Religious Travel Experience in Israel

We will be met at the airport by our guide and transferred to Natanya for the night. As an introduction to Israel, we will plant a tree. (Arrival day activities are subject to flight arrival time)

On every evening of the program, we will set time aside to update our Reflection Journal and share thoughts and impressions that have come to the fore in the course of the day.

Drive along the Mediterranean shoreline to the Herodian port city of Caesarea, where the Romans held Paul prisoner. Our visit to Caesarea will include Pontius Pilate Stella, the aqueduct, the theater, and the hippodrome (Acts 10:24). View Mount Carmel, where Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal (Kings 18:20).

Follow the ancient route through the Jezreel Valley to Tel Megiddo, where we will visit the archeological dig.

Continue to with a visit to Nazareth Village. This is an interactive replica of the Town of Nazareth as it was during Christ’s youth. Then we will continue to our hotel in Tiberias, a former Crusader and Turkish stronghold, as well as an important site of Jewish pilgrimage.

Today's journey takes us to Banias and the ancient city of Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus gave Simon the keys to the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 16:13-20). Banias is also home to the largest waterfall in Israel, and in the era before Christ, there was a grotto here dedicated to Pan, the Greek god of shepherds, flocks, herds, and wildlife.

Pass through the Valley of the Doves and see Mount Arbel towards Sea of Galilee, which was a major passageway at the time of Christ.

Cross through the vast Jordan Valley to the Dead Sea.

Experience true weightlessness by floating in these buoyant waters that are claimed as a natural health and beauty spa.

Visit the mountaintop Palace and Fortress of Massada, as we ascend via cable car to view these ancient ruins, including Herod’s palace, synagogue, baths, defensive walls, and water cisterns. This is where the amazing story of the 960 Zealots who preferred suicide rather than face enslavement by the Romans took place.

Continue to Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by a Bedouin shepherd.

Once the temple of Solomon and home to the Dome of the Rock, where Jesus healed on the Sabbath at the Pool of Bethseas.

Continue to the Western Wall, the holiest site in the Jewish world. It became the most sacred spot in Jewish religious and national consciousness and tradition by virtue of its proximity to the Western Wall of the Holy of Holies in the Temple, from which, according to numerous sources, the Divine Presence never departed. It became a center of mourning over the destruction of the Temple and Israel's exile, on the one hand, and of religious - in 20th century also national - communion with the memory of Israel's former glory and the hope for its restoration, on the other. Because of the former association, it became known in European languages as the “Wailing Wall.” We will also have time to stop and sit on the teaching stairs where Jesus taught.

Bethlehem is a Palestinian town south of Jerusalem in the West Bank. The biblical birthplace of Jesus, it's a major Christian pilgrimage destination. The birth is marked by an inlaid silver star in a grotto under the 6th-century Church of the Nativity, which shares Manger Square with the 15th-century Church of St. Catherine and the 1860 Mosque of Omar.

Our day starts as we drive to the top of the Mount of Olives, where Jesus ascended into heaven (Acts 1), for amazing views of the city and a better understanding of the geography and key sites in the area.

Continue to the Dome of the Rock and El Akza Mosques - the 3rd holiest for Muslims and the holiest place for Jews. The Temple Mount is where Jesus spent Tuesday and Wednesday of the Holy Week.

Visit the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, a museum dedicated to the documentation of the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

A student-led session, following on from the previous reflection sessions, in which the group identifies goals achieved, both group and individual, both internal to the group and externally in the service work achievements, to bring context and resolution to the week's experience before heading home. This evening we make the final entries in our Reflection Journal and individuals can, if they want to, share significant individual observations with the group.

Our most memorable and spiritually rewarding journey through Israel will come to an end as our Tour Director accompanies us to the airport for our return flight home.