Carolyn Hemphill was part of a 16-member group that toured Egypt, Jordan and Israel last month.

A Butler woman fulfilled a longtime goal earlier this year when she and a group of family and friends took a two-week trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel.

Carolyn Hemphill said,“It has been my lifelong dream to travel to the Holy Land and see where Jesus walked and all the places in the Bible, but I was always too afraid to go to the Middle East.".

Nearly 18 months ago Hemphill made up her mind to finally go and convinced her husband, Ned, a recently retired automotive mechanics teacher, and their two children, Colton, 17, an 11th-grader at Butler High School, and Caitlyn, 20, a sophomore at Slippery Rock University, to join her on her adventure.

Along the way, Hemphill said she gathered up some more companions for the trip.

The now 16-member group left Pittsburgh on Jan. 9 for a 10-hour plane ride to Cairo.

This is an excerpt of a story that appears in Sunday's Butler Eagle.