Israel/Clergy Trip Recap + Q&A (02/27)

Israel/Clergy Trip Recap + Q&A (02/27)

Hey everyone it’s uh Tim Parker and Rick rart here with you this afternoon we uh uh I’ve been looking forward all day to uh to come to the live stream to share some information updates about Israel about our uh most recent trip to uh what Switzerland France and Germany correct

Had a great time and then hopefully answer any questions that you guys might have so um why don’t we just jump into it first with uh with updates on on Israel I know Rick has some exciting news to share about Airlines and and several different things so we’ve been

Posting this week so you might have already seen if you follow us on Facebook and uh on social media itself United Airlines is actually starting service back on March the 2nd that’s great so that’s just a few days away and then following that that that will be

Their non-stop flight Newark to Tel Aviv and then after that may 1 Delta will start their non-stop flights from JFK to Tel aiv as well um so that’s exciting news for North American Air carriers starting business uh and flights back to Israel so been waiting on that for a

Long time that’s uh that’s been a long time coming yeah gonna hopefully get us some some great movement uh with tours getting back over there so well speaking of Tours we’ve got Dr John Delany he’s going to be doing some live feed uh on his trip that’s coming up as well it’s a

17-day trip to Egypt Jordan in Israel and I believe his trip goes out on March the 8th so he’s got a full bus and uh he’ll be sharing with you as well live um just about every day every other day while he’s over there so you can see

That firsthand and then we have our Israel solidarity fam trip for clergy that’s going April 1st that’s just the day after Easter and so what a better time to be traveling to Israel than right after Easter yeah how great is that it is pretty cool have a few people

Signed up quite a few people signed up already for it so looking for some more pastors who are either have their tour already set and want to go over and be able to have conversation uh whenever they come back with their with their passengers on uh on on how

Things look over there uh how how the safety was just the uh the weather the uh the conditions all those things they were going to have a chance firsthand just to experience Israel and see it for themselves um we were just there now it’s been three weeks um since we were

Last there and I can tell you from our experience things were normal um at least the new normal in in regards to things but uh not again to take anything away or light of what’s happened in Gaza and uh that’s still taking place right now but it’s highly

Highly contained and as you probably already seeing in the news so forth it looks like there’s even a possible ceasefire could be even later this week which would be very exciting I know that they want to do it before Ramadan um so if that happens that would be also

Wonderful news but even more so we just want the hostages return safely yeah yeah so lots of exciting stuff that’s that’s going on over there a lot of information that’s been coming in so we wanted to share those uh details with you but the solidarity the solidarity

Tour that is going off April 1st through the 9th um if you are a pastor that either has a tour scheduled or are you are looking to schedule a tour there’s some uh some very cool things that we’ve been able to do with costs that are involved with

That so we can discuss that some more with you if you’d love to to call into the to the office at 863 79928 or if you want to go to the website um at www.world.com or you can email us at sales itworld decom as well um for pastors ordained pastors and so forth

For the land only package for the N9 days at 6.95 per person and spouses a little bit more um and that’s including gratuities airfare is not included and that’s breakfast and dinner daily so we’re excited about that and then we are now announcing that we have another Israel

Solidarity tour which will be May 28th W through June 6 and so that’s going to be a 10-day trip um we also have airfare um that we’re able to off offer which is on Air Canada from Chicago and they’ve got some great flights as well so we’re

Going to do a very similar trip to what we’re doing April 1 but we’ll be offering it also for May 28th um we had quite a few people who expressed interest but they couldn’t do the April dates so we decided almost uh two two months later would be a little

Bit better yeah so some great times to be over there actually I mean even weather gorgeous yeah the weather’s going to be amazing uh both of those both of those times so I’m kind of little jealous that I don’t get to go on the April trip

So be on the me trip we’ve got some uh great some great people from the office that are going I’m going to leave that maybe for a little bit later but you guys will be excited to hear who you’re going to get to meet from the office um

So we do have a question do you have some more information you wanted to share before go question okay so we did have a question from H Wildwood Community Church uh just said what areas of Israel are available to tour right now can you go to Dan cister Philippi

Goen Heights Bethlehem so um let’s jump right into it Bethlehem you can definitely visit that’s not a problem Jericho you can visit um currently they’re still restricting um any groups traveling up to the far north which would be the cesaria Philippi tan um and the Golan Heights the good fence we’re

