Dec 10 Home Of John the Baptist & Bethlehem

Today we travelled to a section of Jerusalem believed to be the home of John the Baptist. Today there is a Cahtolic church built over the spot so its kind of hard to imagine what the setting really was like and the only "old" thing around there was a part of a mosaic about 10 feet below ground level marking the spot indicating that about 500 AD it was recognized as the site of his home. So cool idea but not the biggest deal of our trip. It is however in a cool part of the city of Jerusalem, fruit markets & a couple of coffe shops - they love their "hafooch" here, which is like cappuccino. Starbucks tried to move into Israel but moved out because they couldn't compete with the local shops.

We also went to Bethlehem. We had to go through a check point and transfer to a different bus because it is Palestinian controlled. We visited Christmas Lutheran church, a church doing a lot to help the plight of the local Palestians - lots of art and classes to enrich their lives. They served us a lunch which was very outstanding!!

After that we walked to the Manger Square where the entrance is to the oldest church in the world. That was a walk through Bethlehem, like a walk through Alladin's bazaar!! The church has an entrance that was walled in so that Arab soldiers would not ride in with their horses since they would not get off their horses. This kept the site from being desecrated. Sorry I haven't figured out the picture thing. Again with the Roman Catholic/Armenean/Orthodox churches joined at the site, it kind of loses some of its spiritual appeal but again, if they were not there, we probably wouldn't have the place.

We talked and prayed through the birth of Jesus and God's humility to be born. Will we honor him by making space in life to receive what God gives to us, will we seperate a space where heaven & earth touch. Our prayer is to lead a life of humility more of His presence and less presents