The Last Post

My time here is coming to an end and my heart breaks. It is my prayer that I can take some of this profound peace, profound stillness, and profound sense of connection back in with me upon my return. I need to be able to visit that God place when the insanity of the details threatens to overwhelm me. I cry, I cry, I cry. Someone says that I’m like a tap and I am hurt – it is a gift for me to worship and be IN the worship rather than leading it. We are at Abu Gosh – the site of Emmaus where Jesus meets us where we are – and I am overwhelmed with emotion.

I wander through the Old City through the Jaffa Gate and pick up a few last minute items with Carol and Doug. I am cursed by a shop keeper for saying to Carol that what he was offering was not what she wanted. I am blessed by the fellowship of my companions on this journey. I rush through the city, out the Damascus gate and up Sallah Edin street to the College. Alas, my rushing is in vain because once again I have missed one last meeting with Khalil. This time though, I am disappointed but not sad. I sit in the College and write him a letter telling him that we are not meant to say good-bye and that I will be back again. It is my every intention to collect enough Air Miles and save enough money to bring my family to this place that I love, that owns a piece of my heart.

Of all the places I have been – from Jerusalem to Nazareth, from the Sea of Galilee to the top of Mount Sinai, I cannot pick the best. God is in all of these places and the gift of Jesus journey is literally around every corner, in each rock and drop of water. The stories of Jesus preaching in the Temple come alive on the Temple Mount, Jesus healing a cripple is vivid at the entrance to Bethesda pools. The teaching of the Beatitudes echo in my ears on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and Jesus reaching out to his disciples and telling them to have faith seems in the present while on the lake. Abraham and Sarah’s journey seems so much more real when we stand at the gates they would have entered some 4000 years ago and the struggle of Moses in the desert takes on a life on its own as we slept in the desert.

As we leave, we leave behind the people of this land in its current state but we take with us their stories, the ones of joy and the ones of sorrow. In each of us 32 pilgrims that have journeyed together we take a piece of this place back with us. It is up to us to carry the Fifth Gospel with us – the Land in which our scriptures come to life. We have a responsibility to share the beauty, the sorrow, the stories and the gift of this place with those in our lives that remained behind so that we might be here. What a gift it has been.

Tonight after dinner we will nap for a while and get the wakeup call at 12:30 in the morning. We will board the bus and travel to Tel Aviv to board our flight home to Alberta. And at the request of a few in our group we will sing one more time the song which I learned four years ago before we depart.

Pray for the Peace, pray for the peace, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Pray for the Peace, pray for the peace, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.


God gave to the world, ten measures of beauty, nine to Jerusalem, one to the rest.
God gave to the world, ten measures of beauty, nine to Jerusalem, one to the rest.

Pray for the Peace, pray for the peace, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Pray for the Peace, pray for the peace, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.


God gave to the world, ten measures of sorrow, nine to Jerusalem, one to the rest.
God gave to the world, ten measures of sorrow, nine to Jerusalem, one to the rest

Pray for the Peace, pray for the peace, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Pray for the Peace, pray for the peace, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.


You may greet your neighbour with the word Shalom, you may greet them with Selah.
You may greet your neighbour with the word Shalom, you may greet them with Selah

Pray for the Peace, pray for the peace, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Pray for the Peace, pray for the peace, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.


Amen.