A Trip to the Holy Land

What better way to kick off the spring semester than taking a study trip to Israel? Each year at WOLBI Jeju the students have the opportunity to spend 10 days touring the Holy Land alongside students and staff from the New York and Florida Bible Institute campuses. The trip consisted of visiting over 40 sites including the Sea of Galilee, Jericho, Dan, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. Not only was it exciting for the students to study the Bible in a tangible way but it also was exciting how it challenged them in their personal relationship with God.

Here more about their favorite sites and the impact it had on their view of the Bible and relationship with God!

Sea of Galilee

Nate Payne

I always imagined the sea as being a vast water landscape that as far as one could see they could only see more water. But at the same time when Jesus walked on water, the water was flat and calm for Him but Peter had waves. But in reality, you can easily see across the sea, more like a large lake, but for but for being a lake it has the waves of an ocean. It allowed me to better picture the events that occurred around or on the Sea of Galilee, like walking on water or calming the storm.

Ariel Lee

Before I went to Israel, I just knew about stories of the Bible and I just imagined what it looked like. But after this trip, every time I read the Bible I know what it looks like and it actually touched my heart. The Sea of Galilee is my favorite site. When I was boating there the view was so awesome and I felt something warm inside my heart. Also, it made me feel how beautiful and awesome it is to follow Jesus with loving people.

Tabgha (a seashore near the sea of Galilee)

Yenny Lee

I learned that Tabgha is probably the place where Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Jesus (John 21). Before this happened, the last time Peter saw Jesus was when Jesus turned and looked at Peter, after he had denied Jesus three times. Thus, it’s Peter’s first time to see Jesus after his failure. Even after our failure Jesus still calls us to Him and love us the same. He encourages us to live for Him again and love Him again.

Rebecca Kim

I really liked Tabgha. Tabgha is the place where Jesus gathered all of the disciples after He resurrected. I felt Jesus’ real love there. He said to the disciples there, ‘ come and have breakfast’. When He was crucified, all of the disciples ran away.

Jesus called them and grilled fish for them as if nothing had happened. I looked back at how arrogant I was. He kept saying to me, ‘just come and have breakfast’ but there were many times when I was too busy, pursuing the things of the world and could not answer God’s request. So I want to put my promise with God first always!”