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I’m finally back in Nazareth for a little while after a busy summer in and out of the area working with various groups.

While I was gone, an article about the Jesus Trail went out through the Associated Press, which resulted in extensive coverage announcing the creation of the trail, including articles in CNN, MSN, and Yahoo. We’ve been getting a lot of attention via emails and others working with tourism since, and anticipate many people coming to hiking in the spring of 2009. We’ve also completed a printable databook with the help of our volunteers Nate and Matt which provides turn by turn directions and maps, including all facilities and points of interest along the route. More information on all of this is available at http://jesustrail.com. Make sure to check out the video and multimedia presentations made by AP.

I’ll let the photo albums tell the story of the past three months, showing the most recent first. Click on the thumbnails or titles to view the entire album of photos.

Nazareth Youth Venture 2008
I co-led a three week service learning trip with Hinke Loewen-Rudgers for young adults through MMN, splitting our time between Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Check out the groups blog with journals and photos at http://nazarethyouthventure.wordpress.com/

Turkey

My time in Turkey was spent scouting a section of the St. Paul Trail for use with an EMU Cross cultural in Turkey and the Greek Islands for May 2009 with Linford Stutzman. My sister and brother-in-law, Jesse and Maria Rodriguez, joined Linford and I for some sailing and hiking, and then the three of us traveled together in Turkey for another week.

View the route of our hike below:

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Morocco

I assisted in leading a three week trip through Franconia Conference to Spain and Morocco, focusing most of my work on a week’s hike on the Camino Fisterra portion of the Camino Santiago in northwest Spain.

Below is the route of the Camino Fisterra hike:

View Larger Map

Spain

Barcelona

Sheldon and I traveled to Barcelona together and enjoyed a few days visiting the city’s sites, especially the Gaudi architecture. We were also able to connect with a friend living in Barcelona that I had met in Jerusalem with my parents in the spring, and she was happy to show us around the city.

London
Connecting with Sheldon Good at the Mennonite Centre, we spent a few days exploring the city and hanging out with folks at the center, including Sharon Kniss, a friend from EMU.

Since these trips have all finished, I’ve spent some time with Michael Blunk and Evan Parks who are with the EPIC Pedal Project, documenting stories of people they meet in Israel and Palestine as they travel through by bicycle. Check out there websites at http://epicpedal.org and http://epicpedal.blogspot.com/

And now I’m back in Nazareth, settling into a new room at the Fauzi Azar Inn and catching up on various projects from the summer. I’m trying to work more at learning Arabic these days and am looking forward to staying in one place for a little while and resting up.

photos: Easter in Jerusalem

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This past weekend I went to Jerusalem for a seminar related to the course I’m taking from Eastern Mennonite Seminary, called the “Jesus Movement in Early Context. Check out our discussion on our class’ Facebook group. These photos are from the class gathering, a trip to En Karem with Yonatan and Anna, and then catching the bus back to Nazareth with the EMU Cross Cultural group through Caesarea, Mount Carmel, and Megiddo.

George Bush has received all sorts of media coverage from his three day visit to Israel and the West Bank. There has been mixed responses from both sides, mostly skepticism from the Palestinians about Bush’s ability to bring about real change in the region based on his unhelpful influence during the first seven years in office. Conservative Israelis are mostly nervous about his comments to create a Palestinian state and halt settlement expansion.

However, some of the changes that Bush is asking for are historic, such as calling Israel’s presence on Palestinian land as an “occupation” and saying “The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people.

No speech by Bush would be complete without at least one linguistic slip-up or bad joke, the most memorable occurring in his meeting with Palestinian President Abbas where he noted that his motorcade didn’t have any trouble passing through the checkpoint, while Palestinians suffer daily with this hardship (Watch the video below).

The following articles and video clips offer a variety of commentaries surrounding his visit. Only time will tell what realistically could happen, and it will be interesting to be here while it all plays out.

