Friday Feb 14 - The trip home

This will be a pretty dull entry ....

We had a farewell dinner at a restaurant between Abu Ghosh and the airport.  Nice, in that we had a room to ourselves, and the food was plentiful and good.  But it wasn't really separate - the kitchen was in that part, and it was hard to have a group gathering.  So, we did our farewell blessing and sharing at the airport, in their prayer room, but one which gets interrupted by the boarding announcements for all the flights.

When you leave Tel Aviv with group air, they want you to all be together in line.  Then they ask the group leader about where you stayed, where you visited, etc.  Then they pull someone else out of the line to make sure the same answers are given.  This all went off without a hitch.  No one had their bags searched, which was perhaps the first time in my trips there.  We all got our boarding passes, through passport control, and to the gate.

As noted above, almost all of us got together for a farewell prayer.   I would mention a site and some connection it had to Jesus or some other aspect of our faith, and the people recited a refrain.  we did a glory be after each day and went through the whole trip that way - at least the parts that were in the official tour, not our many morning walks.  We also had the chance to mention something or someplace on the trip that touched us in a special way.  Some more common answers were sailing on the Sea of Galilee, being in the dungeon at the House of Caiaphus where Jesus was probably held part of the early hours of Good Friday while Psalm 88 was read, and Mount Tabor, the site of the Transfiguration, and the Garden of Gethsemane.

The flight from Tel Aviv to Newark was scheduled for 12 hours and 3 minutes.  We crossed 7 time zones during that time.  Either on the plane or on a screen in the airport when you arrive you fill out a form on what you are bringing into the country.  We all got through passport control again, claimed our bags and rechecked them with United Airlines.  We are now all in Newark.  Two of our travelers will be returning to Arkansas from here, so we have already said our goodbyes to Tracy and Lois.

Right now the 17 others are waiting for the flight back to Minneapolis.

I will try to add more to previous posts, so please revisit them.  As the days go on I hope to insert picture and perhaps a little video.