My mom and my brother just texted to say they’d landed in Tel Aviv. Their 10 day Holy Land adventure begins today. My heart is one part ecstatic for the experiences they are about to partake in and one part aching that I am not there by their side for it all. Israel is like nothing else. I learned this when I journeyed there with the Great Commission Bible Institute and Christian Travel Study Programs in the spring of 2018 and I pray all will line up for me to go back again someday. But for now I have my notes and photos from my own Christian pilgrimage in the Holy Land just a year and a half ago. I traipsed across the foreign landscape carrying three cameras (a DSLR, a medium format Contax 645 and my iPhone 10) aching to tell the story I saw before my eyes. I came back with a card full of images and a bag full of film exposed in the warm light of a place I now knew and longed for return. These photos are like treasures to me. Which reminded me that I had never officially shared the images from that experience (other than the occasional Instagram post, that one Heartland Living Magazine article feature and my Fine Art Holy Land Print Shop I opened up last fall). So now is the time. Below you’ll find a glimpse and a bit of a description and back story here and there. Enjoy the adventure!

The Great Commission Bible Institute attracts students from across the globe to come and study in the heart of Central Florida. The 10 month intensive Bible program founded and taught by Dr. Randall Smith, pastor at Sebring Grace Church, focuses solely on the Bible. At the start of the year the students read the Bible from cover to cover aloud together in 8 days. It’s intense to say the least but a great way to get their eyes on every word of the Bible and gives an overarching, holistic view of the story of God’s people and redemption through Jesus Christ. For the remainder of the 10 months they slow down a bit and dive into the entirety of The Word all 66 books, 1189 chapters. The stories of the Bible develop deeper meaning as they dig deep into the cultural context, style of writing and how it all applies to our lives today. And after 10 months at home in the heart of Florida and deep in the Word the students have the opportunity to partake in a trip to Israel and watch as the stories come to life. They walk where ancient stories took place and breath in the air rich with history and personal, spiritual meaning. The Word that shapes their lives is now tangible beneath their dusty, sandal clad feet.

The trip which spans a total of 10 touring days is all brought together by Dr. Randall Smith and his Biblical tour program Christian Travel Study Programs. It takes students on a journey following in the steps of Jesus, His disciples and Old Testament figures in the Bible where we ask the question, “How does standing on this spot help me understand what God communicated better?” From Bethlehem to Nazareth to the shores of Galilee to the Judean Desert, ancient Jericho and the cliffs of Ein Gedi to the streets of ancient Jerusalem, the Temple Mount steps and down the crowded Via Dolorosa the pages they studied for the past year come to life in the warm Israel light in vibrant and very real new ways.

THE TOUR:

Myself and my husband, Devon Fox (who also teaches the New Testament at GCBI) are in charge of the discipleship experience for the students throughout the year as the Site Coordinators and Dorm Parents and were thrilled to have the opportunity to tour alongside them in Israel. It would be an understatement to say the feet on the ground experience of the trip came as a surprise. The tour moved at a breathtakingly fast pace and the weight of the significance and meaning of each site weighed heavy on our hearts. If you blinked you missed it. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.

DAY ONE: We stepped off the plane in Tel Aviv after a 12 hour overnight flight and stepped onto our tour bus with our fellow tourmates and without a single empty seat. After a short drive we arrived at our first stop Neot Kedumim, a nature preserve filled only with plants and vegetation mentioned in the Bible and gave us a glimpse of what the land would have looked like in Bible times. We looked in on a well, threshing floor and olive press. We crushed hyssop and sage between our fingers to smell the sweet scents and wove our way down an olive tree lined path back to the bus in the sweltering heat. From here we made our way to the ancient port of Jaffa/Joppa along the Mediterranean Sea and then to our hotel in modern Tel Aviv.

DAY TWO: The next morning we started off at Caesarea Maritima and toured the seaside ruins of a city heavy with history before making our way along the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean coast past an ancient aqueduct and up to Mt. Carmel to look out upon the Valley of Armageddon. We toured Zippori a town just up from Nazareth where Jesus very likely could have come with his father Joseph a carpenter to work on local building projects. We arrived in Nazareth late in the afternoon and got to peek in on a typical cave home from the time of Jesus in the museum attached to the Church of the Annunciation. The birth of Jesus took on a whole new light seeing it in context of the space and way of life in that time.