BBC: Bush uses strong language in Mid-East: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7182363.stm

New York Times: Many Palestinians Offer a Bleak Opinion of Bush: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/world/middleeast/11jericho.html?ref=middleeast

Video: Al Jazeera analyses Bush’s checkpoint gaffe - 10 Jan 08 AlJazeeraEnglish

Video: Gaza resident reflects on Bush’s visit - 10 Jan 08 AlJazeeraEnglish

Jerusalem Post: Palestine can’t be swiss cheese - http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1199964895518&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Bush prays in Bethlehem amid sea of barricades - http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i725x-kcFW0tmiDrWiqq0VuOX1iw

CNN: eporter offers Bush a Gaza, West Bank misery tour: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/09/btsc.wedeman.bush/index.html

American Jews living in Israel protest Bush’s visit on the day prior to his arrival.
Photo by Steve Dintaman

photos: Jerusalem with the Dintamans

Two new positions with Mennonite Central Committee’s SALT program have opened, one in Bethlehem and one in Jerusalem. SALT assignments are 1 year long and require participants to raise $4300.

- Bethlehem: School Volunteer in Hope Flowers School
- Jerusalem: Archival and Research Office Assistant in Sabeel

For a complete listing of SALT positions, visit the website here.

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/

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.

• Ryan and Leather Lehman, MCC in Jerusalem: http://ryanandheatherlehman.blogspot.com/
• Trey and Jessie Hulsey, MCC in Bethlehem: http://www.mccpalestine.blogspot.com/
• Glenn Witmer, President of Bat Kol Institute: http://batkol.info/
• Danny and Tara Kreider Yoder, Nazareth Village: http://kreideryoder.org/ (Danny and Tara are not in Jerusalem, but I thought I’d just link their blog)

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 from my Jerusalem visit

Shabbat, the Hebrew word for the Sabbath, begins at sundown on Friday. During this time many religious Jews in the Jerusalem area migrate to the Western Wall to offer prayers, commencing the holy day of rest and celebration.

In August I was walking through the Old City streets towards the wall among Orthodox Jews, as well as a group of young Mennonites from the United States. As we approached the Wall, we stepped back to gather our observations and hesitations. The mass of men and women clothed in black and white closer to the Wall were swirling, praying, praising and dancing in ways that looked foreign to us, yet beckoned as genuine and holy. Some wanted to approach but wondered, “What will they think of us if we go there to pray if we’re not Jewish?”

After some conversation, we imagined a young Jesus in our same situation, and it seemed obvious that he would have stepped forward. Tim and I decided to put on paper kippot and move closer. Soon we were swept up in a circle of young Jewish men, singing boisterously and dancing in a circle with arms around each others’ shoulders. There was a spiritual energy that I haven’t felt in a long time. Our hesitations were absorbed by the movement of the community.

As we walked back toward where the rest of our group had been curiously watching, an older Orthodox Jewish man approached us and said with a warm smile, “I just want you to know that you are welcome here and that God is not Jewish. And I know this because you are breathing; you are alive here with us.”

The words stuck with me. In Jewish tradition, breath is the spirit of God signified by the Hebrew word ruach, which also has linguistic connections to the wind, soul and spirit. Ancient Hebrew has no vowels, as these sounds represent the breath of God articulating language through the reader’s recitation. As a result, the communicated message is an inspired interaction with God, sculpting the meaning of scripture to speak to the context of the community.

The Holy Spirit invites us to see God moving through each other, whether expressed through our inspired words, the breath that sustains us, or the effects of the wind that fill our sails and drive us to new horizons. As Anglican Bishop John V. Taylor states, this is the “Go-Between God,” the invisible “current of communication” that streams between us when we truly recognize the presence of the other.

Over the past few years, I have felt the wind pulling me across the Atlantic and Mediterranean back to Israel/Palestine, a place that has had significant spiritual influence on the whole of humanity as well as my personal journey. Returning has never been a matter of if, but a matter of when. And now the time has come to make the move.

Next week I will shift my location of residence to Israel/Palestine for the next two years to experiment with new models for how God communicates through all of us. This initiative of Franconia Conference, via Jerusalem, will seek to develop new ways to build a culture of engagement and connectivity through networking, communication and movement within the global Anabaptist community. I will be writing and adding photos regularly to http://via-global.org, so keep checking to interact as the initiative develops.

Let us all take a deep breath and invite the Spirit of God to inspire our lives with new understandings of each other whether on the way to Jerusalem or simply on the way.