Al Karawan Restaurant, Bethlehem
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Interesting Places, Middle East, Peace and Justice, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
On a recent visit to the West Bank, I stopped by the Al Karawan Restaurant. Located across the street from Rachel’s Tomb, Abu Zzuz used to have big lunch crowds. A new Israeli security wall separates Abu Zzuz from tourists. Still, the food is fresh, hot and tastey!
Tags: AlKarawan, Bethlehem, Food, Palestine, Rachels Tomb, Restaurant, West Bank
Peace Not Walls: Making a Difference in the Holy Land
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Award winning video, Client Production, Faith Based Production, Interesting Places, Middle East, News, Peace and Justice, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
Peace Not Walls outlines the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America‘s strategy for peace in the Middle East and accompaniment with Palestinian Christians.
Producer/director Tim Frakes Productions won a DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Award of Excellence from the Religion Communicators council for “Peace Not Walls: Making a Difference in the Holy Land.
The video was produced for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America “Peace Not Walls” Campaign. Carol LaHurd, the ELCA’s Peace Not Walls coordinator produced this video with help from Ben McDonald Coltvet, Barbara Berry Bailey and others.
The video was recorded on location in Jerusalem, and the West Bank.
Tags: Holyland, Israel, Justice, Middle East, Palestine, Peace, Wall, West Bank
The Rev. Eric Shafer Ash Wednesday Sermon 2008
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Faith Based Production, Middle East, Peace and Justice, Spiritual Journey, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
In 2008 I had the privilege of recording an Ash Wednesday sermon preached by my friend and former boss, Rev. Eric Shafer, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lansdale, Pennsylvania, in the Holy Land. Locations include the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Via Dolorosa and Bethlehem.
Tags: Ash Wednesday, Eric Shafer, Holy Land, Lent, Middle East, Palestine, Trinity Lansdale
Holy Land Video Workshop
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Culture, Education, Interesting Places, Middle East, Peace and Justice, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
This January I conducted video production workshops at two Lutheran schools in the West Bank. This video clip shows workshop participants wishing the world a “Happy New Year.” The clip was used in the workshop. The workshops were held at the Dar Al Kalima Lutheran School in Bethlehem and at the Evangelical Lutheran School of Beit Sahour and were organized by Sister Sylvia Countess, ELCA Global Mission assistant to ELCJHL schools director Dr. Charlie Haddad.
Read more about our workshop at:
http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls/Resources/Presentations/Video-Workshop.aspx
Tags: Bethlehem, Holy Land, Palestine, Tim Frakes Productions, Video, Workshop
Holy Land in the Shadow of War
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Education, Interesting Places, Middle East, Non-Profit, Peace and Justice, Spiritual Journey, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
This holiday season found me in the Holy Land. I was invited by a friend, Kathy Adam, to tag along as she lead a group of Minnesota pilgrims on a visit to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other places in Israel and the West Bank.
It was a wonderful opportunity to make new friends, visit with old friends and experience life for average people during a time of war. While never in any personal danger, we did experience the war in Gaza through the eyes of many Palestinian families.
The following video is a compilation of footage and interviews I recorded during our time in the Holy Land. For more on the trip visit a web site I built:
3 Faiths, 2 Countries, 1 Peace
Tags: Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Justice, Middle East, Peace, Pilgrimage
The Rock Churches of Gokyurt, Turkey
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Europe, History, Interesting Places, Middle East, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
Watch more Gokyurt videos at tripfilms.com
High on a hilltop in rural Turkey is the ancient village of Gokyurt. It is called Lystra in the Bible. The book of Acts tells us that Paul and Barnabas were hailed as Gods when they healed a lame man here around 64 A.D. Later, the town’s folk turned on them and they were stoned.
Dotting the ridge around the village are limestone rock outcroppings. Nested in the rocks are caves once used as dwellings and early Christian churches.
For the next two hours, two locals showed us around. In the years after Paul and Barnabas, a small Christian community developed here. One cave is a carved rock basilica. Archeologists have excavated other caves; their entrances blocked by iron gates. Some are used to store hay for the sheep. We couldn’t communicate very well with our hosts, but they gave us a grand tour anyway. At the conclusion, we offered to pay them for their time. They refused, shook our hands, waved good-bye and walked back into the village.
