Upon arrival to Ben Gurion Airport, our representative will meet you in the arrival hall to assist you with your luggage. You will meet your guide and travel to your hotel in Tel Aviv. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

Our morning begins in the port city of Caesarea, built by Herod the Great (Matt. 2). During the first century, Caesarea was home to the second-largest harbor in the Roman Empire. Here, Peter visited the Gentile centurion Cornelius (Acts 10), and Cornelius and his household became the first Gentile followers of Jesus. The Apostle Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea for two and a half years, where he stood before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa II (Acts 23–25). From the harbor of Caesarea, Paul sailed for Rome, leaving Israel for the last time. It was also here, in AD 66, that tensions between the city’s Jewish and Gentile communities ignited the First Jewish Revolt—the war that would ultimately leave Jerusalem in ruins. While at Caesarea, we visit the ancient theater, with its magnificent view overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. We see Herod the Great’s palace, which later served as the residence of Roman officials such as Pontius Pilate, and reflect on Pilate’s governorship of Judaea at the replica of the stone inscription recording his dedication of a temple to Emperor Tiberius. Our visit continues through the ancient stadium and harbor and concludes at the aqueduct that supplied the city with water. Our focus at Caesarea is the expansion of the gospel to the Gentiles and the relationship the earliest followers of Jesus understood between the Jewish people, Israel, and the Gentile followers of Christ—the very question at the heart of our Romans 11 orientation. Here, we stand in the city where the wild olive branches were first grafted in. After departing Caesarea, we travel to Magdala, where we visit one of the few excavated first-century synagogues in Israel, dating to the time of Jesus’ ministry in the region. We also explore wealthy homes from the ancient village and the first-century harbor. In this synagogue, with its remarkable carved stone bearing imagery of the Temple, we encounter the redemptive hopes of first-century Jewish Galilee. Here, in a synagogue like those where Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom (Matt. 4:23), we consider His announcement of Israel’s redemption.

Today, our journey focuses on the land from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day. Our morning begins in Tiberias, one of the four holiest cities in Judaism, where we look at the formation of Judaism over the centuries and its enduring relationship with the land. We then travel south along the Sea of Galilee to Hatzar Kinneret, a school established in the early 1900s to train Jews immigrating to the land in farming and the establishment of permanent settlements—where the modern return to the land began with seedlings and plows. From here, we travel into the Golan Heights and the upper Jordan Valley, where we continue telling the story of the formation of the modern State of Israel. At a high overlook along the Israel-Syria border, we look across Syria toward Damascus. Our day concludes at the Dan Nature Reserve. The ancient city of Dan, which formed the northern boundary of biblical Israel, sits on the Dan Spring, one of the three tributaries of the Jordan River. Dinner and overnight on the Sea of Galilee.

Our journey today focuses on the ministry of Jesus around the Sea of Galilee. Our morning begins at Yardenit, which provides an opportunity for people to be baptized in the Jordan River. We then travel to Almagor, overlooking the Beitsaida Valley, where the Jordan River flows into the Sea of Galilee and where Jesus fed the 5,000 (Luke 9:10–17). From there, our journey takes us to Chorazin, one of the three cities cursed by Jesus (Matt. 11:21; Luke 10:13). At this site, we see ancient homes and Jewish ritual immersion pools, as well as the magnificent basalt synagogue from the fifth century AD. Inside the synagogue is a replica of the Seat of Moses (Matt. 23:2). Next, we travel to the ancient town of Capernaum, where Jesus made His home around the lake (Matt. 4:13). Here, He healed the centurion’s servant (Matt. 8:5). The magnificent limestone synagogue from the fourth century AD has been partly reconstructed and looms over the site. From Capernaum, we travel to the small museum at Kibbutz Ginnosar, which houses an ancient boat discovered in the Sea of Galilee in the 1980s. Dating to the first century, this boat was used by fishermen on the lake. Our day concludes with an evening boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. Ancient fishermen fished the lake at night, and riding on its waters in the evening offers a unique opportunity to connect with Jesus and His disciples—and with the Jewish faith of Jesus that is our root. Dinner and overnight at the hotel on the Sea of Galilee.

Our morning begins with a visit to Yad Vashem, the memorial to the Holocaust. We then make our way to Jerusalem’s vibrant Mahane Yehudah Market, where we have the opportunity to sample a variety of cuisines for lunch. After lunch, we step into the story of nineteenth-century Jerusalem, beginning at Christ Church, located inside Jaffa Gate. Consecrated in 1849, it is the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East and marks the place where British Christians who believed in the restoration of the Jewish people established their presence beside the walls of the Old City. From there, we walk outside the city walls to explore the first communities built beyond them: Mishkenot Sha’ananim, with its famous windmill built by Sir Moses Montefiore in 1860, and the adjacent neighborhood of Yemin Moshe. Here, Jerusalem first dared to expand beyond its ancient walls—the small beginnings of the modern city rising within sight of the old. Any remaining time is free to wander and explore before returning to our Jerusalem hotel for dinner. After dinner, we hear from Haviv Rettig Gur, an Israeli journalist, who speaks on the Jews of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the formation of the State of Israel. Overnight at our hotel in Jerusalem.