PLATTSMOUTH - Plattsmouth Church of the Holy Spirit parishioners sighed with relief when they learned their lead pastor Fr. Sean Timmerman and 32 others were home safe after traveling to the Holy Land in Israel this month.

The group included people from Florida, Plattsmouth, Blair, Omaha, Papillion, as well as Council Bluffs and Des Moines, Iowa. According to Timmerman, they left Oct. 2 without any inkling of a pending war between Hamas and Israel.

 

“There have always been rumblings in the Middle East for hundreds and even thousands of years. There were rumblings when I went there 12 years ago, but we had no problems then,” he said.

Father Damien Wee of Blair booked the pilgrimage this spring, again when there was no sign of conflict on the radar.

Once in Israel, they started their spiritual journey in Jerusalem. “We first went to the home of John the Baptist, Ein Karem, where Zechariah and Elizabeth lived. It is a church now,” Timmerman explained.

Their next stop was the Dead Sea, a salt lake with Jordan to its east and Israel to its west.

“We got to float in the water because of its salinity level and it’s 1,412 feet below sea level,” Timmerman said.

They also stopped by the Jordan River where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. “The whole group renewed our baptismal promises there,” he said.

 

Timmerman said they were still unaware of any threats when they visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem located 6.2 miles south of Jerusalem. “It’s very beautiful,” he said. “It’s where Elijah had his home and where Our Lady visited Simon Stock and gave him the Brown Scapular.”

On Oct. 7 they were near the Sea of Galilee in Nazareth when Hamas attacked Israel’s southern border. Timmerman said they were far away from the conflict and felt safe at that time.

Although the attack caused some level of fear among the group, Timmerman credits their tour guide and bus driver for keeping them safe.

“He told us what happened. We all had our phones, but we didn’t have service there. We took phones to use as cameras. Our guide was on his phone calling, texting to make sure where we were going was safe. He was very well-connected and spoke Hebrew, Arabic, Italian and English so wherever we went he could communicate with people.”

The pilgrims did visit Cana where Jesus performed his first miracle by  turning water into wine at a wedding. “Many in our group renewed their marriage vows at Cana,” Timmerman said.

 During the Oct. 22 Mass in Plattsmouth, Timmerman told parishioners no one in the group wanted to stop the tour and go home after the attack, “which was good because all air flights were canceled,” he said.

 They, however, returned to Jerusalem and made plans to leave four days earlier than originally scheduled. Timmerman was back in Plattsmouth Oct. 18 after taking a flight out of Amnan, Jordan.

“We were scared a little bit when we  were eating in a restaurant in Jerusalem in our hotel. The sirens went off. They escorted us to a shelter. We were a little concerned then. Before everyone got into the shelter, they told us to go back and finish eating our supper. It was a false alarm.”

Timmerman said he felt the strong presence of God in Jerusalem when they retraced Jesus’ steps at the Stations of the Cross. He also left parishioners prayer intentions while there.

“When they canceled all the flights, we were scared but not panicked. God does give you grace for those times. We were blessed with a great peace of heart and able to do what we needed to do. We had a lot of beautiful experiences,” he said.