Day 6

I would like to thank Lori who wrote yesterday's blog post. The Lord worked it out that when I was very tired, she had things on her heart she wanted to share with you.

This morning we started out by going to Bethlehem. We had no trouble getting into Palestine and we had a Christian tour guide meet up with us to share about the city. This is the security wall that separates the West Bank.

We were able to go to a cave in a shepherd's field, which would have been a lot like the stable that Jesus was born in. Around that cave, in the glorious sunshine, we had Calvary Church. After a week of learning and studying, it was refreshing to have time to worship and praise God for who He is. We were able to take communion again, sing praise and worship songs and shout out praises to God in the city where He was born. We were all feeling pretty blessed.

Our guide - whom I'm going to call Joy because that's what her name means in English and I have no idea how to spell it in Arabic - taught us about shepherds and sheep. She went through Psalm 23 and gave us context about shepherds and it brings the Psalm to life.

We got back on the bus and headed to the Church of the Nativity. It's too bad we didn't have time to stop for coffee on the way.

It was cool to see where they think Jesus was born and laid in a manger, but the surroundings of the nativity distracted from Who was really born there. It's almost as if they've turned it into an altar or good luck charm... Of course, we just finished studying 1 Samuel 4 this week where the Philistines used the Ark of the Covenant like a genie. That's still fresh on my mind.

We had a lovely lunch at a Palestinian restaurant. We had lamb and hummus and salads and pita bread. We finished off with baklava and the brave ones had Turkish coffee. Jason says, "That baklava was gooooood." It's different from Greek baklava because they don't use honey, they use orange blossom water.

We were able to go to a store that is run by Christians and purchase olive wood souvenirs. The Christians in Bethlehem carve them and that is their main supply of income. We had to be generous with them, right? The women shopped while the men warded off the street vendors waiting outside to attack us. It was pretty humorous watching all of the men being pressured into buying necklaces and women's scarves.

After a short wait at the border, we were able to re-enter Jerusalem. Two young soldiers with machine guns did a quick scan through our bus and then let us go. We are thankful for no issues there.

We headed out to Ein Karem, which means "Spring of the vineyard." This would have been the area that Mary came to visit Elizabeth. There's a church at the top of the hill that has Mary's Magnificat carved in stone in 65+ different languages. While we were there, Lisa helped us see why Mary is blessed among women. We went through everything that she had to endure, yet was humble and obedient to what the Lord asked her to do. We were encouraged to follow her example by 1) having the courage to obey, even when it's hard. And 2) recall all the things God has done for us. We had time by ourselves to write down all of our gratitude to the Lord because the Mighty One has done great things for us. I filled my page and ran out of time. What a good and gracious God we serve.

We walked to a local restaurant that fed us more abundantly then we could have imagined. A lot of people were excited to see a hamburger on the menu!

Again, for the third night in a row, our debrief time was powerful and meaningful. The Holy Spirit has been present in a very unique way this week and the Lord has done mighty things. I'm extremely grateful for this community of believers! Through Jim and Lisa's teachings, we learned how God has woven everything in the Bible together, from Genesis to Revelation. This week, we have seen how He has done the same thing in our lives. We are finding out how He has intricately weaved all of our stories together and we have to say, "You just can't make this stuff up!"

Tomorrow we are headed to the Temple Mount, Garden of Gethsemane, Church of St. Anne, Bethesda, Stations of the Cross, Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall, and the Mount of Olives. Whew. That sounds like a lot, so I think I'll sign off and get some sleep! Thank you for your prayer.