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Students at Mar Elias school
UMC Discipleship Ministries
Holy Land Pilgrimage 2024
5 - 13 January 2024
https://www.umcyoungpeople.org/lead/holy-land-pilgrimage-2024
Visiting the Holy Land provides infinite opportunities to deeply engage with scripture and walk in the same spaces where the footsteps of the great cloud of witnesses continue to echo. Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, and other sites on this trip hosted incredible moments from the Bible – they also continue to exist, with a mixture of people and faiths that find themselves in tension or various states of conflict in the modern world. You are invited to deepen your discipleship by exploring the Holy Land with Young People’s Ministries.
The trip is designed for 18-35-year-old participants and is a unique way to explore the Holy Land. This trip will mix historical site visits with off-the-beaten-path experiences, as well as chances to interact with a wide variety of community leaders. Our experience onsite will be organized through a Bethlehem-based and tour-accredited company that specializes in custom experiences that go beyond a “get on the bus, get off the bus, get back on the bus” experience. While adventurous, this company also prioritizes safety and will monitor all activities and situations onsite.
An outline of our nine-day onsite itinerary is listed at the bottom of this page. Four days of our tour will be lead in a “dual narrative” style, which means that the tour will have two speaking guides, each of whom comes from a different cultural context. This will help paint a more complete picture of the issues facing Israelis and Palestinians today. This innovative approach to travel combined with devotional and reflection times led by Discipleship Ministries staff will help participants explore issues of systemic oppression abroad and at home, including exploration of racism and how spiritual formation can inform anti-racist discipleship practices. The timing of this trip should allow most university students to participate without missing a significant amount of classwork.
Registration includes all on-ground transportation during the itinerary in an air-conditioned bus, most meals, double-occupancy rooming accommodations, English-speaking tour guides, and admission/scheduled visit times for all sites requiring admission during the tour. Participants are responsible to arrange their own airline travel to and from Tel Aviv during windows of time provided by our trip organizers. Participants are also asked to consider donating tips for drivers, tour guides, and hotel onsite, as well as be responsible for up to five lunches for themselves while on the trip. Participants also must have a current, valid passport with at least six months remaining before its expiration date.
This trip is limited to no more than 50 people, because of the unique experiences arranged on the trip. Young people between the ages of 18-35 from around the world are welcome to apply. The tours and resources for the trip will be in the English language, so participants should be comfortable with a conversational level of English.
Registration per person is $2,099 on a first-come, first-served basis. If a participant would like a single room for the duration of the trip, that can be added at a cost of $600. A non-refundable deposit of $500 is due at the time of registration. Final payment is due October 31, 2023.
There are limited scholarships, in the amount of $599, are available for this trip. We welcome participants from around the world. Scholarship applications are due by July 31, 2023, and we will make invitations directly to those awarded scholarships to register and pay in August 2023. We can provide visa letters if you are from a country that requires a visa to travel to Israel, however, we cannot provide any financial support for obtaining visas. If awarded a scholarship, the cost to register for the trip would be $1,500. Click here to apply for a scholarship.
Participants should register for the trip and receive confirmation from trip organizers before arranging their own flights to Tel Aviv. Instructions will be given regarding what time frame to arrive at the Tel Aviv airport for transfers at that time. Participants then arrange their own international travel, with our tour group taking responsibility for you upon arrival in Tel Aviv. There will be several pre-trip meetings in the later months of 2023 and as well as some light pre-trip reading.
Learn more , see the day-by-day itinerary, and register:
https://www.umcyoungpeople.org/lead/holy-land-pilgrimage-2024
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United Methodists are responding to Kairos Palestine: A Moment of Truth ,a statement of faith and urgent call to action from Christians in Palestine. UMKR seeks, through nonviolent means and in partnership with Palestinian Christians, freedom, justice and equality for all Palestinians and Israelis.
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