JSam: Petra and transparency

Saying that our Wednesday visit to Petra was amazing is an understatement. It is remarkable to walk through these cave homes and the temples of the people who lived and worshiped here more than 2,000 years ago. To be able to do that as part of this Interfaith group, and to hear the various insights from the varied faith backgrounds, is a privilege.

I continue to be impressed with the transparency of the individuals and organizers of this journey. Conversation has been very candid, very caring for the most part, and particularly constructive to my ability to process what I’m seeing and hearing.

Some of our group are pretty nervous about crossing into Israel on New Year’s Day. They’ve heard stories--true or otherwise--about how tough the questioning can be as part of the entry process. I don’t think there will be any problem at all, but I remember the first time I came in I was very nervous, and some of it turned out to be justified. But this will be my 9th time to Israel in the last few years and I haven’t seen any problems beyond routine extra bag checking and a few extra questions. Getting out has actually been more stressful for me, but even that has been more positive than negative so I’m hoping that all holds true on Friday and the Israel portion of our journey gets off to a great start.

I’ve just learned that it’s supposed to be below zero (c) tomorrow night when we’ll be sleeping in desert tents. Today was cold enough that I had a shirt, two sweatshirts, and and a vest to keep me barely warm enough, so I may have to visit a local merchant on Thursday for an extra coat of some kind.

I’ve apparently lost my journal and audio notes of the trip to this point, so I’m particularly pleased to have this blog to remind me of at least some of the experiences I’ve been writing about to myself. Now, if I could just remember what else might be in those journals that could come back to bite me...

We’ve heard several reports that we have a bit of a following back there in Indiana and elsewhere. I don’t think that will warm my body on New Year’s Eve, but it does warm the heart and keeps us a little more connected. We also appreciate the comments you make to our posts. Thanks for staying with us...

The Petra pictures start here, and you can find a lot more photos of this journey by clicking my flickr site here...

Dr. Edward Curtis

Dr. Curtis the author of, "Muslims in America, A Short History" was kind enough to come and talk to us at the hotel. Dr. Curtis is the millenium Chair of the Liberal Arts and a professor of Religious and American Studies at Indiana Univeristy-Purdue and is now teaching at the University of Jordan with the Jordanian- American Commision for Educational Exchange. We were invited as a group for a lovely spicy lunch at the Univeristy and then proceeded to hear a lecture about Muslims in America. I was surprised to see the interest many of the students showed in his lecture. Pauls pictures will show that the room was packed and extra chairs kept being added to the room as more and more students came in to hear the lecture. Many of them wanted to know why Islam was not percieved well in America. The main idea of the lecture was that Muslims have played an important role in the formation of U.S history. He emphasized that Muslims should not be percieved as foreigners in America. There were Muslim Generals that defended the Confederacy in the past. There was even a period where Muslims made up 30 percent of the population in North Dakota! Like Father Haddad, Dr. Curtis wants to promote intercultural understanding.

How you can participate!

you can sign up for a trip to Jordan by following the link://iupui.edu/abroad/programs/apply_jordan.pdf

You can also purchase a book!

Iraqi Refugees

Yesterday, we talked to Jenin Jaradat. She has worked with Iraqi refugees in Jordan for a number of years. She is a Kuwaiti who was forced to flee from her life in Kuwait during the war with Iraq. I was very moved that she has now dedicated her life to helping refugees, Iraqi refugees as a way of giving back to the community. Jenin told us that among her numerous experiences one of them was as a community service officer with the UNHCR.She is now an independent consultant who not only has good local knowledge of the Middle East as well as years of experience with Aid organizationslike Save the Children and UNICEF. She is sensitive to both the culture of the Middle East and the West and works seemlessly between them. Jenin has a good head for organization and management. She applies modern project management principles that uphold accountability and ensures the integrity of the projects that she works with. She has had years of experience assesing risk management as well as money management. Risk management is especially important because small tasks can end up being very expensive and time consuming.

How you can Help!

