Dr. Jim Phillips of North Greenwood Baptist Church is a little jet-lagged but still running on excitement.
The pastor and 16 others from the Delta recently returned from 10 days in Israel, along with the rest of their larger group of 41 travelers.
“This is my third time,” Phillips said. “My wife and I went last February.”
Phillips was to give a talk with a slide show of photos from the trip to the senior adult group at North Greenwood today. He said he kept the congregation informed every step of the way though his Facebook page.
This year’s Delta group flew out of Memphis on Feb. 7 and then to Cincinnati, where they met up in with a group of Kentucky travelers, and to New York, where they all flew from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Tel Aviv, Israel.
The tour began there, near the Mediterranean Sea, and headed as far north as the Lebanon border, then to the Sea of Galilee near the Syrian-Jordanian border and south to the Dead Sea, ending in Jerusalem.
“Our goal as Christians is to try and establish a pattern, following in the footsteps of Christ,” Phillips said.
He gives much credit for the success of the trip to the group’s Israeli guide, Yuval Shemesh.
“He’s a third-generation guide, a native of Jerusalem who’s been guiding tours for 25 years,” Phillips said. “He has the ability to know where we are, tell us the best way to spend our time and to know any obstacles in the way.”
Leading the trip was evangelist Gary Bowlin of Summit, who has made the pilgrimage to Israel 39 times, counting this trip.
“We try to highlight places where fellow believers can connect biblical stories to their trip,” Phillips said.
Among those sites visited were Caesarea Philippi, Capernaum, Bethlehem and Jericho, with “plenty of time” around the Sea of Galilee, where Phillips and his fellow travelers were treated on Feb. 10 to the sight of the full moon coming up over the water.
Another special location was the Jordan River, where Phillips baptized Greenwood traveler Judy Muse in the muddy water at the site where tradition says John the Baptist baptized Jesus.
“It’s about half as wide as the Yazoo River downtown at this time of year,” Phillips said.
“There’s an agreement between the Jordanian and Israeli governments to open up the security fence so that pilgrims can go down to that traditional baptismal site.
“There’s a rope and a float down the middle, marking the border, and two Jordanian soldiers on the other side.”
Phillips said it is an incomparable experience to hold a baptism in the same place where Jesus was baptized.
The tour ended at the Garden Tomb, a first-century burial site unearthed in the late 1800s, located in the vicinity where Christ was buried and from where, according to Scripture, he rose from the dead.
Phillips said some have told him they hesitate to make the trip because of long flight times and fears about security. This group spent about 15 hours in the air and airports, both coming and going. But he hopes to alleviate security concerns.
“Really, I tell people, the safest place on earth is Israel. So much of the country is driven by tourism,” he said. “At no time did we feel exposed or fearful. And if there’s an issue going on somewhere in the country, you just change your route.”
One of the most important religious sites in the world, the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem — venerated and contested for thousands of years among followers of Christianity, Judaism and Islam — was heavily guarded by Israelis.
Phillips is already planning next year’s tour, set for Feb. 13-22.
The price of the tour, currently set at $4,295 per person for double occupancy, is driven largely by airfares and includes everything but lunches and airport food.
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
