Monday, March 14: Bethlehem and vicinity

Today begins a week located Jerusalem looking back to Christ’s birth, forward to His crucifixion, beyond to early Christianity, and finally, to how will we translate the walk in Jesus’ light into lighting our walk in the future. Our day was spent in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Along with our stops during the day, our guide historian helped us understand life as a Palestinian, and especially as a Palestinian Christian, in an Israel-occupied zone.

Rimon Kando & Sons Souvenir Store…a Christian Palestinian family-owned store that serves tourists as its business. Behind the scenes this business reinvests significantly in caring for other Palestinians who are in need. Their website will be ready soon and they are hoping to connect with Christians worldwide for access to their product lines. This family business is a member of an informal Christian Palestinian business network in Bethlehem that shares their vision. We learned of their grandfather being the person who was instrumental in securing the scrolls from Qumran until they could be donated to the Israel Museum.

Shopping at a Christian Palestinian souvenir store

Al Basma Center…a day center serving 36 youth and adults with intellectual disabilities. With no public support available, this Center has been serving in this capacity for over thirty years. During the 1970s, the Center’s Director was the former Press Secretary for Khadafi in Libya. The Director shared his personal story of how, as a Christian, he was respected for telling the truth about issues, even if it was in disagreement. With limited space, the Center has designed a sheltered workshop to provide purposeful work and to create products that help fund the ministry. The Center is in need of ongoing financial support that will complement what they are already doing on their own.

Youth at Al Basma Center

Al Basma Center's Director

Church of the Nativity…thought to be the site of Jesus’ birth, including the cave that served as the stable. Our guide historian shared that in 132 AD Hadrian destroyed all symbols of Christianity and built another temple on the same sites. This enabled Queen Helen from the Netherlands in 326 AD to locate where the Church had been. Ironic that God would use someone who wanted to eliminate Christianity to make sure that it could later be found.

Church of the Nativity reconstruction

The Herodium…was Herod the Great’s fortress and castle just outside of Bethlehem on a mountain that he had created out of a high hill so he could overlook Jerusalem and the temple. We were warned of the high winds at this height and found the warnings to be underestimated. Interesting to note was his building a theater which he used to entertain Agrippa, son-in-law of emperor Augustus. At the foot of the mountain was a swimming pool and parade ground. Herod provides us a historical model of what happens when you build monuments to your greatness, in contrast to letting God use you to help build living models of what can happen when you let him use you to get His work done through you.

Herod's fortress

We closed the day with our regular evening gathering to reflect on where we saw God throughout the day. Our greatest concern is the strength of the ‘bug’ that continues to circulate with multiple members. We covet your prayers for restoring everyone to health as we complete the final phase of our pilgrimage.