Page 24 - Gifts of Hope Catalog 2023

GIFTS OF HOPE MARKET
online: december 2 & 3, 2023 /24
In-person: december 3, 2023

LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION

AUGUSTA VICTORIA HOSPITAL,

EAST JERUSALEM OLIVE OIL

lUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION

150, route deferney
PO Box 2100

CH-1211 geneva 2
switzerland

www.lutheranworld.org

AN URGENT PLEA FROM GIFTS OF HOPE AND AUGUSTA VICTORIA HOSPITAL

This year is no ordinary year for the people of the
Holy Land. Nor for their partners at First Lutheran
Church’s Gifts of Hope.

An order for 60 bottles of olive oil was placed
shortly before war broke out in the Holy Land.

Somewhat miraculously, olive oil pressed from the
harvest in the 800-tree grove on the hospital
grounds atop the Mount of Olives, arrived in Lincoln,
Nebraska. It was a poignant early November
reminder that we are one people, children of God,
separated by distance, watching in horror at an
unfolding war.

Typically, proceeds from the October harvest of
olives support patient care at Augusta Victoria
Hospital and help fund vocational education for
Palestinian youth. The same olive oil is used in the
kitchen at Augusta Victoria to prepare meals for the

patients and staff. The Lutheran World Federation’s Augusta Victoria Hospital is unique in the
region. It began in partnership with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as a
medical facility in Jerusalem, to care for Palestinian refugees after the 1948 war.