Going to wait a little a little bit longer we believe that come may they should be able to but as of right now that’s not an option security is still our top priority um I would like to think that within six to eight weeks that should change yeah so that’s great

News um the rest of the Galilee you can visit all of the sites um things are normal in that regards and they’re open so that is definitely doable I have been in contact also with our Israel offices uh those in Tel Aviv area and those of Jerusalem and they’ve been sharing also

That groups have been arriving almost daily or every other day um so travel has resumed um back to Israel I know that in spite of the media um people are still a little leery and we totally understand that but keep in mind that it is open you can travel and for those you

Know that aren’t necessarily familiar with Israel um not only is it probably the safest time to travel right now where security is heightened and they’ve to put things in place to make sure that you are safe more so you have no crowds you’re not going to be fighting any

Crowds yeah and that you know if you want to even talk about just when we were at the church of nativity in Bethlehem what that was like yeah I’ve uh the the ability to move around in there with without U the crowds that are typically there was pretty amazing the

Time that we were that you and I were able to spend in The Grotto uh was um unheard of um I mean normally you are you have time to go down take a photo spend a brief uh very brief moment and then you’re mve through just because the

Numbers are are are so large trying to to to move through that Grotto uh we spent 15 minutes down there just um uninterrupted yeah just having conversation in fact we could have stayed longer than that it was time for us to move uh to go have to meet with

Some friends so and also the Church of the Holy supper same the same holds truth there were no crowds I mean there’s people there you will see groups and so forth but normal times um prior to October 7th you know normally you could be there waiting 30 45 minutes

Even over an hour just to be able to get in and we were able to walk right in and take as much time as we wanted to which was you know quite nice selfishly speaking but it’s much nicer to see groups there yeah it was amazing um and

I know I don’t know do we have do so talking to people out there just do we have any opportunity Beyond um setting tours up for next year do you have space available that um if people wanted to jump on this year yeah yeah we actually do we have groups that

Are still going um I know this is probably what maybe most people aren’t familiar with is we have groups that are going just about every single month from here on out so Dr John Delany is traveling next month um literally in a week um and then after that we have

Groups that are going um every single from April May June July onward um so even if you’re an individual or a couple and you like I’d like to be able to go or your trip was scheduled and either it needed to be rescheduled for next year or maybe you cancelled and then maybe

You’re now realizing you might want to reconsider and either being reinstated or would like to be transferred or jump on to another trip um please contact us we’ll be happy to work with you because we’d love to see you travel yeah so we’ve uh so we’ve had

Tours that were towards the end of last year have been uh rescheduled and moved to around a year out so if you’ve if you’re looking for around the end of this year then we have that ability for you to even possibly set up a group oh absolutely you could still go even if

You wanted to go this September or late October or November or even the you know first week or so of December and then um surprisingly we have a lot of groups that are going right after Christmas so that’s it’s also a wonderful time period especially for those in um education and

So forth like that that want to take advantage of Christmas break um that’s a beautiful time December 26 27th 28th to be able to travel yeah and it’s not too early to set up for next year at any point I Wasing with a working with a tour host earlier today that scheduling

Their trip for the first part of December and 25 definitely not too early to begin that no please um if you’re even considering putting a trip together um now is actually the time to contact us there’s probably never been a better time but uh all the way through

Realistically the end of January or beginning of February of 2026 we’re able to book out tours right now so that’s pretty incredible as well yeah so don’t wait um and of course um we do many other destinations than uh yeah than Israel so Greece has been footsteps of Paul has been our our

Number two um no disrespect to that but it’s always been a highly regarded and um high demand but of course due to the situations in Israel um Greece has become even a higher demand along with Italy um both of those Italy and Greece are you know incredible destinations

Have so much culture history um early Christianity um it just reaffirms why we believe what we do and appreciate what those what they did before us to make it easier yeah so yeah so we have 10day 10day footsteps of PA tours that include three night or four night

Cruises yep those cruises typically are going over to uh Ephesus kadashi and then back into Patmos and then you visit several islands coming back into Athens correct yeah meos sanini sometimes creit things like that and I think that’s one of the questions we get asked too is you

Know can people actually travel to Turkey Turkey is completely safe um we have groups that are going to Turkey literally this week um we have other groups that are going next month as well and onward um turkey has not been affected so you can travel to Turkey you

Know quite so the people are amazing so I would highly encourage you to to do so whether it’s you’re wanting to do Greece or Italy or turkey things like that and then as we started off you mentioned um we just returned this last Thursday from uh visiting Switzerland going to France

