CRWM Launches ‘Hope Equals’

Christian Reformed World Missions is launching a new initiative this week called "Hope Equals: A Peace Movement," a program geared to attract a younger generation of Christians interested in knowing more about and having an impact on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

With a web site that went live late last week, www.hopeequals.org, the program is set to be unveiled during Urbana 09, which opened Sunday and has attracted more than 16,000 mission-minded young people and others from around the world. The event runs through Dec. 31 in St. Louis, Mo. A booth displaying the Hope Equals mission and providing information has been set up in the display area for Urbana 09.

"This effort engages a whole new generation of people," says Albert Hamstra, director of special projects for CRWM. "This project will connect young people in this country and in Palestine and Israel with partners who are interested in working toward peace and … communal reconciliation."

Already, Hope Equals has helped to establish cell groups of young people at different colleges, including Calvin College, Calvin Seminary, and Kuyper College in the United States and Trinity Western in British Columbia, Canada. "We are hoping to start the year with a dozen. In fact, we are in conversations with three schools now, so this could easily be the case," says Mariano Avila, coordinator of the project.

"This is an exciting development in one of our oldest and most respected mission agencies. To offer an innovative approach that explicitly names justice, peace, and reconciliation as integral to the mission of the church not only reaffirms our Reformed roots, but it just may require those who think the church has lost its edge to think again - and to get involved," says Peter Vander Meulen, director of the CRC's Office of Justice.

The project emerged out of focus groups held earlier this year with young, college-age people who told CRWM representatives that they were interested in being part of a Reformed Christian faith that seeks to bring about in practical ways justice in the troubled spots of the world, says Hamstra. "We want to respond to the needs of young people, what they want to do, and how they want to do things."

Partnering with CRWM are the CRC's Office of Social Justice and unofficially the Reformed Church in America, through Marlin and Sally Vis, who have worked in Jerusalem for several years and have helped advise CRWM as it has developed the program. Another one of the advisors is Prof. Bert DeVries, from the History Department at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. The Hope Equals team at Calvin Theological Seminary, adjacent to the Calvin campus, has already hosted its first event, which was attended by a large portion of the student body and faculty.

"The Hope Equals team at Calvin Seminary is currently thinking of ways to creatively discuss the Arab/Israeli conflict," says Micah Schuurman, a CTS student. "The leaders are already planning to invite speakers to the campus and to show movies."

The Middle East Club at Calvin College, which has been in existence for several years, will also be involved in the project. Bethlehem Bible College located on the West Bank of Palestine has been very supportive of the project, as have other groups and institutions in Palestine and Israel. CRC campus ministers, who work for Christian Reformed Home Missions, may eventually get involved in the effort.

"Even though there's been a lot of interest and even some activities already, we haven't promoted or really launched Hope Equals officially until now," says Avila. As part of the development process, CRWM has made many contacts in North America but also in Israel and the West Bank. "There are Israeli and Palestinian organizations working on reconciliation and we will try to connect them to students here in North America," says Avila.

Besides the web site, the project will emphasize the use of such social media tools as Facebook and Twitter in connecting young people interested in the project.

Hope Equals, says Avila, "isn't quite community outreach and it isn't quite missions. This brand of Christian ministry is a local effort aimed at bringing change around the world. Missions activists are the passionate young men and women who promote Christ’s call to peace and justice. Hope Equals is a network of these very people."

Hamstra says the plan is to develop trips sending Christian Reformed Church in North America youth to the region of Palestine and Israel to meet with their counterparts and to see firsthand the problems facing that part of the world. The hope is also to be able to bring young people from the Middle East to visit colleges and other institutions and meet with different groups in North America. The goal: nonviolent, faith-based change for peace.

"We want the young people to get a sense of how complicated the issues are in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. We also want them to reflect on this issue theologically from a Christian point of view," says Hamstra.

Sponsored by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Urbana 09 is being held at the Edward Jones Dome and the America's Center. The theme for this year's convention is "Go Into the World." Each day will feature Bible study, morning and evening plenary sessions, afternoon tracks and seminars, and will conclude New Year's Eve with a massive communion service. Ruth Padilla DeBorst, CRWM's coordinator for The Institute for Christian Higher Education in Latin America, was one of the keynote speakers.