students expeRIence places of the bible duRIng study abROad tRIp to holy land

by chRIsti mays

Since ninth grade, Shayden Spradley has cherished the small wooden cross carved from an olive branch that she carries in her Bible bag. Her Bible study leaders surprised her and the other classmates with souvenirs from their tour of Israel. She has treasured the cross all these years, and it has served as a reminder and promise to one day visit the Holy Land herself.

This past December, Shayden fulfilled that longtime dream when she and 16 other UMHB students journeyed through the Promised Land during a two-week study abroad. The trip was one she won’t soon forget—walking where Jesus and His disciples walked, seeing His birthplace, and standing where He preached.

“We were sitting in a synagogue in Capernaum, and it was just cool to realize, ‘Oh! This is really where Jesus was—where Jesus performed the miracles!’” Shayden said of the town where Jesus lived and preached.

Trip highlights included visiting notable places Shayden had read about in her Bible all her life, including the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where Jesus chased away the moneychangers; the Dead Sea; the Garden of Gethsemane; the Mount of Olives, where Jesus prayed the day before He was crucified; the Sea of Galilee; and the Western Wall. The group trekked through many ancient cities, including Bethlehem, Nazareth and Magdala, named after one of Jesus’ famous followers, Mary Magdalene.

Just like attending class in a classroom, the Israel study abroad trip counts for course credit. Students are required to keep a journal of their expeditions and produce a couple of essays when they return home. But largely, the class is the experience in the country— which is something they can’t get from a textbook, said Dr. Adam Winn, who led this trip along with Dr. Kim Bodenhamer.

“It’s seeing the land. It’s learning the significance of each site. It’s experiencing the culture,” said Winn, associate professor in the College of Christian Studies. “You don’t get that same experience looking at pictures. So now, when my students read about these places in the Bible, they know what it looks like. They know what the weather’s like. They know what it smells like.”

past, present and future

In addition to exploring the ancient world, students also got an insider’s look into what is happening in present-day Israel and how its religious and political structures may impact the future, Winn said.

“Israel has three major world religions that collide; Judaism, Islam and Christianity are all there in really important ways. So, students get to experience that and see that,” he added.

Other highlights included exploring the Temple ruins, where the Messiah entered the city of Jerusalem, and traveling to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity, which is considered the site of Jesus’ birth (or close to it). The group also journeyed to the Jordan River, and a handful of the students chose to get baptized in the river where Jesus’ baptism was recorded.

“I got baptized when I was seven, and I debated about being baptized again,” Shayden said. “But being an adult now and entering into a completely new phase of life… it was a commitment to myself, and a recommitment to the Lord, that I’m really building my life on Him.”

At Caesarea of Philippi (where Jesus took His disciples to reveal His identity as the Messiah), students stood at the foot of the massive cliff rock where the city has been built. “It gave them a visual for what Jesus was doing, and where they could imagine hearing Jesus say, ‘On this rock, I will build my church,’ Winn said.

The Israel study abroad trip was one of about a dozen trips that occurred annually before COVID-19. After being canceled for the last few years, this is the first time a UMHB class has returned since 2017. Other trips resumed this year to Costa Rica for nursing students, Mexico and Spain for Spanish classes, Lithuania for business and English literature, Greece and Italy for math, and Scotland for sociology.

The initial sticker price for a student to study abroad in the Holy Land is $5,300, but UMHB provides some funds to help, and thanks to the Gary DeSalvo Endowment for Training Ministry Leaders (created in memory of beloved pastor Gary DeSalvo, who passed away in 2020), the cost for most students is knocked down to about $1,700 per student.

“Gary really loved Israel and had a heart for investing in young people training for ministry,” said Winn. “His friends and family established this scholarship in his memory to help ministry students experience the Holy Land.”

Worshiping On The Sea Of Galilee

As students glided in a boat along the Sea of Galilee, the boat captain serenaded them in Hebrew and led them in worship songs.

“I was just in tears. I imagined this is exactly what Heaven is like,” Shayden said.

Caroline Rowe, a junior health sciences major, said the boat trip was one of the most memorable experiences ever.

“I remember feeling overwhelmed like I just didn’t deserve to be there,” Caroline recalled. “Yet, here I am because the Lord made this opportunity available to me. I felt very grateful.”

Caroline was one of the only students on the trip who is not majoring in Christian Studies, but because she learned so much during her Old and New Testament classes, she wanted to experience seeing the land where Jesus spent most of his years.

“The stories in my head look different now that I actually know what places—like the Sea of Galilee— look like. I can picture Jesus teaching on the shores because I was standing on the shores,” she said. “It was just very transformative for me.”

finding CLOseness

Caroline said she was awed every time they visited a place she had learned about in her classes.

“It was amazing to see those places where Jesus was—to see the places that are talked about in the Bible,” she said, like the Western Wall. Even though the wall is considered the most religious place in the world for Jewish people, Caroline said she is thankful she can feel the Lord in her presence anywhere in the world.

"Going to Israel was an amazing experience, but I realized I don’t have to be there to experience the Lord. I can have this closeness back at home,” she said.

Caroline grew up as a Catholic but said she didn’t attend Mass often.

“I was always, quote-unquote, a ‘Christian,’ she said, “but I never quite knew what that relationship looked like to actually pursue the Lord.”

Coming to UMHB to join the acrobatics and tumbling team also spurred her desire to know more and want “more of the faith” she saw in other students on campus. She loved learning about God from her Old and New Testament classes, and that’s when she decided to take the upper-level study abroad class and travel to Israel.

“This trip helped me grow so much in my faith,” she said. “I feel like the Lord was able to meet me where I was and show me things.”

And even though she was one of the only students there not majoring in Christian Studies, she cherishes the friends and relationships made. “It was an opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone and listen to what the Lord was asking of me, and not just shy away because it was uncomfortable.”

She admits she experienced a little bit of culture shock.

“Definitely the way they dress and the Sabbath. It all looks very different than how we practice our faith here in America, in Texas, as a Christian at a Baptist university. It was all very eye-opening,” Caroline said.

Go For Yourself

Shayden encourages anyone who has the opportunity to go to Israel to do it. It’s worth the time and money— even for those still uncertain about their purpose in life.

“We have no idea what we’re going to be doing in life, but we really feel a calling to just seek the Lord, and being in His place and where He walked was just a reminder that there is so much more to what we’re doing in little Belton, Texas.”

Answering The Call

As a Fulbright Specialist, Dr. Brenda Morton, associate professor in the College of Education, spent four and a half weeks in Estonia teaching trauma-informed practices just after the Russia-Ukraine war began. She holds the e-book she coauthored which she uses in her classes.