Israel Retreat
With Jeff Morgan
November 2027

Land at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, where your guide is waiting. Time permitting we stop in Old Jaffa at the house of Simon the Tanner, the rooftop where Peter saw the vision that opened the door to the nations. Then north along the coast to Netanya. We gather as a group at 5:00 pm in the hotel lobby, then sit down together for dinner. Jeff will welcome you and walk you through the days ahead.

• Arrive Ben Gurion Airport and meet your guide
• Old Jaffa and the house of Simon the Tanner, time permitting
• Transfer to Netanya on the Mediterranean
• Group gathering, 5:00 pm in the hotel lobby
• Welcome dinner
• Overnight: David's Harp Hotel, Netanya

Begin at Caesarea Maritima, the Roman harbor where Cornelius was baptized, where Philip preached, and where Paul sat in prison before he sailed for Rome. Stand in the theater and look out at the sea that carried the gospel to Europe. In the afternoon we climb Mount Tabor, the mountain where Jeff first encountered Yeshua. He will tell that story here, in a teaching session called Listen to Him. It is breathtaking up there, the view opens across the Jezreel Valley, and it asks very little of a body that just crossed an ocean. Then down to the Sea of Galilee, where you will sleep for the next four nights.

• Caesarea Maritima, harbor, theater and aqueduct
• Mount Tabor, where Jeff met Yeshua, with his teaching session Listen to Him
• Drive to the Sea of Galilee
• Overnight: David's Harp Galilee Resort

A full day where most of the gospels happened. Start in Capernaum, the town Jesus made his base, and stand in the synagogue where he taught. Sail out on the Sea of Galilee and read the miracles on the water they happened on. Up on the hillside we read the Sermon on the Mount, then hike down the slope to the cave, where Philip will teach in the grotto and you can see the natural amphitheater below that carries a voice across the hill. Tabgha and the Primacy of Peter in the afternoon, then Yardenit, where those who want to be baptized can go into the Jordan.

• Capernaum and its ancient synagogue
• Sail on the Sea of Galilee
• The Sermon on the Mount hillside
• Hike down to the Jesus cave
• Teaching in the Mount Grotto with Philip McCallum
• Tabgha and the Primacy of Peter
• Yardenit baptism site
• Overnight: David's Harp Galilee Resort

Climb Mount Arbel, or ride the bus to the top and have a coffee while the rest of us walk up. Most people walk, and the group carries the ones who did not think they could. At the summit the whole lake opens up beneath you, and you understand why Jesus chose this hill to say that all authority had been given to him, therefore go. Then Magdala, one of the most affecting sites in the country, with Father Kelly or Sister Celine. A traditional St. Peter's fish lunch at the David's Harp restaurant. In the afternoon, Bethsaida, where archaeologists working through the pandemic uncovered what appears to be the home of Peter and Andrew.

• Mount Arbel, climb it or take the bus to the top
• Magdala with Father Kelly or Sister Celine
• St. Peter's fish lunch at the David's Harp restaurant
• Bethsaida and the new excavations
• Overnight: David's Harp Galilee Resort

North to Banias, ancient Caesarea Philippi, where Peter looked at a hillside full of pagan shrines and said, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. The spring runs cold out of the rock and the waterfall is one of the loveliest places in Israel. Then lunch at Kibbutz Dafna, a few kilometers from the Lebanese border, with Eyal Dror. Eyal is a Lieutenant Colonel in the IDF and the man behind Operation Good Neighbor, which gave free medical care to Syrian refugees across the border. He will brief us on humanitarian work and on the army, and then we plant trees together. This is the sort of afternoon that changes how you pray for this country.

• Banias, Caesarea Philippi, and the waterfall
• Lunch at Kibbutz Dafna with Eyal Dror
• A briefing on humanitarian aid and the IDF
• Tree planting at Kibbutz Dafna
• Overnight: David's Harp Galilee Resort

Leave the lake and drive south through the hill country. We stop at Shiloh, where the Tabernacle stood for 369 years before there was a Jerusalem, where Hannah prayed for a son and where a boy named Samuel first heard the voice of God. Sit in that place and it stops being rocks and dirt. Then up to Jerusalem. There is a moment on that road when the city comes into view and the bus goes quiet. Four nights here.

• Depart the Galilee
• Shiloh, where the Tabernacle stood
• Arrive Jerusalem
• Overnight: Dan Panorama Jerusalem

Down to the lowest place on earth. Qumran first, where a shepherd boy threw a stone into a cave and found the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest copies of the Hebrew Bible we have. Then an oasis hike at Ein Gedi, David's hiding place from Saul, where a waterfall comes out of the desert cliffs. In the afternoon, float in the Dead Sea. You will laugh. Everybody does.

• Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found
• Oasis hike at Ein Gedi
• Float in the Dead Sea
• Overnight: Dan Panorama Jerusalem

Most people arrive in Jerusalem and assume the Old City is the old city. Today you find out that the real one is here, underneath what used to be a car park. This is the Jerusalem of David and Hezekiah and Isaiah. Wade Hezekiah's Tunnel, cut through solid rock in the eighth century before Christ while the Assyrian army marched on the city. See the Pool of Siloam, now excavated to its full width, where Jesus sent a blind man to wash. Then walk the Pilgrimage Road, uncovered only in recent years, the same stepped street the pilgrims climbed to the Temple. The evening is yours in Jerusalem.

• The City of David excavations
• Wade Hezekiah's Tunnel
• The Pool of Siloam archaeological dig
• Walk the Pilgrimage Road up toward the Temple
• Overnight: Dan Panorama Jerusalem

Communion at the Garden Tomb to begin, in a quiet garden beside an empty grave. Then up to the Mount of Olives for the view every photograph of Jerusalem is taken from, and down the Palm Sunday road on foot to Gethsemane, where we use a private garden so there is room to pray without a crowd. Into the Old City through the Lions Gate to St. Anne's and the Pool of Bethesda. St. Anne's is the oldest Gothic church in the world, every cathedral in Europe traces back to it, and the acoustics are such that a group of ordinary people singing sounds like a choir. Finish at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

• Communion at the Garden Tomb
• Mount of Olives overlook
• Descend the Palm Sunday road
• The Garden of Gethsemane, in a private garden
• Enter the Old City by the Lions Gate
• St. Anne's Church and the Pool of Bethesda
• The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
• Overnight: Dan Panorama Jerusalem

Up early to the Temple Mount, where the Temple stood and where Jesus taught, security permitting. Then a quiet moment of prayer at the Western Wall. On to the Jerusalem Archaeological Park for the Southern Steps and the Davidson Center, the actual stairs worshippers climbed into the Temple courts. Through the Jewish Quarter, and into the Upper Room. A day made of reflection. We finish with a farewell dinner at Naura in Abu Gosh, an Arab town where Jews and Arabs live as neighbors, a few minutes from where the Ark of the Covenant rested in the house of Obed-Edom. Then to Ben Gurion for your flight home.

• Ascend the Temple Mount, subject to security
• Prayer at the Western Wall
• Jerusalem Archaeological Park, Southern Steps and Davidson Center
• The Jewish Quarter of the Old City
• The Upper Room
• Farewell dinner at Naura in Abu Gosh
• Transfer to Ben Gurion Airport