Church of the Nativity / Shepherds' Field

In Bethelehem, we were so very blessed to be led by Prof. Qustandi Shomali of Bethlehem University. He is a Christian Palestinian whose family has lived in the area since the time of Jesus, born and raised in Shepherds' Field, where you see him lecturing us. The other picture is of Kevin entering the Church of the Nativity (built in 326 C.E.; it's one of the oldest churches still standing in the area) through the Door of Humility. In a larger shot, you would be able to see that the original door was much larger with a curved arch, but when the Muslims came into power during the Crusades, they lowered it to prevent horses from entering during battles.

In Palestinian Territory

The Territories are divided into zones A, B, and C. In A zones, all control, civil and military is in the Palestinian hands. Here you see an example of that with the Bethlehem Police officer (I tried to turn the photo, but it won't work - I thought this was important enough to put in even sideways - sort of a metaphor for the whole situation there anyway). In zones B, there is a combination of civil Palestinian rule, but Israeli military control. I zones C, it is all Israeli controlled. Bethlehem is one of the all Palestinian areas.

Back to Day 6 - Bethlehem

We traveled to Bethlehem on Saturday, which meant losing our beloved Aharon and Jamal and going into occupied territory. We drove to the Wall and had to enter via the checkpoint first, followed by a walk through the fence that you see here. The wall is probably at least 12 feet high here and there is the metal grid that separates those going in from those going out. When we went in, it was about 9:00 a.m., so there was pretty much no one entering or exiting. The wall was covered with graffiti such as you see here - a painful reminder of what difficult lives those in the West Bank lead.

Leaving Israel

We're sitting in Ben Gurion airport waiting to board our flight home. We just finished a wonderful meal at a Moroccan restaurant - note the gorgeous table laid for us in front of Chuck and Pat - where we shared stories and reflections on our experiences this last week. It's hard to believe it's only been eight days (including the opening night dinner and orientation) on the ground. After logging this post, I will go back to day 6 where I left off and share our experiences moving forward from there - from Bethlehem to Massada, interviews with a rabbi from the Ultra Orthodox Haredi community and a pair of doctors Jewish and Christian working to make health care a reality in the Palestinian community, and more. But for now, I just want to take a moment and say what a treasure this trip has been and officially publicly thank the AJC for gifting me and thirteen other Protestant pastors the opportunity to see Israel in so many different ways over as many days. It has been transformative - and I will be processing the information, the variety of opinions, and the experience for some time to come. But now it is time to get on the plane and sleep for as many hours out of the twelve in the air that I can. Good night, dear readers!

End of Day 5

We spent the last of day 5 celebrating Shabbat at Rabbi David Levin-Kruss and his wife, Ayala Levin-Kruss's home, along with their lovely three young sons and several students from the Pardes Institute. It was a wonderful meal with a Moroccan flair, but more important was the time that we spent together. We learned a song that one student's father had taught her to sing as they prepared for the Sabbath - it had an Appalachian feel to it, which was both lovely and haunting. Another student shared a small homily on the daily Torah passage, while still others led the prayers and broke the bread. At the end of the evening, Rabbi Levin-Kruss graciously allowed me to bring home a copy of the book that the prayers and readings are from - it's like a Haggadah, but is called something different - the name is not on the book itself, or I would take it from there. At any rate, it is a lovely ritual, the sharing of the Sabbath meal and one that I'm glad we had the opportunity to participate in together.

Church of the ?

I don't actually remember which church this one was - I'll ask Aharon tomorrow - but this Arabic inscription is what saved it from being destroyed by Saladin in the late 12th century, when he conquered these lands and destroyed all the churches.

The Pools of Bethesda

One of our first stops in the Old City was the Pools of Bethesda, where Jesus healed the man who had never been able to make it into the water. Clearly there's not a lot of water left. Here is a shot of Aharon ably re-telling the story and another of a group of Muslim boys whose backyards abutted the site and climbed down into and past the guardrails to play below.