Jenin said that funds are begining to run low andf will finish in 2009 as most aid organizations are beginning to pull out and hand over their operations to local aid organizations. Many of UNHCRS programs are being stopped. She mentioned that there is an important music therapy program being sun by the Noor Al Hussein Foundation that needs fuding in order to continue. For more information please contact Charlie Wiles! She also mentioned good psycho-social programs being run by Terre du somme(?) and the IMC. This amy be a good place for an internship? I am not sure if this is possible or just an assumption? Jenin will have to be contacted about this. I will email her and ask her what programs need volunteers!

Our first conversation began with Father Haddad- A christian Arab. His main aim is to educate both Muslims and Christians in the Middle East about Americans. He does this by opening doors to all faiths at his Church in Amman. He explained that it is important to do so because many Arabs he has encountered immediately associate U.S foreign policy with, "Marines Boots and Donald Rumsfeld". He emphasized how important it is not only to connect with Americans on a high level but make efforts to build personal relationships with Muslims in your local community. He tried to do so by hosting an Iftar at his church. In Indianapolis, making efforts to engage local Muslims would be an important step to increasing our understanding of Islam.
After coming to Jordan, I realise that I had many misconceptions about Islam and I now relaize how important it is for me to address those

JSam: All Alone Together

One of the hard things about days like we had on Tuesday is that it can take longer to write about than to experience. The day was full of surprises, affirmations, yawns (from sleep deprivation) and forgetting that we've only known each other a couple of days.

As I read other people's blog entries here, I am struck by how many of us felt alone as we started this journey. I mentioned this to one of the others who wrote that, and they looked at me and laughed. I thought it was because I seemed so all-together that no one would imagine me feeling alone. When they settled down they admitted that when they were contemplating their all-aloneness, they took comfort in the fact that they were not 'that evangelical guy!' They made the point that nearly everyone here will be somewhere in Jordan or Israel where they are part of the majority of the population, but I will always be a minority within a minority. Seems like I heard that from Saleem in Nazareth a few times.

My first big takeaway from today was the class at the University of Jordan where we witnessed a packed room full of students listening to a lecture on Muslims in America. The Professor was Dr. Ed Curtis from IUPUI who is here on teaching for a year. I was particularly taken back by the clarity and passion of the students' questions who clearly wanted to know why America was scared of them and what they could do about it. I know there are some easy Talk-Radio answers to that question, but these kids seemed really sincere in pursuing their curiosity on the subject.

I'm embarrassed by my second takeaway. I knew there were Iraqi refugees somewhere out there, but I had no idea how many, how many are in Jordan, and how distressing their stories are of families being broken up by bureaucrats that aren't interested enough to give reasons why they send one family member to this country and another to another country and just don't give an answer to another. This story needs attention. I had dinner with refugees Khalid, his wife Janet, their daughter Raya, and a friend of theirs, Michael. However, they are no longer just names to me.

There was also a lot of talk today in nearly every setting about hopelessness and how individuals respond to that in different settings. Many people here have obviously learned how to simply exist in the midst of having nothing to hope for. I suspect we're not through with that conversation. After all, faith is the substance of things hoped for...

coffee mugs and good wine

There were times yesterday I felt alone. One moment was clear to me, I saw a
coffee mug with an outline of modern Israel drawn from the Golan to Gaza to Eilat with one word written across the land. PALESTINE. A statement of hope to erase the Jewish people from the land. As I pondered what this meant to person standing in the shadow of a mosque built by a man who reached peace with Israel the shop owner offers to make us coffee as we wait for the woman to properly prepare themselves for the mosque. I wonder if this man who jokes with us in broken English about buying trinkets to take to our wives would really think if he could read my mind. My mind troubled by the idea that a kitchy coffee mug could have such a powerful political statement. Would he really care? I wonder if this isn't for the foreigners, sometimes ignorant of the complexities of the politics, religion and ancient tribal biases that are reduced to the photos of funerals or forced smiles at summits. I wonder if this isn't for the man I met on the plane, who's guitar case screamed No War and who's politics felt like a conversation in Kindergarten. Or maybe the free lance journalist who was looking for conflict in West Bank. Flying into Jordan to cross into Israel that afternoon he kept wondering if he would be harassed at the border. His Jordanian seat mate tried to calm his nerves but for him, his mind was made up. He was looking to expose the "evil Israelis" and again, the so-called journalist didn't seem to have a clue of what he spoke.

