Follow Us 
Related News
Current Poll
| Pastor sees Bible history come alive |
 |
 |
 |
| News | |||
| Written by Kristen Waggener | |||
| Wednesday, 01 July 2009 07:00 | |||
|
Parishioners at Louisburg First Christian Church got an afternoon’s worth of religious history Sunday as Pastor Sandy Harris shared photos and memories from a two-week trip to Israel. “I had heard this trip would change your life, and change the way you look at scripture and the stories,” Harris said after his presentation. “And it did.” The pastor was approached by Sterling Hornbuckle about the trip, which was sponsored by the Masons. The organization takes clergy from churches across the country to Israel each year. Joined by 37 others from various Christian Church denominations, Harris traveled to several places in Israel, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea and Bethlehem. Harris said his favorite place was Old Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is said to have been crucified and buried. “Seeing people from all over the world come and express their devotion to this man and this movement in all sorts of ways was incredible,” he said. “Nobody was turned away.” In Jerusalem, Harris also stood near the Wailing Wall, near the Temple Mount, where many who take pilgrimages to the Holy Land go to put prayers in the cracks of the wall. “I put in a prayer for First Christian Church and for you all and for all our neighbors in Louisburg, too,” Harris told the group of about 50 members of the Louisburg First Christian congregation. Being able to see the locations of many of the stories in the Bible was something Harris enjoyed, he said, because he was able to connect history with scripture. “After we would visit a place — like Simon the tanner’s house — we would stop and we’d read about it (in the Bible),” Harris said. He traveled throughout Israel, including to Bethlehem, which was separated with a large wall — Palestinians on one side, Israelis on the other. “We had to change buses and go through security to get to the city of Bethlehem,” he said. “The wall — that’s not what I think of when I think of Bethlehem.” In Bethlehem, Harris visited the Church of the Nativity, which is built on the site where Jesus was born and features a golden star on the floor marking Jesus’ birth site. What Harris took away from the experience was a greater appreciation for other cultures’ goals. “I think humanity wants the same things: the chance to express their devotion safely — religious devotion, devotion to family, their job,” he said Harris said he took 1,400 pictures during the trip, and he shared more than 70 of them with his congregation to get across one message — that small things do happen. “I don’t think most of us realize (Christianity) was a small thing that really took hold,” he said. “Even the smallest idea can mean a lot to us as part of a congregation. This proves that some of our ideas can make a big difference in peoples’ lives.”
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email This
Hits: 738 Trackback(0)
Comments (0)
 Write comment
You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
