10 Tips For Visiting Israel

Hello, Friends!

Brad and I just returned from an amazing trip, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it and share my tips for visiting Israel. This is going to be a multi-part series because I can’t begin to tell you everything in one post. Our heads are still spinning and I have found myself crying at the drop of a hat when I try to talk about all that we saw and did during our 10 day adventure. I can’t wait to share it all with you.

Let’s begin with 10 Tips For Visiting Israel, which may morph into many more-we shall see!!!

One… Go with Great People

A trip to Israel was a dream way back in my consciousness, and honestly, not something that I really expected to ever happen. I’ve been a fearful girl much of my life-scared to ride even a roller coaster-and a journey to the Holy Land in the Middle East seemed WAY TOO SCARY to actually contemplate. A trip like this seemed to be the Screaming Eagle (or whatever the latest most scary amusement park ride is now)  of all ideas.

However, for my husband-the one who used to be afraid to fly- this was a bucket-list trip. When our dear friends, the Teichmillers, invited us to accompany them and other members of Christ Church in Effingham, we said a great big YES!

Who you travel with is a big deal, right? We were super blessed by our travel companions this trip!

To say our group bonded would be a colossal understatement. Many of them have attended the same congregation for years, but they warmly welcomed the rest of us into the fold with open hearts and we were friends in no time. We now know so many new brothers and sisters in Christ, not only from Effingham but also from Wisconsin, Missouri, California and Texas. Isn’t that AWESOME?

I’ve learned in the past that when believers meet for the first time, the Holy Spirit in us does something amazing and we become family quickly-if we want to.  And I always want to.

It is just a little glimpse of the relationship-forming that surely will occur in HEAVEN! It is going to be sooooo wonderful!

Two…Choose a Knowledgeable Travel Company

Jeff Michaels, the pastor of Christ Church, did the legwork years ago. He has made several trips to the Holy Land, and he chose Pilgrim Tours to coordinate our trip. This company has been in business since 1987 and they really know their way around. Everything was taken care of for us, we saw gobs and gobs of things, and our guide was wonderful. Pilgrim even sent a representative to  travel back to Tel Aviv to the airport with us to make sure our trip home was also smooth and worry free.

I cannot imagine the time that would be wasted trying to coordinate all this on your own, so if you are planning a trip like this, I highly recommend Pilgrim Tours.

Three….Pray for Hani Awad to be Your Guide

Surely there are many fantastic people available to guide us through this life-changing experience, but I doubt any of them could surpass the one we had! Our guide, Hani, was a 30 year old Palestinian Christian who amazed us daily with the depth of his historical knowledge, but more importantly, his Biblical knowledge.

His ability to tie all the loose ends together and make Biblical applications made our journey even more special. I kept looking at him and thinking… he is the age Jesus was when he began his ministry and looked much more like Jesus might have looked than the Jesus in the European paintings I’ve been blessed to see with my own eyeballs.

It took it all to a whole new level.

Four….Read Some Things Before You Go

Ok. I totally wish I had done more preparation before we started. But, there are only so many hours in the day and life is BUSY, so I’m giving myself all kinds of grace and totally trusting God’s timing in when I receive information!

You don’t know what you don’t know, so that is why I’m trying to help you do this better.

As a side note, Jeff made many suggestions and posts of articles for us to read. I just didn’t get to all of them.

Here are some resources that WERE helpful to both Brad and me. Kathy Lee Gifford wrote this book which was very interesting and easy to read. I found my copy at Hobby Lobby on discount, but you can buy it on Amazon The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi. Kathy Lee’s faith is very encouraging.

This book The Christian Traveler’s Guide to the Holy Land is a great resource, too.

Five…Make Sergio and Rhoda Your New You-tube Friends

One thing in preparation that we did right was watch gobs of videos by Sergio and Rhoda. These two young believers have moved to Israel and travel all over the place, showing the sights and educating about them. It was so helpful to dispel some of our misconceptions right off the bat.

I have to admit in my mind, people in Israel were still riding donkeys and camels around, living in tents-very Old Testament! We learned a bunch from this sweet couple and now I want to watch everything over again. Thanks for the suggestion, Jeff!

Here is a link to their YouTube channel. Sergio and Rhoda

Six…Pray Up

Looking back, I didn’t spend nearly enough time in prayer for this trip. Thankfully, God never fails to bless and I still learned about my Father and His Son and My Saviour in whole new ways. Granting myself all kinds of grace because God does, I’m praying now that He will seal all this in my heart and use it to transform me in new ways-ways that I never imagined.

One of my favorite quotes from the entire trip was from Hani, when he said at the end of a discussion about the struggles of being a Christian minority, “Living it is your real prayer.”

May I live it, not just continually talk to God about it. Prayer is such an interesting privilege, isn’t it?

Seven….Pack Light

Did you know I like clothes? We were told early on that this wasn’t a fashion show, so I reeled myself in and decided to go minimalist. Trying to repurpose clothes and come up with different outfits wearing the same things over and over was fun!

Actually, I started a few years ago seeing if I could pack for long trips with just a carry on. I probably could have done it on this trip if I had tried a tiny bit harder. My clothes all squeezed into a packing cube, but I had a terrible time deciding what essential oils to bring with me. That was the most fun and stressful part of packing for me. Since we use our oils all the time for all the things, I wanted to bring all of them!

We never leave home without our diffuser, sleepy oils, prayer oils, Digize, and lots of Thieves products-especially on this trip with the threat of all kinds of illness all around us. We also brought along 10 days of Ningxia Red and Nitros for immune boosting and extra non caffeinated energy. I’m so glad we did!

Eight….Bring Snacks

Jeff suggested we bring snacks and I have to admit, I thought my husband went off the deep end with everything he packed. I kept my trap shut though, and guess what? He was RIGHT! That happens lots at our house-he is an Enneagram One Learn more about the enneagram here.

All the hotels where we stayed served lots of food buffet style, so there was NO NEED to go hungry.  I’m not a big breakfast eater and we had late lunches, so those snacks were eaten with a great deal of gusto, and we were so glad we had them.

Nine….Be Prepared to Get Outside Your Comfort Zone

A trip of this magnitude stretched me in new ways, and I had to take a deep dive right out of my comfort zone. First off, I hate buffets, but I learned to bring hand sanitizer with me and used it FREELY, and I enjoyed the delicious food.

We live in a very quiet place and I’m not used to being in such crowds. Spending 10 days surrounded by people from every tribe and nation was an unbelievably precious experience, but this farm wife missed her morning quiet time, 2nd cup of coffee, and time for reflection.

Out of the familiar ordinary routine is a FUN place to be.

Ten….Israel Brain is a Real Thing

I just made that term up, but I stand by it. You will hear so much history and visit so many sites that there is no way to retain even a fraction of the information that was presented. As I write this post, I can’t even keep straight where we went which day.  It has all become a happy jumble that I hope to get sorted out so I can make sense when I talk about it.

In order to do this, I’m giving myself the assignment and bossing myself around to do the research and really LEARN the information so I can integrate it and share it.

That’s it, my wonderful friends! This was not just a vacation for us-it was an IMPORTANT journey to increase our faith and inspire us in this leg of our race. I am more in love with Jesus than ever and I want HIS love to radiate from me onto everyone I meet.

And that includes YOU!