DAY THREE we set out up and over the hills from Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee. The famous lake appeared over the horizon and popped in and out of view between the peaks as we made our way to the starting point of a hike and trekked up to a perch high above. We were about to spend an entire day on its shores but needed to get our bearings about us first from the birds eye view of Mt. Arbel. The little corner we could view of the famous freshwater lake from our vantage point was the shoreline where most of Jesus’ early ministry took place. It’s Capernum and the Mount of Beatitudes and the shores where He first called His disciples off their boats to become fishers of men. Throughout the rest of the day (which happened to be a whooping 108 degrees at its hottest) we got close up on the streets and the shoreline rocks and even in a boat on the waves of Jesus’ early ministry. It was a whirlwind of a day that ended on the shores in the late afternoon sun with baptisms of some of our GCBI students beneath the surface of the sea’s cool waters.

DAY FOUR: It was a welcomed reprieve from the heat to hike in the coolness of the shade of the trees and alongside the rushing streams of Tel Dan the next day. From here we visited the cliffs of Caesarea Philippi, the green rocky plateau of the Golan Heights and peered over the Syrian border feeling the heaviness of conflict surrounding this country. We wrapped up the day at Katzrin, a unique archaeological park with a restored village from Jesus’ time, where we could walk among the ancient city and tour homes getting up close with the day to day life of the people who lived here years ago.

DAY FIVE: I was thankful to be surprised by the diversity of the landscape of this small country. It wasn’t until Day 5 when we began our journey into the Jordan Valley visiting Beit Shean, ancient Jericho, Ein Gedi and Qumran (the caves where they discovered the Dead Sea scrolls) where I finally thought, “this was the Israel I was envisioning.” Desert-like and foreign. Heavy with history. Stories first told in flannel-graph form in Sunday school rooms came to life.

We spent a relaxing afternoon at the Dead Sea and effortlessly floated on its surprisingly hot salt filled waters before staying the night in a resort on its shores.

I stood in the dusty hot hills of the Judean Desert staring at this view of Qumran with a hint of familiarity. I’d seen this image before in those glossy front pages of a long forgotten childhood Bible. I had no idea that I had attached so much meaning to the image until I was standing in its place. This was my view of Israel. This desert with hidden treasures. And though it was vague it wasn’t too far off. Israel had so many hidden treasures including the diversity of its landscape and how crazy hot the Dead Sea was. And while the landscapes and the streets became more familiar over the 10 days of our tour so did Jesus.

DAY SIX: consisted of a quick stop at the cliff top ancient city of Masada where we rode a cable car to reach the top.

Then after a long drive through the winding roads up and over the hills of the Judean Desert we arrived at the Kfar HaNokdim Bedouin Camp for the night. The camp in the middle of the desert was truly hipster cool complete with glamping style accommodations, late night tea with campfire tales and bumpy camel rides.

I couldn’t help but to capture a quick photoshoot of this sweet pair we got to travel with, Brandi and Gregg. I snapped a roll of film in the hazy desert sunset light. We were late for our Bedouin Camp dinner to capture the fading desert light for the photos with these two. It was worth it. And we still got to eat. To see more from that desert session {click here}.

DAY SEVEN: One more day in the Judean wilderness visiting Tel Arad, Beer Sheva, the breathtakingly beautiful bell caves of Maresha, Beit Guvrin and the Valley of Elah where David slayed Goliath and yet the entire time we felt it drawing us near, the holy city of Jerusalem. We arrived the evening of Day 7, a welcomed cool breeze in the air as we stepped off the bus, and moved into our hotel and home base for the next 5 days.

DAY EIGHT: We visited the Mt. Olives, Gethsemane, the old city Jewish Quarter and the Western (Wailing) Wall all of which pulsed with the hustle of modern day and the intermingling of religions. At the South Wall Excavations we sat on the temple steps and imagined all the stories of those, including Jesus, who walked this exact path. We visited Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Memorial) and sat in the shade of the Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles listening to first person stories of a Jewish family deeply affected by the Holocaust. We toured Bethlehem, gazed out upon the Shepherd’s Field and pressed our way through the Church of the Nativity with the crowds.

The Garden at Gethsemane: I couldn’t wait to visit this place. I imagined sitting quietly contemplating holy things. Then we arrived here, stumbled off a bus into crowds, walked through a gate into more crowds and peered through wrought iron fences shoulder to shoulder with the crowd at this small garden dotted with ancient olive trees and blushing blooms. It’s a scene much different than the one I imagined. And a scene much, much different from the story of Jesus I longed to recall. A vast contrast to the quiet, inky black night 2000 years ago where my Savior sat here and agonized to the point of tears over the sacrifice He was sent to make.