And going to Germany on a Reformation tour and that was really incredible it was a great group of people um quite a few different denominations uh were represented and you want to share anything about that yeah no that was uh so we’ve so back in 2017 I just want to

Jump back a little ways we had the 500th anniversary of the of the Lutheran of Martin Luther the 95 the that he nailed to the door at the castle Church in vitberg so we did that was a great uh great time of visiting that and understanding what that uh time and

History looked like uh this year we opened up um into more reformers so correct we visited some sites that were um John Calvin um zwingley uh John Knox uh hu I mean there were I mean just Amazing Stories yeah amazing stories of of what these uh men accomplished and the different things

That they did we even had one of our uh one of our passengers um jokingly talked about that uh as they were leaving that they were uh told their people that hey uh pray for me I may come back reformed yes and then they said you know not

Understanding that um what they were going to find out uh really made them understand what happened there uh and the miss the preconceived ideas about um the Reformation or the reformers themselves uh didn’t really play out to uh what they had originally thought at all it was completely different than I

Think they envisioned uh I was one of the questions we asked is you know did we meet your expectations or what were your expectations and uh you know being that some of them were not lutherans and some of them were other denominations they came back and said um I would was

Highly impressed I learned a great deal um it gave me a greater appreciation for my faith um understanding what it is to be reformed and um why the whole protestation actually took place and uh even for some you know it’s why do we even call ourselves a Protestant yeah

And uh the appreciation for it as well it has nothing to do with not loving the Catholic church and and appreciating them as well but understanding just the significance of why it is that uh you know we don’t have to do indulgences or anything like that so it was quite

Incredible and we’re going to be offering another one of those trips this November so if you’re a clergy and you would love to experience a Reformation tour firsthand contact us as well um November I think it’s the 11th November the 11th y um so do contact us if you

Want to join us it’s going to be another great trip and it will be the same um of what we just did starting with Switzerland then continuing on through France and then we’ll end in Germany and um it’s quite impactful so I’d highly encourage you in that regard as well

Yeah just to give you an idea we were in land landed in Geneva uh spent some spent a day in Geneva we were in Zurich the next day had some some sites that we visited in between which were additions that Matias our our guide that was on

The trip was able to add uh yeah it was amazing uh we ended up in strawber straber and then leaving France into Germany um we were we at Eisen afor vers um visited vurg Castle uh the castle Church in vitberg and then we ended up in Berlin which was uh a really

Great time for Matias to share stories about his time growing up in East Germany yeah which is just amazing to hear that we you and I have heard those several times but it’s remarkable yeah things that we take so for granted yeah so is there other questions that came up

In regarding Israel yeah it looks like from Steven I think it says uh has the price changed for trips there that are already booked ours is the first week of December your pricing has not changed at all your pricing is the same um if you were rescheduling a trip later um then

You might be impacted with a higher airfare but if you’re already booked on a tour where the tour dates were the original ones that just moved over um and they were still scheduled to go at this this time there would not be an increase if it’s a reschedule trip then

You would see a small increase and most of that increase is the airfare with the Airlines and the air taxes yeah so so no change in in cost the the the trip is already uh booked in fact even whenever we U moved the had to move the tours and

Postpone those tours we uh those trip costs for those that were paid in full didn’t change there was no increase at all yeah so we were able to hold those prices for the people that are already paid in full correct and um to be honest with you minimal cost increase for for

Having to to move those as well yes to new dates so thanks for the question um plenty of time for questions if you guys have anything uh feel free to to post those questions um so in addition to Reformation where else are we going well we’re doing if you haven’t checked

Out our website um itworld domcom River Cruises that’s definitely something to consider if you want to do something that’s a little bit more relaxing um most of them include either a seven night or an eight night cruise the the beauty of a river cruise is each day or even sometimes in the afternoon

Depending on if the ship is moving um first there’s no seasickness it’s flat so you don’t have to worry about that um second you’re at a different destination so just to give you an example you could be in the morning right after breakfast um visiting Germany and then later after

Lunch you could be doing something in uh in France and uh W surprisingly on the other side of the river you could be in Switzerland so you know needless to say it’s it’s quite interesting in that sense but uh we’ve got quite a few different programs that we’re offering

