New Life Ministries Hosts Tour of the Holy Land

Tour Features Private Concert from Christian Artist Steven Curtis Chapman

New York, NY – June 9, 2011-- Steve Arterburn, Founder and Chairman of New Life Ministries is currently hosting the organization’s first New Life Ministries tour to Israel. The tour began on Monday, June 6 and will conclude on Thursday, June 16. Participants on the tour will enjoy a private concert by Christian recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman on June 12 on the Temple steps at the Davidson Center.

“We are excited to welcome Steve Arterburn and New Life Ministries to Israel,” said Haim Gutin, Israel Tourism Commissioner, North and South America. “We know that once they visit Israel – they will never be the same.”

New Life Ministries will tour the land and visit holy sites, including: • Mount of Beatitudes• Sea of Galilee• Capernaum• Cana• Nazareth• Caesarea• Mount of Olives• Garden of Gethsemane• Caiaphas’ House• City of David• Via Dolorosa• Garden Tomb

Steve Arterburn is the host of the number-one ranked nationally syndicated Christian counseling talk show New Life Live, which is heard by millions on over 180 radio stations, as well as on XM – Sirius Satellite Radio Network. The show can be seen on television on FamilyNet. Steve is also a best-selling author with over seven million books in print.

For more information about travel to Israel, please visit www.EvangelicalIsraelExperience.com.
(Photo: Synagogue in Capernaum. Courtesy: Israel Ministry of Tourism)

About the Israel Ministry of Tourism: With its main headquarters for North America in New York, the Israel Ministry of Tourism leads the State of Israel’s efforts at maintaining a strong tourism industry. The Ministry of Tourism promotes tourism to Israel via its Israel Government Tourist Offices in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Lutheran Leader to Visit Japan in Wake of Earthquake and Tsunami

LCMS President will show support for partner church, continuing disaster relief

Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), and other LCMS leaders will be traveling to Japan, June 10-19 to visit officials with the Japan Lutheran Church, one of the Synod’s partner churches, to demonstrate the Synod’s continuing support for its members and efforts to help those affected by the devastating March 11 earthquake/tsunami.
They will travel to Tokyo, Japan, and surrounding towns and villages, as well as Seoul, Korea.
The LCMS group will include President Harrison; Dr. Albert B. Collver III of St. Louis, LCMS director of church relations; Rev. Glenn F. Merritt of Arlington, Texas, director of disaster response for LCMS World Relief and Human Care; Darin Storkson of Jakarta, Indonesia, Asia director for LCMS World Relief and Human Care; Dr. David C. Birner of St. Louis, associate executive director, international, for LCMS World Mission; Rev. John Mehl of Hong Kong, regional director for Asia for LCMS World Mission; Dr. Naomichi Masaki of Fort Wayne, Ind., associate professor of systematic theology at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Al Dowbnia of Indianapolis, Ind., communications director, LCMS World Relief and Human Care.
Background: Individuals and congregations of the LCMS have given more than $2 million to help the people of Japan since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Soon after the disaster, the LCMS released $200,000 in emergency funds for two Japanese Lutheran church bodies: the Japan Lutheran Church (an LCMS partner church) and the West Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church, which operates Kobe Lutheran Theological Seminary in Kobe along with other church organizations. The funds have been made available for the two church bodies to use however they decide for response to the earthquake and tsunami.
About The Lutheran Church—Missouri SynodThe Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), is a mission-oriented, Bible-based, confessional Christian denomination headquartered in St. Louis, Mo. Founded in 1847, the LCMS has more than 2.3 million baptized members in some 6,200 congregations and more than 9,000 pastors. Two seminaries and 10 colleges and universities operate under the auspices of the LCMS, and its congregations operate the largest Protestant parochial school system in America.
The church broadcasts the saving message of Jesus Christ over KFUO Radio, and it has relationships and active mission work in 88 countries around the world. In the last five years, the LCMS has awarded more than $35 million through more than 900 domestic and international grants for emergency response and disaster relief.
Today, the LCMS is in full doctrinal fellowship with 33 other confessional Lutheran church bodies worldwide and is a founding partner of Lutheran Services in America, a social ministry organization serving one in every 50 Americans. For more information, visit www.lcms.org.