Hope, and a trip back to the beginning

 It's been hard to get back into planning, but with the approval of the Coronavirus vaccine, I am hoping travel will be back again, at least by this summer. 

I am currently working on the August 2020 plan though I'd like to actually leave a couple weeks earlier, both to be back in the US for the election (I am an election official) in November, and so that my husband Mark can vacation with me in late August rather than mid October.   He'll be coming for two weeks, and that two weeks, a vacation, will occur in the middle of the sabbatical.

I am not sure what will happen with Brot und Rosen, and am thinking about how I might use the extra four weeks if I am unable to do my service work.   I can come back to the US early and do the service in the US, or add additional touring to my itinerary, or just slow things down a bit.  I have already rearranged some of my time to add an extra day on the Jesus trail and an extra day in Jerusalem, maybe I'll add Caeserea Philippi, Bethsaida, spend more time in Galilee, or visit Petra.   And, while I'm still resistant to doing so, maybe a quick visit to some of the Pauline sites in Turkey, or Cyprus.  And certainly, an opportunity to visit my sister's child in Bath, as well as reinstate the visit to Canterbury! 

In addition I am facing the reality that my passport expires in 2021, and that I cannot travel within 6 months of its expiration date, so I am, right now, renewing my passport   My new passport will contain the stamps associated with my sabbatical travels, but I also look back at the one I am giving up. 

In this passport I had, for several years, work permits for Canada, as I worked on IBM projects up there under the NAFTA regulations.   This passport took us on a Catamaran cruise in the British Virgin Islands, and to Havana, Cuba for a day and a half on a people to people program from an MSC cruise ship. It has stamps for entry and exit from Amsterdam, Lisbon, Frankfurt, Brussels, Glasgow, Iceland, and Madrid as well.  It's ready for a new continent (Israel is in Asia) and a new adventure.    So I'm packing it up, getting my husband to take some pictures of me, and going back to planning, from the ground up, really, and preparing anew, with a somewhat changed itinerary, the same goal: to experience the context of the incarnation in the place it happened, and much hope.

Planning (again)

 

Here's a silver lining:  had I gone on my sabbatical this year, I'd be back, and ready for my second week of preaching.   It would be all over.   Now it is still in my future.

The Lilly Foundation has generously approved a delay until next year, and I am just beginning the process of planning out my Sabbatical again for next year.   I won't begin making reservations until there is a Coronavirus vaccine announced, but it sounds more and more that expecting one this winter will be a reasonable thing.   

There are some differences between the Sabbatical I am now planning and the one I planned last year.

I want to travel right after Easter, for a couple of reasons.  One is that April on the Jesus Trail is better than traveling around Pentecost (Pentecost being a big travel holiday in Israel.)   I'm also adding a few more days in Israel: an extra day in Nazareth, an extra day on the Jesus Trail and an extra day in Jerusalem.   Maybe an extra day in the West Bank.   In Germany, skipping Worms (recommendation of Rick Steves, and I've been there twice) also skipping Strasburg, France (there are better places to learn about Anabaptists.)   Also, I turn 65 in April, and travel insurance for a trip that begins when I am 64 is less expensive.  Insurance is an issue (more on that in a later post.)   

Another plus is that garden produce, especially tomatoes, in August, won't be missed.   I canned 20 quarts of Roma tomatoes and 21 pints of salsa this August/early September. While I likely won't grow anything, though my daughter might, I will want to pick up some tomatoes from the local farms and can to see us over the summer with good tomatoes.  

I need to line up some sights (the American Pilgrim museum in the Netherlands, ferry to Patmos in Greece, sights in Israel and Rome) and check up on each place I planned to visit, to see if hostels are still open, if sights are still open, and if I can still make reservations in advance.  

And I might re-study some of the background stuff that I might not remember as clearly, because I now read them several years ago in prep for things. 

But the Sabbatical is still on, and I'm beginning my work for it! 