This day it’s blanketed in perfect sunlight. There is something about the light in Israel that I’m not quite sure I’ll ever be able to put my finger on. Its bold yet gentle like a breeze, it’s crisp and warm all at once, it’s nearly perfect in every way. Can you see it? It’s like God took all the best light and put it here. Kind of like He did when He sent the Light of the World to this very place not just for that moment in time 2000 years ago but for all of time from that point forward. I’m thankful for that reminder of that moment when Jesus weeping beneath olive trees said “Your will be done.” And here we are, Christian pilgrims, born out of that sacrifice standing in the perfect light side by side with the crowds in awe our Saviour. I’ll take that unexpected, undeserved gift any day. Praise Jesus!

When we toured the holy land we found ourselves standing in the blinding sun squinting, peering out at shepherds fields and ancient gardens that hold stories from the black of night. A place transforms based on light. A field doesn’t seem so far away from a city in the daytime when you can see it in the distance. You can’t even glimpse the stars, though they are surely there behind the veil of brilliant blue. The fullness of the light of the sun oftentimes blinds us from the small moments in powerful stories told in the dark. Yet there we stood in the shade squinting our eyes because our tour didn’t include any nighttime stops though the stories they held surely did.

On that first Christmas Day a new beginning came in the dark of night lit by handheld lamps and far away stars.

DAY NINE: On our last full day starting at the Gardens of Saint Anne’s Church and the Pools of Bethesda in the old city we wound our way down the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre shoulder to shoulder with Christian pilgrims from across the globe longing to remember the journey of Jesus that day He changed the world on the cross by bearing the weight of our sins and rose again leaving an empty garden tomb.

DAY TEN: Was technically a free day but we had the option to get up before the sun to arrive at the entrance to the Temple Mount at sunrise. I definitely opted in to this and was truly mesmerized by the stillness of the old city in the soft morning light. But we couldn’t bring cameras. The Temple Mount is a delicate place. You can feel the weight of heavy unseen things pushing in from every side. From this perch above of the city, crosses and crescent moons dot the tops of religious buildings all across on the horizon. Before we knew it we were back in the old city taking in the sites and sounds of this place for one last time.

I saved the majority of my souvenir shopping for this last day. Partially because there was no time for all that in our itinerary (other than the glass shop and olive wood store we stopped by for private shopping in that I loved). And partially because I’ve made a pact with myself that I won’t let shopping get in the way of any trip experience. That’s what we came for. But never-the-less with a quick hour or two in the old city before heading back to our hotel I had picked up all the gifts and souvenirs I could ever need.

AND LASTLY: Israel had surprises around every turn including its modernity. Naively I only envisioned taking in the history and the stories here amidst ancient stones and dusty landscapes. I didn’t take into account that the ancient stories are nestled within the the modern day, right here in the right now.

We moved our bags from one lovely hotel to the next like this one in Jerusalem just walking distance from the walls of the Old City. We were met with this sweet reprieve at the end of each day with the mother of all buffets (including piles of sweet desserts!) and comfy beds for resting and recharging. I can’t wait to one day go back and hopefully spend a bit more time in this sweet city where the story of Israel is forever being told.

Here is a video capturing our experience, all shot with my iPhone and a semi-steady hand :)…

To find out more about The Great Commission Bible Institute or tours offered through Christian Travel Study Programs visit us at www.gcbi.net.

If you are interested in taking home a Fine Art Holy Land Print of one of the images you’ve seen here visit by Print Shop by clicking below.

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SITES VISITED:

Neot Kedumim
Joppa/Jaffa
Tel Aviv
Caesarea Maritima
Mt. Carmel
Valley Of Armageddon
Zippori
Nazareth
Church Of The Annunciation
Mt. Arbel
Kinneret Cemetery
Magdala
Duc In Altum
Mount Of Beatitudes
Capernaum
Sea Of Galilee
Tel Dan
Caesarea Philippi
Overlook To Syria
Golan Heights
Katzrin
Bet She'an
Jericho
Qumran
Ein Gedi
Dead Sea
Masada
Judean Desert
Bedouin Camp
Tel Arad
Tel Sheva
Maresha
Beit Guvrin
Valley Of Elah
Jerusalem
Mt. Olives
Gethsemane
St. Peter En Gallicantu (Caiaphas' House)
Jewish Quarter
Western (Wailing) Wall
South Wall Excavations
Temple Steps
Yad Vashem (Holocaust Memorial)
Avenue Of The Righteous Gentiles
Bethlehem
Church Of The Nativity
Shepherd's Field
Herodion
Church Of St. Anne
Pools Of Bethesda
Via Dolorosa
Church Of The Holy Sepulchre
Damascus Gate
Garden Tomb
Temple Mount