Sharon, Tim & Jan

Meet Sharon  Bohlen

Sharon was born in Cincinnati and attended St. Bartholomew and Our Lady of the Angels High School.  She is one of 4 girls and was blessed with faith-filled and loving parents.  She received her B.S.Ed. from the University of Cincinnati and her M.Ed. from Miami University.  She and her husband Dan have been married for 27 years.  He is a St. Savior and Moeller High School graduate.  He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and his M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and he works for GE Aviation in Evendale.  They have 3 children; Sarah who is an engineer with Kroger, Katie who is an Occupational Therapy student at Xavier, and Peter, who is a freshman at Moeller.

Sharon is in her 12th year teaching at St. Andrew St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School, where she  teaches  7th grade Language Arts and coaches Power of the Pen.  She also teaches 8th grade Religion

This will be Sharon’s 3rd trip to the Holy Land.  Her first experience was with HOPE in 2014, and in 2015 she ventured back with School of Faith.

On pilgrimage, Sharon is looking forward to returning most to Galilee.  She loves the Primacy of St. Peter and the Mount of Beatitudes.  She hopes to visit the church at Tabgha while in Galilee as well. On mission, she looking forward to reuniting with her brothers and sisters in Jordan, Palestine, and Israel.

Sharon will be twinning with Annunciation School in Beit Jala.  Instead of just one partner, she will reconnect with several teachers that she has  developed strong friendships with, some who are now teaching at other schools in the Bethlehem area.   She is  looking forward to visiting some of their classrooms and meeting their students.  Jan McManus and Sharon will share some writing workshop strategies.  She wants to read poems to the students written by Naomi Shihab Nye, who is a Palestinian American writer.  She looks forward to sitting on a porch in the evening catching up with my friends again.

Sharon is also looking forward to meeting the students and taking short videos that she can share with her own students.  Mostly, she hopes to listen, and learn, about their experiences, their vision for their future, their struggles, and their faith.  She look forward to everyone sharing friendship, joy, and hope.

 Meet Jan McManus

Jan McManus is a fourth grade teacher at Our Lady of the Greenwood in Greenwood, Indiana. Previous to moving to central Indiana in 2014, she taught at St. James of the Valley School alongside Cindy Male, another HOPE Pilgrim and the person who introduced HOPE to her.

Jan and her husband, Tim, went on the June 2014 HOPE pilgrimage. That pilgrimage turned Tim and Jan’s life upside down. God really used that trip to make amazing changes happen for them, most remarkably Jan’s unexpected landing of a new teaching job 90 miles from home five weeks after the trip. This new job enabled them to move from Cincinnati to Franklin, Indiana in order to be closer to their two youngest grandchildren.

For Jan, the Holy Land makes the Gospels turn into a pop-up book. In the United States there is nothing comparable to the geography, the hospitality, or the people. Being able to walk in Jesus’ neighborhood, among his people, and in his footsteps are joys and riches beyond measure.

While in the Holy Land, Jan will work alongside Sharon Bohlen to share writing workshop with Annunciation School in Beit Jala. Writing workshop is a way to teach children the art of writing and expressing themselves. Jan only wishes she could return to Nablus to see her friends Qunoe, Nadia, and Nadia’s family.

Jan has no particular expectations because God is so more gracious and abundant than her imagination. The best approach, Jan believes, is to expect the unexpected. That’s how God works.

Meet Tim McManus

Tim McManus is the husband of Jan. He is the liturgy and music director at St. Vivian Parish where he leads the adult choir, a children’s choir, and instrumentalists.Tim’s first trip to the Holy Land was through HOPE in 2014, when he met and partnered with George Salsa, a music teacher at the Latin Patriarchate School in Beit Jala. They have kept in touch through shared music and social media. Tim looks forward to seeing George and his family again.