Chris Katulka: It's already April and with April, that means Easter is right around the corner. And when we think about Easter, we think about Resurrection Sunday. But you know what Jewish people are thinking about this time? Passover. Passover is so important to our faith as believers. The Last Supper was a Passover. So as we prepare for this Easter season, we want to invite you to a free online Passover Seder that Steve Herzig and myself are going to lead on April 14th at 7:00 PM Eastern time.

Enjoy an interactive time of worship and celebration online as we taste and experience the fullness of the Lord's Passover. To learn more about how you can prepare to reflect on the perfect innocence of Jesus, our Passover Lamb, please go to foiradio.org, and there you'll find a link to everything related to this fantastic event. Again, go to foiradio.org.

Chris Katulka: Welcome to the Friends of Israel Today. I'm your host and teacher Chris Katulka. Now, if you're wondering where Steve Conover is, you're going to have to wait a moment to find out. He's in a very, very special place right now. But before we find out where he is, I want to share with you, we're actually going back to Israel now. The pandemic is winding down and we actually have our first tour going back to Israel.

Now, if it's been on your bucket list to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I want to encourage you right now. You can go to foi.org/tours. Again, that's foi.org/tours, and there you can find out all the information that's relevant to when you're going to be able to travel with the Friends of Israel to the Holy Land. We have tours that are prepared out to 2023. So be sure to, again, to go to foi.org/tours.

Now here's what's happening in the news. Top diplomats of Israel, the United States, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco and United Arab Emirates met for a historic summit in the Israeli Negev town of Sde Boker. The conference marks the first of a permanent Middle East forum as these countries who once considered themselves enemies, reaffirm the importance of growing ties between Israel and the broader Middle East.

Well, here's my take. The Negev Summit has signified to the world the stability of the Abraham Accords, which actually is frustrating Iran and the Palestinians. Two terrorist attacks have occurred back to back in Israel recently led by Iranian proxies and the Palestinians have threatened to renege on their recognition of Israel's right to exist. I think that we should pray as the writer of Proverbs has said, "When a person's ways are pleasing to the Lord, even he reconciles his enemies to himself."

Chris Katulka: Well, everybody, I told you last week that we have an exciting opportunity here because we have a unique experience. Steve Conover, Dr. Jim Showers, and many from our Friends of Israel team are in Israel right now leading one of our very first tours since the pandemic. And so we thought it would be a good idea to have Steve, who you know and love from the radio program, as he's over there, give us an update on how the trip is going and to tell us about what's going on in Israel. So Steve, how's it going?

Steve Conover: It's going wonderfully. The weather's been beautiful. Spring is a little further along over here than it is back at home in the Mid-Atlantic states. We've just had tremendous access to the biblical sites. It's like I've never seen before. And I really think this will be a trip to remember for those that have come this time. The people are so excited to see us, that we know here, and to see groups coming back. We're one of the first groups back and our tour group has been great.

Many, it's their first time. Every time I come, I experience something new, but there's something really special about your first visit. So to see the faces of our guests and listening to them reflect on what they're seeing and hearing every day, it's just remarkable and just brings back great memories of my first time in Israel. It's said a lot to the point where you hear it so much, maybe you forget what it feels like for someone for the first time, but you hear a lot that people feel like it's turning their Bible from black and white into color.

That idea really captures for so many, the feeling of being here. When you get back home and you read about the Sea of Galilee or Caesarea or Jerusalem, you're transported right back to where you were. And when you read about Jesus or the disciples and Old Testament characters like Joshua, or say Gideon, you're brought back here in your mind.

Chris Katulka: Steve, what's the vibe in Israel right now? I know it's probably fun being a tourist. Are you getting a sense from the Israelis as you spend time with our tour guide, Tito, who we've had on the radio show before. What's the vibe like in Israel? It feels like we're coming out of the pandemic.

Steve Conover: Yeah, I would say the vibe is they're hopeful because I think they see things picking up. And this is a great time to come to Israel and support Israeli tourism. And I think for our tour guide, this was his first tour in two and a half years. And he's usually a very busy man and we just have come to know and love him over the years.

