Dave and Michele Foss Make Bible Come Alive in Recounting Trip to Israel

There are moments in a student’s life when faith moves from something heard to something seen, from abstraction to encounter. Hillcrest students experienced one of those moments in chapel as Pastor Dave Foss and Michele Foss led the community through their recent journey to Israel, inviting students to step into the places where Scripture unfolded in real time, among real people, under real skies.

Their message carried a simple but powerful reminder: the Bible is not a collection of wise sayings, inspirational philosophy, or a loosely connected timeline of events. It is history, God’s history, played out in specific places, among flesh-and-blood people whom God met, called, rescued, and redeemed.

History You Can Stand On

Pastor Foss began by helping students picture burial practices in first-century Israel, grounding the resurrection of Jesus in historical reality rather than vague imagery.

“When somebody died,” he explained, “they would be placed in a tomb like this… not your own tomb with your name on the outside, but a family tomb.” Bodies were laid on stone shelves long enough for decomposition, after which the bones were gathered into a stone box, an ossuary, and returned to the family tomb.

Then came the line that drew knowing smiles from students and adults alike: “Turns out Jesus only needed Joseph’s tomb for the weekend.”

Jesus never reached the final stage of burial because He rose from the dead. The resurrection is not poetic symbolism; it interrupted a practiced and expected burial process. Pastor Foss reminded students that Joseph of Arimathea, a real man and member of the Sanhedrin, offered a real tomb, at a place the Fosses stood themselves.

For students, this mattered. Faith anchored in history builds courage. When the resurrection is real, hope becomes sturdier.

One of the most striking moments of the chapel came as Pastor Foss connected everyday life in ancient Israel to one of the most emotionally intense moments in Scripture.

In Nazareth, the Fosses visited an olive press and learned how olives were crushed under increasing pressure. The first pressing produced the purest oil, offered as a gift to God. The second was used for daily nourishment. The third, least pure, was used to fuel lamps and produce light.

Then came the connection.

“Did you know the word Gethsemane actually means olive press?” Pastor Foss asked.

What many imagine as a peaceful garden was, in fact, a place of crushing pressure.

“All of a sudden I’m making the connection,” he said. “Jesus felt unbelievable weight. Jesus was pressed so hard that He sweat drops of blood.”

Standing in that place transformed the story. “Jesus’ blood was given to God as a sacrifice. His life became the bread of life for us. And His suffering produced the light of life for all of us.”

For students, these are not small insights. They reshape how Scripture is read and remembered. Seeing the geography of faith deepens the meaning of the words they’ve heard their whole lives.

Michele Foss, then, guided students through another layer of Israel’s story, the way history, faith, and tension coexist in shared spaces.

In Bethlehem, the group visited the Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional site of Jesus’ birth. The entrance door is intentionally low. “You have to bend down to get into the church,” Mrs. Foss explained. “It’s humility, you’re bending over as you go in.”

People wait for hours outside, just to step briefly into the place marked as Jesus’ birthplace. It’s ornate, crowded, and deeply reverent, a reminder that Christ entered real history in a real town that people still travel across the world to see.

The group also visited the Temple Mount, now home to the Dome of the Rock.

“This is where Jesus taught and worshiped,” Michele said, “where Solomon’s temple stood, where Zerubbabel rebuilt it, and now a mosque sits on top of it.”

Students heard something crucial: the Bible is not distant from modern conflict. The places where God revealed Himself are still contested and inhabited, and they’re still sacred and central to the world’s story.

Pastor Foss ended chapel not with a map or a monument, but with a conversation.

During their travels, he asked a local cab driver a simple question: What is the greatest problem in this part of the world? Without hesitation, the driver pointed to the growing influence of Islam and the tension it brings to Israel and the surrounding region.

Then Pastor Foss asked a second question: What do you think the solution is?

The answer surprised him.

“Missionaries,” the driver said. “Because they can bring the love of God to this part of the world.”

That moment brought the entire chapel into focus.

From the beginning, God placed Israel at the crossroads of the ancient world, not for isolation, but for influence. Through Israel, God revealed His law, His promises, His presence, and ultimately His Son. And through the early church, that hope moved outward, across borders and languages, carried by ordinary people willing to proclaim extraordinary truth.

The story of Israel has always been about God stepping into history to restore what was broken.

For Hillcrest students, this final story served as a reminder that the Bible they study is not only something to understand, but it is something to carry. The same God who met people in real places at real moments still calls His people today to bring hope, peace, and restoration to a world hungry for all three.

And that is why this kind of teaching matters, because when students see that Scripture is real history, they are more ready to live as real witnesses, confident that the God who acted then is still at work now.