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Final Day and Heading Home

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This is my last installment for this journey.  In a few hours we all will be heading home and the tour comes to an end.  But the questions, the insights and the memories will last into eternity. We began our morning at the Garden Tomb.  Run by a British foundation, the Garden Tomb area was cited by British General Gordon as being the potential place of Jesus’ burial.  It is located outside the city walls; by a rock formation that looked like a skull; along the Damascus Road; and has a tomb hewed out of the rock.  We always tell people that while the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is historically probably accurate, the feel would be like here. Once we were guided through the garden and went into see the tomb, we retreated to a small chapel where we did a trip review and had communion together.  The testimonies were memorable. Next, the City of David.  Yes Bethlehem is also called the City of David.  That is where he was born. But this City of David was the 12 acre plot of ground locat
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O Little Town of Bethlehem

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We know a number of people back home who are playing Christmas music already.  Today that familiar carol was our first stop on our next to last day of touring.  We left early again (7:15) and made our way through the check point into the political West Bank under the control of the Palestinian authority.  Nir could not go with us, so Rami drove us and once inside our Christian Arab guide was Issa.  He did a wonderful job of showing us Beit Sahour, the Shepherd’s Fields.  He took us into the Barluzzi chapel where we admired the mosaics and sang Joy to the World.  We then walked into one of the many caves in the area to see where the shepherds kept their sheep. We then went to the Church of the Nativity and waited in line to see the traditional cave where Jesus was born.  While our wait lasted an hour, it was interesting.  We were immediately behind an African American group who sang a few songs while waiting and immediately in front of an Indonesian group.  The pastor, a very short st
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