Day 16

I can't  believe  our time us over.  It seemed so long  and now, early tomorrow  morning  we head west, back home to the United States.

This  morning  we headed to the Pater  Noster  church on the Mount of Olives.  There are 176 languages displayed  on  ceramic tiles all over this church, both inside and out.  It was pretty  impressive to see so many ways of praying  the Our Father.  It is built on the  site where tradition says Jesus  taught  his followers  how to pray.

Then off to meet the folks of Sabeel, which is a word meaning "the way" and "source."  We had the privilege  of  hearing  from  Naim  Ateek, who with the  help of the Holy Spirit and the Palestinian  Episcopalians of his parish, they formulated a liberation theology of Palestine.  How powerful  to understand  that Jesus was born, raised, and died under (and by) the hand of the occupiers....Rome.  This is the beginning of a new and empowering theology that seeks to make sense of what is happening in their  own  lives.

From Sabeel we went to the City of  David.  It started off with a 3D  movie that would not be something  I would see again.  But to walk around the city mount and to descend to King Hezekiah's  tunnel was pretty  cool.  It was  very strange  though at the end.  Some of the folks went through  the  wet tunnel and others of us went dry.  When we got through on dry ground the Israeli Park Service attendant wouldn't  let us go out through the easiest route!  He  was  afraid for our safety!  As Khaleil  explained later, what he didn't want was for us to talk to  the  locals, who are Arabs, and who would tell us about the 40 houses that have  been demolished in their community of Savile  this past year because...?

We were back at the hotel by 2, and Beth, Ron and I went to the Garden Tomb literally behind the hotel.  I bought a cool teaching book, and  stopped myself from  buying another Nativity set!

Tonight we retrieved off to  a  local Palestinian  restaurant with Dahlia Habash, the tour company  owner.  Then early tomorrow  it's  back to the airport for our trip home.  I hope to return  soon, very soon!