D.C. Bound

April 13, 2010….

“John,

I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected for a full scholarship (for the CUFI Summit in Washington DC in July)…”

Wow. That was a first- full scholarship? (apologies to my family for that one…no apologies to Vanderbilt for your ridiculous tuition). But seriously, cool. I guess they liked some part of my application where I probably mentioned that, “I honestly don’t really know anything of much significance concerning the importance of Israel these days…” Impressive way to try to get a scholarship, right?

Regardless, Washington came-a-calling. Travel. Adventure. New people to meet. Free food. Learning. – Count me in for sure! …Politics? Not so much…
So I booked a round-trip flight from Colorado Springs to Dulles International and sat content to have one lagniappe of a summer trip tacked on to my time in the Rockies [I’ve been working with Xan Hood on the development of Buffalo & Company for most of the summer http://www.buffaloandcompany.com/ –shameless plug.]

Summer came, and I returned from a week in Colorado to be at home-sweet-home in Nashville for the month of June. Time at the crib brought some great family moments, a newfound love for downtown Franklin, TN, and plenty of time to read, think, and pray. My mom had been reading a few books by a much-loved pastor in Nashville, Don Finto, who expresses an unyielding love for the Jewish People, so I decided that it would be good to start preparing for the DC Summit with a Christian perspective (albeit an often misunderstood and debated issues within the Church- especially from my background).

As I dove into Finto’s book, God’s Promise and the Future of Israel, I read with an initial tinge of cynicism and caution towards his writing. However, this hardness quickly wore off as I quickly became enthralled with both GPatFoI and Finto’s first text, Your People Shall be My People. (highly recommended). Instead of an air of academic learning and black/white interpretation, I started to read the stories and the Scriptural references in vibrant color- I think a bit of Pastor Finto’s abounding love for the Jewish people quickly rubbed off on me. I began to feel that this issue was much more about further discovering the treasures of God’s love, justice, and grace – His character – than some political debate.

That said, I was still pretty clueless (not that the ‘was’ has worn off in the present tense).

Then in early June, I got a voicemail from an unknown number….

[You have my word that future posts will be much more objective than these foundations of the story. Hopefully I’ll be able to pass along some of the information that I’m learning. Currently entrenched in “Standing with Israel” by David Brog, “Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East” by Michael Oren, and “Start-Up Nation” by Dan Senor and Saul Singer (if you love business and entrepreneurship, you gotta hit this one up)…all that to say, I feel like I’m headed for senior year of high school rather than senior year of college with this summer reading list- eating it up though]

The Story Begins

Have you ever been given a huge gift unexpectedly? A gift that is unwarranted, not explained by any action that you have done to deserve it. Ever dreamed of traveling on big adventures, jumping around the world, discovering new truths that you may never expect to learn yet get lost in hopeful thoughts that you may be surprised by? Gotta dream big to live big, right?

Well, all this jibber jabber may give you a ground floor for this crazy, building (get it?) journey that I’ve found myself on. I packed up my dorm room at school this spring, crouching to hop out into some fresh summer travels. Never in my wildest, Willy-Wonka-style dreams would I have guessed that I would be jumping all the way to…

ISRAEL

What does that word trigger in your mind?

Tiny, fairly irrelevant country filled with dust and ancient ruins. Home of the Jewish People. War-zone where busses used to blow up on a regular basis. Or maybe… land of the Bible. Location of Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, the Sea of Galilee, and all things Sunday-school Bible stories. Entrepreneurial capital of the world. That place with the golden dome. The country that they’re always talking about on the news where Bill Clinton was always trying to make peace when we were growing up…. Any of those descriptions cover it for you?

Odds are, if you’re like me, you really have a very limited (and admittedly ignorant) view of both Israel as a country and the Jewish People in the world. If not, you’re smarter than I was and probably pay attention to important things in the world. Hopefully you know more than I did 3 months ago.

This unplanned adventure took root back in mid-springtime. I had been wondering about Israel and its significance at this point in history for the previous few months, so when Wyatt Smith (one of my roommates- who is currently on an epic, year-long trip around the world) invited me to a dinner with an organization called Christian United for Israel (CUFI),
I was very interested to attend (and of course, as most of you know, it’s more likely for Vanderbilt to win the SEC Championship in football than it is for me to pass up free food- no offence Stokes). So I hopped in the car with Chandler and Seth and headed to Sunset Grill.

Arriving at this dinner, I had never heard of CUFI, been educated about modern-day Israel, or understood the full significance of Israel and the Jewish People from a Biblical Perspective. Needless to say, my ears were open; my head was ready to learn.

Andrew Summey, the CUFI rep who hosted the dinner, quickly sparked my curiosity towards Israel. He spoke passionately and with great savvy and knowledge about the growing movement of Christian support for Israel in the good ole USofA.

Something triggered inside of me during that dinner. My mind and even my heart hopped right on board the train that the speaker had clearly been riding for years. I wanted to discover more but wasn’t sure how.

Take a few short steps forward on the timeline, three weeks roughly. I’m surfing the Internet –probably wasting perfectly good time that could otherwise be spent studying, riding my bike, hanging out at the Fraternity house, or a hundred other worthwhile ways- but nevertheless I’m aimlessly floating around in cyberspace (likely on facebook...don’t act like it’s not opened on another tab on your browser right now; ya you, BT). Mid-surf, I remember that Summey mentioned available scholarships to CUFI’s Summit in DC during July. Free trip to D.C., learn more about this subject that I’m currently ignorant towards, excuse to travel more in the summer…why not? So I fill out a brief application essays and click submit…


Stay tuned in the next few days for stories of preparing for D.C., an unknown phone call of a lifetime, chatting with Congressmen in Washington, and prep for Israel.

For anyone who has been to Israel or has other suggestions or shout-outs concerning my trip, please comment below or contact me at john.c.morgan@vanderbilt.edu