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I just realized today that I had distributed an incorrect mailing address. If you sent anything to me, it should still make it’s way here.
The correct address is:
David Landis
Fauzi Azar Inn
P.O.B. 2606
Nazareth, Israel 16125
The holiday of Thanksgiving is distinctly American and is definitely a foreign, yet curious concept in the Middle East. During a conversation over coffee one day, we learned that the Arabic word for Turkey is habash, not be confused with the nearby country of Turkish people. We had almost forgotten about Thanksgiving until turkey came up, and we decided that it would be a great idea to host a feast at the Fauzi Azar Inn, inviting friends, family, neighbors and guests. It seemed possible to find a gobbler locally, as Israel is one of the leading consumers of turkey worldwide.
Gaby, one of the staff at the inn, contacted our local butcher and we translated the important points: a large bird, no head or feet, pluck the feathers and make sure to leave the skin. Put the inside parts in a separate bag. After multiple phone calls and a bit of interpretive help, it seemed that we had come to an understanding. We found most of the vegetables in the market, with the exception of pumpkins for a trademark pie. We think the cranberries we found were fairly close, but not exactly the same.
Thanksgiving morning and afternoon became a cooking marathon. We took over the kitchen, chopping vegetables, mashing potatoes, and trying to prepare the 11.6kg (25.5lb) turkey to fit in our small oven which only had an arbitrary temperature gauge from 1-9. The neighbor women visited periodically, curious and probably a bit skeptical about how our cooking endeavor would play out.
As the evening approached an international and local mixture of around 25 guests arrived, representing Norway, Taiwan, Holland, Jordan, the United States, and Israel, Arabs and Jews included and welcomed. Excitement (and probably hunger) grew among the guests as we stretched out four tables across the hall, piling them full with so much food that we almost ran out of table space.
Our feast consisted of turkey, two types of stuffing, sour cream and garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, candied sweet potatoes, green beans, garden salad, red beets, tabbouleh, cucumber and tomato salad, stuffed grape leaves, chocolate cake and cranberry salad. Charles, a pastor living in Jordan who was visiting Israel with his family, blessed the meal and shared about the Thanksgiving story with our curious guests.
The first Thanksgiving was a time when the early colonies in America were struggling to find enough to eat and the Native Americans offered hospitality. It happened during a messy and often violent history as the colonialist mentality was taking root in Americas. The first meal was a multicultural celebration of sustenance and survival, a coming to the table together with gratitude despite the acknowledgment of a difficult narrative. It connected with personal experiences in the context of a region with a similar story. Even though we share a history that involves suffering, we also have the choice to come together and celebrate one that includes joy.
The meal was a huge success and conversation continued late into the evening. Our satisfied appetites were topped off with coffee, tea and chocolate cake, winding us down into a mutual state of satisfaction and rest. Our leftovers became two huge pots of turkey vegetable soup that we have been eating since.
Danny, Tara and Anita and I went on a field trip to Jerusalem for our online class through Eastern Mennonite Seminary. For a summary and reflection on the sites that we visited, go to http://kreideryoder.com/?p=9.
View photos from the trip at http://dplandis.com/photos/main.php/v/album_016/album_006/
One of our guests at the Fauzi Azar Inn last week was 24 year old James Horrox, who stayed here for a few nights while doing his Ph.D research on Anarchism and the Kibbutz movement. He has a book coming out this spring, A Living Revolution: Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movement, coming in 2008 from AK Press.
Here is an article summarizing some of the work he is doing: Rebuilding Israel’s Utopia: http://www.zeek.net/710kibbutz/
It reminds me a bit of some of the urban communal Christian movements in the USA, like the Simple Way, the Camden House, the Reba Place Fellowship and other New Monasticism movements. On Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Monasticism
Last Saturday, James and I went to the weekly candlelight vigil at the Church of the Annunciation. We walked with the crowds around the building, chanting and trying to keep our candles from burning their paper cups. When we entered the church, we hung around a bit longer before deciding that over an hour of repetitive ritual was enough for us.
Back at the inn, we stayed up late talking about ideas related to anarchism, communal identity, politics, sociology and religion. We discussed the early Anabaptist movement in Europe with its anarchist roots. I think the Kibbutz movement and anarchism are relevant conversations for Mennonites to engage when thinking about communal, counter-cultural living as a presence in the surrounding world.
It would be great to get some further feedback if anyone is interested in this conversation…
Maoz and I hiked up to Mt. Precipice, the spot where Jesus was believed to have almost been through off of a cliff after coming back into his hometown and saying that he had fulfilled the scripture (Luke 4:14-30). Mt. Tabor can be seen in the background, where Jesus is believed to have been transfigured before Peter, James and John (Luke 9:28-36). There are a couple of nice panoramic shots of Nazareth, showing the Basilica of the Annunciation and the Old City. If you look closely, you can even see the Fauzi Azar Inn!
