I’ve fallen behind by a couple days on this travel journaling exercise.  In an effort towards complete records, I’ll type this one up but without any promises of quality of detail.

This was our first official experience of the security barrier that separates Israel from the West Bank.  In fact, the barrier is visible right from Tantur.  We are the last stop before Jerusalem hits the wall and Bethlehem begins.  And this portion of the barrier is the wall in its “full glory”, a monstrous concrete divider, comparable to what used to cut through Berlin.  One real blessing of this class is that Charles has a truly uncanny list of contacts.  During our time here, we will interact and dialogue with Christians and Muslims and Jews, along with people living on both sides of the wall.  They range from religious to secular in their mindsets and from high scholars down to “common folks” in terms of their education.  The spectrum is wonderfully diverse, and I’m grateful for it.

Our first stop took us beyond Bethlehem, where the fertile land begins to turn to wilderness, to a place where Herod the Great once again exercised his architectural genius. Continue reading →

A year go, we bought ourselves a Nikon D5000, as nice of a camera as we’ll likely ever own.

A month ago, we bought a new lens for it, “new” meaning “new to us”.  We bought it from our friend “Photographer Cody”, who had upgraded.  Our new lens is 18-200mm, and it looks fairly long when you’ve got it zoomed in.

I asked a co-traveler to photograph me at a site recently.  She zoomed in tight on me, lengthening the lens to its extreme.  One of our resident “funny men” exclaimed, “That’s not a camera; it’s a cannon.”

Without even missing a beat, she replied, “It’s not a Canon; it’s a Nikon.”

Clever and quick people make me smile.

After a free morning, we headed to the Old City of Jerusalem for an “official tour”.  This is ground that I’ve wandered a number of times, enough to be familiar with.  But never before had I been led by a guide.  How worthwhile would it be?

Extremely! Continue reading →

Today was the start of summer school.  It began with an early breakfast and a lecture by an Muslim professor from one of Jerusalem’s universities.  He presented us with an Introduction to Islam.  Some of what he shared was familiar from things I’ve read or studied before, but he certainly went more in-depth on some of the inner workings and schools of thought within Islam than I’d ever heard about before.  As well, to state the obvious, an interactive dialogue with a devout and scholarly Muslim is certainly a different experience than any book on my shelf is capable of providing to me.  I’m not convinced that it was it was the most profound lecture for my personal journey, but I’ve had much trouble connecting one idea to ten other ideas, so I’ll take what I was given and run with it somewhere, I’m sure. Continue reading →

For the next seventeen days, home is Tantur Ecumenical Institute.  Arriving in my room yesterday, I read through the informational packet left on the desk.

This was the first page:

Welcome to this holy place.  You are embarking on a holy journey.  We have said many prayers for you as individuals and as a group.  Each of you has your own purpose in coming here.  Each of you has a longing for more of God and less of self and worldly distractions; you want balance, re-creation, and the spiritual energy to be co-creators with the Great  Creator.

Settle in.  Listen.  Pray.  Listen.  Walk.  Listen.  Be still.  Listen.

A great work is about to begin.

And my heart said, “Oh yes, Lord, let it be so.”

When home calls at the end of May, I’ll board the plane eagerly.  But for the next seventeen days, this place will do just fine.

Beneath that portion was a quote:

It is not thou that shapest God;
it is God that shapest thee.
If then thou are the work of God,
await the hand of the Artist
who does all things in due season.
Offer him thy heart, soft and tractable
and keep the form
in which the Artist has fashioned thee.
Let thy clay be moist, lest thou grow hard
and lose the imprint of his fingers. (Saint Irenaeus in the 2nd century)

This I will try.