Last week I got a call about next February’s Holy Land Tour. The woman on the phone wanted to know some airfare details. Then she asked me if I would be going on the tour.
“No,” I replied. “It’s for women only.”
Which got me to thinking…
If the tour is only for women, maybe it shouldn’t be me writing about it.
So I won’t.
Instead, I’ll share what the women who will be leading the tour recently said about it.
“We’ll go to Nazareth and focus on Mother Mary, and stay above the home believed to be Hers and Joseph’s, while honoring Anne, her mother, in her homeland.
We will go to Ein Karem where Mary and her cousin Elizabeth met, and imagine their meeting and time together. Their wombs leapt at the meeting. Our hearts will as well.
In Bethlehem we’ll go to the Milk Grotto and worship in the white cave where it is said the walls were turned white with a drop of Mary’s milk.
In Bethany we’ll imagine the rich scenes of Martha and Mary caring for Jesus, and go into the actual cave from which Lazarus was raised.
We’ll go to Galilee and Magdala, and to Jerusalem to walk the Way of the Cross with Mary Magdalene and other faithful women who accompanied Jesus to the cross.
Along the way we’ll sing and rejoice, and enjoy the new relationships formed with other women.”
“I’m looking forward to growing the company of women to interact and encounter the women who journeyed with Jesus and were His followers and friends.
To walk in that land together where Jesus walked and where these women lived is a phenomenal experience, and I found it absolutely life changing to touch into those places with other women and to be able to talk about it on the pilgrimage.”
“I love the idea that women have been making these journeys for millennia now, and I’m thrilled to be part of that.
This is not a tour. This is a pilgrimage. I expect to come back transformed, and I expect you to come back transformed.”
Dates for the 3rd Heart of the Holy Land Women’s Pilgrimage are February 5 – 17, 2023, with an optional extension to Jordan Feb. 17 – 20.