Seadrift Pastor Tim Smith with Temple Mount in the background.

Pastor Tim Smith of First Assembly of God in Seadrift recently completed a pilgrimage to Israel. Pastor Smith traveled to the Holy Land with Pastor CE Smith, Senior Pastor at Family Worship Center in Victoria. The pastors planned the trip over several months.

Tim Smith said, “Both of us discussed going to the land of the Bible. I started looking at arrangements in January and the trip came together. “For over 28 years I have preached and taught about The Lord, Israel and events in the Bible. It was refreshing and satisfying to actually visit the places I have studied and preached about,” Smith said.

The two pastors visited Capernaum, Mount Carmel, Qumran, Masada, The Sea of Galilee, The Jordan River, The Dead Sea, The Garden Tomb, Christ’s birthplace in Bethlehem, Calvary, Old City Jerusalem, and The Temple Mount just to name a few places.
Tim Smith said, “I was very blessed and honored to baptize CE in the Jordan River, and he baptized me. We both baptized several others in our group.” Tim Smith said, “I was also blessed to serve Holy Communion to our group at the site of the Garden Tomb. There were 32 persons in our group. We became friends and I still keep in contact with some of them.”

Both pastors are planning return trips to the Holy Land. Tim Smith said, “There is so much to see and another trip is definitely in my plans. I would like to spend several days in Jerusalem revisiting the Holocaust Museum and the Museum of Israel.”

Smith said, “Visiting the places where Jesus lived and walked is more than looking at real estate, it is an experience into the culture, history and lives of the people of Israel and the Bible. Israel is the land of promise. The Jewish people are the people of promise. The promises came from God. That makes Israel special to me.”

Pastor Tim and Pastor CE at the Sea of Galilee