Holy Land Pilgrimage

January 24, 2011

To our dear friends and supporters of our ministry,

Our Bishop, Rev. Dr. Robert E. Hayes, Jr., recently announced that he is hosting a trip to the Holy Land for recently ordained clergy and their spouses. The trip is scheduled for July 4-15, 2011. Bishop Hayes visited the Holy Land in 2010 for the first time and realized how it affirmed and changed his ministry. He wants to share that with us. To facilitate this, Bishop Hayes has agreed to pay one third of the cost for the trip and is asking us to raise the other two-thirds. What is also remarkable is the extraordinarily low cost for this journey of a lifetime. The total cost is $3,999.00 per person. This makes our share of the cost $2,666.00 per person, or a total of $5,332.00 for the two of us. While this is truly reasonable for a trip of this caliber, it is still a substantial sum of money for us.

As we prepare for this journey we covet your prayers. We ask that you pray for us as we practice frugality in order to save for the trip expense. We ask that you pray for our safety during the trip. We ask that you join us in praying for our preparedness to receive the great blessings that will come to us as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus and his Disciples. Finally, we ask that you pray for the generosity of people who support our ministry.

We believe that this pilgrimage is a journey God intends for us to make and that God will take us there and bring us back safely. With that in mind, we are stepping out in faith to buy our passports, put down travel deposits, and make other plans for the journey. Our leap of faith includes trusting that God will make a way for this trip to be funded. Our church has established an account where donations are being accepted. The information for this fund is:

FUMC-Holy Land Visit
c/o Great Plains National Bank
P.O. Box 400
Mangum, OK 73554
ATTN: Bonnie Hobbs

Most of all we covet your prayers; any financial assistance will also be greatly appreciated. We are greatly blessed in our ministry and we pray that this trip will enable us to be a blessing in ways that we cannot even imagine.

Thank you and Shalom!

Don and Linda Tabberer