Yesterday we went into West Bank to see Bethlehem. We won't get to go to Bethlehem again so we had to make the most of it. We saw the Church of the Nativity, a church that houses three different religions that have three different services and three different Christmases. It is traditionally held that this church is the is built over the cave where Christ was born. We waited in line for at least an hour and were finally able to get down below where you can stick your hand in through a hole where the cave is underneath while somebody takes a picture of you. Afterwards we went down into tunnels underneath the church and had a devotional and sang a few hymns. We were singing Christmas songs all day! It's the beginning of November and I love it! I'm definitely not one of those people who will only sing Christmas songs after Thanksgiving--I sing them all year long, because I love Christmas so much! So I don't mind that we're starting Christmas season early here, it just gives us more time to enjoy the holiday.
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| Waiting to get into the Church of the Nativity |
Afterwards we went to the shepherd's fields by Bethlehem. There we sang more hymns and then had quiet time by ourselves, where I tried to imagine what it might've been like for the shepherds in the fields in the story of Christ's birth. We were sitting there, in the fields where shepherds are still watching their flocks to this day, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, reading about the birth of our Savior. It was a surreal experience.
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| At the shepherd's fields |
We also went to the Herodion, which is a fortress that Herod built a few miles away from Jerusalem because he was intensely paranoid. At the bottom of the hill is a luxurious royal leisure complex and at the top is a fortress. Interestingly Herod also had a mausoleum built here because he feared no one would take care of his funeral arrangements, so he took care of them himself. Someone later came and completely destroyed the mausoleum--Herod's subjects hated him. The palace and fortress are both enormous and a web of caves and cisterns dug into the hill. It was a lot of fun to explore.
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| Neil in front of the main tower in the Herodion |
We also got to see a little bit of Bethlehem at the end of the day. We didn't have much time because it took so much time in the Church of the Nativity, but during the last ten minutes we practically sprinted around Bethlehem trying to absorb as much as we could at once. Bethlehem looks a lot like the Old City in Jerusalem which I found very interesting. It was a great run-through and hopefully some day I'll get to come back and see it again.
Funny picture of the day: Neil's food baby!