Tags: Apostle Paul, Bible, Gokyurt, Lystra, Rock Churches, Turkey
A Walk from the Mount of Olives to the Old City
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Middle East, Travel
Today, some friends and I took a walk from Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives, down through the Kidron Valley and into the Old City of Jerusalem. These are some of the images in no particular order. The music is Ludwig Van Beethoven.
www.frakesproductions.com
Tags: Holy Land, Jerusalem, Mount of Olives
Visit with Christians of the Holy Land
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Middle East, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
My former boss, the Rev. Eric Shafer has asked me to join him and a group of clergy from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on a visit to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. This is my sixth trip to Israel/Palestine. I’ll be documenting the journey and recording some new footage for a program I am producing for the ELCA’s Peace Not Walls project. We will be staying inside the Old City at the Lutheran Guest House near the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian quarter.
The goal of the journey is to support Christians in the Holy Land, worship with them and visit a few of their ministries. Many Americans assume that all Palestinians are Muslim. In fact, Palestinian Christians trace their history back to the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Look to this site for updates as our journey unfolds, February 1-5, 2008.
Tags: Holy Land, Jerusalem, Middle East, Travel
St. Catherine’s Monastery, Mt. Sinai, Egypt
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Africa, Middle East, Travel
This video clip is from St. Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt. To get there, we took a taxi from Elat, Israel to the Egyptian border crossing at Taba. After paying the usual departure taxes and customs screenings, we walked into Egypt. The Egyptian customs officials pulled us into a side office and grilled us for fifteen minutes. They wanted to know about our video camera. Egypt understands that Hollywood can pump millions of dollars into a local economy. Customs officials are on the lookout for film crews and make sure that you are paying for permits. Of course, we have a tiny budget and no permits. When they figured this out, they let us go.
Taba is a dusty border town. The most lively thing going is the taxi stand. Tourists make their way across the border en route to Egypt’s classy coastal resorts. They also take passengers to Mt. Sinai. After negotiaiting a rate for the three-hour drive to Mt. Sinai and back, we climbed into a ragged old station wagon with our driver, Suleiman, and two Israeli tourists. The shared taxi system is common in Taba.
Soon we were whipping south along the coast road headed for Nuweiba, a resort town, where we dropped off our two Israeli friends. The young men were going on a hiking adventure in the desert.
One of them spoke English. Suleiman, our driver did not. So, from that point on, we had limited communication. The Sinai Desert is amazing. The rugged mountains are ablaze with rich color. Every ten or fifteen kilometers you pass a Bedouin village consisting of a few shacks, some camels, an SUV and a satellite dish. You can count the number of towns in the southern Sinai on one hand. It was a desert when Moses came through. It is a desert now.
We reached Mt. Sinai just before noon – not a good time to be out in the desert sun. Fortunately, the weather was fairly cool, around 85 degrees. Located at the base of Mt. Sinai is St. Catherine’s Monastery. Christian Emperor Justinian built the monastery here in the 6th Century to honor an early Christian martyr, St. Catharine. Christians believed then, as they do today, that this is the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. St. Catharine’s is a big tourist trap in the middle of a huge desert. You can’t walk five feet without someone trying to give you the hustle.
Still, the old walled monastery is impressive. It looks like some place out of an adventure story. Our plan had been to spend the night at St. Catharine’s, then climb the mountain early the next morning. Unfortunately, Suleiman and the local hotels would only take cash. I didn’t have enough to cover both, so we just took some video footage of the mountain and St. Catharine’s, then headed back to Eilat.
www.frakesproductions.com
Tags: Egypt, Monastery, Mt.Sinai, St.Catherine's
Forbidden Family
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Causes, Middle East, Peace and Justice, Politics
Forbidden Family is a story about the separation barrier and its effect on one Lutheran Palestinian family. I produced this video for the ELCA in 1995. This December I will be producing a new advocacy video for “Peace Not Walls.” This ELCA sponsored group advocates for peace and justice in the Middle East. In Feburary, I may be returning to Jerusalem to record footage with a delegation of Lutheran Church officials.
www.frakesproductions.com