Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Ohio State U. Lutheran group to visit Israel for Spring Break
By Lindsay Minnema
The Lantern, Ohio State U.
January 15, 2009

A trip to Israel isn't the typical Spring Break vacation for a Lutheran campus group.

But that's where15 students from Jacob's Porch, a Lutheran campus ministry at Ohio State University, will go this spring. They're not going to build houses in impoverished countries, bring medical supplies to those in need, or teach English in a foreign orphanage.

All they want to do is sit back and listen.

"I want to give folks space to talk about as much as they want to talk about," said Cory Driver, first-year graduate student studying Arabic. "I want to honor people, to collect a story and say, 'You are experienced and valuable and I want to listen.'"

Group members will stay with both Jewish and Palestinian families in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Their goal is to let people talk. With such strong passions on both sides, the students want to give people a chance to speak freely about the tensions in their lives.

Israelis and Palestinians alike have been battling for decades over land in the region, specifically the West Bank, Golan Heights and the Gaza strip. Tensions have been particularly high since Dec. 27, when Israel began an offensive against the Hamas political party and its military wing in Gaza.

Without individual stories, important details get left out, Driver said. "There's a huge loss there and I want to see into that gap - Palestinians, Israelis, Muslims, Christians," he said.

In between spending time with Palestinians and Israelis, the students will be visiting the Holocaust Museum and various holy sites in the area. "We are calling it a pilgrimage as opposed to a mission trip, to listen and to be changed," said Jay Gamelin, the ministry's senior pastor. "We want it to affect the way we see things and how our faith sees things."

Meeting with Palestinian Christians is also on the trip itinerary. They will talk with people whose heritage dates back to the original followers of Christ. As students living in a majority-Christian country, they hope to learn from these minority Christians.

The group recently started fundraising, but some students have been saving for months to pay their own way.

In preparation for the trip, members of the ministry meet once a week on Fridays. They will read "The Lemon Tree" by Sandy Tolan, a fictional story of a home that belongs to both a Palestinian and Israeli family. It explores the sentiment and history behind both sides of the conflict.

Gamelin also hopes to bring in OSU professors to share their thoughts about the conflict.

"I felt like it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up to get a good new perspective, a world perspective, a chance to change me and get to know a group of people better," said Michelle Stephens, a senior majoring in speech and hearing.

During the trip, Jacob's Porch has a two-fold gain. While getting a firsthand account and a chance to form their own opinions about the conflict, they also get to give both Israelis and Palestinians a special gift.

"There's something really empowering about people sharing their stories," Driver said. "That's kind of a gift, to tell somebody, 'Hey your story is worth listening to - I traveled several thousand miles to say I want to hear what you're all about.'"

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