He's been doing tours for us for probably two decades or more. And so I think there's just a lot of excitement. We could tell in the restaurants that we visit and some of those restaurant owners that we know, they're just so excited to see us. They're all smiles. And we're just as excited to be back among the first tour groups.

Chris Katulka: A few months ago, I would stand up in a pulpit at church and I would encourage people to go to Israel and people would come up to me and say, "It's on my bucket list. I want to go to Israel, Chris. I want to go with you and Friends of Israel to the Holy Land." And then I would say, "Well, here's the only thing you're going to have to get a vaccine because there are mandates with Israel."

Just recently, I believe in the beginning of March 2022, Israel lifted the mandate on vaccine requirements. Was it difficult to get to Israel with COVID still lingering in the background?

Steve Conover: The process wasn't bad. There were a few extra steps and I anticipate those restrictions, they'll just continue to ease up and hopefully we'll be back to what it was before. Everyone got in and we didn't have to leave anyone behind. We're just so thankful for that. Everyone passed their tests and we've been touring the land altogether as a group. It's really an ideal time to come. The sites aren't crowded at all.

It's very easy to get around. And the tour guides are just thrilled to be back doing what they do and what they love and showing people the Land of Israel. And of course, having Tito as our guide, they're just loving his insight and the perspective that he brings to the land and the connection between what they've read in their Bibles and how just knowing the land will bring insight into their reading.

Chris Katulka: So, you're going through Israel right now. I'm already picturing the tour. You landed a few days in Tel Aviv. You shot up the coast and you visited places like Jaffa and Caesarea, and then you headed east toward the Sea of Galilee. Is that where you are right now? Are you at the Sea of Galilee, Steve?

Steve Conover: Yes, we are. We had a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee this morning and a worship service out there, which was just incredible. We visited Caesarea Philippi, which I know we've covered on this program and just a meaningful site where Jesus spoke. And when they were asking, "Who do you say that I am?" Who is Jesus, was one of the devotionals we had this afternoon at that spot. And just how remarkable it was, that at what are considered the Gates of Hades there, watch the remarkable things that Jesus was saying about Himself and the Gospel. The rock being the Gospel, just a remarkable day.

I was thinking about how every day feels like it can't be topped until you get to the next day. And it hasn't really dawned on me before until I was thinking about this interview. We've experienced so many things, Caesarea by the Sea, and the Mediterranean, and the Valley of Elah, and Joppa, and Tel Megiddo, and the places I mentioned today. That's just in the three days we've been here and we still have Nazareth, and the Mount of Beatitudes, and Gideon's Spring, the Dead Sea. And at the end, we have to top it all off, Jerusalem.

I think what I was thinking is that one of these events would be so memorable and remarkable. We're putting in three, four, maybe five of these in a day at just a really great pace where you don't feel like you're rushed, but you're able to meditate on just the Word and to reflect on how good our God is in His deliverance of His people. And personally, as Christians, just all the things we experience as we see right now where we are in the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus did most of his ministry. It's just a beautifully paced tour that the Friends of Israel does.

And I think that's a lot of it because of experience. They've been doing it for over 40 years now, multiple trips a year. It's just a joy, especially as I see our tour group just coming off the bus and saying, "Wow, that was just the best day." And knowing what they're going to enjoy tomorrow makes it that much more exciting.

Chris Katulka: Yeah. For our listeners, Steve is on what we call the Up To Jerusalem Tour. Steve, I was actually just reading through the Gospel of Mark the other day. And I saw that when Jesus went to Jerusalem, it says that, "He went up to Jerusalem." I know that we'll talk about that in a moment, to “go up to Jerusalem,” which I know is the very ending of the trip with Friends of Israel to end in Jerusalem.

But listen, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to ask Steve, what could somebody who's listening, who's thinking about going to Israel, some advice that Steve could give as he's touring the Holy Land right now. So again, you want to be sure to stick around. Steve's on our Up To Jerusalem Tour. There's ways that you can get involved in that as well, but we'll see you on the other side.

