HOW EO STARTED - The Vision and the Passion
Jim Ridgway first visited Israel as a young man in 1959. At the time, he was an Interfaith Fellow at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio. His visit made such an impact on his life that he felt called to bring others and in 1961, he brought his first group from his church. In 1974, Jim Ridgway founded Educational Opportunities. Jim expresses his vision and passion with these words: "There is something spiritual that can only be experienced by being in the Holy Land. I want ministers to see the land they have only read about and been preaching about. So I talked with other ministries and pastors about bringing their groups. It has been my passion and my desire to make sure that every young clergy person, while they're still young, is able to come and experience Israel. It's one thing to read about something. But to touch something, to smell it, to involve all the senses creates a new interest in the Bible. It becomes a living word, not just paper."
HISTORY of EO in ISRAEL
Since it founding in 1974, Educational Opportunities has brought over 300,000 Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The peak year for Educational Opportunities was 1998 with 20,000 to 25,000 pilgrims. Educational Opportunities continued to bring tourists during the intifada and the Second Lebanon War, though the numbers did dip during 2003 and 2004.
FUTURE of EO
Educational Opportunities hopes to reach out to the entire Christian community in the United States, so that every church can have the experience of a Holy Land pilgrimage. Jim is now retired and EO is now led by Jim's son, James Ridway, II.