IBEX concludes its ’25 relaunch

In light of Oct. 7, 2023, he noted, the visual portrayal of the violence in Israel is often in people’s minds when they think of Israel, whether relating to the conflicts with Gaza, Hezbollah or Syria. Most of these conflicts, Beals observed, have either been set to rest for now or don’t have a significant impact on the IBEX campus in the Judean hills.

In previous semesters, including the fall ’23 semester where students were evacuated from the country after Oct. 7, the administration made the decision to cancel IBEX as the key criteria, safety and productivity, were not met.

Now, considering these matters from a security standpoint, the administration decided that it was safe to send students for the full program.

“Even though there’s some things still happening up north,” Beals said, “we can be very wise in where we go and what we do, and not do certain things because we don't want to put anybody in danger, and do other things which wouldn't put anybody in danger.”

The goal is that students would have both a secure and a fruitful semester abroad in the land of the Bible.

“Our hope and our prayer is that people will see, first of all, that it’s safe,” Beals said. “Second of all, that it’s exciting and really important to be a part of your educational opportunity. So hopefully we'll get more people in the fall and the spring to go because it really is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

At the beginning of the spring ’25 semester, only a handful of students were signed up to go to IBEX in the fall ’25 semester. As an  incentive, TMU made a campus-wide announcement that the university would pay a significant amount of the airfare for the flight to Israel if a certain number of students committed to go. If 10 students committed, then half the airfare would be paid. If 15, then 75% of the airfare would be paid. If 20, the university would cover the entire cost of airfare, leaving the students to pay for IBEX as they would the cost for any other semester.

The catch? It only applies for students who commit to go in the fall ’25 semester.

Since the announcement, the number of students signed up to go has more than doubled in size, now with 16 students slotted to be in Israel next semester.

The goal is that students going now will build momentum for their friends to want to go in the future—and IBEX will return to its former status.

According to Jessy Heinzen, the IBEX and Bible department administrative assistant who formerly worked on the IBEX campus for three years, there have been very few normal IBEX semesters since COVID-19 in 2020.

“It’s been hard because our numbers every semester used to be like 30,” she said. “When I worked there, it was full, full semesters. 25, 27, 28, 30, 32… So the numbers used to be a lot higher before COVID and now they’re super low.”

She is eager to see more students becoming excited to go again, especially for this fall semester.

“The fall is probably my favorite semester, having lived there,” she said. “I’ve been there for both semesters, through many seasons, all the holidays. But you experience so many holidays in the fall that you don’t get in the spring… New Years, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, depending on how late you stay, Hanukkah a little bit.”

This fall will also be the first time since 2023 that the university will host a Friends and Family trip for eight days in Israel, where friends and family of students will be able to visit the land of the Bible and get a “buffet-style” feast of key sites, led by Dr. Greg Behle.

As for the students there now, Heinzen shares glowing reports.

“They’re all loving it,” she said. “Even John Black, the director on the Israel side, he says it’s going great. The students are loving it. They're having a great time. Everyone’s safe. So life goes on.”

Josh Gilles, a junior majoring in biblical studies, is thrilled to be one of the students going in the fall. He and his friend, Dominic Grinceri, also going in the fall, ended up taking Old Testament survey together in the fall 23 semester under Dr. Todd Bolen.

“I think the Spirit moved in me so that I sat in the front row next to Dom and so that's where we met,” Gilles recalled. “And then obviously in Old Testament Dr. Bolen’s like ‘You’ve got to do IBEX!’ So me and Dom were like, ‘Hey, we should go to IBEX together.’”

The two of them are excited to go as part of the group of 16 in the fall.

“Getting to study the Bible in Israel is ridiculous,” Gilles said. “And you don't get to do it at any school, and you certainly don’t get the time to do it after you finish school.”

Beals is confident that as long as the safety and productivity criteria are met, IBEX will keep going and the university will send students as long as possible. To him, IBEX isn’t just another study abroad opportunity.

“It’s really at the ethos of who we are,” he said. “As an institution, we’re about not just studying things about the Bible, but we’re about understanding the Bible with such depth.”

He points to the university’s literal-grammatical-historical hermeneutic in studying and interpreting Scripture as what sets it apart from most other Bible colleges. Yet, while knowing the language and the grammar is often emphasized in the classroom, it is easy to overlook the importance of knowing the historical context, which is richly found in the IBEX program.

“The historical part is being in the land, seeing the geography and how that impacts the understanding of the text, the cultural background of the day,” he said. “That helps you understand the text.”

As long as the university can, Beals emphasized, and as long as it is led by its current administration, sending students through the IBEX program is a priority that is part of the very fabric of the institution.

“I never went as a student,” Beals said. “It’s probably the biggest regret I had as a student looking back.”

To Heinzen, who did get to go as a student and lived there for three years after graduating, she encourages all students to try as hard as they can to go.

“When I talk to people, most of them say that it's the best semester of their college career. The best semester,” she said. “You never forget going to those sites and reading the Scripture on site and how the Lord uses that to work in your heart and grow your love for him and his Word. So it’s worthy. I just wish more people knew that.”