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We now have the tour full! 55 have applied to go on the November 2019 tour. Anyone else that applies will go on a waiting list. If there are any cancellations you will be contacted to see if you want the spot that opens!
It looks like a great group and we are excited once again to share this spiritual journey to the Holy Land with you! Get ready for "God moments." The entire tour is very interesting but there are times that there are chills when you fully absorb where you are and what took place here. Please join the GroupMe Chat app to get the latest news and tips. Follow the tour on Instagram at @tcpilgrimages November 12-21, 2019 is the date we are announcing for 2019 tour. The price is $1990 US Funds for the Land Package. You arrange your own flights giving you leverage for sales, using airline points, staying over or going early to Israel or Europe on your own terms, choosing your own seats, etc.
We are accepting applications. We only have a few spots left on this tour date. Please do not book airline tickets until you have been advised to do so. TRANSFER FROM THE AIRPORT TO THE DAN PANORAMA HOTEL
Because we are all arriving on different days and times the tour company is not able to transfer us to the hotel in Tel Aviv from the airport. They are willing to provide the bus for you on the tour start date, but you would have to wait at the airport until everyone arrived on that day. We did not think you would want to do this with jet lag so we told them everyone would arrange for their own transfers from the airport. You will need to arrange your own transfer to the hotel. You can use the train + taxi, taxi OR a new service that we heard about and are going to try this year, GETT. It is similar to the UBER here. Please download the GETT app from the App Store or Google Play before you leave in case you are not able to do so in Israel. You can put your credit card information into the app and to select a percentage tip that you would like to add. You can adjust the tip I believe if you like during or after the ride. You receive a receipt by e-mail. If you use this, you will not have to have shekels to give the driver. Most taxi drivers prefer shekel if you are paying cash. GETT does take cash if you prefer. This will also hopefully be a great alternative to the taxis in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv if you decide to go out on your own for sight seeing or shopping, etc. The tour company told us that it is reliable. SPECIAL NOTE TO THE PEOPLE ARRIVING ON OCT 2nd AC 84 at 10:00 am and UA 84 at 10:15 am: Josh Czinger will be arranging for a GETT van (seats 19) that will accommodate the 16 that are arriving together on these two flights. The cost will be approximately $10.00 per person for the ride. We will not know the exact amount (it will be close to $10) until he books the ride next week. You can pay Josh in Tel Aviv when the price is determined. For those from Truth Church you can prepay for the ride through the church front office. If you have any questions, please contact us! Dear friends,
In just a few days we will meet in Tel Aviv to begin our life changing tour of the Holy Land. Please share this information with everyone in your family who will accompany us on this exciting journey. Our guide and driver will be Palestinian Christians. As Christians, they are more sincere about the New Testament sites we will be visiting and less excited about Old Testament sites. If we had Jewish guides, this would be reversed. Palestinian Christians are the people caught in the middle. They are discriminated against by the Jews and also by the majority Palestinian Muslims. In fact, our guide had a Christian cousin living inside the Gaza strip. Because he talked to a Muslim girl at the university, he was beaten so severely that his arms and legs were broken. He had to be smuggled out of Gaza. Please be sensitive to the fact that they are Palestinian and feel the suffering of their own people, regardless of what we would consider the Jewish biblical/historical rights to the land. Be respectful. Safety - Our guide and driver will be in contact with the tour company and their friends throughout the land by cell phone at all times. If there are any security issues, they will know about it and take precautions to keep us safe. This may require a quick change of plans or taking an alternate route. Please follow any instructions quickly and carefully, such as, "Return to the bus now" or "Do not leave this building." Please stay with the group and do not lag behind. This means that when we walk through the crowded streets of Old Jerusalem, filled the with brilliant colors of scarves, fragrant scents of exotic spices and irresistible souvenirs...resist. Do not stop to look. Keep thine eyes straight before thee. You can go back and shop, and get lost in the Old City, later, but stay with the group while we are touring together. Respect the fences and barriers at archeological sites. Careless tourists can destroy delicate sites and artifacts. One day after we had visited one site (where we will also be visiting on this tour) a young man strayed over a fence and wandered into a mine field. He stepped on a mine and it exploded. A helicopter was sent to rescue him but as he was being lifted up, he fell to his death. Disregard rules somewhere else if you want to, but on this tour please obey the rules, your life may depend on it. Every tour has someone who is always late. They make the bus and 45 other people wait on them to take one more picture or make a last minute stop in the restroom. Don't be that person. Be mindful that you are part of a group. If you are a solitary explorer, you will have an afternoon and a couple of evenings in Jerusalem to use as you wish. But when we travel as a group, respect