I am tired at times of how we reduce our understanding of the world to nine words or fewer. How we spend a great deal of our energy looking for the the simple in the complex. What I love about this trip is that we want the complex. We want to walk into the uncomfortable and come out the other side with a better understanding of self and others.

Conversations develop in an incubated environment that we are creating. Why it is important to me to spend the bulk of my gift shopping in Israel and why someone else feels more compelled to do it here. A conversation that was comfortable and helpful for both of us.

At dinner there was concern about how I would celebrate the Shabbat. I was amazed by the question having felt religiously alone at times during the day. I was asked to lead a small Shabbat service at dinner on Friday. I don't think I can express what that meant to me.

But later, after opening and discussing the level of fruit in the various Jordanian wines we purchased talks turned to the Finnish immigration policy, Reba MacIntyre and the parking lot at a Dead show. The group is coming together...today I don't feel quite so alone.

Charlie says ....

The 2nd annual Middle East Journey from Indianapolis, Indiana USA arrived at our hotel in Amman, Jordan late on Sunday evening December 28th after a challenging 11 hour overnight flight from JFK Airport in NYC. Somewhere during that 11 hour flight I questioned the sanity of making such a long journey to explore our interfaith differences and commonalities however it did not take long to recognize the richness of the collective experience and the value that it adds to our individual perspectives particularly when we participate in such a grand adventure.




A conversation with John, a conservative Evangelical Minister, immediately after arriving at the Queen Alia Airport was enlightening for me as a liberal somewhat agnostic with a solid Catholic upbringing. The neutral setting of the Jordan airport, and being away from the media charged atmosphere back home, helped reveal how much we have in common and I believe that there is much that could be accomplish if we could discover ways to work together on issues of common concern.



It also felt like an honor to be with George, the religious education director at Congregation Beth-El Zedeck, as we maneuvered through customs and he shared with me some of his observations and apprehensions arriving in a Muslim country. And it was fascinating to be with Hyam, a young Muslim woman on our trip, when she arrived at the airport shortly after we did having flown in from Cairo after visiting extended family over the past two weeks. On the way to the hotel Hyam shared many stories about her experiences in Egypt, the time she spent with aunts, uncles and cousins, and she spoke about how the experience both informed and created some anxiety about her decision to participate in an interfaith journey through Jordan, Israel and Palestine.



Admittedly traveling overnight on a cramped airplane is exhausting however being with a conscientious group of diverse individuals on an adventure through the Middle East is exhilarating and I look forward to the experiences and conversations that lie ahead of us-

FIrst day in Jordan

What a full day! We started with a wonderful conversation at the interfaith research institute in Amman with Father Nabil Haddad. Shortly after that, we visited the Citadel and then headed over to a super cool eco-project called Wild Jordan for one of the best lunches I've ever had (and I think the group will agree!). Next was two handicraft projects 1) Jordan River Foundation and 2) The Hand Project. Both were great examples of how Bedouin women and local artisans are being employed to create handmade items. The group then went off in many different directions - I chose to walk through the souk and see another mosque. Father Jeff and I stumbled upon an amazing pastry shop and helped ourselves to some delicious Arab sweets.
I'm excited that we had such an interactive and engaging first day and look forward to 2 more weeks of the same!

JSam: Day 1 and Photo Links

Except for Becca missing her flight yesterday due to the weather in Chicago, and now being stranded in Germany for reasons having apparently nothing to do with anything other than confusion at the airlines, this journey is off to a great start. We're still hoping Becca is able to work something out to join us late on Tuesday, but right now we miss the viewpoints and curiosity that we all were expecting from her.

I've learned things at every stop today, sometimes from the people we were meeting, and sometimes from others in our group. My prayer for this trip has been for God to use all of us to draw us closer to Him. I am well aware of people back home that worry about compromising one's own faith in an experience like this, but that is the furthest thing from my experience so far, and it has not been necessary to be judgmental of other's theology in order to have my relationship with God grow a little stronger.