Today it would have started

Right now, I would have been settling myself into a seat on the Pennsylvanian train in Lewistown, PA, on my trip to New York.  Tomorrow I'd have an early flight to London, then an overnight to Tel Aviv.
Starting 15 weeks of exploring the history of Christianity from Jesus to the Evangelical/Lutheran, Reformed and Congregational Churches which emigrated to America was going to start.
Instead, I am at home, watching my granddaughter while my daughter works, watching the Festival of Homiletics when the internet has enough bandwidth to support it.
I was sad about this for a long time, but I think I knew I was over it when I started thinking about how to take sabbath this year (since I have not been on vacation since last August, figuring I would have a very nice rest starting now.)
I'm still canceling reservations, but I'm beginning to think about rescheduling for next year, and re-planning with some new insights.    I will be taking this sabbatical, eventually.    But now, it seems, I need to take care of right now for a little bit.

So, what is the next step on the journey? Please help me and respond!

I was listening to Rick Steves this weekend (yeah, I know) and he did an episode, for the 15th anniversary of the show, on pilgrimage and spiritual pilgrimage.   You can find his May 2, 2020 show here.

Listening to his show yesterday morning and afternoon made me think a lot about where I am and what I am doing with the time.

I'm still going on my Sabbatical.   It will be a 2021 sabbatical, most likely, not a 2020 one (though I am still waiting to see what happens with my Iona Retreat).   I'll write the Lilly Endowment as soon as the Iona Community determines what they are doing.   But it will be different.  Travel, when I leave next April, May, June, July or August (time still TBD) will be different and probably more expensive than it is now.   The opportunity to interact with locals will likely be something I need to be more intentional about.   I have eight or nine countries to be concerned about the travel policies of, and my own country's advice to think about.    It will be after the presidential election, which could very much change the whole situation in the US, and the conception of the US outside our country.   Israeli politics could impact the Israeli-Palestinian situation for good or ill (right now it looks like for ill, but that can

But many things will not change.  The Holy Land will still be where Jesus walked and was born and lived and died.  Macedonia will still be one of the places Paul traveled and founded churches, the Sistine Chapel will still be in the Vatican, and the Catacombs will still have the art and graves of some of the earliest Christians.  Assisi will still honor Francis.  Wittenberg will still be where Luther taught, Geneva and Zurich where Calvin and Zwingli took the reformation further, and Scrooby Hall where the Puritans gathered.   Iona will still be a holy island even if I am not attending a retreat on it.  Refugees will still need someone to support them all over the world (maybe even more so!)

But Rick's show reminded me that pilgrimage is not about the location, but about the heart.   You can take a pilgrimage and not leave your yard, this weekend's show identified.   The journey is spiritual, not physical.    I will still take the physical journey, but the journey my soul is on, is as important as the journey my feet will take.

So my challenge, for the next 11-15 months, is to find not the destination, but the journey to my sabbatical.   Find the next challenge and the next steps to deepen the interaction with and planning for, this journey and this sabbatical.    Some of the things that I have thought of include:

• Learning more about the early Catholic notaries I am going to travel to.   For example, rereading a biography of Francis of Assisi and some of his writings, and reading more about St. Benedict, as I'd identified Subiaco as a location to visit. 
• Spending time backpacking, and maybe switch my Jesus Trail experience to a camping experience.  Or not, but spending more time with my pack on my back. 
• Continuing the contemplative spiritual practice I started in Lent to help find quiet for God to speak to me in. 
• Reworking my itinerary to use the recommendations that Rick Steves' made to me, in the 2021 version of my sabbatical.  
• Getting serious about brushing up on my German. 

What else?  What am I not even thinking about?   What are spiritual paths that might deepen my journey?   What can you, my readers suggest to make the 2021 sabbatical a better pilgrimage, a better walk with God, than the 2020 pilgrimage would have been?   Please comment, here and/or on Facebook. 

Cancelling and grief

The day I was waiting for came last week.  British Airways sent me an email that my flight has been canceled.   This started the process of cancelling my many, many bookings for the 2020 Sabbatical.   I went through most of the bookings on Booking.com yesterday, and sent emails out for a few more.  This afternoon I'll tackle the hostels, which is most of my bookings.

So far, so good.  British Airways, though it took a while to get through to them, was very straightforward about issuing a refund.   Two of the "non cancelable" hotels in Israel very quickly promised a refund (none of these has hit my credit card yet, so I still have to watch for that.)

And I reworked my itinerary spreadsheets with a "canceled" column, so I can track what I've gotten accomplished and what I have not.  I still have to contact my travel insurance company about the cancellation.