the time of others. We will be visiting a lot of sites, some of which we have reservations at a particular time. To be able to get everything on the itinerary in, we have to follow the pace set by our guide. Everyone wants pictures, and I promise you that you will get more photo ops than you know what to do with. Please take your photos as quickly as possible when we are on the move. I've asked Sis. Kimberly Smith to be our official tour photographer. Please cooperate with her requests to pose, and when we desire a group photo please be a part of it. If you miss something, she probably won't. I hope that you will be able to purchase a photo book as a memory of this tour. This tour is designed primarily for ministers, and more than of our group are ministers and their families. If you are not a minister, we are very glad that you could join us, however, I would like to request that you allow the ministers to sit in the front seats on the bus so that they can fellowship together and hear any discussion that I may wish to have with them. My wife and I will sit near the front to be in constant contact with the driver and guide, and to be close to the microphone so that I can comment. If anyone gets sick or cannot keep up with the group, you have the option to stay the day at the hotel. You only have to inform us so that we will not be waiting for you. At each hotel please take a hotel business card with you when you leave the hotel. If you become separated from the group you will have the address of the hotel to return to. We have asked Josh and Ruby Czinger to help with the organization of this tour. Please cooperate with them in their duties. When the bus arrives at a new hotel (we will be staying in four hotels), allow Josh, Ruby, Becky and Jamie to be the first ones off the bus when we stop at the hotels. They will go to the front desk and collect the keys for all of us. They will pass out the keys, and you will be able to go to your rooms. Luggage. If you wish for the porters to take your bags to your room for you, you can leave them in the lobby and they will take them to your room. The tip for this is included in your land package, you do not have to tip them. We recommend that you travel with only a carry on and small backpack or bag, as we are doing. This makes it easy for you to grab your bags from the lobby and head to your room right away with your bags. Do yourself a favor and travel light. When you land in Tel Aviv, do not joke with the Israeli immigration and security. Answer their questions directly and succinctly. (If they ask you what time it is, don't tell them where the watch was made.) Tell them you are with Dr. King's Holy Land Tour using Inspirational Tours/Guiding Star tour company. If they ask, this is a "land only" tour which is why people are arriving at different times. We will be spending the first night at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Tel Aviv. The next two nights at Leonardo Plaza in Tiberias. The next night at the David Hotel on the Dead Sea and the last three nights at the Grand Court in Jerusalem. You will enjoy this trip. We pack more into our tours than anyone else I know. God bless you. Have safe travels to Israel. Johnny King LUGGAGE TIPS:
We HIGHLY recommend traveling with only a carry on and a personal size item such as a small backpack. You are not limited to that. It is our recommendation only. Your tour package does pay the porters to handle your luggage. Several points in favor of this recommendation:
We have found the IT brand of Luggage the most lightweight of any we have found. We have used them for years now. It stands for International Traveler. They have it at Marshalls and places like that many times. You can also find on Amazon a lot. Make sure that your carry on or checked luggage is within the limit of ALL the airlines you are using during the trip. You may start out with one airline and connect to another along the way. (Some cut rate airlines do not allow a personal item in addition to the carry on. Check it out if you have a flight with one). I take a carry on plus a small lightweight backpack as my allowed additional personal item. I have a small purse that fits nicely into it. I put snacks for the day, battery charger, etc and things I want in the bus but don’t want to lug when touring. I take the backpack on the bus everyday and the small purse. I leave the backpack on the bus when we get out for a tour and take the small purse with me with just enough cash for lunch or whatever the occasion calls for. Cash left on the bus is safe. The driver stays with the bus or locks it up. We have never had an incident with items missing from the bus. (We have had several iPhones go missing from the dining room tables. Do NOT leave your phone on the table when you go to the buffet) The last days are spent in Jerusalem. Most of the shopping is done in Jerusalem. IDEAS for carry extra items such as souvenirs home:
This saves lugging extra luggage or a large luggage around the entire tour! The date for the balance of your tour package payment is getting close! August 1st!
You should have received an e-mail from Ruby giving you the balance that is due. If you did not receive this e-mail or have any questions please contact Ruby at tcpilgrimages@truthchurch.com If you have not filled out your application or sent in your deposit please do so as quickly as possible. The tour is filling up and we need to know your seat is confirmed! You can find the link to the online form for application on the main menu tabs on the home page. Thank you! If you would like to be on the e-mail list for updates on the 2018 Israel Trip please e-mail tcpilgrimages@gmail.com
Current fares are between US $800-1,000 from LAX, ORD, ATL, MIA. C$1,300 from YYC.
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