Jo Anne Freeman

For many people of faith, a trip to the Holy Land is on many bucket lists. However, due to the time and money it takes to travel overseas, many people simply can’t make that trip a reality.

One local pastor is offering up what he calls the Promise Land Journey on this week’s stop on County Road 11.

About 20 years ago, Pastor Bill Freeman had a vision to build a full-size replica of Moses’ Tabernacle. Ten years later, his vision became reality as his finished product help explain events that are chronicled in the Bible.

“What I do is take people through tours of it and they learn how each piece of furniture really personifies and magnifies and glorifies Jesus Christ,” said Freeman.

Freeman, who has a background in drafting and engineering, uses the Tabernacle as a teaching tool. He dresses like a high priest for extra effect.

“I guess in my mind, I’m a detailed person. All of this is in detail and information. I’ve traveled to these places personally,” said Freeman.

The Tabernacle is a 7,000 square foot facility, with life-size models of the furniture and the garden tomb, as well as dioramas of first century Jerusalem and the Middle East. Pastor Freeman says everything in the display in Biblically based and serves a greater purpose

“It’s a journey and we’re all on this journey. In fact, you could say from Genesis 1:1 to Revelations 22:21 in one word that God the Creator wanted to have a relationship with his creation and with his people,” said Freeman. “We’re people and he wants to have a relationship with us.”ADVERTISEMENThttps://d1415ff683d64ce304521194fad18b02.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

The Covenant Life Tabernacle, a one of a kind structure that brings the Holy Land to East Mississippi.

The Tabernacle is located on Highway 19 North between Collinsville and House. The website is www.promiselandjourney.org. You can also call (601) 986-8839

Starting from intrigue with the wanderings of the nation of Israel as told in the Old Testament, Pastor Bill Freeman of the Covenant Life Church at Collinsville researched. That intrigue turned into a compulsion over the years. He poured a lot of time into studying particularly one aspect of the journey, the tabernacle where the nation kept their holy accouterments. At the Promised Land Journey, in a building just behind Covenant Life Church near Collinsville, the culmination of Freeman’s journey is on display. He greets you at the door dressed as a priest & then spends the next few minutes or hours describing the replicas of the furnishings in the tabernacle that he spent a great many years researching and building. “I’ve had some help on this. But this has been, at times, it was a lonely journey,” explained Freeman. A lonely journey that will help us take a mini journey that most of us will never get to take for real: to the Holy Land. And none of us would get to go back to this era depicted at the Promised Land Journey.“But what I do is I show. I teach Jesus is all the pieces of the furniture.”Now, this decades-long quest to build and house all of this has been a journey for Pastor Freeman, too.“Changed. There has been a breaking in be through this journey to build a relationship. ”Freeman’s emphasis at the beginning was religion. But in building his relationship with God. Now, his emphasis is on relationships with people.“What I am really, really doing here is attempting to help us all on our journey to be a better person.”Collinsville is about half way between Meridian & Philadelphia on Highway 19. Visit http://promiselandjourney.org

In the News: ABC 11-Promise Land Journey

In The News: The Promise Land in Mississippi