Go Beyond

There is something powerful about going on a pilgrimage — something that changes you and the way you think and how you see the world. Pilgrims through the centuries would agree.

For the past several years, Kingsland’s student ministry has sponsored a trip to the Holy Land for graduating seniors. This trip is especially significant for our students because it is the culmination of a year of small group study that revolves around biblical worldview considerations.

Earlier this month, a total of 87 students and adult sponsors boarded two flights bound for Tel Aviv in hopes of gaining better insight into our biblical worldview. The best insight tends to come when we are onsite. Being onsite leads to aha moments and prompts a lot of good questions.

The opportunity for our students to go to the places where our worldview unfolded provides context for what they believe. We want for our students to understand and appreciate the fact that everything recorded in the Bible happened in a geographical, cultural, and historical context. Understanding that context helps our students to strengthen their grip on what they believe.

We started our pilgrimage of discovery by visiting sites around the Sea of Galilee — the region where Jesus spent much of His ministry. From our vantage point on a boat on the Sea of Galilee, we had a 360-degree view of many of the places where Jesus taught and performed so many miracles.

Every site we visited helped our students gain perspective and better understand that the Bible was not written in a vacuum. The language, the metaphors, and the similes took on deeper significance because of standing in the places that prompted the words recorded in Scripture.

After Galilee, our pilgrimage of discovery took us south to the depths of the Dead Sea, the heights of Masada, and the living waters of En Gedi where ibex sated their thirst — the kind of scene that likely inspired David to write, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for Thee, O God” (Psalm 42:1).

Many of our students chose to be baptized in the Jordan River — always a special part of our pilgrimage. We also visited ancient sites like Beit She’an, a city that once had it all and now lies in ruins, and ventured to Jericho, the oldest continually inhabited city in the world.

We concluded our time in and around Jerusalem where we visited the Temple Mount, prayed at the Western Wall, sat on the Southern Steps, waded through Hezekiah’s Tunnel, prayed at the Garden of Gethsemane, walked the Via Dolorosa, and observed the Lord’s Supper at the Garden Tomb.

We also visited Bethlehem where we learned about the shepherds who unwittingly became the first evangelists. We visited the Herodium and bowed low to enter the Church of the Nativity through the door of humility. And, this group was the first to visit the Chapel of the Innocents.

I had the personal privilege of returning later to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where I fulfilled a bucket-list wish — to see the Domine Ivimus etching beneath St. Vartan’s Chapel. This etching was left by a fourth century pilgrim to the Holy Land who depicted the ship he traveled on and the words Domine Ivimus, translated “Lord, We Went.”

The Domine Ivimus etching prompted me to think about the pilgrim who left his mark on a wall. What challenges did this individual face? What sacrifices were made in order to make the journey? What did this pilgrim feel at the first sight of Jerusalem? In what ways was this unknown traveler changed? What happened when he or she returned home?

Since that early pilgrim visited the Holy Land, countess others have followed — and many more will continue to do the same. I am thankful for the opportunity to have led others to join the ranks of those who can say, Domine Ivimus.