Safely Home from Israel

HERE’S THE STORY from Duane Kemerley:
On February 9^th I left for Israel to host this year’s first group of the 2026 Knights Templar Holy Land Pilgrimage.  We had a great eleven days of travel, touring, and experiencing the land where Jesus walked.  That group left for the USA on February 19 and I extended my days for some R&R waiting for the second group to arrive.  My plan was to stay in Israel and return to the US when the second group returned.

The second group was grounded at EWR airport in Newark, NJ for two blizzardly days and finally departed on February 25. Upon their arrival we had reorganized the itinerary to give them a slightly condensed version of the usual Galilee tour. They arrived in Jerusalem on Friday evening, February 27 and anticipated picking up on the usual itinerary for the balance of the pilgrimage. On Saturday morning they visited Mt. Zion.  While there, the missiles from Iran begin to enter the air space. They were quickly returned to our hotel in Jerusalem and we spent some times (briefly) in the designated safe spaces there. Our tour company (Gate 1 Travel) immediately began making alternative arrangements for moving our group toward a safe and efficient trip home safely.  Within a short time we were headed to the most southern part of Israel (Eilat) for a short overnight until early morning when we crossed over the border to Egypt. After a long bus ride we arrived in Cairo with flight arrangements already made for us to fly directly from Cairo to JFK very early Tuesday morning.  Since we had Monday in Cairo our tour company made arrangements for us to take the group to the Giza Plateau to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx. A few of us also got the chance to spend a couple hours at the new Great Egyptian Museum.  Amazing.

We got to our early morning flight at Cairo Airport and had a direct flight to JFK arriving at 10:30 AM on Tuesday.  At that point people in the group began getting their domestic flights either that day or Wednesday to get back home.  We are home safe and sound.

Much credit goes to Gate 1 Travel for their immediate response to the situation and repositioning us to get safely out of the area and home as soon as physically possible.  Our tour guide, Mati Senkman, made sure every detail was in place and unfolding as efficiently as could be.

We all appreciate the thoughts, prayers, and concerns expressed by so many on our behalf.  We learned a great deal from this unusual set of ‘adventures’ with the second group.  We clearly saw the advantage of having a highly experienced tour company with a dedicated staff who were able to respond immediately to the situation, both weather at the beginning and missiles at the end.  At no time were we in imminent danger and they carefully saw to our needs and repositioned us so very efficiently.  It helps us to know for certain that our future pilgrimages are safe and our team is able to respond to any situation that may arise.

Check out our future plans at:  www.kthlp.com