After Unexpected Family Death, Students at BYU Jerusalem Turn to Christ

The students at the BYU Jerusalem Center captured their testimonies of Jesus Christ in a breathtaking way. While one student sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives," the others bear their testimonies of this truth, without speaking.

Whenever you leave home for school, you often leave behind family and loved ones. That is what students at the BYU Jerusalem Center face every time they choose to study abroad. Because of this, often the students bond together as a family unit. That is what happened with the students of the 2016 BYU Jerusalem Center summer program. In the middle of their summer studies, tragedy stuck back home for one of the students, Rebekah; her sister Rachel passed away unexpectedly.

Everyone wanted to help Rebekah. It was in the middle of this, that one student, Allie Gardner, had an idea while she sat at church overlooking Jerusalem. She loved to sing and the idea was to make a music video with all the students testifying of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, eternal families, and the promise that Rebekah would see her sister Rachel again. She shared her idea with some of the other students . . .

The idea was simple; they were living in Jerusalem. They were already planning on visiting sites in and around Jerusalem. Sites ranging from the Holy Sepulchre to Capernaum, the Garden Tomb, the Sea of Galilee, the Pools of Bethesda, and more. . . . From the beginning, Allie was firm that she did not want to video to be about her. The focus should be Jesus Christ. Kathryn knew that to do this, she needed other footage in the video besides singing. What they decided on doing was to record silent interviews with as many of their fellow students as possible. A silent interview is where you are asked a series of questions but you cannot say anything in response. Even without words, you can see their emotion and testimony shining through, the light in their eyes testifies “I know that my Redeemer lives!”