The Last Days

We have spent a couple of days cruising around Jordan.. including stops at John the Baptist’s baptismal site along the Jordan river; Petra (the ancient Nabatean civilization capital city), the Wadi Rum where we rode camels, and Aqaba Jordan.

We’re all ready to come home, but simultaneously we feel like we will be leaving a part of us behind as we leave this land.

I can’t emphasize enough how awesome our group has been.

Please be praying for us as we prepare to re-enter America and as we prepare to disengage with the friendships that have been formed over these few weeks together.

For those who need it, here is our flight information:

Depart Amman, Jordan on Flight AF 587 at 1:45 AM on June 23 and arrive at Paris, France at 5:45 AM on June 23. Then we depart Paris, France on flight AF 64 at 4:35 PM on June 23 and arrive at Los Angeles (LAX), California at 7:05 PM on June 23. The longest June 23 ever.

Blessings to everyone who followed us on this adventure, but this will not be the last post. I plan to write a little here as sort-of a debrief/decompressing based on what some people put forth in our class discussions on leaving this land.

Shalom and Salaam,

Wes

Techo-Dancing on the Sea of Galilee and the Ascent to Jerusalem

Our last night in Tiberias included a nice dinner on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and a sweet boat ride out onto the sea with some sweet techno/dance music which pretty much everyone grooved to for about half and hour.

We then left Tiberias and headed to Kespin, a small Jewish community in the  Golan Heights, which was annexed by Israel after it was occupied in the ‘67 war.

We spent the next day travelling down out of the Golan back into the Jordan River Valley where we got to kayak and splash around in the Jordan River just north of where it empties into the Sea of Galilee. We would stay one more night in Nazareth where we met with British journalist Jonathan Cook (see his website: www.jcook.net) and chatted with him over tea/coffee about the modern conflict. He’s been living in Israel/Palestine for about 8 years now (if I recall correctly) and provided a great deal of wisdom for our group.

We then left Nazareth the next morning and headed up to Jerusalem. We would be staying in Jerusalem for the next 5 nights and the city feels like a second-home. We’ve had the morning off (its Sunday here) and many have gone to church all over the Old City. We will spend today visiting the Temple Mount (the location of the 2nd Temple which was destroyed in 70 CE by the Roman Empire to crush the Jewish Rebellion) as well as the Dome of the Rock (which is a Muslim shrine to Muhammad standing on the exact location of the 2nd Temple).

I will do my best to post some pictures tonight.

Shalom and Salaam,

Wes

Galilee / Tiberias

We’ve spent the last couple days in the Northern part of Israel visiting places like Nablus, Cesarea Maritima, Nazerath, and Tiberias.

We spent the last two days hiking from Sepphoris to Tiberias (about 36 km). It has been pretty intense, no doubt.

Tomorrow is a relax/recover day, and we have much of the night off, which was warmly embraced by the whole group.

Tomorrow we’ll be touring around the Sea of Galilee checking out Capernaum and some other key archaeological sites in the region. We’ll spend one more night in Tiberias before we head further north into the Golan and then return south to Nazareth and eventually to Jerusalem for our last stay there.

Thanks for following us! I’ll post if something particularly exciting happens!

Shalom and Salaam,
Wes

Catching Up

Wow, sorry for the lack in updates.

Last week, we left Amman and drove down to the Jordan River valley and crossed to ‘the other side.’ The process was tedious: we went through multiple checkpoints and lines spending close to 6 hours at the border waiting for papers to get approved for crossing into the land. Finally we made it through and hopped into service taxis that would take us up from the Jordan River valley (below sea level) to Jerusalem. We were dropped off right outside the 16th century Turkish walls and found ourselves wandering through the Damascus gate towards our hotel in the Muslim quarter. After checking into our rooms, we made our way to the roof of our hotel. Which, by the way, has an excellent view of the Dome of the Rock standing on the Temple Mount.

There is a holocaust in Jerusalem called Yad Vashem. In Hebrew it means a Memorial of Names. So far, I would say there are many of us who encountered a substantive emotional moment as we walked through this museum which dictated the events and the stories of these Jewish people who experienced a great and intolerable trauma in the 20th century. After spending time in Jordan and Syria (certainly Arab nations), part of the reason we’re in Israel is experiencing the weight and the significance of the Jewish story, both through religious as well as national/secular lenses. Yad Vashem provided a platform for our groups’ engagement with the Jewish narrative.

We then gathered at 3:30am in the morning to leave for a sunrise hike at Masada, a fortress overlooking the Dead Sea built by King Herod in the time before Jesus. I made it to the top of the mountain literally 10 seconds before the sun’s rays stretched out of the horizon. It was brilliant. After lecturing around Masada and exploring the ruins of this ancient fortress used by Jews to defend themselves in the revolt against Rome in 70 CE, we headed to En Gedi, a popular beach on the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is 33% solid, so floating is quite easy. You could relax every muscle in your body and still float. I literally laid down flat on my stomach and pretended like I was skydiving, and did not sink. I could not sink. After splashing around in the brine, we headed to Qumran, a 1st century community of apocalyptic Jews who had separated themselves from the Temple communities living in Jerusalem. You probably know of Qumran because of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of scrolls written at the very latest in 70 CE, which revolutionized our understanding of biblical literature. Basically, the earliest scroll we had dated to the 8th-9th century, but with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, our confidence in the veracity of the Hebrew Bible was greatly increased.

