Each year,
Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH), located on the Mount of Olives,
East Jerusalem, receives a special gift. Oil pressed from fruits of
the 800 olive trees on the property is used on patients or as income
to offset AVH’s operational costs.
Olive oil
from the AVH will be used at two healing services during the LWF
Tenth Assembly. For the anointing, a minister will dip his or her
thumb in oil and make the sign of the cross on the forehead of each
person who has come forward for this gesture of healing.
The AVH is
operated by the LWF through its Department for World Service (DWS)
program in Jerusalem. In 2000 LWF/DWS-Jerusalem began a project to
produce bottled olive oil for sale to AVH visitors. The bottles are
made from hand-blown glass in Hebron, and the olive oil is produced
in a press in Beit Jala near Bethlehem. The income from some 130
bottles of olive oil sold in the first year was enough to cover
expenses and make a small donation to the LWF for the hospital.
A second
project started in 2001 focuses on the need to continue planting new
olive trees on the property. For a specific donation, individuals,
churches or organizations could have a tree planted on the Mount of
Olives, with a commemorative plaque stating the donor’s wishes.
A third
project launched in 2002 provides individuals, churches or
organizations with an opportunity to donate a gallon of olive oil
toward AVH patients’ needs. The hospital primarily uses the oil on
many local dishes served to patients. In Palestine olive oil is a
gift of life and health.
[Site
Map] [LWF
Assembly Home] [Links]
[LWF Home]