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Here in Harrisonburg, students are getting into the mid-semester groove with fall festivities and another fast-approaching break, but over 8,000 miles away in South Africa, EMU undergrads are experiencing a semester that is far from the routine.

Senior Justin Reesor and children smile for the camera. Read more in the cross-cultural blog

Everyone entering Lehman Auditorium Wednesday morning, Apr. 23, for the final chapel of spring semester was asked to produce a personal identification or “please step aside.”

Students in EMU’s semester-long Middle East program acted as border guards as people convened for the chapel service as reminder of the reality that people experience daily at checkpoints separating Israel and Palestine.

Students Kelly Brewer, Daniel Akers and Lindsey Reinford light candles of hope at the close of the chapel program for the people they met in the Middle East. Click here to see more photos… Photo by Jon Styer

The group of 30 students left campus Jan. 11, led by Linford L. Stutzman, associate professor of culture and mission at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, and Janet M. Stutzman, former director of alumni/parent relations at EMU. They returned Apr. 22.

The group lived and studied in Israel and the West Bank, immersing themselves in the ancient/modern world of Jews, Christians and Muslims. They studied in Jerusalem and worked in an Israeli kibbutz and at Nazareth Village, a recreation of first century village at the time of Jesus.

‘Following Jesus’

“We learned firsthand about following Jesus by being in the very places where he walked,” said EMU sophomore Grace Schrock Hurst from Harrisonburg, Va. “We are home wherever we have our anchor in Him, the foundation of our faith.”

“We heard many stories and experiences of Israeli and Palestinian people,” noted EMU junior Kelly Smucker from Canby, Ore., and sophomore Jenny Hochstetler from Iowa City, Iowa. “Both have valid concerns. There are no easy answers. They all want the same thing – a sense of security and a future for their children,” they said.

“We came back with a sense of hope amid many difficult questions,” added EMU senior Hannah Yoder from Hubbard, Ore.

Guatemala and U.S/Mexico Cross-cultural

The 19 students in EMU’s semester-long Guatemala and U.S/Mexico Border seminar, led by associate campus pastor Byron J. Peachey and faculty member Deanna Durham, led a chapel service Monday, Apr. 21. They reflected on “early culture shock” as they hit the ground running, quickly immersing themselves in intense language study.

Brian Hackman imitates their cross-cultural leader, Byron J. Peachey, while others sit in the “bus.” Peachey provided entertainment and humor on the many long bus rides, students said. Photo by Jon Styer

Before arriving in Guatemala, the group spent 10 days on the Mexico-Arizona border, talking with persons working on all sides of the immigration issue. As one student stated: “This experience really helped put faces on this many-faceted story.”

EMU junior Chris Hollinger from Lancaster, Pa., said his most “unforgettable” experience was a visit to a huge cemetery and sprawling city dump in Guatemala City, watching people pick through garbage. “This is a way of life for many,” he said. “They do it just to survive. How do you tell them that God loves them?” he asked.

An eye-opener for EMU sophomore Chris Esh from Philadelphia, Pa., was discovering that “Guatemalans drink inferior coffee while their best product is exported.” He came away convinced of “the need for more cooperatives that produce fairly-traded coffee, pay workers a fair wage and give greater respect for God’s creation.”

Among other highlights for the group: living with their host families and “quickly feeling loved and accepted,” field trips to awe-inspiring sites and seeing community service projects that “give local people a sense of dignity.”

And so, early on Easter Sunday, 2008, the EMU junior biblical studies and philosophy major from Lansdale, Pa., was baptized in the Jordan River into the community of faith.

EMU student John Tyson during his baptism in the Jordan River on Easter Sunday.

What made the experience even more special: Tyson was baptized by Linford L. Stutzman, associate professor of culture and mission at EMU and witnessed by 29 fellow students in his Middle East study group. Dr. Stutzman and his wife, Janet M. Stutzman, are leading the cross-cultural seminar during the university’s second (spring) semester.

‘Sharing Something Special’

“The community I’ve experienced in this cross-cultural group and the journey we are sharing is something special,” Tyson said afterwards. “I’ve been active in the Mennonite church for several years, but traveling with this group has been the place where I’ve been most at home with God and the world.

“John had asked about the possibility of being baptized several weeks before Easter, when our group was still in Jerusalem,” said Stutzman. “I mentioned that the Jordan River runs through the back of Kibbutz Afikim, and that we would be there over Easter. Perhaps that would be a good opportunity.”

The EMU group arrived at Kibbutz Afikim on Mar. 17 for two weeks of work, study and field trips. Kibbutz Afikim is a secular Jewish agricultural commune established around 1925. In the fields behind the kibbutz is their graveyard on a bluff overlooking the Jordan River.

Easter Sunday morning the entire group, got up early and assembled at 5:30 for the 20-minute hike to the graveyard. They walked through the kibbutz quietly to keep the dogs from barking, toward the Jordan. In the graveyard, the students led songs and read scriptures as the sun rose over the Golan Heights. It was a beautiful, peaceful morning.

Then they hiked for about another 10 minutes down toward the Jordan through the fields of freshly-cut barley singing, “As I went down to the river to pray.” Earlier, Stutzman had found an ideal baptismal spot with a break in the reeds that grow along the banks that allowed the group to stand on the bank and see the water flowing.

“I recounted the journey of learning and faith that everyone is traveling on this cross-cultural, paralleling the journeys of faith in Scripture, how wilderness and water are so much a part of it, and how baptism connects to these stories – Moses and the Hebrew children crossing the Red Sea, the Hebrews wandering through the wilderness then crossing the Jordan to the promise, John baptizing in the Jordan, Jesus being baptized in the Jordan. All of these places and events have been part of the group’s travels, and all relate to the meaning of baptism,” Stutzman recalled.

‘God at Work in the World’

Tyson and EMU Professor Linford Stutzman, leader of the Middle East crosscultural, embrace after Tyson’s baptism.

Tyson then recounted his own journey of faith and why he chose to be baptized at this point in his life.

“I decided that taking this step [to be baptized] was appropriate and the time and place and people only confirmed that,” he said. “For me, water baptism symbolized the life of God at work in the world through things we often take for granted but that create new life.”

The men waded into the middle of the Jordan, and Stutzman poured water over head. (The Jordan is fairly shallow, so immersion wasn’t a good option). Then they waded back to shore, and the students gave their encouragement and blessing, sang several songs and hiked back to the kibbutz in time for breakfast.

Tyson has been attending Souderton (PA) Mennonite Church since age 17. More recently, he’s attended Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg.

It is the fifth time for Linford and wife Janet, a former director of alumni/parent relations at EMU, to lead a cross-cultural program in the Middle East. The group is scheduled to return to campus Apr. 22.