37 years ago my father was involved with starting a Christian Church in a Jewish Temple in West Lafayette. It was a very positive experience for me personally and in many ways prepared me for the work I'm involved with today, but I had never really gotten any feedback from the landlords as to their thoughts on the interfaith 'experiment.' I was relating that story to some of the group tonight and George said he was familiar with the story and had over the years talked to people with that Temple and related that they spoke highly of the experience and were a bit proud of having been a partner. That was not an earth-shattering moment or anything like that, but it was a nice little reminder about how God is upstream working on things that we cannot imagine.

The only photo I'll include here is one that I can't get out of my head... the refugee camp in Amman for people who fled Palestine during the 1948 war. It's still here and occupied and a troubling reminder of the people price that is being paid.

Paul Gibson has the kool camera and photo skills, and you can see his picts on my Flickr site by clicking here.

Click here for more of my photos (more than you want to see).

Preparing to go

I am happy we will be able to have the experiences that we will share in the Middle East in a few short days. As I pack I think about what this trip will mean to me, over all I look for my own growth. One thing however I find myself thinking of the late Israeli poet laurete Yehuda Amichai and his life long struggle with wanting peace. Here are three of his poems that may help us think about what we are working towards. ~George

An Arab Shepherd Is Searching For His Goat On Mount Zion
An Arab shepherd is searching for his goat on Mount Zion
And on the opposite hill I am searching for my little boy.
An Arab shepherd and a Jewish father
Both in their temporary failure.
Our two voices met above
The Sultan's Pool in the valley between us.
Neither of us wants the boy or the goat
To get caught in the wheels
Of the Had Gadya machine.

Afterward we found them among the bushes,
And our voices came back inside us
Laughing and crying.

Searching for a goat or for a child has always been
The beginning of a new religion in these mountains.
My Child Wafts Peace

My child wafts peace.
When I lean over him,
It is not just the smell of soap.

All the people were children wafting peace.
(And in the whole land, not even one
Millstone remained that still turned).

Oh, the land torn like clothes
That can't be mended.
Hard, lonely fathers even in the cave of the Makhpela*
Childless silence.

My child wafts peace.
His mother's womb promised him
What God cannot
Promise us.
*Known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs it is traditionally seen as the place that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah are buried.

An appendix to the vision of peace

Don't stop after beating the swords
into ploughshares, don't stop! Go on beating
and make musical instruments out of them.

Whoever wants to make war again
will have to turn them into ploughshares first.

Have a wonderful Christmas if you are celebrating and I look forward to sharing the journey.

Count down to the trip!

Only 5 days until the group departs! Charlie, John, and I are packing our donations and finalizing all the itinerary details to make this an amazing trip for everyone involved. I'll be posting photos of possible handicrafts we can sell in The Village Experience store and hope that all of our followers will let us know what they think. Be honest! Tell us what you like and don't like and if you would purchase it in our store if we made it available. This will help us consult with the groups to make sure we have a win-win situation with them. Thanks so much for supporting our trip and hopefully you'll join us in 2010!

Midwest/Middle East Friendship Dinner

The Midwest/Middle East Friendship Dinner on December 9, 2009 was a great success despite 12 degree temperatures attracting over 120 people and raising over $3,500 for the three organizations we will be meeting in Jordan, Israel and Palestine.

Middle East Journey 2009 Leaving Indianapolis on December 27

Press Release

Date: December 7, 2009
Contact: Charlie Wiles (317) 466-0114 or cwiles@peacelearningcenter.org
Middle East Journey 2009 Leaving Indianapolis on December 27

International Interfaith Initiative is collaborating with The Village Experience to host the second annual Middle East Journey leaving Indianapolis on December 27 and returning on January 9th 2010. Middle East Journey is a delegation of conscientious citizens from diverse faith and vocational backgrounds who are traveling to the Middle East to learn about and participate in programs that are effectively building a better future for the region. This year’s delegation includes a dynamic group of individuals that represents the rich religious diversity here in Central Indiana. Among the 11 participants is the Catholic Chaplain at Butler University, the Jewish education director at Congregation Beth-El Zedeck, two members of 91st Street Christian Church, a Hindu Masters student at UIndy and the daughter of one of the leaders of Al Huda Mosque in Fishers. We are also traveling with a civil rights attorney and a woman who has dedicated her life to reduce recidivism in our community. The goal of the journey is to continue building relationships based on mutual trust with individuals and organizations working for positive change in the Middle East.
This year’s Journey will take us to various sites in Jordan, Israel and the West Bank in Palestine. New Year’s Eve will be spent at Wadi Rum, a breathtakingly beautiful National Park in the southern desert of Jordan.