So definitely check them out we have groups that are going I’m going to be going you’re actually going to be traveling as well the the end of April beginning of May we’re actually going and doing a tulips uh River Cruise yeah so we’ve got a a group that’s also going

And then we have a group of pastors that’s going as well yeah so we think these trips are are going to be great for those pastors who want to put time together and uh spend quality time with their uh with their congregations uh we have a a friend of

Ours that’s traveling and they have a Ministry and they feel like that’s going to be a great trip for relationship building relationship building absolutely for them for for their for their Ministry corre so these are and you can add there’s several stops that we have that you can add the Reformation

Piece on that if you want to um some of it’s going to be just um the beauty of the countries that you’re visiting corre in fact whenever uh whenever Rick told me that this one was the Tulip cruise I said is that because of Calvin and he

Said no it’s because of the flowers the flowers so so it’s completely different but we do have like if you do the elb uh river cruise that would be one that actually starts in Berlin and you’ll do Wittenberg and you’ll do strawberg and you’ll have a chance to do some of the

Other sites as well going along some of the things that we just experienced firsthand heidleberg things like that yeah and then uh including also Zurich and lake lucern and things uh those those incredible cities so there’s so much more to it um you know also we we

Had the experience when we were just on the trip as well just last week uh we had a chance to be reminded that the anabaptists oh yeah are celebrating I believe it’s the 500 year anniversary and that’s going to be next May so that’s pretty exciting to see and

That’ll take place in Zurich so there’s a lot of exciting things that are happening um in addition to of course going to Israel yeah uh We’ve even got um the United Kingdom right England we’ got Scotland and the UK and things like that and you can even do do a pre or post

Trip to Ireland as well and uh again we’ve got many opportunities and and options and trips for you depending on what you’re wanting to do yeah so more questions it looks like we are looks like we’ve answered both of those okay so been um if you want to transfer to a

Different trip yes you’re welcome to do that as well um that’s always an option if that’s something you’re wanting to do um do contact our office and we’ll work with you to make that happen or if you’re on a trip to to Israel and you wanted to see about the possibility of

Going to a different destination that we have trips going to you’re welcome to transfer to those as well so we are here to work with you whatever’s whatever’s best for you yeah as we talked about last week I think the question come up was um well if they still didn’t want to

Travel uh was the only option to um lose your deposit and that’s never the only option like as you were just saying uh we always offer different opportunities for you to either join another group that’s traveling later in the year or if you decide that you don’t want to go to the

Destination you are booked for we have other destinations that you can join those trips that are going there I and I think you just said it perfectly um you have plenty of options uh first and and biggest step is just contacting us and asking us you know what can I do if you

Have any questions orc concerns we’re here to serve you so let us know that’s great so you have anything else you want to share I can’t think of anything right now I know that uh we’ll be doing this again hopefully in a week and we’ll give you some more updates and hopefully um

We might even delay it a day or two depending on um the updates that we reive from Dr John Delany with his trip um but if not we’ll follow up and and do something even the week after so I think we got another another question just came up uh speak about what’s required

To be a trip coordinator so really um to be honest with you to be a tour host so we uh we have guides who are are set up who take care of pretty much every aspect of it while you are in country so the only thing that’s

Required is for you to have a heart for this uh to want to share this with uh the people that you have relationship with and influence over so really the only time the only thing is picking dates toughest part of it right pick dates first and foremost the most

Important thing you can do is choose the destination that you want to travel to and your travel dates and then you know contact us so we can not only answer your questions but set a tour up for you and really your promotions you know what’s responsible we have a a tour host

Guide um book that really will lay out all the things to know um what to do and how to host and if you’re interested just contact us and we’ll get you that information so we have it as a PDF form that we can send to you and also a

Booklet form that’s printed sure yeah if you had you were someone who had seven couples 10 couples who wanted to travel overseas to see Israel or Germany or France Switzerland any of those things you could put a tour together you could easily yes so we’ll take care of all the

Other details literally all the way down to your wakeup calls at your hotels yes so it is pretty simple um we’re into the details we’re we’re a logistics company and that’s what we do yeah so uh everything’s taken care of for you you shouldn’t need to worry about anything

Other than promotion piece of that so um so thanks for that question Earl uh Bill Marinelli wow bill was just overseas with us on this last uh the trip to Switzerland France and Germany yeah good to see you Bill thanks for traveling we had a great time with you Bill yeah so

Great to meet your uh your family your wife um it’s been a while since we uh you’ve been traveling with us for a while and not had a chance to to meet Pam and it was great to meet her and Eric so thank you for doing that Caleb

