Hostetter is not on the payroll of a UN agency, but he is a familiar figure at United Nations headquarters in New York City as a result of his eight years of leading . Staffed by three, including Hostetter, this office has “consultative status” with the .

Hostetter has access to some UN facilities and all open meetings, enabling him to present the views of MCC and its partner organizations on humanitarian, human rights, and peace issues. He sometimes arranges for off-the-record meetings where people who might not ordinarily meet can talk to each other.

This is round two for Hostetter with the UN. From 1971-80, he served the United Methodist Office for the UN as their resource specialist on peace, Asia, and Latin American issues.

Early in October 2013, Hostetter met with the editor and designer of in his small office – where he sits less than 10 feet from the office intern – in the basement of the Church Center for the United Nations, a 12-story building across First Avenue from the iconic UN building.

Injustice of Security Council set-up

Hostetter spoke of the frustration of seeing cynical, self-serving and narrowly nationalistic considerations – especially at the UN Security Council level – block steps to mitigate violent conflict and address suffering, as he feels has been the case in Syria since March 2011.

“One of the problems with the UN is that it was set up by the victors of WWII, and they gave themselves a privileged position [in the Security Council],” he explains. “Almost all the resolutions that come before the Security Council are drafted in closed door sessions and through ‘horse trading,’ where the Permanent Five work out deals to suit themselves.”

Nevertheless, Hostetter sees value in what MCC seeks to do – “to bring the voice of people at the grassroots to the UN system.”

Several weeks after this interview, Hostetter conveyed a message from leaders of the Syrian Orthodox Church to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, containing an appeal for the UN to negotiate safe passage for the Red Crescent (similar to the Red Cross) to reach the wounded and safely evacuate families from several war-zone communities in Syria where MCC had been providing humanitarian assistance.

MCC, through Hostetter, pointed out that this appeal was in line with a UN Security Council presidential statement earlier that month, which included this sentence: “The Security Council calls on all parties to respect the UN guiding principles of humanitarian emergency assistance and stresses the importance of such assistance being delivered on the basis of need, devoid of any political prejudices and aims.”

Foundational lessons learned in Vietnam

Hostetter has a long history of advocating on behalf of those suffering from war. He began as a conscientious objector in the late 1960s, opting to do alternative service with MCC in Vietnam rather than being drafted into a military role there.

In an October 2011 talk at 91����Ƶ’s , Hostetter spoke of his evolution as a young man in Vietnam from feeling that anybody not belonging to his stream of Anabaptism was not a true Christian to appreciating and loving the Catholics, Buddhists and other non-Mennonites with whom he did humanitarian work in Vietnam. He stopped trying to be an evangelist using words – “language is misunderstood but lives are very seldom misunderstood.” And he developed awareness of the understandable socio-economic motivations for conversion to privileged religious groups.

“In Vietnamese, there is a saying,” Hostetter told the Interfaith Engagement group. “When your rice bag is empty, adapt your religion to feed your children.” Hostetter expressed understanding of this survival strategy: “It’s very pragmatic and it works.” Thus, he noted, many Vietnamese became Catholics under French rule, and many became Protestants when they realized the dominant role of Protestants in the U.S. military system.

In response to this awareness, Hostetter started focusing on living his faith: “If you live with love and compassion, it is understood across cultures and religions.”

Trying to uphold nonviolent alternatives to war and oppression, Hostetter went from Vietnam to working in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. He has been heavily involved in reconciliation, citizen diplomacy, work camps and people-to-people exchanges with citizens of the former USSR, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bosnia, and Israel/Palestine. He has been employed by the , the , and Mennonite Central Committee. In 2003 he was ordained as Peace Pastor at .

Support for Help the Afghan Children

, an Afghan-American graduate of CJP and author of Forbidden Lessons in a Kabul Guesthouse (published in 2011), credits Hostetter with displaying cultural and religious sensitivity when, immediately after 9/11, he accompanied her to Afghanistan on a relief mission with her organization, Help the Afghan Children (HTAC).

“We carried $130,000 from HTAC, AFSC, MCC, and the that we used to purchase 239 tons of food and blankets in Tajikistan,” recalls Hostetter. “There we hired 23 10-ton trucks that we accompanied across the Amu Darya River to deliver the lifesaving supplies to refugees living in camps in Takhar Province in northern Afghanistan.

“I remember how pleased I was to be a part of an interfaith relief effort organized and funded by U.S. citizens to help the citizens of Afghanistan, even while my government was raining destruction on Taliban front lines just four miles south and on Afghan cities throughout the country. As the plumes of smoke rose, and the ground shuddered, I wondered what was happening to the Afghans living on the other side of the Taliban lines.”

Hostetter was able to find out – witnessing the aftermath of the horrific destruction of Kabul – in a later trip to Afghanistan with the AFSC.

At an age when many people would be thinking about retirement, Hostetter can’t imagine stepping away from the work he has done in some form for more than 40 years.

Returning recently to Vietnam, Hostetter saw that the damages of a war that officially ended decades ago – damages from the rockets, bombs, and Agent Orange that the U.S. military used to try to “win” the war – were still visible on the land as well as on the bodies and in the minds of the Vietnamese people.

Yet Hostetter also felt hope and love when he visited Tam Ky, the village where he had been an MCC volunteer in the late 1960s. “It was a wonderful reunion, and reminded me that in peace work, where our weapons are love and truth, there is no collateral damage. The children that we helped educate and the refugees we taught barbering or tailoring, benefited at that time, but also became lasting friends, regardless of which government ‘won’ the war.”

– Bonnie Price Lofton

The wish came true in the fall of 2002, when Landis and 29 other students left for a semester of study and travel in the Middle East. It was the second time he’d ever been out of North America, the first being a post-high school choir trip to Europe.

