Day 4

Today was a less physically active day. At least when it comes to walking so much. We started out early again this morning on our way to Bethlehem. It is located in the West Bank and is considered under Palestine rule. It’s quite sad. At one time, not so long ago, Bethlehem was part of Israel. The town was a thriving place with many shops and tourists. People lived there and worked in Jerusalem….only 15 minutes away. When the area of Bethlehem and some of the little surrounding villages were given to Palestine under the guise of a peace treaty everything changed. There was a huge wall built to separate Israel from the Palestine territory. Families were split up, businesses were forced to close, people who lived there lost their jobs in Jerusalem as they were denied entry into Israel. The town is now economically depressed. They welcome tourists but no Israeli tour buses are allowed there. Our bus driver is Arabic and since we are Americans there isn’t any difficulty with us going there to visit. And, our host is determined not to let politics keep him from loving all people. So, Bethlehem was part of our tour time.

Our first stop was the Church of the Nativity. The outside of this building was a surprise. It really didn’t look like a church in the traditional sense. It was originally built by the mother of King Constantinople of Turkey but was destroyed once and rebuilt. It is home to 5 different congregations, from Catholic to Orthodox and different variations of the two. We entered through a doorway that had once been a big archway, then closed down to keep the camels out, and closed down again to keep the horses out. Quite a stoop over to get through! Once in we found out that today is the Orthodox Day of Ascension so there was a mass being observed. Our host decided we’d leave and come back later.

Our next destination was the Shepherd’s fields where we went down into a cave or grotto-like area. We had devotions there and were oriented to how the shepherds lived while out in the fields. After devotions we had a bit of time for pictures of the hillsides and of the little church in the area.

Back to the Church of the Nativity where we arrived right at the end of the Roman Catholic mass. So, we were able to enter St. Catherine’s church where the annual Christmas Eve service from Bethlehem is always held and broadcast on tv. Then we went down into the basement where St. Jerome lived while he translated the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the Scriptures into Latin. The next stop was the Greek Orthodox chapel where the incense was very strong and the crowds were thick. We waited our turn to enter into the cave which is considered to be the place where baby Jesus was born.

Leaving the church area we drove to the shop of a friend of our host. He is a Arabic Christian and owns a very nice shop. We did a bit of shopping then walked ½ block down the street to a little tiny café called the Christmas restaurant. We had our choice of pitas filled with roasted turkey and vegetables or a pita filled with a spicy deep-fried hummus mixture and vegetables. Delicious.

Back to Jerusalem with a little side-track. On our way out of the West Bank we had to go through security again. This time they made us get out of the bus and walk through a security gate with our passports. They just passed us on through without even checking passports. So, we continued on with our day, stopping for a little bit of time at a museum commemorating the Holocaust. A second museum this afternoon was an option and one we wanted to do. Our driver dropped eleven of us off at the Israel Museum where we had just one hour to view the original Dead Sea Scroll of the book of Isaiah, which is out of the vault for just three months. We were also privileged to see a large, scale replica of the Old City with the second temple that was destroyed in 70 AD. It was awesome! The rest of the team came back early to swim and rest. We decided to walk back down to the Old City before dinner, entering through the Damascus Gate. Susan was able to find some fresh baklava, which she had been wanting to get.

We may not be able to blog for a few days. We leave Jerusalem in the morning to our next destination in Galilee in the town of Nazareth. We’re not sure if we’ll have internet access there but will try, if possible.