Holy Land Trip

ISRAEL  

The Holy Land The Bible in its Setting
 
Goldhill Holidays 24th Oct to 4th Nov 2018

A Travelogue


Preface 
Every Christian should in my opinion go and experience the Holy Land. I booked the trip about 18 months ago so it has been a long time coming; sometimes I never thought the time to travel would arrive. The anticipation, the anxiety, the different concerns of family and friends pointed out to me, going to Israel was a risk, was it really? I was going through lots of different emotions, it wasn’t until a day or two before we actually went I packed. My initial research showed it was relatively peaceful although tense. Just adding to this that about a week after we returned they have flash floods in the Dead Sea area and 400 missiles sent from Gaza into Israel.

I thought my visit to the Holy Land was going to be fantastic and life changing (??).

For twelve days I will travel from Manchester to Jerusalem, I will leave the normal rhythms of my busy life, work, family and church and see a new land, one that I have read about so much in my bible and yet know very little of.

I didn't fancy the usual hotel to site and back to the hotel trip, I wanted to experience the culture, to learn about Israel, learn of the tensions between the different communities, to see how different locations linked into the bible. This trip ticked all the boxes, it was adventurous, we had to pack light, use hire cars to get around to all the sites, we crammed lots of different historical sites and experiences into a short period of time all while having some expert advice and local knowledge from James and Ruth, both who have lived in Jerusalem for a number of years. This looked the perfect trip.

I am both excited and anxious to be on this faith journey to see what God is going to do in my life. 

Will I change over this next couple of weeks? I am certain I will.

My intension is to present this booklet as a diary/Journal of my trip. I have tried to document where we visited day by day and at the same time try to record my own feelings and experience from the place visited. There was so much information to take in it was impossible to remember everything without making lots and lots of notes. I can the use my notes hopefully to reflect on while I am here, if I get time as I am always knackered when I get back and then when I get back in the UK.   Also I wanted to relate the bible passages to the actual areas, I have included the bible passages suggested by the Gold Hill team and added some that I have found or know myself; it is certainly bringing the bible readings to life.   Another objective is to create a 45min slide show for our church to share at evening social event.

My knowledge of Israel is limited, I know Israel was created in 1948, David Ben-Grunion, the head of the Jewish Agency, declared the establishment of a Jewish state to be known as the State of Israel. There is much controversy over the land especially Gaza, the West Bank. The Gaza strip is self-governing Palestinian territory on the east coast that boarders Egypt on the south, Israel east and north, 51km of border. The West Bank is land locked territory near the Mediterranean coast of Western Asia, bordered by Jordan. The conflict between Israel and Palestine in its basic form is whether or not Palestinians should be able to form its own separate country within a part of land that belongs to Israel.

A very complex situation and in depth Information on the Israeli / Palestinian situation can be found here

Now it is time to go, our travels in the footsteps of our Lord is finally here!

A good book that has helped me to prepare my journey and use while I am in Israel is;

The Holy Land for Christian Travellers (An Illustrated Guide to Israel) by John A. Beck