Today we woke up in a hotel in the city where Jesus was born and tonight we are settling down into our hotel in the area where Jesus did ministry – Galilee!
We started off the morning by touring the Bethlehem Bible College. The president gave us a tour of their new academic building and spoke about his story and the blessing of the Bible College. It’s a really neat place, and an awesome opportunity for the Christians in the dominantly Palestinian area.
From there we made a quick stop at a high-end gift shop to spend more shekels on our loved ones back home, and then bussed to the Church of the Nativity. This is the church that was built around the caves and area that Jesus was believed to be born in. It was a neat experience to be in Bethlehem in that place, but the lines were VERY long. We waited at least an hour to get into the place with Jesus’ “manger” and to touch the bedrock of the original ground. There were other rooms and displays set up as well and it looked like a catholic or orthodox church. Beautiful…but not very Bibletime-esque.
Our next stop was the shepherd’s field. This was a park in Bethlehem that is one of the three places believed to be the field where the angels appeared to the shepherds. There was nothing over-the-top about it…but this is what made it nice. It was simple and natural – easy to picture a group of shepherds hearing news about the coming of their King.
And not we are in Galilee at a beautiful hotel overlooking the Sea. We haven’t seen anything in Galilee yet (that will be tomorrow!), but already there is a neat presence of our Lord here. This is where Jesus was. We’re swimming where he walked on water and calmed the storm and called his 12 disciples! This is just one more of those unforgettable experiences of discovering the Holy Land together.
- Amy Soubolsky (Saskatoon, SK)
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