I got up at 6AM so I could at least have a short time reading the Scriptures about Bethlehem - today's destination. I wish I could read more of the Bible each day to prepare myself! For instance, we think of Bethlehem as the site of Jesus' birth. But, Bethlehem is also the site of many more important Biblical events.
The hotel made some changes in how they are serving our groups, so it was less chaotic today. I love the pastries and eggs. Yum!
Our first conference session of the day began with good worship and then a challenging message by Mark Titley from South Africa on "My Religion Meets the Master." (You can listen to the message on the GYI website.) Both this message and the one last night by Dann lasted about one hour. This is one of the few times in my life that I've regretted they didn't stretch each message out over at least two hours. There was so much to think on and to learn! Too much great stuff packed in too little time.
We took off by mid-afternoon on our tour bus. Our first stop was the Mount of Olives for a group photo. I will try to add that to the blog soon. Once again, it was hard to have the Latinos keep up with the group, but on the other hand, they are like sponges, not wanting to miss a word. Cool!
We headed on to Bethlehem. At the Palesinian/Israeli border we traded guides. They wanted to give us a Palestinian Christian perspective. We sensed an oppressive spirit on the other side of the wall. There were walls, barbed wire, bars, grafiti and lots of trash on the streets. That was hard to see. We drove right through the town center of Bethlehem without stopping at the Church of the Nativity. I think that was a good call, because on the other side we could better visualize how the area would have been when Jesus was born. There were shepherds watching over their flocks on the hillsides.
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