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Help get Turkish-Kurdish pastors ‘Up to Zion’

CMJ USA • August 15, 2023

Derech Avraham, with Shoresh Study Tours, is hosting an Israel study tour for church leaders in November

By M. Kerem

JERUSALEM – One of the main practical initiatives of Derech Avraham has been to sponsor Middle Eastern believers to come for a week-long study tour of the land. This initiative has grown out of our At the Crossroads conferences where participants usually have a short three-day tour as a part of the conference program. In listening to feedback over the years from these regional delegates, one of their main comments was, while they really enjoyed their time in the land, it just simply was not long enough. “We want more, we need more!" was often their main request.

In response, we began hosting leaders from different Middle Eastern nations in the Land for an in-depth, eight-day study tour on the geographical and historical context of the land of the Bible. We hosted several groups comprised of Muslim-background believers and Christian-background believers over the years. Our goal was to try to do a different country each year, but over the years of the pandemic we had to take a break as international travel – specifically from other Middle Eastern countries to Israel – was almost impossible.

A man and woman walk on a road over looking the Sea of Galilee

This year we plan to sponsor 30 ministry leaders, both Kurdish and Turkish with their wives, for a week-long study tour here in the Land. To make this tour affordable, we have worked with Shoresh Study Tours and Christ Church Jerusalem to make the tour a blessing that will honor our friends from Turkey and their ministry among their peoples.

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Our goal is to raise 25 scholarships of $1200/per person. That’s $30,000!

Most of these pastors are from areas that were hardest hit by the devastating earthquake this last February. This would be a needed break for those who have been serving survivors tirelessly over the last five months. We need your participation financially for this to happen.

Three women talk on a boat sailing on the Sea of Galilee

While participants from Turkey will pay their own flight expenses to Tel Aviv, we will host them while they are in Israel, providing transportation and lodging. Just paying their own flight costs requires real sacrifice as many economies in the Middle East have not recovered from the pandemic. Most certainly would not be able to pay the full cost of the study tour.

Please pray about partnering with us practically for this initiative. Thank you.

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