Through Dust and Darkness: A Motorcycle Journey of Fear and Faith in the Middle East

Written by Jeremy Kroeker

Narrated by Jeremy Kroeker

Jeremy Kroeker is a Mennonite with a motorcycle. When his seemingly unflinching faith in a Christian world view begins to shift, he hops on his bike to seek answers. After shipping his ride to Europe, Kroeker discovers that the machine now wobbles worse than his own opinions about spirituality. Still, he carries on, through Germany, Austria, Croatia, Albania, and into the Middle East: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and ultimately the theocratic nation of Iran.

It is there that Kroeker takes a forbidden visit to a holy Muslim shrine. Once he is inside, invisible hands rip from his heart a sincere prayer, his first in many years. And God hears that prayer. For before Kroeker can escape Iran, God steals into his hotel room one night to threaten him with death. At least, that's one way to look at it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeremy Kroeker
• Release date: Mar 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664949928

Jeremy Kroeker

Jeremy Kroeker is a freelance writer, a speaker, and the award-winning author of “Motorcycle Therapy – A Canadian Adventure in Central America.”With his motorcycle, Kroeker has traveled to over 30 countries while managing to do at least one outrageously stupid thing in every one. He has evaded police in Egypt, tasted teargas in Israel, scrambled through minefields in Bosnia and Lebanon, and wrangled a venomous snake in Austria. One time he got a sliver in El Salvador.Kroeker was born in Steinbach, Manitoba in 1973, but he grew up in Saskatchewan. He spent most of his boyhood summers on a little dirt bike chasing gophers. As a young adult, he took a job as a long haul truck driver to fund a year of travel in Europe. There he attended a mountaineering school in Austria and volunteered at a Croatian refugee centre near the end of the Balkan War.Returning to Canada, Kroeker worked at a wilderness camp in Alberta where he fell in love with ice climbing (an enterprise that has been described as “hours of suffering interspersed with moments of terror”). To earn entire work-free winters to climb, Kroeker laboured during the summers as a member of an initial attack wildfire rappel crew in northern Alberta.Some time later, as a knee-jerk response to a failed relationship, he bought a used motorcycle and rode from the Canadian Rockies to the jungles of Panama. That trip provides the foundation for his book, “Motorcycle Therapy.” More recently, Kroeker completed another motorcycle trip, this one to the Middle East and North Africa. His book about that trip is slated for release in the Fall of 2013 by Rocky Mountain Books.Since 1999, Kroeker has made his home in Canmore, Alberta, although he still travels extensively. He presents slideshows of his adventures in classrooms throughout southern Alberta and at motorcycle rallies across Western Canada. His writing has appeared in newspapers such as the Toronto Star, Winnipeg Free Press, Calgary Herald, and in American magazines such as Alpinist, and Outrider Journal.

Reviews for Through Dust and Darkness

[Speranta Carp · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fantastic travel journal about a man who goes in the Middle East in search of finding personal truth. The journey is told with wit and extreme honesty. I highly recommend it

[Dan C · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A terrific insight into cultures that we hear much about in the news but know very little about. Very well written with descriptions so detailed it feels more like watching a documentary than reading.