On September 1, 2023, our team boarded a flight in Nashville to eventually land in Israel to film the teaching sessions for Kristi McLelland’s Luke in the Land Bible study. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at our week filming in Israel.
When we landed in Israel on September 2, we checked into our hotel in Tiberias. We were absolutely exhausted from the long travel and sleeping overnight on a plane. But we hit the ground running because we had to climb to the top of Arbel Cliff before the sunrise to film the very next day.
It was still dark outside when we hiked to the top of Arbel Cliff with all of our camera equipment. In the photo to the left, you can see Kristi getting her makeup touched up by Krissy, the makeup artist. Amanda, who worked on the teen version of the study with Kristi, is holding the light. The early morning and lack of sleep was totally worth it though because it was the most beautiful, breathtaking location with an amazing sunrise. This was the perfect place to begin our week of filming in Israel.
Mount Arbel overlooks the Sea of Galilee, so we had bird’s eye view of it before we hiked back down the mountain to board a boat in the Sea of Galilee (we got some awesome drone footage here!) Jesus lived the majority of His life in Galilee, and the Gospels share stories of Jesus being in boats in this sea.
Jesus lived in Capernaum, which is a coastal city located on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. After we got off the boat (and after we ate some fish caught in the Sea of Galilee!), we went to Capernaum to film in the synagogue ruins. Jesus taught in synagogues around the Sea of Galilee.
Also, once you watch the teaching videos for the study, you’ll notice that each session includes teaching from Kristi in multiple locations. Due to the geography and our schedule, we didn’t film these in order, but somehow Kristi kept the storyline and content seamlessly connected in her mind as we moved from place to place.
After that, we filmed in a wonderful woman’s home to show what a traditional Shabbat dinner would look like. By this point, we were pretty exhausted, so as a team we don’t remember this location very well, other than the generous hospitality of our host and the beauty of her home.
The next day, we left at 6:30 a.m. to head back to the Sea of Galilee, except this time we were on the Tabgha shoreline near a spring where it’s believe that fishermen would typically wash their nets. This is one of Kristi’s favorite sites to take people. We started on the shore, but somehow we ended up filming in the water—camera equipment and all. Thankfully no equipment got waterlogged because we still had quite a bit of filming to do!
Kristi tells a funny story from filming at this location about her encounter with a man she dubbed “Aquaman.” Unbeknownst to us, since we were facing Kristi as she taught, a random man was swimming around behind us. Kristi said that as she was teaching and facing us, the man would poke his head up out of the water like Aquaman. Kristi didn’t miss a beat though and kept teaching, so we had no idea this had happened until after we wrapped and she told us about this funny encounter!
Our next site was the Jordan River. One of the most memorable things that happened here was when our bus broke down because it was so hot right as we were packing up to move to our next location. So instead, a golf cart appeared and took us down a busy highway through a Kibbutz to a lunch spot. Here, we had “the best Coke in the history of the universe!” (Maybe it was the heat, but this was a really fantastic bottle of Coca-Cola.) After this lunch, we ordered Coke pretty much everywhere we went.
Thankfully our bus got fixed, so we were off to Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives was our last site for the day, and Kristi had one take to get this because we were shooting at sunset. Above the stairs in the photo below was an overlook where people gathered to watch us film. For reasons still unclear to us, while Kristi was teaching here, a random guy from above would not stop shouting “Shakira!” If you didn’t know this happened, you could never tell because Kristi got it all in one take, just before the sun went down. Thankfully, Elliott was able to edit the audio so that you can’t really hear the shouts of “Shakira!” (If you know to listen for it—which now you do—you can faintly make it out.)
The next morning we started at the garden of Gethsemane. We filmed before the garden was open for tourists, and it was such a special, peaceful place. Kristi taught about how we often think of the cross as something that happened to Jesus. But in the garden, we see Jesus’s intentionality in His own journey to the cross. She shared how some of the root systems of the olive trees in the garden are hundreds of years old and that it makes her think of their ancestors—two thousand years ago—being there when Jesus was praying in the garden.
