c. 2000 Religion News Service

ALLENBY BRIDGE, West Bank _ They camped in Bedouin tents in the lush green fields along Iraq’s Euphrates River, rode on camelback across deserts in Syria, trod in winter rain and hailstorms, and sang Christmas hymns under the stars with Arab Christians along the Jordan River.

But when the group of 21 Christian pilgrims retracing the ancient journey of the biblical Magi finally tried to enter the Holy Land on Monday (Dec. 18) afternoon, there were bullets flying near the border crossing between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, delaying the entry of the entourage for hours.

At sunset, the first three members of the group that has been trekking for nearly 1,000 miles since the beginning of October finally exited from the Israeli bridge terminal after half a day of delay and headed for the adjacent Palestinian town of Jericho, thought by some to be the oldest city in the world. They were just 58 miles from their final destination, Bethlehem.

“We’re used to long, tiring days, walking anywhere from 30 to 50 kilometers, and sometimes the border crossing days are the most tiring. We’re just glad to be here,” said Andre Martinas.

Martinas, from Los Angeles, was one of the first trekkers to emerge from the Israeli-controlled terminal. It had been closed for several hours after a Palestinian sniper from the Jericho district fired on an Israeli vehicle driving along the access road. It was just one more episode in the grinding Israeli-Palestinian conflict here.

These modern-day magi are expected to enter the city of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Day, bringing a goodwill message and gifts of humanitarian aid to local Palestinian Christians and Muslims trapped in the midst of the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The gesture will echo the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh the Magi were said to have carried to the holy family 2,000 years ago.

The 99-day millennial trek across the Middle East began in early September near the region along the Iranian and Iraqi border where the Magi may have first set out from ancient Persia. It was the brainchild of wealthy northern Californian Christian philanthropist Robin Wainwright, who has worked for 10 years to see his vision realized.

Billed as a mission of peace and reconciliation, the caravan has sought to promote a message of friendship and brotherhood between Muslims and Christians across the Middle East, raise funds for humanitarian aid projects, and improve the image of Middle Eastern peoples in the eyes of the Western world.

But the caravan parade, which was carefully coordinated with the governments of Iraq, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, left politically isolated Israel out of the loop. En route to Bethlehem the caravan will even sidestep the disputed city of Jerusalem, claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians, and follow an alternate desert trail through a string of Judean desert monasteries in the West Bank.

“We’ve tried to follow as authentic a trail as possible,” said Sami Awad, of the Holy Land Trust company, the nonprofit institution formed to sponsor the visit.

“But while the New Testament says the Magi met with King Herod, it is very likely that the visit took place in Herod’s winter court, which was in Jericho, and not in Jerusalem.

“Also, we wanted to avoid the traffic in Jerusalem,” he added. “The desert route is more in keeping with the atmosphere.”

Members of the caravan included pilgrims from the Middle East and around the world. A Sudanese student, a soccer player from Zimbabwe and a Filipino television producer played the parts of three of the Magi along the trek. The fourth Magi, who drops out before reaching Bethlehem according to some traditions, was played by the U.S.-born soccer player Tod Elkins.

The four men are expected to appear onstage in Bethlehem’s Nativity Square on Christmas Day in full Magi dress as part of a planned re-enactment of the Christmas story.

The play is one of the few festive activities to be staged in Bethlehem during this year’s Christmas season; celebrations are being muted due to the ongoing conflict.

Elkins and another 10 members of the caravan group are members of the Charlotte Eagles professional soccer team, a Christian soccer team supported and promoted by Wainwright.

Phil Elkins, the 61-year-old father of Tod, himself a Pasadena, Calif.-based entrepreneur and cultural anthropologist, joined Wainwright in planning the journey five years ago, serving as director of the trek’s overall operation.

Elkins said he and Wainwright saw the journey as an opportunity to give people in the Middle East “a voice” to portray themselves as they really are.

“These are people who are courageous, hospitable and friendly rather than the terrorists, fighters and disrupters that is their image in the West,” the elder Elkins said.

“This was an opportunity for three months to create a stage to depict the human face of these people, that would also honor Christ on his 2,000th birthday,” he added.

In particular, the trek was conceived to be a journey of Muslim-Christian understanding, the elder Elkins said. Each day of the trip was named after one of the 99 names of God listed in the Koran.

Many of the Christian pilgrims joined Muslim escorts and aides in the dawn-to-dusk fast now under way during the Muslim month of Ramadan, even though they were hiking miles every day. Most hikers wore white outer garments, a color of dress traditionally associated with the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

“We wanted to bring about more unity, more peace, show that there is more that holds us together than divides us apart,” he said.

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Elkins said he was astounded by the warm reception the predominantly American group of trekkers had received in Iraq, despite the fact that the country has been the subject of repeated attacks by U.S. forces.

Isolated villagers reacted with great excitement to the sight of Westerners on camels, following them on their trail and showering them with offers of hospitality.

“Here in Iraq, where the U.S. has bombed, where we have pushed the embargo and persecuted in whatever way we can, people invited us into their houses, offered us food and tea. That was the highlight for us, for people to be that warm, that forgiving,” Elkins said.

In some of the highlights of the three-month trip, the group held a prayer service and vigil at Iraq’s Amari bomb shelter where 340 Iraqi civilians were killed in a U.S. bombing raid during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and played friendly soccer games with Iraqi army recruits.

They also toured the ruins of ancient cities associated with the story of the Magi’s trek or with biblical history in general. Those ranged from the Iraqi city of Tesiphon, the capital of the powerful Assyrian empire which the Magi most likely would have visited at the outset of their tour, to the Jordanian Roman-era city of Jerash.

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Originally, the caravan was planned to set out a year ago _ before Christmas 1999 _ and include a larger caravan of about 50 people as well as satellite video hookups to American audiences along the way. The trip was delayed, however, and some of the more grandiose plans were abandoned as millennial celebrations in the Holy Land slumped due to chronic political instability and Y2K bug fears overshadowed last year’s holiday season, Awad said.

Still, the group, led by the intrepid Wainwright and Elkins, has achieved its primary goal _ trekking the entire distance to the Holy Land.

“When you’re driving along in a car at 70 miles an hour, you don’t have really the chance to interact with people,” Tod Elkins said. “When you are walking or riding on a camel you get to see what people are really like.”

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