That particular cross-cultural occurred during a tense time; the second Palestinian Intifada was continuing its violence, and the United States was preparing to go to war in Iraq. It was an intense, complicated experience, Landis said; the months of travel in a region of intense and clashing cultural, political and religious dynamics provided an educational opportunity unlike any he’d ever had.

“That became a lot more fascinating than some of the learning I was doing in school,” he told Crossroads. “We were not just students, [and] we were not just touring. We were travelers who were learning. It’s a totally different perspective than you see most people traveling with.”

During a week-long period of free travel that fall, Landis and three others from the trip hiked a section of the 600-mile-long Israel National Trail. The brief taste of life on the trail, in a place so full of confusing and enthralling and full of things to see and learn, only whet his appetite for more.

Aware of 91����Ƶ’s record for producing graduates who succeed at medical school, Landis had intended to end up as a physician when he enrolled in 91����Ƶ, but the semester-long experience abroad put a wrinkle in his schedule. It meant he was going to need an extra year between college and medical school to finish all his entrance requirements. But rather than taking his MCATs and working on med-school applications after graduation, he found himself planning a year-long, four-continent, round-the-world trip with Eric Kennel ’04, a close friend of Landis who’d been with him on the cross-cultural.

By the time they left, it had become clear to Landis that he wasn’t going to med school after all. He was more interested in the possibilities of travel as a unique way of learning and serving, much like he’d first experienced on his cross-cultural.

“After this trip, I really have no idea where I’ll be,” wrote Landis, on the website he and Kennel created to document their trip. “I’m hoping that this journey will provide insight into the many possibilities … and point me toward a certain direction for the future.”

While planning to hike the entire Israel National Trail during the year of travel, Landis befriended an Israeli hiking enthusiast named Maoz Inon, who later opened a hostel. The relationship turned out to be the future direction Landis was looking for. By 2007, the two began mapping and marking the Jesus Trail, a new 40-mile hiking route through the Galilee. The next year, Anna Dintaman ’05 Landis joined them (she and David married in 2010).

Today, the Landises have published a guidebook to the trail, which hosts thousands of visitors – including the 91����Ƶ Middle East cross-cultural group – each year who come to retrace some of Jesus’ travels during his ministry.

“It’s amazing to see something [like this] that started with a learning experience at 91����Ƶ,” said Landis. “Everything is kind of connected back to the cross-cultural, to that one week of hiking on free travel.”

With the Jesus Trail well-established, David and Anna – a member of the 2004 Middle East cross-cultural group – are focusing on other projects through their company, Village to Village press, which they founded to publish the tour guide they wrote for the Jesus Trail. In late 2012, they will release a guidebook to the Camino de Santiago, a route in northern Spain used by pilgrims to visit the traditional burial site of St. James. In the future, the two have several other ideas in the works, all of them promoting thoughtful, open-minded travel as a way of learning and change.

“It’s not just about how to get from point A to point B, it’s about having a meaningful, well-rounded experience along the way,” Landis said.

— Andrew Jenner

The , a program combining internships with classroom study in Washington, D.C., is also occurring this semester.

Bertha Beachy, a long-time worker in Africa and the Middle East with and , will speak at an Abraham’s Tent forum 4 p.m. Tuesday, October 12 on “Why and How We Should Carry on Dialogue With Muslims.”

Her presentation will be held in Martin Chapel of the seminary building at 91����Ƶ (see campus map). Light refreshments will be served starting at 3:30 p.m.

Beachy’s passion for relating to Muslims, promoting women’s issues and working for peace and justice have taken her to many different places and assignments throughout her years of service to the church.

After earning a degree in elementary education and English from EMC (now 91����Ƶ), she moved to Somalia in 1958 to teach English and learn the ways and language of the Somali people.

She interspersed her service with educational opportunities in literacy, linguistics, Islamic studies and the Arabic language.

Now a resident of Greencroft Retirement Community in Goshen, Ind., Beachy continues to embrace opportunities to learn and serve, including a stint with a to Iraq and a peace and learning tour to Iran with MCC.

She continues to relate to many Muslim friends and is a strong proponent of interfaith dialogue.

Abraham’s Tent at 91����Ƶ is a center that plans and sponsors a variety of opportunities and programs for interfaith engagement.

Admission to the program is free.

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 91����Ƶ’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 91����Ƶ. 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 91����Ƶ 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 91����Ƶ 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 91����Ƶ senior Hannah Yoder from Hubbard, Ore.

Guatemala and U.S/Mexico Cross-cultural

The 19 students in 91����Ƶ’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.”

91����Ƶ 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 91����Ƶ 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 91����Ƶ junior biblical studies and philosophy major from Lansdale, Pa., was baptized in the Jordan River into the community of faith.

91����Ƶ 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 91����Ƶ 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 91����Ƶ 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 91����Ƶ 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 91����Ƶ, to lead a cross-cultural program in the Middle East. The group is scheduled to return to campus Apr. 22.

Thirty 91����Ƶ students were commissioned during a chapel service Friday, Jan. 11 for a semester of study and learning in the Middle East and embarked later the same day.

It is the fifth time for Linford L. Stutzman, associate professor of culture and mission at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, and Janet M. Stutzman, former director of alumni/parent relations at 91����Ƶ, to lead a cross-cultural program to the Middle East.

The group will live and study in Israel and the West Bank, immersing themselves in the ancient/modern world of Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Earlier, 19 91����Ƶ students received a prayer of sending on Jan. 9 in the opening convocation of second semester prior to leaving the next day on a semester-long cross-cultural study program in Mexico and Guatemala led by Byron J. Peachey and his spouse Deanna Durham.

By Tom Mitchell, Daily News-Record

Upon taking the podium at Monday