March 25, 2003
Westmont professor learns daughter is nearing Iraq in convoy By By LEAH ETLING Sometime this morning, Leah Wilson-Hartgrove will reach the border between Jordan and Iraq, having driven overnight across the desert. A former Santa Barbara resident and the daughter of Westmont College professor Jonathan Wilson, Ms. Wilson-Hartgrove and her husband, both 22, are on their way to Baghdad to answer a call they believe God has made to them. "There is a possibility that the U.S. government will kill us. There is a possibility that the Iraqi government will kill us. There is little possibility that our presence will stop the war (apart from the power of God intervening)," Ms. Wilson-Hartgrove wrote in an e-mail message to her parents shortly before leaving Amman, Jordan. She and her husband, Jonathan, who live in Pennsylvania, met up with a Christian Peacemaker team, a group that provides ministry support and conflict resolution assistance in war-torn areas, last week in Jordan. "They really believed that this is what they're there for and what they're called to do," said Ms. Wilson-Hartgrove's father, who admitted he and his wife, Marti, are scared for their only daughter. "We were praying when you called," he told a reporter Monday afternoon. Both Ms. Wilson-Hartgrove and her husband are students at the Templeton Honors College of Eastern University in Philadelphia. She grew up in Santa Barbara and graduated from Santa Barbara High School. In an e-mail to his father-in-law, Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove explained the couple's decision to go to Iraq: "We've chosen to go to Iraq, be what the politics are behind the situation, because we believe Jesus would be with the people who are suffering in Iraq." Though they have plane tickets to return to the United States on April 1, Mr. Wilson said the couple will likely extend their trip now that they are bound for Baghdad. They left Jordan at 2 a.m. today, hoping to reach the city, which has been the target of U.S. bombing strikes almost every night for the last five evenings, by nightfall. "We are taking one Suburban and one car, caravanning the whole way. We have walkie-talkies and each person has a large white towel to wave if need be (we have been instructed that if we hear an airplane, we must jump out of the car and wave our towels)," Ms. Wilson-Hartgrove wrote to her parents. Once they reach the city, they will be joining a team of 32 people who visit hospitals, churches and mosques and work toward humanitarian goals. "The team makes it very clear they will not serve as human shields. If the Iraqis attempted to make them human shields, then they would leave if it were possible to do so," Mr. Wilson said. He supports his daughter's choice, though he and his wife are worried about her. "Leah and Jonathan and our convictions generally are not about which nation state is right and whether America is right to go to war, but if we're followers of Jesus who called us to the way of peace, then what is our responsibility in this situation? "As I was saying to Leah, you can die on the Philadelphia freeway, and if 18- and 19-year-olds are willing to put their lives on the line to fight for the U.S. and reporters are willing to put their lives on the line to report the news, then Christians should be willing to put their lives on the line for what they believe in." Assessing the risks of the situation thoughtfully is also important, Mr. Wilson recognized. Initially, other members of the team who had served in Baghdad told them that the 16-hour trip was too dangerous to take. But after two members of the team made the reverse trip from Baghdad to Jordan, they said it was OK. "They said that the road was relatively safe, only one bombed-out bridge, which they were able to drive around, and a bombed bus, one bombed car, and a bombed-out gas station. They only hit two checkpoints, both of which were Iraqi," Ms. Wilson-Hartgrove wrote. Most members of the Peacemaker team are much older than the couple, Mr. Wilson said. His daughter told him: " 'It's a time in our lives when we are free to do this.' If they had young children, they would not be free to do this," he said. Making the decision to go to Iraq was a lengthy process for the couple. "It's been something they've been praying about and trying to discern for a long time," Mr. Wilson said. In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove said the couple's motivations were different than those of some other peacekeepers in the region. "We're not going to support the Iraqi government, but to be with the Iraqi people. We're not going to be human shields. A shield is something you hold so you can swing your sword with the other hand." |
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