE A New England couple ensures a
proper place in history for some of
the first Americans to settle in the
Holy Land.
A rabbit warren of streets surrounds
the Maine Friendship House in the ancient
city of Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv. However,
it’s quite smooth sailing to find the lovingly
restored home and museum, a five-minute
walk from the famed Jaffa clock-tower, at
10 Auerbach Street, next to the century-
old Immanuel Church. In fact, sailing is a
good metaphor to begin the incredible story
of the house, where Reed and Jean Holmes
tell about the 157 Christians who left
Jonesport, Maine, on August 11, 1866,
on the clipper ship Nellie Chapin.
Little did that intrepid band know that some
day, a house belonging to one of them
would be called “a pearl of Tel Aviv” by
that city’s mayor, and be nominated as one
of the Seven Wonders of Israel.
Forty-two days after the voyagers left
Jonesport, they landed at the ancient port
of Jaffa, together with pre-cut lumber and
other materials for the 22 buildings they
planned to construct, as well as all their
hopes and dreams for a new life in the
Holy Land.
Reed and Jean Holmes What made them abandon everything
in front of their restored familiar and come to this forgotten corner
historic home, the Maine of the Ottoman Empire? Their leader,
Friendship House George Adams, stressed the prophetic
(insert) in Jaffa. promises of the return of the Jewish people
to their ancestral land, and taught that the
task of Christians in the land was not to
convert Jews to Christianity, but to work
together with them to make the Land of
Israel fruitful again.
16 "You will arise and have compassion on Zion... for it is time to show favor to her... For her stones are dear to your servants" (Ps 102:13-14)
