Holy Land trip enlightens students, community members

Published by Concordia University, Nebraska 8 years ago on Tue, Jul 7, 2015 10:49 AM
Concordia students gather on the Mount of Olives overlooking the Kidron Valley and the Old City in the Holy Land. Pictured (l-r): Elizabeth King, Spencer Owen, Christine Young, Hannah Rose, Matthew Chapa, Christian Schultz
The Christmas Church, dedicated in 1893, belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land, with Rev. Mitri Raheb as pastor. The congregation is the oldest in the Middle East and was started by German missionaries in 1854. Pictured are (l-r): Front: Gil and Bonnie Daenzer, Tom and Jan Watson, Christine Young, Liz King, Debbie Hanschke, Katrina Daenzer and Hannah Rose. Back: Emily Chapa, Christian Schultz, Jon Chapa, Matthew Chapa, Jon Hanschke, Jim Chapa, Spencer Owen, David Daenzer, Jim Rose and Deb Chapa.

A group of 20 Concordia University, Nebraska students, alumni and friends embarked on a tour of the Holy Land from June 11–25. The tour, led by Dr. Mark Meehl, professor of theology, included visits to Galilee, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and other Biblical sites in the surrounding areas.

“Visiting the places that we study in the classroom and hear about on the news makes them come alive for the students,” said Meehl. These sites are no longer imagined abstractions, but real places and real people. Everything we do on the tour enhances the education of the students and alums who join us.”

The tour was designed for attendees to encounter the land of the Bible on three levels. They saw traditional sites associated with the Bible and visited working archaeological excavations at Gezer and Beth-Shemesh to help them better visualize and understand the history of the Holy Land. Attendees met and spoke with people of the region—Palestinians, Israelis, Christians, Jews and Muslims—in a variety of settings to provide context and relevance to the events that occur in the land today. They also incorporated devotions and worship opportunities into the trip to enhance their spiritual life.

“The tour is quite challenging, both in terms of the amount of information to which the students are exposed and the rigor of 12 days of intense sight-seeing in an uneasy part of the world,” said Meehl. “The students are confronted with the variety of different narratives of the people who live in Palestine and Israel. One of our speakers, for instance, is the night editor for the oldest newspaper in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Post. We also eat incredibly delicious traditional foods such as chicken musakhan, maqlubeh, felafel, shwarma and kanafeh.”

Biblical sites featured on the trip, among others, include the Sea of Galilee, the site of the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, the Old City of Bethlehem including the Church of the Nativity, the tomb of Herod the Great, the tomb of Lazarus, the Mount of Olives, the Palm Sunday Road to the Garden of Gethsemane, the city of Jericho, the town of Emmaus, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (the traditional location of Jesus’ tomb), the Israel Museum that houses the original Dead Sea Scrolls and local restaurants. The group traveled from Masada in the south to Metulla in the north, and, while staying in Bethlehem, spent several days in the West Bank, visiting Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron.

“My favorite part was seeing all the great structures and landscapes that were in the country,” said student Matthew Chapa. “Not only were they nothing like what I expected, but they had their own style of beauty to them that I have never seen anywhere else. … When we read the Bible, we almost have this preconceived notion of what the landscape will look like and that we knew everything that we needed to know. But going there, every idea that I thought I knew was shattered.”

Attendees also met with two recent Concordia graduates who are currently working at excavation sites in Israel. Alexa Marquardt is doing graduate work in biblical exegesis at Wheaton College based out of Wheaton, Illinois. Andy Hatesohl, now a student at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, and a veteran of the Gezer dig, is digging in the north at Abel Beth Maacah.

Meehl co-authored a book on the archaeology of the Philistines and is now working on the archaeology of the Jezreel Valley during the Iron Age, the time of the Old Testament. He was an academic fellow at the U.S. archaeological research institute in Jerusalem (Albright Institute) and has excavated in Jordan (one season), Syria (one season) and Israel (10 seasons). He also leads groups of students and alumni through unique areas of Israel every three years.

The 2015 trip is Meehl’s fourth trip taking students on a tour of the Holy Land.

Students who participated in the trip include:

  • Christine Young, sophomore, Lisle, Ill.
  • Spencer Owen, junior, Arcadia, Iowa
  • Christian Schultz, senior, Wamego, Kan.
  • Matthew Chapa, senior, Buffalo, Minn.
  • Elizabeth King, junior, Billings, Mont.
  • Hannah Rose, sophomore, Louisville, Neb.

Community members participating in the trip include:

  • Emily Chapa, Buffalo, Minn.
  • Jim and Deb Chapa, Buffalo, Minn.
  • Jon Chapa, Buffalo, Minn.
  • Gil and Bonnie Daenzer, Seward, Neb.
  • David and Katrina Daenzer, Mount Clemens, Mich.
  • Jon and Debbie Hanschke, Menomonee Falls, Wis.
  • Dr. Mark Meehl, trip organizer and professor of theology at Concordia, Seward, Neb.
  • Jim Rose, Las Vegas, Nev.
  • Tom and Jan Watson, Baltimore, Md.

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