Mission & ministry Return to the Holy Land
By Anne Basye
Janelle Neubauer and her companions, Amer and Subhi (last names withheld), walk through the fertile valley just below Eilaboun that is known as Battouf. Now working at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute for a year before fi nishing seminary, Neubauer also had spent a year in service in the Holy Land through ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission.
Former young missionaries reconnect with the Palestinian Lutheran community Working near Jerusalem in the West Bank
community of Beit Sahour, Marta Erling Spangler started to see the world through the eyes of the Palestinian Christians and Muslims around her. One of the first participants in the ELCA’s Young
Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) service program when it opened sites in the Holy Land in 2008, Erling Spangler had plenty to see. While she could visit Jerusalem whenever she
wanted, her students at the Evangelical Lutheran School in Beit Sahour needed permits to enter. Few could secure them. She took her access to higher education for granted. Checkpoints and conflict stood between her students and university degrees. Erling Spangler’s growing awareness of her own
privilege drew her to focus on social justice after her year of service ended. Some years later, after volunteering with
AmeriCorps in Pittsburgh; earning a master’s degree in ethics, peace and global affairs; and working for the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Geneva, she is in Jerusalem again, serving as resource development and board liaison officer with Augusta Victoria Hospital. Operated by the LWF on the Mount of Olives, the hospital offers health-care services otherwise unavailable to the Palestinian community.
38 APRIL 2016
Marta Erling Spangler (left) and Nikki Schmidt, who were among the fi rst ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission to serve in Jordan and the Holy Land, attend a wedding in the region. Today Erling Spangler works as a resource development offi cer there at the Lutheran World Federation’s Augusta Victoria Hospital.
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