Amidst the conflict between the United States and Iran, several Imperial Valley citizens have finally returned safely from their overseas biblical tour based out of Israel, one of which being Pastor Walter Colace from the Imperial Valley’s Christ Community Church.

The tour consisted of 33 people visiting famous biblical sites such as the Caesarea Maritima and Mount Precipice in Israel. This tour was a long time coming, as Colace’s church groups encountered several setbacks regarding the execution of this trip.

“We try making it over every other year with a group, although we’ve had three cancellations,” Colace stated. “Two were due to Israel shutting down during COVID, and then one was scheduled a couple weeks after the war broke out on Oct. 7 with Hamas.”

Eventually, Colace’s group was able to schedule a tour that was intended to last from Feb. 18 to Feb. 28, with the return flight scheduled on March 1 at 9 p.m. This left 31 of 33 people in Colace’s group, with Colace included, stranded in Israel, as two people from the group coincidentally managed to leave the day before the war hit on Feb. 28. The airports were not yet closed at that time.

A biblical tour group from the Imperial Valley is seen at the Caesarea Maritima theater in Israel. A group of more than 30 people, mostly from the Valley, were trapped in Israel when the US-Iran conflict began. | PHOTO COURTESY OF WALTER COLACE

“The flights were canceled out in Tel Aviv — we were scheduled on El Al Airlines,” Colace said. “We were at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem when the first warning sirens went off, so we had to make our way down to the bomb shelter.”

Since the group was stuck in Jerusalem, they needed a place to stay, which is where Colace’s friend who was raised in Haifa, Israel and his nephew stepped in to help.

“His nephew oversees the YMCA here in Jerusalem, and they opened up their arms and their rooms. They have a hotel called the Three Arches Hotel, and that’s where we’ve stayed ever since the war started,” Colace stated.

During that time, 21 of the remaining 31 were able to make it back home. Due to the Israeli government limiting passengers on the airlines, Colace’s group had no choice but to cut their group down. Colace was part of the 10 people who volunteered to stay behind.

The experience, while unexpected, wasn’t necessarily all bad, as Colace’s group made the best of it by doing some local shopping and going out for lunch.

Colace credits the Iron Dome, Patriot missiles, and bomb shelters for their safety. He and his group felt that they had plenty of time — at least 10 to 12 minutes — once the sirens went off to make their way down to bomb shelters around town. On average, the group heard two warning sirens a day.

A large church group, much of which was from the Imperial Valley, is shown on Mount Precipice at Nazareth in northern Israel. The group of more than 30 people were trapped in Israel when the US-Iran conflict began. | PHOTO COURTESY OF WALTER COLACE

“We felt security the entire time. It’s strange to say that as we’re in the middle of war, but Israel’s security … and military is top in the world, and we never felt like our lives were in danger,” stated Colace. “We’ve all felt safe here on the ground … we were walking around the streets and a lot of people were out, seeming like life was starting to come back to somewhat of a normalcy.”

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Because of this, Colace wanted to reassure the people of the United States that what they’re seeing on the news is somewhat blown out of proportion, stating, “That’s not the kind of fire that we’re under. I know that it appears that way because all they’re seeing is the missiles and the bombs being dropped, but (everyone is) safe and secure here in Israel.”

The group’s return flight only had 100 passengers due to government restrictions, but everyone was happy and couldn’t wait to touch down on U.S. soil. 

“We had a great tour. We were on the last day of the tour (when the bombs hit) so we were able to see almost all the biblical sites we were scheduled to see,” said Colace. “Things didn’t turn out as smoothly as we thought when the war started, but we were able to get through it, and everybody’s doing great.”