This has all made me very, very sad. The level of anticipation of this wonderful journey, means that watching all that work, and all that planning go away feels like a loss.   I keep trying to remind myself that this will all happen, albeit later, and that I am at first very fortunate to do this, and that the Lilly Endowment will let me reschedule (though at this point I am not sure when for: since probably international travel will not return in full until we have a vaccine.)  I am deeply grateful for the Lilly Endowment's promise to let me delay this until next year, and I suspect next year is what will happen, either in late April (a better month for hiking in Israel) or in July/August.

But I'll have to do all the rebooking (a LOT of work) and wait a full other year.   And I think I need to let myself feel sad about that, even as I am grateful that it is only a delay, not a full cancellation.

Blessings on you all!

A Coronavirus delay

I spoke to the guy in charge at the Lilly Endowment last Friday, but internet in my little rural valley has been terrible the last few days, and I've been busy learning how to do church for my community from home.  (hint: internet doesn't work well.)

They are going to, in this extraordinary situation, let me delay the sabbatical, if necessary, until next year.   The situation raises some issues (for example, I will not be able to just move my travel insurance, because it is for people under 65 and by next May I will be too old for it) but ensures that I really do get to go on my trip.

I haven't yet canceled anything, but will in mid-late April.  Depending on how things look over the next five weeks, I might try to reschedule for August - October.  IF the Iona community decides to hold my retreat and IF Brot und Roses still wants me (both of which happen in August.)    But I think there is a very great likelihood that this virus emergency will continue at least through the entire summer, and into the Fall.  If that happens, I'll be again setting my sights on May, but this time, May 2021.  As Easter is early (April 4) in 2021, I might leave a tad earlier than I'd planned for this year.

So the sabbatical will still happen, just in a delayed timeframe.   The waiting will continue.

I am, this week, deeply grateful to the Lilly Endowment's Clergy Renewal Grant program for the grace to delay as I have to.   I feel blessed.

The Looming Shadow of Corona Virus

Enough people have asked me that I decided it was time to write something in my blog about the Sabbatical and how it might be impacted by the current situation with regard to the Corona Virus.

What will happen?   The short answer is, "I don't know."

Right now I am a bit more than 9 weeks out.   LOTS could happen in nine weeks.   The virus could taper off as warm weather approaches (though most organizations are assuming it will not.)  The pandemic could become so ubiquitous that travel doesn't make a difference.

But basically my thoughts are the following:

If I can go, I will go.   This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it runs out at the end of the summer when my granddaughter goes to school and I need to be home for her in the afternoons.   If I am well, and if the countries I plan to travel to let me in, I'll be there.

If I am well:

I am doing everything I can, from frequent hand washing, to washing surfaces, to keeping my distance from people, to stay well.  I will on travel, too.    I ordered antiseptic towelettes to wash off surfaces in hotels and hostels.   I'll carry some masks (I have a few that I bought a few years ago) in case they are needed.   I'm practicing not touching my face and social distancing as part of just being a pastor.    If I become unwell in Israel or Europe, I have travel insurance and will follow up on whatever is recommended.   As I write this, Israel, which has some of the most restrictive rules on incoming travelers,  is requiring self-quarantine for visitors, but as the virus spreads and testing widens, this may be modified.   In any case I will not get on a plane sick, and I will do what I can to prevent my germs getting in other people's space.

If they let me in:

Not sure this will happen.  Right now where I am in Central PA has none of the virus, but that could change any minute.   Some countries (Israel in particular) are being quite strict on travelers, others are not.   Right now, Italy is out (and I had planned close to two weeks there) as well.

Alternatives:

1.   Not travel - not good.  Kind of blows the whole thing out of the water.
2.  Travel, but remain flexible.   Avoid virus hot spots.   Maybe I spend an extra week in the Holy Land, and an extra week in Malta/Switzerland/England if I can't go to Italy.    Maybe I do the Luther Trail instead of the Jesus Trail if I can't go to Israel.    I'm researching alternatives now.  I have noticed that while the CDC is recommending travel restrictions, the WHO is not.  They consider them ineffective except occasionally at the beginning of an outbreak.  It is, I think, an advantage that my travel is largely solitary (and a disadvantage that it relies so heavily on hostels.)

So there it is, my current thoughts.   Things will change, I am sure, so stay tuned.

And pray.