Chris Katulka: It's already April and with April, that means Easter is right around the corner. And when we think about Easter, we think about Resurrection Sunday, but you know what Jewish people are thinking about this time? Passover. Passover is so important to our faith as believers. The Last Supper was a Passover. So as we prepare for this Easter season, we want to invite you to a free online Passover Seder that Steve Herzig and myself are going to lead on April 14th at 7:00 PM Eastern time.

Enjoy an interactive time of worship and celebration online as we taste and experience the fullness of the Lord's Passover. To learn more about how you can prepare to reflect on the perfect innocence of Jesus, our Passover lamb, please go to foiradio.org. And there you'll find a link to everything related to this fantastic event. Again, go to foiradio.org.

Chris Katulka: Welcome back everybody. We are speaking with the executive producer of the Friends of Israel Today, Steve Conover. Steve is in Israel right now as we speak. I'm here in New Jersey, jealous as all get out and they have fantastic food in Israel. I know he's having the time of his life with his wife as well and a great group that's going through the Holy Land on our Up To Jerusalem Tour.

Steve, maybe there's someone who's listening who has always wanted to go to Israel. What bit of advice would you give them as you're over there right now and you're touring, and you're going through all of these great biblical locations and even locations related to Israel's modern history as well?

Steve Conover: Yeah. A few weeks ago, someone told me before I came on this tour, that they would never go to Israel because they wouldn't feel safe. And I smiled and thought, "If I had never been, maybe I might feel the same way." What's often being focused on the news surrounding Israel, at best it lacks context, and at worst it purposefully casts Israel in a negative light.

As for safety concerns I wouldn't hesitate. Our daughter and son-in-law lived here for two years and I didn't lose any sleep at night knowing they were here. We were thrilled for them to have that opportunity. I feel safer here than I do in my own home city at times. So I would tell anyone that's feeling unsafe, that they have nothing to fear. And we're even noticing that a couple of our guests that might have felt hesitant, they are just so happy that they've come.

Chris Katulka: Steve, I might have told you this story before, but Tito Andijar, the tour guide that you're using right now, many years ago when I lived in Dallas, we flew him over to Dallas and the church I was with paid for his whole family to come so that he could be a part of our church service and talk about touring and going through Israel. And it was his first time coming to America. And so before he came over, he sat down with his tour guide buddies and he said, "You'll never believe that this church from Dallas, Texas is flying me in. I'm so excited and our whole family's going. It's going to be a great time." And all the tour guides looked at Tito and said, "Are you sure you want to do that? It's not that safe in America right now."

When they read our news they go, "Man, it's crazy in America." And when we read their news and we see what's going on, I'm sure we feel the same way. But in the many years that I've been going, I have always felt safe. I have always felt taken care of and that there's a real level of concern even for tourists as well, and love for tourists who come to Israel. I'm glad that you pointed that out, Steve, that even those people who were maybe concerned about going and who took the step of faith to go feel very comfortable being there.

Steve Conover: Yeah, and I would add that the main thing I would say to anyone is the trip is transformative. You'll never be the same once you come to Israel. Experiencing the sites, meeting the people, just seeing the diversity and landscape, and as I mentioned, just connecting the land to the text you've been reading, it has a lifelong effect on you. Your prayer life, your perspective of the news, and just the way you view God's faithfulness to keep His promises to Israel and to us as believers, it just changes everything that you experience as you worship God, as you pray and as you read the Word.

Chris Katulka: Is there a passage Steve, in the Bible, as you're touring through Israel, is there a passage that's speaking to you? It's not even a tour, Steve, it's a pilgrimage through the Holy Land.

Steve Conover: Yeah. Chris, there certainly is. Yesterday, I shared with a group from Psalm 124 and this is one of the Songs of Ascent. It's a special group of Psalms from 120-134. They're also called the Pilgrim Songs. And I shared with a group that Jerusalem is situated on a high hill and the pilgrims in ancient Israel who were able to travel to Jerusalem for one of the three main annual Jewish festivals, they would sing these songs and they would for the festival of Passover or [foreign language 00:18:10] or [foreign language 00:18:11]. They would traditionally sing these Songs of Ascent as they would go up to Jerusalem, which is also the name of our tour.

