Our Israel/Palestine tour started off with a trip to Bethlehem. It was a perfect example of some of what we had experienced already in Egypt and Jordan where there are churches or monuments built over most significant locations of the Bible, but sometimes, there are still opportunities to experience what it might have looked like during the actual time of the Bible (before it was covered over with a church!).
Shepherd’s Grotto
Our first stop was the Shepherd’s Grotto which was actually part of a YMCA campus. So much of the area has limestone caves and they were commonly used as pens and shelters for livestock, such as sheep and goats for centuries. Grotto is just another word for “small cave” and there is evidence that this was used by humans and likely livestock. This was a good example of a spot where the shepherds could have been, using the cave for their animals, overlooking the hills.
Looking out into the valleys from the grotto’s entrance.
Our guide had the girls read the Christmas story about the angels’ visit.
Singing Silent Night in the grotto.
These pictures have nothing to do with the shepherd’s story but every once in a while on a trip like this you stumble on something you have never seen before which in this case was a long line of caterpillars which just happened to be crossing the path when we left the grotto.
Bethlehem Evangelical Academy
The lady that we met crossing at the Jordanian and Israeli border had invited us to see her school, if we could make it work. Our guide reached out to her to make arrangements and since it was relatively close to where we were and there was no school that day and therefore we wouldn’t be disturbing any classes, we made a quick visit. It was great to meet her husband and some of the staff and to learn a bit more about the school. It is a great story of God’s faithfulness and is a beautiful school, larger than our girls’ school. It was good for the girls to see and hear how much similarity there was to their own school settings, but also to recognize some of the differences and challenges that this school faces due to the neighbourhood and political environment they are in.
Church of the Nativity
The Church of the Nativity, also called the Basilica of the Nativity, has a number of buildings in the complex. The most famous is the one built over the grotto where it is traditionally believed that Christ was born (i.e. where Constantine the Great’s mother Helena was told it was when she visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem in 325–326AD). This makes it one of the oldest places of worship in Christianity. It is important to note that the “stable” back than was a grotto, just like the one we had already visited. So maybe this grotto was the one the shepherds were in and the other one was was the one Jesus was born in, or just a likely, it was a different one all together.
The outside of the church
The doorway was really short!
Inside the church which had a beautiful altar and some of the original mosaic floor exposed.
What you can’t see in these pictures is the line of people waiting in the wings of the church to the right of the altar. Behind and below the altar is a hole in the floor where people can touch the original grotto floor. This was the girls’ first introduction to “tactile Christianity” where there was roughly a 45 minute wait to just get in and touch the stone. Now I don’t want to fully dismiss it since yes, a woman in faith reached out and touched Jesus’ cloak and was healed, but hundreds of others touched his cloak and she was the only that was healed. So to me it is a bit sad that there is a bit of a “Genie Jesus” mentality, where people feel they will be blessed simply by touching this stone (which might not even be the stone Jesus was born on), but it is an important part to some faith traditions.
Our guide, after confirming none of us wanted to wait in line to touch it, took the two girls in the exit to at least see the shrine. He couldn’t take the whole group, but two he felt he could sneak in the wrong way 
The end of the line, and a lady placing a shirt or cloth on the rock so she can take it home as a blessed item.
The 14 point star indicating the supposed place of Jesus’ birth.
It was a large complex with multiple buildings. The arch walkway led to Church of St Catharine.
Stairs from the Church of St. Catherine led down to more grottos, one of which was St. Jerome’s Cave. It is here that it is believed that St. Jerome spent up to 30 years working on the first Latin translation of the Bible, finishing it around 405AD. This version of the Bible is commonly known as the Vulgate.
Bethlehem
By this time, it was lunch time and though we have had falafel and shawarma in other places, I still have fond memories of the best falafels from when I was last here 30 years ago. Taste is a powerful trigger for memories and this lunch did not disappoint on that front for me.
Our guide is a Palestinian Christian Israeli citizen so it was interesting get his perspective from those three titles. One thing I do not remember from when I was there 30 years ago was the large wall in Bethlehem. A bit sad to see but also a small smile when seeing a business savvy Palestinian businessman trying to make lemonade from lemons by naming his hotel “The Walled Off Hotel” with the tag line of “the worst views in Bethlehem”. Over the years, the wall has received some pretty impressive graffiti art. For millennia this area has had complex political situations and that complexity continues to this day.