After spending a couple more days in Jerusalem (including a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the supposed tomb where Jesus was buried before his resurrection), we headed south to Bethlehem. We were officially entering the West Bank, but there stood a significant obstacle in our way: The Wall. Some call it a fence, some call it a Separation Barrier. The wall stands close to 4 meters in height and serves both a visual as well as an ideological impediment between two peoples. What would have been a 10 minute ride from Jerusalem to Bethlehem ended up taking about 45-60 minutes. After a short day trip further south to Hebron, we got to spend a couple of minutes walking along the Palestinian side of the wall in Bethlehem. Maybe in a weird way, it was almost like walking on holy ground. It was silent, except for the occasional buzz of a taxi driving by. There is an extreme solemnity that surrounds the wall and its presence. What really freaks me out about the wall the the invisibility of the other side: from one side, one standing before its enormity has no recollection or view or perspective of what lies behind the cool concrete. there is a significant amount of graffiti on the Palestinian side ranging from Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes to ‘So and So Supports Palestine’ to Warsaw Ghetto 1940 = Bethlehem Ghetto 2006. It’s pretty intense.

In an effort to avoid labeling some parts of our trip more significant than others, but always failing at that motive because every experience defies expectations, our experience of two nights of home-stays with Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem was incredible. Darrelle Good will share in a couple of days about her experience with her home-stay.

Tomorrow morning we leave Jerusalem and head north to Ramallah and Nablus in the West Bank. We will be stopping by the Carter Center (named after the former President Jimmy Carter who is still actively involved in the Israel/Palestine peace process) in Ramallah as well as the Palestinian Bible Society in Nablus. After spending some time in the northern sections of the West Bank we will head further north in Israel to the area around the Galillee including Nazareth, Seppohoris and Capernaum.

Whew! Thanks for hanging in there and I hope this catches everyone up to what’s going on in our journey. Expect some more ‘creative’ posts in the next couple of days (written by people other than me!).

On a semi-side note, if you haven’t listened to or watched or read President Obama’s speech to the Middle East he gave today in Cairo, please do so. We all gathered around a laptop and watched several youtube clips (with some parts omitted, so we read outloud a transcript we found online) of the speech and discussed it afterwards. June 4th, 2009 marks a noteworthy shift in American foreign policy, maybe not in concrete action but at least in ideology that will meet a hearty embrace by this part of the world. We were all floored by the administration’s ideas and proposals for the new relationships to be formed between America and the Muslim world at large.

Again, thanks for reading and we hope you are having a blessed day. Continue to pray for us and our journey through this land and for our yearning for God’s justice and peace and love in everything we do, in every step we tread on this grounds.

Shalom and Salaam,

Wesley

The Other Side

Tomorrow, the 27th of June, WIME leaves Amman and heads to the Jordan River valley to cross into Israel.

In one sense, this is the reason we’ve embarked on this trip in the first place. It represents a shift in how we’re looking at this conflict as well as the environment in which we’ll operating in. But even so, this crossing is only the beginning of what will hopefully be a great experience.

We’ve had an amazing 10-or-so days and the next will surely be re-defining, as each moment usually is.

We have an early morning, so this will be short. I’ll post something more signficicant when we get to Jerusalem and get some free time.

Shalom and Salaam,

Wes

It has been decided…

Damascus (located in the country of Syria) is Syria-sly the coolest city we’ve been to so far. This is the general consensus of our group.

It’s only day 6 (I think), so there is much more to explore and to discover. So our consensus could (and most certainly will) change over time.

We don’t have access to the internet from our hostel (which is EPIC, not the lack of internet but the hostel itself) located in the Christian quarter of the Old City, so that makes it a little difficult to upload pictures to the blog. But the next chance I get to upload more pictures, I will be sure to do so.

I’m glad to see we have so many people following us, thank you! The experiences we’re having here are certain to stick with us for a long time, no doubt.

We’re about to convene for class tonight. We’re discussing the topic of ‘narrative’ as it relates to the constitution of the self. How does narrative feed in to how we relate to ourselves and to other human beings (or even inanimate objects, or historical/present events)? Specifically, looking at the conflict between Israel/Palestine, what kind of narratives are part of this larger context of narratives? What makes them different, and are we able to sift through these different narrative coming from different persons and ‘construct’ (a very pregnant word in itself with a long history and self-intended potential) a narrative that works towards justice and peace in ways that are somewhat unknown to this part of the world?

These are the issues we’re tackling, as well as a multitude of others along with simply breathing in this culture. It has been a spectacular week (almost, at least), and we’re all looking forward to each new day.

We hope you continue to follow us and hear our stories!

Ma’salaam,

Wes

PS: If you post a comment and it doesn’t show up immediately, that’s because I have to approve comments everytime someone new posts one. And since I can’t approve comments unless I’m at a computer, you’re comment typically won’t show up until I log on to write the next post. If there’s another way to set this up, I’ll enable it. Just a little shot behind-the-scenes. Thanks again for spending your time to read about what we’re doing here! Blessings!