The journey begins with a meeting with members of the Iraqi refugee community in Jordan. The meeting will take place at the Jesuit Center in Amman where the priests have befriended hundreds of Chaldeans who fled Iraq after the war began in 2003. The delegation will also meet with Professor Edward Curtis, an IUPUI professor who is on a Fulbright Scholarship teaching at Jordan University this semester. In the West Bank of Palestine the delegation will participate in a volunteer project and learn about youth development programs implemented by the Holyland Trust. The delegation will also hear about a “narrative” project at Bethlehem University where social studies teachers from Israel and Palestine are working to develop a common history of significant events in the region since early 1900.

The delegation then travels to Jerusalem to meet with members of a Jewish-Arab dialogue project organized by the Interreilgious Coordinating Council in Israel. Leaders from this project, Rabbi Ron Kronish and Imam Mohamad Zibdeh, spoke at a conference here in Indianapolis on October 23 this year. The delegation will also meet with a church in Cana, a village in the Galilee area of northern Israel, that is a partner with 91st Street Christian Church on various projects that foster interfaith understanding.

All too often we hear only negative news from this awe inspiring region of the world when in fact there is much to celebrate and many projects that we can support for a better future for everyone! Interfaith efforts are a unique expression of American optimism and are one of the keys to help facilitate this change.

Liz McWhirter: "But Why Go Boldly?"

By Liz McWhirter

There’s a nervous energy in the air. John Samples slows his sentence, stumbles around his next words, prefaces them with, “Allow me to use a term . . . hopefully, without the negative . . .”

Then, he drops it—

“Evangelical pastors.”

I look up at the eight other people listening to him. They’re all sitting quietly, smiling, waiting for the rest of the sentence.

John Samples’ words refer to the faith leaders he works with as Executive Director of the Christian HolyLand Foundation. Perhaps he’s exaggerated the need for semantic sensitivity in this setting, but what do you expect in a room of Muslims and Christians discussing faith and the Middle East? It’s risky business speaking up in a group like this. But that’s what I like about these people—they’re risky.

Risky because they’ve all signed up to travel to Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank of Palestine in a group comprised of members from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu faiths. On December 27th this very mixed copany will be heading to one of the dicier regions of the world, a place where faith lines divide the land like livewires.

The group’s trip is supported by the International Interfaith Initiative, an Indianapolis-based organization that promotes multi-faith collaboration in order to stimulate creative cooperation and strengthen civil society. The group will be eleven strong on the day of departure, but tonight, only six of them (plus a few intrigued listeners) have gathered here in this cozy Broad Ripple abode to discuss their upcoming travels.

As I listen to these excited travelers (many of whom are meeting one another for the first time), it’s clear to me that I’m witnessing the planting of the first seedling of several fruits this trip will inevitably bear. Tonight’s meeting marks the beginning of an exchange of information, a running dialogue that will continue to deepen as they travel across sacred lands. The bond that will form, the friendships that will develop across faith lines . . . well, it’s inspiring.

But a unique bond and an enlightened global perspective are not the only positive outcomes these travelers seek. They also hope to positively change the people they encounter—whether by working alongside Palestinian refugees on a community project in the West Bank, or communing over dinner with Iraqi refugee families in Amman. At the very least, the group will simply be present for people, ready and eager to listen and learn from their stories of daily life and war, of struggle and of hope.


I ask the trip’s travel guide, Kelly Campbell, co-founder of the Indianapolis-based international travel and trade company The Village Experience, why they have chosen to travel as an interfaith group. She points out that most single-faith groups traveling to the Mid East visit only those areas connected to their particular faith; they usually see only those projects their congregations support. A mixed-faith group, Kelly believes, will branch out, will explore areas important to all the group members’ faiths.

And she should know: Kelly’s been on this trip once before—in June 2008 the International Interfaith Initiative took their first trip to the Middle East, returning with a passion to support and encourage the remarkable grassroots initiatives they saw working across the region.

