Our Story
Rev. Craig & Margery Bertram

We come from a Christian tradition of acknowledging the inerrancy, authority and divine inspiration of the Word of God.  Having experienced physically walking in biblical places, and seeing the remnants of the material and cultural world of biblical times, we feel compelled to share the illuminating effects of biblical archeology with fellow Christians. 

This is not to “prove” what we know by faith to be true, but to enrich understanding. 

The benefit of these experiences to preaching and teaching have been profound.  We have been blessed with a renewed spark of inspiration and an added level of appreciation of the “where” and “when” of events of the Bible – something we feel called to share with other pastors. 

A number of years ago, we were given an all-expense paid trip to Israel.  We were blessed to have been with a biblical studies guide whose focus was demonstrating how understanding the place and culture of biblical sites adds important nuances to understanding of events. 

This was a trip we would never have considered on our own because of financial constraints.

We are a small parish, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod pastor and a nurse - not careers that typically allow for world travel! This is no doubt true of many pastors and their spouses.  Since then, we have been blessed with financial support to travel to the biblical sites of Paul’s journeys in Turkey, Greece, and Italy.  

We have a strong sense of calling to share this experience with others.  We often hear of pastors being gifted a trip to the Holy Land for their retirement.  Certainly this is a wonderful blessing. 

Our vision is that pastors would have the blessing of this experience earlier in their ministry to the benefit of the congregations they serve, but with no financial burden to the pastor or their congregation.