Oliver what is the minimum number of passengers needed to be a group depending on the destination um we can technically with the airlines the requirement is a minimum of 10 or more from the same departure City so as long as you have 10 departing on the same day from the same departure City

That would be considered a group um in regards to being able to do small groups we can do small groups to Israel to Italy and to Greece and also to Turkey um without any issues in Egypt as well and Jordan um with as as few as 12 um

It’s easier if you can get to 16 that’s really when the hotels start acknowledging some of the group pricing so 16 is kind of the magic number so if there’s eight couples or something like that um um that’s ideal and then most of our groups that you’ll see on our

Brochures will be a minimum of 20 plus um is where the optimal pricing begins great yeah so and of course Bill’s trying to be a wise guy saying you guys do travel right so it’s our first rodeo so well we appreciate uh all of you signing in to uh watch the updates

On Israel to hear us talk about the amazing places that we’ve been able to visit thank you for taking the time we we greatly appreciate we know you’re busy but uh we’d love to hear from you we’d love to work with you um hopefully you’re getting our our emails and our

Updates and some of our specials that are coming out so please look for them yeah and if you have any questions at all contact us um info itworld domcom or sales at itworld We see that there’s a a group that’s going I believe in is it December of 2024 yes there’s there’s space if you’d like to join and go on that trip as well uh they’re doing Israel and they’re saying we’ve got space if anybody’s interested they’re going right after

Christmas I believe it’s December 26 and so if you’re interested in going right after Christmas they have space available to Israel yeah um Michael Hardy is asking heard the garden tomb was closed because of lack of Tourism has it opened yet it is it’s open yeah go for it yeah no we

Uh we were able to visit that site while we were there um now it may be uh may be something to where when your group is headed that way headed to the actual Garden tomb uh they would um kind of open the gate at that point and allow

The group to come in again that was another site that we we were able to go to which is normally a very busy site and you and I pretty much almost had it private to ourselves there was maybe about another another small group of about eight or 10 and then there was a

Few individuals that were there as well at the time when we were there and then just as we were leaving we saw a group of about 24 that were coming as well um the garden tomb is not open on Sundays and during this time period since October 7th they also did close I

Believe it was either Saturday or Monday so there were two days um back toback that they were closed but Sunday is definitely one of the days that they are closed and then it’s either Saturday or Monday um as well as tourism returns they get back into a normal regular

Schedule yeah I think that uh and and the way that I understood it as well was if there was a group that really wanted to travel there they were probably going to open up for that group to be able to visit correct they would do it just any

Day but Sunday y so great question there so all right well we’re about 31 a little almost 32 minutes into this uh we could to be honest with you we had more questions we’d probably sit on here all day wouldn’t we yeah it’s what we enjoy

Doing so so yeah call us at the the the office number 863 79 9208 uh or you can email to uh sales at itworld decom um get your questions in here we have a great we have great team here um I don’t think anybody would say that we have

Anybody that they don’t like to talk to so no we got an excellent team yeah um everybody’s still here we haven’t made any changes and uh we see tourism is finally returning and increasing and we’re very excited about the future so thank you for sticking with us yes we

Greatly appreciate it um look forward to bringing you guys some more updates uh doing some more lives uh next week um and look forward to your questions look forward to traveling uh with you guys soon so take care and God bless y hold on we got one more I would just stall

For this info um sorry was in Egypt and Jordan January completely open and truly safe if you’d like to go there do so yeah thank you Gail thank you Gail that’s wonderful to hear yeah so Gail was just recently in Egypt and Jordan this past January just a month ago and

Uh as she stated it was just uh completely open and truly safe um Egypt has not been impacted nor has Jordan uh at this time they have stayed open and are completely safe and we’ve had groups that have traveled there so and if you need references we’re happy to provide

Them so thank you for that you very kind of you yeah so well until next week I guess we’re going to sign off so take care God bless and catch up with you next week thank you for your time God bless

Welcome back! Today, Rick & Tim got together to discuss their recent trip to Israel, as well as our most recent Clergy Familiarization Trip to Switzerland, France, and Germany.

We also had the pleasure of answering your questions about our travel experience, the current state of Israel, and even how to host your own tour.

Be sure to tune into our weekly stream every Tuesday. If you’d like to see your questions answered, make sure to send us a comment, or email us your questions in advance.