Christian HolyLand Foundation

Notes from Matt Nance, Director of the Christian HolyLand Foundation:

I‘ve been home for 3 weeks and can’t stop thinking about our amazing Holy Land Pilgrimage! I teamed up with David Mullins for pastoral support and Mark Ziese for amazing archaeological and biblical scholarship, this was the dream team with myself just paying the bills, making sure all the coffee was drank, and walking in the back to catch the stragglers.

For many, a trip to the Holy Land is the ’Trip of a Lifetime,’ but sadly not all trips are the same, many just churn through tourists for the money.

We really try to do things right.

1. Firstly our trips don’t make money. Missional Pilgrimages are an essential part of our ministry strategy.

2. We keep groups small to allow for genuine relationships to form and not overwhelm interactions with local folks.

3. Instead of rushing from site to site to see as much as we possibly can, we follow a more relaxed itinerary that seeks to soak experiences in.

4. We combine world-class teaching with authentic cultural experiences and transformative missional engagement with local believers.

5. We get off the ’tourist trail’ and engage everyday life alongside the folks who live in the land today.

Destination Wedding?

We're staying four nights at the guesthouse of the Franciscan Sisters Monastery in Galilee. The organization cares for the Church of the Beatitudes, built on a site that remembers the place where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

As it happened, we returned to our rooms this evening to the sound of violins. There was a wedding at the Beatitudes Church. It got me wondering what text the preacher/priest used?

Thanks to Kay Kennedy for getting the photo!