Bethlehem

On Saturday, February 5, 2012, we went on our first family adventure to Bethlehem.

This is outside the Church of the Nativity, 

which is built over the spot where many Christians believe Jesus was born.

(more about this in a minute)

Although there is a rich history there, 
the initial purpose of our visit was to attend church.

Previously, the members meeting in Bethlehem 
were part of the Jerusalem congregation.

On that Sunday, they were organized into their own group and 

Kevin has been asked to be the leader of this newly formed group.

A "group" is a newly named unit within the church.  

It is smaller than a Branch and reports directly to the District Presidency.

 We are not a stake here because the church is not officially recognized in Israel.  

Welfare issues and interviews are conducted by the District President.

We can teach some people the gospel 
(if they have direct family members in the church).

In Jerusalem, we do not teach, share our beliefs or baptize anyone.

With special permission, some people can be baptized from Bethlehem 

(although they have to go to another country to do it, 
usually Jordan, which is not far).

It is an exciting and challenging responsibility.  

They speak Arabic.  We don't.  (Yet.)

They hold church on Sunday.  We still attend in Jerusalem on Saturday.

They are young in the gospel.  
We are looking forward to learning and growing with them.

Kevin will attend the meetings in Bethlehem most Sundays 
as well as visit during the week. 

The rest of the family will occasionally go with him.

After church, we drove further into Bethlehem.

Obviously, Bethlehem is famous for being the birth place of Jesus.

A church has been built over the site that is 
traditionally believed to be where he was born.

Anyone can visit.  

We walked through the large, main room of the church.

In the front, at the "cross" of the church, there are stairs leading sharply down.

There was a crowd of people waiting in line and we joined them.

In the smaller rooms below are the places where Jesus was thought to be born.

This is Walter and Margaret looking into the small space where you can kneel.

Inside, there is a star of David and this is the place where Jesus was born.

(The pictures stink, but it was hard to get a good shot 
with so many people pushing to get to this sacred spot.  
In the future, we will try to get better pictures.  
My apologies for now.)

Behind the above picture are even more stairs 
leading down to the place where the manger was (below).

It was a good experience to go and I am sure we will return, 

but for us, it was hard to imagine Jesus being born here.  

There were so many decorations.  So many people.  So many buildings.  

I have always pictured it perhaps more like it was - 
outside, only a few people, humble surroundings.

With so many people coming to worship, 
I know it would be impossible to make it like I imagine.

I am glad we have the opportunity to be here.

The check point between here and there was its own adventure.

Going into Bethlehem, they didn't give us much of a problem.

Coming back was a different story.

Waiting in line to pass through the checkpoint, 
a number of men were selling their wares.  
We didn't want to buy anything and hadn't thought to bring small change to give.  
One young man was particularly persistent 
in trying to sell us  some "handmade" purses for a "great deal."  
It was hard to have to keep saying no.  
Most people living in Bethlehem are not allowed to go into Jerusalem.  
The jobs are few and low-paying in Bethlehem.  
Poverty is a serious issue.  


Once we made it up to the check point, 
one of the Israeli soldiers was in a contrary mood.  
With our US passports and UN car and ID,  
we should have gone through without much problem.  
Instead, they gave us a hard time about not having Walter and Maya in seat belts.  
They have been riding in the back of the Toyota 4Runner that Kevin has for work.  
They love it, but as parents we would obviously prefer to have seat belts for them.  
(We are, however, grateful to have some form of transportation.
Otherwise, we would have been homebound for these past few months.)


To get a car with enough seat belts for our family, 
we have needed a "Ministry of Foreign Affairs Card" from the government.   
Kevin had just received this card two days earlier, two months after having arrived.   
It was supposed to take 3 weeks.   
But, things with the Israeli government do not seem to move too fast.  
We explained to the soldier that we would love to buy a car 
and were in the process of doing so.  
He continued to reprimand us for a while with him and eventually he let us go.   
The kids were a bit rattled and 
do not want to drive through that check point again until we have a car.  


(Three weeks later, we are still battling government paper work to try to get a car.)