A Walk Through History

"It's like turning the Bible into a color popup book," Rev. Frank Lenihan said.

Lenihan is a regional representative for Bridges for Peace. It's an organization that has a mission to build bridges toward the Jewish community in Israel. They feed thousands of Israeli children, and also participate in several community service projects in Israel.

Lenihan said that this most recent trip to Israel was per request of a couple celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. The tour took place from Feb. 27 through March 7. While they did a lot of sightseeing and touring, visiting Galilee, where the couple renewed their vows, they went to Mount of Beatitudes, Capernaum, the Nazareth Village and many more sites during their trip.

The group had created several gift bags to hand out to the military and they were lucky enough to run into a crew of Isreal soldiers on Mount Bental. The special soldiers received the bags that had kosher foods, hygiene products and any other items that could be useful to them. Lenihan was able to get permission to meet with the soldiers and provide the bags in an effort to show that Americans supported them. At a location near here, Lenihan said that the group could hear artillery coming from Syria.

It was pretty obvious that Lenihan had done much of his homework, as he described the historical significance of many of the visited locations – visiting the Dead Sea area and stopping where the scrolls were discovered and showing that scrolls that were found 900 years prior to the oldest known copy of scriptures. He explained that the discovery showed that it was an exact copy, which shows how meticulous recordkeepers and scribes were to copy the scriptures.

He said that they spent about three or four days in Jerusalem and visited the Wailing Wall, the Mount of Olives, where it is believed Jesus ascended to heaven. The group that traveled to all these locations were as young as 16 years old, with the oldest 89 years old. Lenihan said that his daughter, who is living in Japan in the Marines, was able to join the rest of the family on the trip. They were reunited after two years.

They stopped in front of a live camera at the Wailing Wall and made sure they set out a banner for viewers at home. While a security guard who didn't read English was concerned with the name "Montana," they were able to get him to allow the banner, which was shown at 11 a.m. Several people from Lustre, including the school, stopped to view their community members on camera.

Lenihan said that the tour was a certified Bridges for Peace tour, and counted as 10 college credits, from the only member of the tour that was not local and came from a distance for the college credits. He said that their visit with the soldiers counted as their community service involvement, but out of the seven trips he has made in the past they have stopped to help with the food bank in Israel. The food bank stores and hands out up to 500 metric tons of food on daily and weekly basis, feeding 26,000 families.

The tour usually extends a little bit longer, but due to a few ranchers on the trip during calving season, they cut it short. He explained that Americans and Christians were welcome in Israel, but some Muslim communities weren't as welcome.

He said they did have a terrorist incident about a block from their hotel, but they weren't present at the location. Lenihan said he felt called to Israel and his first trip took place in 2001. He said that he hopes to plan the next tour in 2017. If anyone is interested in the tour or wants more information, they can contact Lenihan at 406-392-5794 or email [email protected].