Amman to Gerash

Hello everyone!

Today we left Amman and drove north about an hour to the city of Jarash. We visited a United Nations Refugee camp, home to some 20,000 Palestinian refugees who were forced to flee Gaza during the 1967 war. We were allowed to walk around the camp (which is more permanent than one would think) and visit an all-girls school. We were all amazed at the tenacity of these young Palestinian women and their thirst for education. It was simply incredible.

Afterwards we explored the ancient ruins of the Roman city Gerash, which was most populated in the 2nd century CE.

Because words don’t quite do this trip justice, I’ve posted an amalgamation of pictures thus far.

Eating breakfast at the ‘Palace Hotel’ in Amman, Jordan. Photo by Andrew Corkill.

Group shot (minus a few) at the Philadelphia (Amman) Nymphauem. In the 2nd century CE, this was a popular hang out near the city center. Photo by Andrew Corkill.

Ruins of the Herculean temple on the Citadel in Amman, Jordan. Nearby are also Byzantine (early Eastern-Christian empire) as well as a palace built by the Umayyids (the first Muslim dynasty). Photo by Wes Hargrove.

A shot of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Photo by Wes Hargrove.

A long-exposure of one street in downtown Amman taken from the roof of our hotel (the Palace Hotel). Photo by Wes Hargrove.

Walking around in the Palestinian refugee camp near Gerash. Photo by Wes Hargrove.

Young women at the all girls school in the refugee camp. So eager to learn! And Chemistry none-the-less! Photo by Wes Hargrove.

Third-graders learning mathematics with building blocks donated by Denmark at the all girls school in the refugee camp. Photo by Wes Hargrove.

Palestinian boys on the streets of the refugee camp. Photo by Wes Hargrove.

One of the excavated streets in the ancient Roman city of Gerash. This photo is looking towards the city center. Photo by Wes Hargrove.

That’s all for now! I’m looking forward to the next few days of the trip as we head into Damascus. Expect more pictures and words (hopefully from others in the group!) in the future!

With Grace and Peace,

Wes

In Amman

Salaam aleykum!

We landed at Queen Alia International Airport about 3.5 hours ago. We’ve checked into our hotel and just got back from grabbing a bite to eat down the street. Pitas and falafel and hummus, yum!

Tomorrow we are going to tour the city with Bruce Fisk and then have a half day to roam around. We’ll then meet up with some of Bruce’s friends in town for dinner. The next day, Tuesday, we’ll head north to Gerash and further into Syria (to Damascus).

-Wes

The Beginning

In the name of Jesus Christ, who’s Grace and Peace is an ever-flowing stream pouring out upon the world, my name is Wesley Hargrove.

Beginnings are always exciting. The breath of fresh air.. embarking on something totally different.. I’m always invigorated.

But today marks something totally different.

Today, 23 people of varied narratives and perspectives set out for a distant land, l’eretz. The Land. We set off for Israel/Palestine.

I’m traveling with twenty-two other companions to immerse ourselves in a culture and a story we’ve never encountered in a real/tangible way. We’ve read books and discussed these situations and conflicts; but we’ve never really put our hands on it and felt its pulsating heart beating. We’re embarking to enter into a story that will slowly become our story: the story of Israel/Palestine.

This blog will be one (of many I’m sure) contact point to those who are unfortunately not joining us in our travels. Friends, family, whomever–please use the words here as a glimpse of what we’re experiencing, and the stories we’re telling, as it happens. We will do our best to keep this thorough and constant.

I am but one voice of my companions. Hopefully, you will not only hear my voice, because that would be entirely too boring. I/We hope to mix things up and get some different voices to appear here as a regular feature to the content.

To give you a sort of introductory glance, I will mention (very briefly) the aim of our studies and the lens through which we hope to view the conflict between Israel/Palestine. This week, we’ve been focusing on what is called a ‘Relational Ontology,’ that is viewing relationships (the ‘thing’ that binds you and me) as constitutive of real ‘things,’ things that consequently have a significant impact and prominence in the outcome of events/realities. How do relationships affect the stories we tell? How do our stories affect our relationships? What kind of relationships are necessary for one to be? Can one exist without relationship? These are some of the fundamental questions we’ve been wrestling with this week.

In the rubble of Relational Ontology, we’ve been cast into the milieu of the Israel/Palestine conflict. Through Psychology and Religion we hope to hear a story that will inevitably become part of our own. What this means, exactly, is yet to be discerned. I’m certain the answer will slowly flesh itself out, to some it will manifest itself more quickly than others, but it creeps like a slow/dense fog settling over a thirsty land.

I write this far too early in the morning before we leave for LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). We will be traveling tomorrow: if you’re the praying-type, do lift up our group before God that we may be faithful servants of his will and his kingdom.

I hope to post again when we’ve arrived in Amman, Jordan.

I leave you with this thought…

“God calls us to encounter ‘the other’ as a friend, and… to be sensitive to the footprints we are leaving on each other’s stories.” -Rev. Simon Walker.