Your pilgrimage begins as you depart the USA on an overnight flight.

You will be welcomed at the Tel Aviv airport by our representative and transferred to your hotel in Nazareth to enjoy dinner before retiring for the night. 

Explore Nazareth Village, a recreation of Jesus’ boyhood home. Travel to Caesarea, a center of the early Christians where an angel visited Cornelius, the first Gentile believer (Acts 10), and where Paul was imprisoned for two years before appealing to Caesar. Visit Mount Carmel, where Elijah faced the 400 prophets of Baal and called down fire from heaven! Look out over Tel Megiddo (Armageddon) to view one of the most important archaeological sites in Israel. Visit Cana, the site of Jesus’ first miracle, before continuing on to Tiberias for hotel check-in and dinner. Enjoy an evening boat ride.

Start your day at the recent excavations of Magdala, the Journey to Caesarea Philippi, where Peter told the Lord, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God!” (Matt. 16:16). Journey on to the Sea of Galilee. Enjoy a fish lunch as though you have joined Jesus and Peter on shore. Visit Capernaum, the center of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, and visit the synagogue built on the site where Jesus taught (Matthew 4:13, 23). On the Mount of Beatitudes, contemplate the “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7). Explore the Jordan Valley on your journey to Jerusalem.

Visit the Garden Tomb for a time of reflection and communion. See Gordon’s Calvary. In Bethlehem, visit the cave revered as Jesus’ birthplace and see the Church of the Nativity constructed over the site (Matthew 1:18-25). Gaze out over Shepherds’ Field before returning to Jerusalem.

Stop in Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd. Enjoy a visit to Masada, the spectacular mountaintop fortress built by Herod that later became the final tragic stronghold of the Jewish rebellion against the Romans. Ride the cable car to the top to explore the fortress and look down upon the remains of the Roman camps and siege ramp below. On the way to Jerusalem, stop at the shores of the Dead Sea, the lowest spot on earth, for an opportunity to take a quick dip in the mineral-laden waters.

Travel south to Masada, the spectacular mountaintop Stand on the Mount of Olives for a remarkable view of Jerusalem (the Golden City); Jesus stood here before ascending into heaven forty days after His resurrection (Acts 1:9-12). In the Kidron Valley across from the walls of Jerusalem, pray as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36). See the Model City of Jerusalem as it was in the first century. Continue to Mount Zion to visit the House of the High Priest Caiaphas, where Jesus was questioned the night of His betrayal (Matt. 26:57). Recall the events of the Last Supper as you visit the traditional location of the Upper Room (Mark 14:12-26). Visit King David’s Tomb and tour the Old City.

February 19 – Return to the USA or take the Jordan Extension