A young Seventh-day Adventist couple from Mexico found an appealing way to follow in Jesus’ footsteps: by sharing their dream trip to the Holy Land through what has now become a television series on Hope Channel Inter-America.
When César Martínez, age 30, and Gaby Chagolla, 26, got married in 2019, they had one dream: to make the most of their honeymoon by traveling to the Holy Land in Israel to walk in the same places where Jesus walked nearly 2,000 years ago. Unfortunately, they found out they didn’t have enough funds, so they settled on working their jobs and building their savings first.
Life got busy. They moved out of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, and started new jobs, which eventually allowed them to save. One night in 2021, as they studied the book of John with friends, the Martínezes again felt inspired to visit Jerusalem and nearby places. They felt it was an attainable dream and decided to put it in God’s hands.
“We knew that we didn’t want to just have a spiritual experience for ourselves but share it with others,” César said. They devised a plan. They would do the trip and post about it on Gaby’s YouTube channel, Séptima Estación.
On that channel, she usually shares Bible verses, spiritual lessons, and positive messages pointing to heaven for her 30,000-plus followers. “I knew that there were many Christians who also had the dream of visiting Jerusalem, and we wanted to make sure the content could get to many people,” Gaby said.
César agreed. “As we kept praying for our dream, our lifestyle changed,” he said. “We began to save money, think differently about our spending, trusting God.”
After a year of saving every bit they could, they purchased their tickets. With the tickets secured, they began to do more research for their journey and come up with content to share. Pase de Abordar (“Boarding Pass”) was the name they chose for their adventure in Jerusalem.
As they began to think of reaching people online, they thought, ‘Why not reach a larger audience?’ Gaby said. “We mentioned it to Hope Channel Inter-America leaders, and they liked the idea, and another dream was born: to produce a television series. Pase de Abordar was a dream, and God began moving things to make that dream a reality and take us to another level.”
In November 2022, they traveled to Jerusalem and recorded six episodes while visiting Galilee, Bethlehem, the Garden of Gethsemane, and other prominent places in the Bible. Pase de Abordar recently premiered on Hope Channel Inter-America, generating a lot of responses on their social media platforms, the Martínezes shared.
“As we traveled, we shared with our social media audience every step of our journey, and the response from so many people really touched us,” Gaby said. “So many messages came from so many people praying for us and our project, even one year after making our trip and three years since we prayed for God’s guidance.”
Their travel experience included many outstanding moments. “There’s nothing more beautiful than to see the places where Jesus went and experience that confirmation of the historical evidence mentioned in the Bible,” César said. Seeing the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where Solomon’s Temple was built was exciting to him. “It has been the greatest experience of my life. It’s no longer just a notion; on the contrary, it is based on what I saw for myself. My relationship with God has grown.”
For Gaby, welcoming the Sabbath in front of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City and visiting the closest Seventh-day Adventist church will be unforgettable. “We took part in a beautiful spiritual feast with praises on the Sabbath,” Gaby said. “Being embraced by so many women and praising together made me think of the beautiful future reunion in heaven.”
The response to Pase de Abordar has been a true blessing. “People have thanked us, have shared that they have watched every episode with their co-workers, friends, and families, and have felt they experienced our journey into the Holy Land with us,” Gaby said.
Pase de Abordar is the first series with a different, practical, more social element for youth on Hope Channel Inter-America, said Abel Márquez, the channel’s executive director. “Generally, we feature more formal programs, mostly framed in a study with a script, and in this case, it’s the perspective of two young people visiting the Holy Land,” Márquez said. “They don’t assume that they are experts in biblical history, but rather, they want to experience the places where Jesus went through. We learn from their experience because it is a couple eager to share the message of love and hope found in Jesus.”
Both Christian influencers, César, who created La Biblia en Minecraft (“The Bible in Minecraft”), serves as an associate Communication director for the Central Mexican Union (CMU) in Mexico City. Gaby, who created Séptima Estación with her sister and works as the CMU production assistant and social media manager, vowed to continue sharing the love of God in every way they can on social media platforms.
Now they have another dream: to come up with a second part to Pase de Abordar.
“When we put God in our dreams, when we choose Him as our sponsor, He takes us to fulfill that dream and turns it into something that you couldn’t imagine,” César said.
The original version of this story was posted on the Inter-American Division website.