I was out in a freezing dirt parking lot coaching my HS ultimate team and I couldn’t have been happier. Discs were in the air, kids were experiencing the joy of ultimate, and you could feel a palpable sense of community amongst my team. It was awesome.

During a water break, a call came in from a dear old friend, Linda Sidorsky, asking me if I was interested in coming out to work at Camp Ultimate Peace. I was immediately interested, but had to get back to practice so I said I’d think about it and get back in contact with her soon.

This summer I will be making my 8th trip out to the Middle East to work at Camp Ultimate Peace, a program that exists to build bridges of friendship, trust, and love in complicated, dynamic, and richly diverse spaces.

While in the Middle East I will training coaches, coaching youth teams, connecting with communities, and contributing to the administrative team that helps propel camp.

The work is hard, joyous, frustrating, magical, humbling, and infinitely rewarding.

I can’t imagine a place I’d rather be than Camp Ultimate Peace.

On top of all of this awesome, I am beyond thrilled that my brother Caleb will be coming out for his 4th Camp Ultimate Peace summer.

Ultimate Peace exists because of donors from around the world and like I have done in past years, I am urging all of my supporters to donate to my brother instead of me. You can read all about his campaign right here.

Camp UP 2019 will be special. Please consider donating to make the work of Ultimate Peace possible!

You can click here to make a donation.

If you are up for the long version, or want to know why I’m taking the uncomfortable step of asking for money, please head over to this page.

Shalom, Salaam, Peace,

• Josh

Camp ended with a flourish yesterday. The tournament concluded with my girls team, Maroon 5, taking the title! We had a wonderful closing ceremony, the kids all left, and then the staff went to the beach. This morning I left Manof with Bob and Linda and we drove down here to Bethlehem where I am currently staying for the next couple days while I visit some local families here in Bethelehem as well as in Beit Sahour, Jericho, and Ramallah. My internet access is rather limited so the next full media update won’t come for at least 4-5 days. That being said, I did manage to get the photos online from the last day of camp, along with the Summer Camp 2013 Talent Show video.

Flickr Photo Album – 7/8/13
Summer Camp 2013 Talent Show Video

It’s so wonderful to be back here in the West Bank. I can’t wait to catch up with everyone I’m going to meet visit over the next few days!