After such a calm, beautiful location, we then moved somewhere much different—the wilderness. Here in Wadi Qelt, the guys could only keep the cameras rolling for eight minutes at a time because they kept overheating due to the intense heat. Despite the intense conditions, I remember how the vastness of this place held its own unique beauty.
We moved from the solitude in the wilderness to the Church of the Nativity. The church was bustling with people from all over the world. I remember hearing so many different languages being spoken all at once by people who had come to seek a closeness to the ancient church that is believed to be built over the site of the manger in Bethlehem that Jesus was born in. Seeing and hearing people from all over the world together was a beautiful representation of the body of Christ.
After this location and before we moved on to the cave below, we stopped for some of the best gelato ever—a refreshing treat after a brutally hot experience in the wilderness.
In Bethlehem, we filmed at the “YMCA.” Well, kind of. There was a really cool cave that happened to be on the property of the YMCA. There was a stone manger right outside the entrance similar to what Mary may have laid baby Jesus in.
On the last day of filming, we started at the Road to Emmaus. This was a very special location. Kristi had actually never been there before! She experienced with us a lot of our “firsts,” but at this location we also got to experience a “first” with her. This location felt very special to us because we know this is the literal Road to Emmaus that Jesus walked on in Luke 24.
We then traveled to the Old City where golf carts transported us to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Many believe the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built around the empty tomb of Jesus.
This day as a whole was filled with a lot of firsts because we were able to go up to the top of the church that overlooks the Edicule, which is the structure that encloses the empty tomb. Kristi was excited about this too because in all the times she had been to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, she had never had the opportunity to go upstairs in the Armenian Chapel since it’s closed to the public.
We wrapped filming at the Southern Steps. The Southern Steps were one of the main entrances to the temple during Jesus’s time. When we think of pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to worship, we can envision them coming up these steps, singing the psalms of Ascent.
Throughout the Luke in the Land taping in Israel, we captured audio clips of special behind-the-scenes moments while filming. We then listened to those clips a few months after returning home with Kristi and reacted to those memories on the MARKED Podcast. You can listen to that episode here.
One of the most meaningful audio snippets that we captured was after we wrapped filming the entire project at the Southern Steps. Kristi gave a Coke toast that beautifully encapsulates our gratitude for this experience as a team and our hope for this study’s impact in serving as a bridge to the Land Jesus walked in.
After staying over in in Israel a few extra days after we finished filming, I returned home to Nashville on September 14. We had no idea how soon the country we had just spent two weeks in would be thrust into tragedy on October 7. We are grateful we were able to capture videos of the Land in a time of peace, and we hope and pray for times of peace to return soon.
For more behind-the-scenes photos captured in Israel, check out this photo gallery with images from the sites we filmed at.
Photography by Andrew Abajian
Follow Kristi McLelland through Israel as we study snapshots from the Gospel of Luke to see where the stories of the Bible took place. Over 7 sessions, challenge the way you read the accounts of Jesus through teaching videos that take you to locations in Israel like Bethlehem, the Sea of Galilee, Gethsemane, Jerusalem, and the road to Emmaus. Along the way, you’ll see how Jesus, the Messiah, brought His kingdom to earth for everybody.
Learn more about Luke in the Land!
ABOUT ERIN FRANKLIN
Erin Franklin is a marketing specialist on the Lifeway Women team where she manages the Lifeway Women blog and produces the MARKED Podcast. She is a a contributor to the CSB Lifeway Women’s Bible, as well as the Lifeway Women Advent studies, the Devoted Bible study, Grateful Bible study and Alive Bible study. A graduate of Lipscomb University and a lifelong Tennessean, she enjoys a good ping-pong match, photography, and learning new things. You can connect with her on Instagram @erin_franklin.
