Israel-November 9-18, 2007: Wonderful, breath taking, hard to explain, the mix feelings that engulfed my whole being, when for the first time I set my eyes on the Holy places where Jesus our Lord left His mark. I thought I was travelling back in time 2000 years ago in the time of Jesus, this was made possible by the Jews, scholars, archaeologists, who worked very hard to preserve the structures. Some already broken into pieces, they worked carefully and skillfully to restore them to its original state.

Miraculously, the Holy Bible seemed to come to life, touching every limb of my body, heart and soul, for like in His time, I felt His presence in the various places {mountains, river, lake, etc.} that He spent His life with His disciples and many people that followed Him.

As our group travelled and celebrated mass on various sites, His words, teachings, gospels, penetrated deeply and I saw them from a different light. It was very spiritual, inspiring, fulfilling and it was an experience of a lifetime.

It was also very interesting to discover and learn new things, and to be able to transcend beyond expectations.

Hopefully this account of my experiences will arouse some interest/excitement in the mind of our readers, and in the future many more will have the chance to visit the Holy land and touch them the way it did to me.

We were a group of 47 ethnic people, with different background and interest in life, yet we were bound together with our faith and our desire to set our foot In the Holy Land. To trace the footsteps of our Lord, and by so doing to feel him in our hearts, and to transcend beyond expectations, erasing any trace of doubt that we may have had, before embarking in this once in a life time experience we called “Pilgrimage to the Holy Land.”

Israel is a magnificent country, full of mist and mysticism. Modern yet old, and green yet dry. I mean that although it is so modern in technology, in structures and infrastructures, underlying beneath the surface are artifacts of the old life. Within the big churches are fragments of what used to be in those particular sites. So important that they were very carefully preserved by scholars, archeologists, and the people themselves that were involved.

Israel is also very dry yet green. .It has many mountains that are almost bare.. Nothing growing on them, and perhaps that was the reason why people in Jesus time collected rain water and stored them in cisterns, but what truly amazed me was how the Jews are able to grow, tropical plants, trees, like bananas, mangoes, and oranges. Also not so far from the Dead Sea, dates were growing abundantly.

Like many other countries in the world, Israel has also its own problems, and while we were there we felt it too. One of them is, its political conflict with Palestine. Palestinians have varying degrees of autonomy throughout central Israel, more like tug of war between two different races living in one nation.

When our group went to Bethlehem, our tour guide Mike couldn’t come with us. At the boarder, our passports were scrutinized before we were allowed to board a Palestinian bus. How wonderful it was to see the Shepherds Field, the stable and the manger where the infant Jesus was born. I must say the experience was fulfilling and the friendly attitude of our Palestinian guide and the others whom we met were icing on the cake.

However our experience in Bethany was very much different. As in Bethlehem we boarded a Palestinian bus, that took us to Bethany to visit the church of St Lazarus and his tomb, while our tour guide Mike awaited for us at the border. As it was the death anniversary of Yasser Arafat, there was a demonstration going on. After a short meditation/prayer in the church our group headed to the tomb of St. Lazarus. Unfortunately, the demonstrating Palestinian were now displaying radical movements, in the torch lit square. Our Palestinian driver was obviously nervous and cut our trip short.

To others, perhaps the most touching experience was their participation in the Via Dolorosa, or touching His footprint on a piece of stone. To others maybe the solemnity surrounding the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was built within the compound of Golgotha or Calvary, and perhaps, to other members of our group, Jerusalem itself, but for me, everything, every place, every experience , made the Pilgrimage to the Holy Land an experience of a Lifetime. Not only was it Holy and Spiritual, it was also very much fulfilling.

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