Preparing for The Journey to The Holy Land

“Everything is going to change.”

These were the words of Josh Ahrens, director of the Israel Collective, the organization that invited me and 25 other people for an all-expense paid trip to the Holy Land. He said these words to us as we gathered in a meeting room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel by the JFK Airport in New York City. This is the place where all of the attendees met for a group dinner prior to boarding our flight.

Other than my two colleagues at National Review Institute, Nate Mills and Jason Wise, I did not previously know anyone else on the trip. The common denominator of our group is that almost everyone lives and works in DC, some for members of Congress, others for policy organizations and nonprofits. All of us are Christians, from various denominations. Jason and I are two of the rare geographical exceptions to the vast majority DC crowd, but NRI is a national organization and does have a DC office, where our colleague Nate works from.

We were invited, I assume, because we are all in positions of influence, and the Israel Collective is associated with another organization, Christians United For Israel. Since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the Holy Land has been in conflict, particularly political conflict. But let’s face it, the Holy Land has been a place of conflict for thousands of years. It’s a complicated and complex place, where the world’s top three religions lay claim on some of their most sacred holy sites.

Most of us in this travel group are probably used to planning our own travel itineraries when we travel with our own families and friends, but this time the entire itinerary is in the hands of our guides, Josh and Raj, of the Israel Collective. That’s when Raj reminded us: “For the next 9 days, just relax. God wants you to get to know him.”

And that’s mostly why I’m here. My faith has always been the most important part of me. It has guided me since I was first taught to pray at a Baptist school in kindergarten. That faith led me to be baptized in middle school, where my brothers and I entered the Catholic Church. My faith was formed in me through many theology classes at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale. All the scenes of the Bible take place in the Holy Land that we will soon be visiting. They’ve only been places on a map or in my mind. Now, they are about to get real.

As Raj and others were talking, I was reminded that exactly a year ago, I was sitting in church with my parents at their parish of St. Thomas More in Boynton Beach, Florida. It was the week before I was heading to Europe for several weeks. I don’t remember what it was the priest said that day. But I was reflecting that I was going to be heading to London, a place where a number of small-scale terrorist attacks had recently taken place. While Israel has always been the #1 place in the world I’ve always wanted to go, I haven’t taken the leap mostly because we’re always told how dangerous of a place it is. But last year I was going to London, where I was for a few days. And I thought: if I’m going to London, why not Israel? It was at that mass that day that day that it really hit me that I wanted to go to Israel…soon. I told my mom that after mass.

And then in February of this year, I had a crazy experience on I-95 where I was less than 5 seconds from death. You can read more about that here. But after that earth-shaking experience, a few days later, as I continued thanking God for keeping me alive that day, I thought to myself: I need to go to Israel. I’m 40 years old now. It’s time. And it would be a tragedy if I departed this earth without ever having that opportunity.

Only a few weeks later, my friend Ryan Nichols randomly called me up to ask me if I wanted to go to Israel. It was a strange out of the blue call, but I immediately told him a little bit of these stories. He told me he had gone on a trip with the Israel Collective last August and now had an opportunity to nominate someone and wanted to nominate me. A few months later I got the official invite and now I’m here we were at the JFK airport preparing to head there tonight. When your heart is ready, things just sometimes happen.

I was also given the opportunity to nominate a few of my NRI colleagues and Jason and Nate immediately came to mind. The Israel Collective extended them an invite as well and I’m glad they are able to be here on this journey together.

As Josh and Raj talked to us at the welcome meeting, they told us we may want to read the Bible on the plane on the way to Israel. They said after tonight we will never read the Bible the same again. I think they’ll be right. Fortunately, I always have the Bible on my phone – there’s an app for that. So I’ll certainly do that on the plane. I’m also fortunate to be traveling with Magnificat’s Holy Land Companion: A  Spiritual Guide for Pilgrims that was given to me by my NRI colleague Kathryn Jean Lopez, a fellow Catholic. This little book has scripture readings and meditations for specific holy sites in the Holy Land. I am looking forward to diving deeper into my faith.

As the official business part of the welcome meeting concluded, Raj then told us, “Ask God to reveal everything to you.” That’s precisely why I’m on this trip. I’m looking forward to stepping foot in the Holy Land and allowing all to be revealed.