2 pastors to check safety of Israel travel

Smith, McCandless
to preview sites listed
on bishop’s itinerary

By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
Two Southwest Texas clergy members are headed to Israel next month to evaluate how safe the region is for future trips.
The Revs. Jerry Jay Smith of Canyon Lake and Mickey McCandless, pastor of Bracken UMC, Garden Ridge, are to leave Oct. 2 for a four-day tour of the same spots that Southwest Texas United Methodists are to visit on Bishop Joel N. Martinez’s January Holy Land tour.
The preview trip will allow Smith and McCandless to report to Martinez and those registered to travel with him, Smith said.
“We’ll be able to say, ‘We believe it’s safe,’ or we can say, ‘We’re not going in January,’” he said.
Educational Opportunities Tours, a Florida company that is organizing the bishop’s tour, contacted Smith about joining nine other leaders from around the United States for the expenses-paid preview trip.
Smith and McCandless will return Oct. 8.
“(Educational Opportunities Tours) believes it’s safe to travel,” Smith said, “but they decided at the end of last week that they needed some witnesses—folks who didn’t work for them.
“This is a preview thing. This way, maybe people will say, ‘Jerry went and came back and didn’t have a hole in his head.’”
The group is to visit all the sites Martinez and his group are to see. McCandless and Smith are to sleep in the same hotels, fly in the same planes and ride in the same buses with the same guides.
Those guides are to brief the small group on security measures and safety precautions, Smith said.
About 80 Southwest Texas United Methodists have registered to join Martinez on the January Holy Land Tour, Smith said.
“We would expect to have a little more, but people have been hesitant because of what’s going on over there,” Smith said.
He said he hopes results from the preview trip will change their minds.
Those joining the bishop are to depart Jan. 15 from Corpus Christi, El Paso, Harlingen, Houston and San Antonio. During the 10-day trip, travelers are to visit Jerusalem, Nazareth and other sites in Israel.
Depending on departure city, costs for the trip range from $1,998 to $2,098.
Additional seven-day tours are available to Luxor and Cairo in Egypt.
Registration deadline, Smith said, will probably be six weeks before the departure date—or Dec. 4.
For more information check www.eo.travelwithus.com.