Experience the Holy Land
On a trip designed especially for Pastors!
A Pilgrimage to the Roots of Our Faith…
8-day Pastors familiarization Trip to the Holy Land
Sponsored by Christian Holyland Tours and El Al Israel Airlines
Specially Priced For Clergy
Highly subsidized air & land package
8 Full Days–$1,399
plus airport tax and fuel surcharge. Based on New York departure—for Los Angeles departures, please add $100.
January 11-18, 2011
Join Us on a Journey to Where it all Started….
Including
- Round Trip on El Al Israel Airlines
- 6 Nights Accomodations-First and Tourist Class
- 6 Sumptuous Breakfasts & 6 Delicious Dinners
- Travel through Israel in Air-Conditioned Buses
- Licensed-Tourist Guide
Download PDF Brochure and Registration Form
Christian Holyland Tours, LLC is pleased to offer this Pastor Familiarization Tour as a unique opportunity for Pastors, Ministers and Christian community leaders to study in the land of Israel. Explore and experience first hand the history and meaning of Christianity where it all started, walking in the very footsteps of Jesus and the disciples. You will also experience Israel’s vibrant history, its people, and its culture. Christian Holyland Tours is offering this at a greatly reduced rate in order to demonstrate to you our outstanding ability to show you the Holyland and our professional expertise developed over nearly 30 years in-group travel to Israel. Along with our Hotels and EL-AL Israel Air Line, we have organized a highly subsidized Holyland tour, which is offered exclusively to pastors, and ministers who have the potential of leading a group of their own to the Holyland in the near future.
The cost of the PASTOR FAMILIARIZATION TOUR is returned to the Pastors who organizes a group tour to the Holyland with CHT In the subsequent 18 months.
In order to participate in the FAMILIARIZATION TOUR, the pastor must present a copy of an ordination certificate and be employed by a church or a Christian organization or ministry. This tour is especially designed for clergy and the public is not permitted to participate. However, a Pastor or Minister’s spouse is welcome to join the tour. Space is limited to the first 25 to register and pay the nominal fee.
Itinerary**
Day 1 - Tuesday : Departure
Today we embark on our Journey to the Holy Land. Prepare yourself for a life-changing experience. Get some rest on the flight...tomorrow you will be walking where Jesus walked!
Day 2 - Wednesday: Ben Gurion Airport/Tel Aviv Arrival at Ben Gurion Airport.
Met by a CHT representative and transfer to Tel Aviv and your hotel for a welcome dinner.
Overnight: Leonardo Basel - Tel Aviv.
Day 3 - Thursday: Caesarea/Nazareth/Galilee
After breakfast drive North to Caesarea Maritima. Visit the Roman Theater, the Herod's Palace, the Palace of the Roman Procurator (Apostles 23: 23 and Apostles 26: 23 - Paul; Apostles 10: 20-48 - Peter and Cornelius), the Amphitheater, the Crusaders' City and Harbor. Next we will visit Mount Carmel, at Mukhraka, which means "burned place," where Elijah faced off against the prophets of Baal and God sent down fire from Heaven. Next we will travel to Nazareth and visit the Church of the Annunciation which was built on the site of Mary's home, the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation is built over Mary's Well, from which Jesus' mother is said to have drank. Right next to Mary's Well is the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, inside a Crusader hall. According to tradition this is the location of the synagogue in which Jesus prayed. Visit Nazareth Village: Based on solid New Testament scholarship and the most up-to-date archaeology, Nazareth Village brings to life a farm and Galilean village, recreating Nazareth as it was 2,000 years ago. Come meet the people and experience first-century hospitality. Step through a stone doorway into the dim interior, and smell the smoke from the oil lamps. You will begin to imagine life in another time, when Jesus lived here in Nazareth. In the courtyard peer into the cistern, a vital part of any household. Hand-hewn caves store wheat and other supplies. This is a structure from the Crusader period and has some interesting frescoes. End the day at the Jordan River and renew your baptism as a true pilgrim!
Dinner and Overnight: Kibbutz Nof Ginosar - Galilee
Day 4 - Friday: Banyas / Golan Heights / Tabgha
After breakfast boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus walked on the water (Matthew 14: 22-23). The ride will end at Ginnosar, where we shall visit the Ancient Boat from the time of Jesus that was found nearby. Drive to the Mount of Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 7) where we shall visit the heptagonal church that was built by the Italian architect Berluzzi, and to gain a panoramic vista of the Sea of Galilee. Proceed to Banyas, the ancient Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16: 13-20) one of the main sources of the Jordan River. Through the Golan Heights, drive to Capernaum, the town of Jesus, where he lived in the house of Peter performing from there his miracles and healings (Matthew 4: 13, Matthew 8: 14-15). Proceed to Tabgha, where we shall visit the Church of the Loaves and the Fish (Matthew 14: 14-34) and the Church of Mensa Christi, where Jesus elected Peter as His Representative on Earth (John 21).
Dinner and Overnight: Kibbutz Nof Ginosar - Galilee
Day 5 - Saturday:Qumeran/Massada/DeadSea
After breakfast, leave Tiberias and the Sea Of Galilee and drive through the Jordan Valley to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, almost 1300 feet (400 meters) below sea level. Stop at Qumeran to visit the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Drive along the shores of the Dead Sea to Massada. Ascend by cable car and tour the ancient fortress where Jewish inhabitants made their last stand against the Romans before committing mass suicide in 73 AD. Descend by cable car. Time and weather permitting, an opportunity will be provided to float in the Dead Sea.
Dinner & Overnight at Leonardo Hotel, Jerusalem
Day 6- Sunday: Jerusalem - the Old City, Bethlehem
Begin the day with the glorious view of the Old City of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. Walk through the Garden of Gethsemane and see its ancient olive trees,on for a visit to the Church of All Nations. Visit the tomb of King David and the Room of the Last Supper on Mt. Zion. Next we will go to the Yad Vashem museum, Israel's Holocaust remembrance and education center, which is an emotional and heartrending experience, but seeing the exhibits and remembering the Holocaust gives the more than one million individuals, world leaders and dignitaries who pass through its doors annually a meaningful way to commemorate the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Afternoon we Continue to Bethlehem to visit Rachel's Tomb, the Church of the Nativity and Shepherd's Field.
Dinner & Overnight in Leonardo Hotel, Jerusalem.
Day 7 - Monday: Around Jerusalem, Bible Times, Israel Museum/ Ben Gurion Airport.
Enter the walled city and walk through the newly restored Jewish Quarter. Visit the Roman Cardo, the Herodian Quarter and continue to the Western Wall. Walk along the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher the most sacred ground in the Christian world; this ancient church stands over the Tomb of Jesus and the last of the Stations of the Cross. Proceed to Gordon's Calvary and the Garden Tomb. Passing by the Protestant Cemetery, we visit the "Upper Room," just outside the Zion Gate, where the disciple whom Jesus loved laid his head on His breast and where later Thomas cried, "my Lord and my God." An interesting and educational time awaits us at the Israel Museum. Walk through collections of centuries-old Israeli artifacts including the Dead Sea Scrolls, and a then a guided walk through an accurately detailed model of biblical Jerusalem will help to summarize what you have experienced in recent days.
Farewell Dinner at Abi Gosh restaurant before we continue to BG airport for the departure flight to the US.
“Lord, is there any way I could ever thank you enough for this life, soul-changing experience?”
**Subject to change!