Four of the songs are attributed to King David. And one of them is this Psalm 124. And I'll quickly read that it's not a long song. Verse one, "If the Lord had not been on our side—let Israel say—if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive. When their anger flared against us; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away. Praise be to the Lord who has not let us be torn by their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the fowler's snare; the snare has been broken and we have escaped."

Verse eight, "Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." And what I shared with the group is that, well, David had a lot of enemies, some were even in his own family. But he also had external enemies like the Philistines who were determined to snuff him out in the Jewish state. But it just makes it that much more beautiful when we see it twice in verse one and two, "If the Lord had not been on our side." That emphasis just speaks to God's intervention, that if He didn't intervene, their fate would've been that they would've been swallowed up, engulfed and swept away, but He did.

And He did deliver His people. And we see in verse six, it leads them to praise the Lord. And in verse eight, this acknowledgement that their help is not from a regional idol, a regional god, but the Maker of heaven and earth. And I also got to thinking that these pilgrims singing these songs might have remembered what was written in Genesis, that's in Genesis 17. "I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you, throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and your offspring after you, the land of your sojourns, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. And I will be their God."

So we see an eternal covenant and an eternal possession of the land. So as I'm traveling around Israel, I'm reflecting on God's faithfulness to His people. And as we just experience all the evidence around us that Israel has not been swallowed alive, they've not been engulfed or swept away because of God's provision, because of His deliverance. A remnant has always remained in the land. That's what I've been reflecting on a lot this week.

Chris Katulka: Yeah. And you know, Steve, I love that you said that because what comes to my mind is whenever I see that God maintains His faithfulness to Israel who we know have been stiff-necked and hard-hearted over the years as the Bible says, and yet God remains faithful to them that we can be confident as you're over in the land right now, which is just mind blowing. That you are in the land, you're sitting there in a hotel by the Sea of Galilee, looking out, it's evening where you are.

And yet you're able to sit there and go, "God is faithful. If He's faithful to this and I'm sitting here and I'm tangibly seeing God's faithfulness and how He worked out this relationship with Israel, and He maintains that relationship with Israel." Steve, I don't know about you, but I think it maintains a sense of confidence for us that our relationship with the Lord is secure and that He remains faithful to us as well.

Steve Conover: Yeah. Amen. What if He did not intervene on our behalf? What if He didn't deliver us? Just really a wonderful time to be here.

Chris Katulka: Steve, that's great. Well, listen. I want to share with you a really quick way that you could be on one of our Up To Jerusalem Tours. Steve's not even done the tour. He's in the middle of it. He's still in Galilee. The end of the tour is going up to Jerusalem where they'll spend a couple of days as well touring Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.

Listen, if it's been on your bucket list to get to Israel, then I want to encourage you to go to foi.org/tours, and there you will find all of the upcoming trips that we have planned out through 2023. We go twice a year, of course, pending the pandemic and hopefully nothing comes up again. But we have many trips planned out that you can be a part of and you can find your trip now over the next couple of years and find out ways that you can get involved. All the contact information is on there by going to foi.org/tours.

Steve, we miss you here in the studio. We can't wait to have you back, but have a great time, brother.

Steve Conover: Chris, I miss you and Tom. I can picture him through the glass and I know my seat is empty, so I'm looking forward to seeing you next week. But until then, we're just going to enjoy our tour of the Land of Israel.

Chris Katulka: Awesome. We can't wait to see you have a great time.

Well, thanks for joining us this week and getting a sneak peek into what it's like to be on an Up To Jerusalem Tour.

Now, next week, we're going to be doing our Israel My Glory in depth episode. We're going to be looking at the Jewish new covenant, what it is and why it exists. Also, don't forget to go to foiradio.org to sign up for our live online Passover Seder that you can be a part of again that's foiradio.org.

Steve Conover is our executive producer. Today's program was produced by Tom Gallione and our theme music was composed and performed by Jeremy Strong. I'm your host and teacher, Chris Katulka.

Our mailing address is: FOI Radio, P.O Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099. Again, that's FOI Radio, P.O Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099.

And one last quick reminder to visit us again at foiradio.org. The Friends of Israel Today is a production of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. We are a worldwide evangelical ministry, proclaiming biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah while bringing physical and spiritual comfort to the Jewish people.