IBEX Friends and Family Program (Spring)

February 27 – March 28, 2026

The IBEX Friends and Family Spring Program locations visited typically include:

• Christian Quarter
• Jewish Quarter
• Southern Excavations
• City of David
• Hezekiah’s Tunnel
• Shephelah
• Tel Beth Shemesh
• Tel Azekiah
• Shrine of the Book
• Israel Museum
• Caesarea
• Mt Carmel
• Megiddo
• Tiberias
• Bethsaida
• Chorazin
• Tel Hazor
• Tel Dan
• Caserea Phillipi
• Capernaum
• Seat of Galilee
• Beth Shan
• Jericho
• Jordan River
• Judean Wilderness
• Masada
• Qumran
• Dead Sea
• Mount of Olives
• Gethsemane
• Bethlehem
• Abu Gosh

1. Please complete the application form legibly. This will help ensure that we have accurate information and don’t incorrectly read someone’s handwriting. When we submit your personal information (full name, passport number, and expiration date) to the airline, the information we submit must EXACTLY MATCH what appears on your passport. Otherwise, you will face challenges when you check-in at the US and Israeli airports and likely have to pay some surcharge.

Be sure to sign and initial the marked places and give the date you completed the form. You can scan the form and email it to .

2. Along with your registration, send a very clear and readable color scan of your passport face page (email a scan or mail the printed page). This helps your trip leader start to connect faces with names before the trip begins. It also is a kind of insurance. If anyone loses their passport (perish the thought!), the face page is a great starting point for getting that fixed ASAP in Israel. If you don’t have your passport when you submit your registration form, make sure to email or mail it to the IBEX office by January 11.

3. To pay by credit card, please use our secure payment portal. Put “2026 Family and Friends Trip” in the notes area.

4. To pay by check, please make the check payable to The Master’s University and mail or deliver it to the IBEX Office.

IBEX Office—Box #16 The Master’s University 21726 Placerita Canyon Road Santa Clarita, CA 91321

5. In addition to important trip information, the trip application from The Master’s University includes a health information section. By providing us your health insurance information and key aspects of your health, you enable us to work with medical professionals in Israel in the event that you had some health issue while in Israel. This information is not shared with anyone outside of your trip leader. It gives your leader some basic information to have on hand in case a person has an accident and a doctor needs to understand the bigger health picture as well as insurance coverage information.

The last pages of the trip application involve a section entitled “Informed consent, acknowledgment or risk, & assumption of liability.” It covers the expected legal concerns to protect TMU as the sponsor of a trip like this. Every Israel trip has something like this in the material they provide to their participants. Rest assured, we are not expecting something bad to happen. After the end of those points, there is a place for you to sign the document. You need to submit this trip application along with your trip deposit.

6. For any questions regarding logistical and payment details, please contact Jessy Heinzen in the IBEX Office, 661-362-2616 or .

Please direct any flight questions to our travel agent Adam Cartner at 

A current passport is required and must not expire until six months after our return date. Don’t delay in applying for your passport, as it may take several weeks to process. Each traveler must obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA-IL) before departure. A tourist visa will be issued upon entry to USA passport holders. If you are a non-USA citizen, please check online for possible additional entrance requirements.

ETA-IL: https://israel-entry.piba.gov.il/

No vaccinations are required.

After the trip roster is settled, your trip leader will email a file that provides guidance on what to bring and what to expect for the weather.

You can contact our travel agent (his contact info is found above and on the trip application) if you wish to make other arrangements. You are also free to use your agent or book your flight. We generally discourage travel to Israel apart from the group due to potential scheduling conflicts**. For the land-only cost, check “Price Options” above.

However, we cannot arrange ground transportation or hotels for alternative travel arrangements if your flight schedule does not closely match that of the Family and Friends group or your flight’s arrival in Tel Aviv is delayed for some reason. You will need to BE SURE you arrive before the group and depart after the group departs if you want to ride on the bus from or to the airport. You can also arrive a day(s) before or depart after the trip if preferred. If so, you can meet us at the Ben Gurion airport at the time of our arrival or arrange your transportation to the hotel of our first night. If you arrive before or depart after the Family and Friends trip, of course, you must cover your housing and transportation costs.

Itinerary details are provided on this website, so you can make accurate flight plans if you choose to make your flight arrangements.

Rest assured that the IBEX Office does not want to put you in harm’s way. We won’t let the IBEX students go to Israel if we are convinced it is not safe, and we won’t pull the trigger on the Family and Friends trip (mid-January) if we have any significant concerns. We don’t go near Gaza during our trip, we don’t hang around border crossings, and we don’t match the profile that terrorists pursue (people in uniform).

In every part of the world, we cannot avoid random events over which we have no control. In the end, we trust God’s providence, and we are in continuous communication with people who know the status of travel in Israel.

Once you submit your application and deposit, your trip leader will email suggested pre-trip resources.

If we decide to cancel the F&F trip before the final payment is due in early January, we will fully refund the deposit or most of what a person has paid. Because we committed to a certain number of airline seats, those who are part of our group reservation may not receive back $200.00 of what they paid if the airline requires that of us.

However, after the full payment is made and that money goes to the airline and the land vendors, the money is out of our hands. If things get so bad at that point that we make the painful decision to cancel the trip we have no access to that money**. That is where the travel insurance kicks in. That is why we are encouraging concerned people to buy travel insurance–making sure they understand the parameters of the policy they choose.

Since travel insurance does not represent health insurance, you need to contact your health insurance provider to see if they will cover medical expenses during your trip to Israel.  Several insurance policies cover “out of network” expenses and reimburse you for them (or a certain percentage of that expense) after you return home and submit your receipts.