We had a large, international Christian group of young adults staying with us this past week, keeping us booked full almost the entire week. One of the evenings, we put up about a dozen new signs helping people to find us in the maze of streets in the market. Most of them made it through the night.
In the morning, I often go around the corner into the old Nazareth market to buy fresh pita bread for breakfast, where a small bakery is located near the main plazas outside of the White Mosque. The bakery is a maze of conveyor belts that pass through the oven, depositing puffed balloons of pita onto the tray below, flattening as they cool. The store is run by a hunched-over Muslim man with glowing eyes who speaks good English and is always friendly when I come to buy my daily bread.
The other day I went to get a small pizza at the bakery and decided to take an opportunity to practice my developing Arabic skills. I said marhaba (hello) and he responded with keef halak? (how are you doing?). After I replied with mabsut (good), he corrected me by stating that I should say instead, Il’ham d’allah, meaning “Thanks be to God.”
He then asked me how we should respond to this and I ventured, Allah Akbar?, meaning God is greater. Happy, he went on to say that we should first thank God before saying how we are doing well because God is greater that what we want or how we are feeling. He reminded me again that it is because of God that we can do well, as God is greater and we must submit with gratitude.
When I arrived in Nazareth in October, I heard that the White Mosque was originally constructed to foster better relations between Christians and Muslims in Nazareth. I was told that a blessing had been given to the mosque, indicating that if a Muslim preacher ever spoke against the Christians community in Nazareth, that the minaret fall, crashing to the ground, destroying the building.
The most prominent building in Nazareth is the Basilica of the Annunciation, remembering the spot where the angel Gabriel told Mary that should would be the mother of Christ. This building is the landmark of the city and a pilgrimage site for Christians from all over the world. In another plaza adjacent to the church, a group of Muslims often gather to pray, performing outdoor services on Fridays and late at night. There has been rumor that this group wishes to build a mosque taller than the church, but town officials and public interest has pressured them into only meeting in the public space and not trying to out-build the Christians with a greater structure. I have also heard a rumor that a Christian group has plans to build a 200′ cross in Nazareth, possibly the tallest in the world.
When I compare these stories, I am more drawn to the humble baker who reminds me that God being greater means that we give thanks for the goodness in our life, not trying to out-do each other with the highest tower or dome. I am thankful for my friend the Muslim baker for reminding me of this, and for the wonderful bread he provides to his community.
Lately, I feel that I keep encountering situations where Muslims have taken the initiative and offered a peaceful hand to the Christian community. One such example is the document “A Common Word” (http://www.acommonword.com) where a group of 38 Muslim authorities and scholars from around the world reached out to global Christian leaders, asking them to share the first two commandments of loving God and loving our neighbors.
Yet I hopefully remember my home community in Pennsylvania where the invitation to invite Muslims to use the church building of Philadelphia Praise Center was answered a year later, culminating in the Eid feast to celebrate the end of Ramadan. I am thankful for Mennonite Church USA’s recent response to the “A Common Word” letter, and I hope that we all can look ahead by taking the humble initiative to build hospitable spaces of understanding across religious divides. As the call to prayer and my friend the baker remind us all, God is Greater.
Relevant Recent Mennonite-Muslim articles:
Paul Shrag’s Editorial, Mennonite Weekly Review:
http://mennoweekly.org/OCTOBER/10-22-07/EDITb10-22.html
Stephen Kriss: The God of All Sunsets, Mennonite Weekly Review
http://mennoweekly.org/NOVEMBER/11-12-07/kriss11-12.html
MC USA affirms appeal from Muslim Leaders, Mennonite Weekly Review
http://www.mennoweekly.org/NOVEMBER/11-12-07/LETTER11-12.html
Faith in each other: A non-denominational (Mennonite) church opened its doors to Muslim Indonesians for a service during Ramadan. From the South Philly Review
http://southphillyreview.com/view_article.php?id=6212&highlight=siahaan
Ramadan Feast at Philadelphia Praise Center, Franconia Conference
http://franconiaconference.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2632
Philadelphia Mennonite Pastor Participates in Dialogue with Iran’s Ahmadinejad, Franconia Conference
http://franconiaconference.org/blog/news/tmoyer/philadelphia-mennonite-pastor-participates-in-dialogue-with-irans-ahmadinejad
Click on the images below to view photos from Nazareth. The first album is a collection that I took while on Fauzi Azar’s walking tour route, and the second is from the weekly Candlelight procession at the Church of the Annunciation.
This past week I spent a few days visiting Mennonite connections living in the Jerusalem/Bethlehem area. Check out their blogs and websites below to learn more about what they’re doing.
I also visited both Jerusalem University College and Brigham Young University in Jerusalem, sharing about the Jesus Trail and hanging out with students.
View Photos
View photos from my Jerusalem visit
new jesus trail photos