It’s evident that the people gathered together tonight are approaching this trip as learners and observers, not as teachers, or Westerners with answers. Their itinerary is chock-full of meetings with peace workers in every place they will visit—including representatives from the Interfaith Center in Amman, several Bedouin women’s projects in Tel Sheva and Lakiya, the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development in the Negev, the Ibdaa Cultural Center at the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, and Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem.

The dialogic opportunities this trip provides would likely be applauded by Egyptian interfaith activist Mohamed Mosaad, who has said that interfaith dialogue “has to move from the five star hotels to the neighborhood mosques, churches, and synagogues. Religious people of different religious backgrounds have to meet frequently, listen to each other, communicate humanely, and share what they value the most: their individual religious and spiritual experiences.”

Though focused on experiencing the Middle East together, I learn several group members also have particular interests they hope to address during their trip. Kelly Campbell and her associate Sheila Viswanathan want to search out new handmade products from native women to sell in the Village Experience’s Broad Ripple store. Charlie Wiles, who directs the International Interfaith Initiative, is particularly interested in meeting with some of the family members of Iraqi refugees he has come to know in Indianapolis. John Samples is eager to connect with those living in the Christian communities of Israel, as he believes meeting people from the west who are willing to learn about them is a big encouragement for Arab Christians. Father Jeff Godecker, chaplain for the Catholic Community at Butler University and dare I guess the eldest member of the group, says what he’s looking forward to about the experience is, “the ability to see through somebody else’s eyes whose worldview may be very different from mine. The most attractive part [of the trip] to me is Jews, Christians, and Muslims at the same place.”

And what places they will stand together before!—Petra, the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Nativity, King Abdullah Mosque. I ask Charlie Wiles, leader of the first interfaith Mid East trip, about the impact of seeing such sacred spaces from an interfaith context. “It’s enriching to hear how others interpret the sites we see,” he says. “For instance, when we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre it was helpful to hear how a Presbyterian felt about the site, or hear how the Rabbi felt about the Western Wall, and the Imam felt about the Dome of the Rock. We all gained from hearing about the perspective of others.”

One group member’s perspective will be particularly sought after during the trip. Hyam Elsaharty is a non-profit worker in Chicago and will be the sole Muslim representative in the group. She confesses at the meeting that she’s been reading, “the ‘Idiot’s’—no, ‘the Dummies,’—no wait, it’s—Arabic for Dummies” in preparation for her trip.


Becca Huttsell, an Indianapolis resident who’s dedicated much of her career to working with the city’s juvenile offenders, cracks up and admits that she’s been reading Islam for Dummies. Becca tells me she sees this trip as “a myth-busting mission—for all religions.” Pointing around the room, she forewarns her fellow travelers, “I’m going to pick all your brains.”

She puts it lightly, but Becca’s words get at the heart of the purpose of interfaith travel. As British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks theorizes in his controversial book The Dignity of Difference, each faith has only part of the truth. When faith groups come together, they possess more of it.

It’s possible the witness these travelers will bear to the power of interfaith harmony could make a lasting impression. Charlie Wiles notes from last year’s trip, “When people asked about the composition of our group they were impressed with our diversity . . . I feel that is something we should promote about America, that we have examples of where diversity works for the greater good.”

The interfaith approach to troubled Middle East regions has certainly gained momentum, especially since Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah’s unprecedented announcement in March of 2008, calling for an interfaith dialogue amongst the world’s monotheistic religions.

Though much hope swirls around the words “interfaith dialogue,” for his part, John Samples is keeping things in perspective. He explains, “I am not one who believes peace for the region is right around the corner; I do not even know that it is attainable in any long-term, meaningful way. However, when the focus is on individuals, we can bring peace to families and small communities. And if there is ever to be peace in the big picture, it will be because hearts are changed in the people who will then change the leaders.”

In a word universal to the Hebrew, English, and Arabic languages: “Amen!”

Note: The five other travelers participating in the 2009 interfaith trip are: George Kelley, Sheila Viswanathan, Paul Gibson, Michael Sutherlin, and Tim Sutherlin.