As soon as we got back to the Jerusalem Center we boarded a couple of small buses that took us and everyone from the Jerusalem Center and their guests to the Separation Wall to walk into Bethlehem. The Jerusalem Center has very strict rules about not visiting the West Bank. The rarely grant permission, but this is one time of year that they allow everyone to visit.
Olive tree in the courtyard of the Jerusalem Center.
As we went through the check point the streets were deserted, and a little erie. We walked towards the city center, we realized where everyone was, Nativity Square. The place was packed!
Josh was finally excited to pose for a picture. What is it about a boys?!?
Bethlehem was full of Christmas decorations and Christmas music. Few of the only signs of the approaching holiday that we saw the entire time. We somehow got behind a band for the Boy Scouts that was planning music and marking up to Nativity Square. It was a short walk, but it took a long time (not sure how long, but over an hour) to get there. It was loud and crowded. I think the whole city was shut down and many people looked out of their windows at the procession. I compared it to being in New York City on New Years Eve. This was also the time that Josh had his only melt down the entire trip. He wanted us to buy him a balloon, which wasn't even related to Christmas, I think it was Sponge Bob Square Pants. We wouldn't buy it for him (hmm, I wonder why, it wasn't really the Spirit we were going for) and for 30 minutes he cried, screamed, and carried on.
Our group of 40-50 people tried to stay together, but it was nearly impossible. I spent the entire day counting heads, 1,2,3,4,5, I was so scared I was going to loose a child and would have no way to find them. I am so glad that we had the same number of adults as children, it really helped us. Although we did loose Anne and Kevin for a little bit. We finally made it to Manger Square with the other thousands of people. We found a little corner to eat our lunch and then went to visit the Milk Church (or something like that, it is where Mary nursed baby Jesus) and then on to the Grotto, the birthplace of Christ.
Eating lunch with the Belnaps.
Christmas Tree in Manager Square.
We got in line, but the line was not moving. Apparently someone important from one of the churches was in the manger area. So for about an hour the line was not moving and they were closing everything down at a certain hour. We were worried that after all of our effort, we wouldn't make it inside. The line slowly started to move, but people kept pushing in front of us, it wasn't really a line but more a mass of people pushing towards the grotto. We finally made a barricade with our bodies and locked arms so people couldn't push past us. Finally, we were able to get into the grotto area where there is a star representing the birth place of Christ. The security in the area were trying to keep everyone moving and one guard yelled at some Asia people that were taking too long taking pictures, 'this is a holy place, not hollywood.' We all got a good laugh at that. When we came out the other side, we all kind of felt like 'what just happened?'. One of ladies in our group from the Jerusalem Center said, that was like the birth canal. You push and push and then all of a sudden you push and you come out the other side to all of these bright lights. We laughed and laughed at that because it perfectly described our experience. Afterwards, we watched a little bit of the Mass. It was the Mass that was broadcast around the world as Mass from Bethlehem.
Milk Grotto. It had beautiful acoustics for singing in there.
Mass in Bethlehem
The masses pushing to get into the grotto.
The star respresenting the birth spot of the Savior.
Out on the other side. We survived the birth. :)
After we finished with the grotto and Mass it was time to head to Shepherds Field. Let me set the stage
of my experience I had 20 years ago as a student. The buses took us to Shepherds Field at sunset. We had a beautiful lesson about the birth of Christ. Some shepherds were herding sheep in the distant and then we had time to go off by ourselves and read our scriptures, meditate, and write in our journals. We sang Christmas carols and it was a beautiful, peaceful experience. Now fast forward 20 years. We decided to walk down the hill and then take a taxi to Shepherds Field, but when we got to the bottom of the hill there were no taxi's, so we started walking. We walked, and walk, and walked. We weren't entirely sure how to get there, but we knew the general directions, and would stop to ask directions every once in awhile. We walked forever.... again I don't exactly how long but probably an hour and a half. Luckily, it was a warm night outside and walking made for the perfect temperature. The kids were great and didn't complain once. We finally made it to our destination and it was nothing like I remembered before. Apparently there are a couple of different locations and we were somewhere else. A church was on the site and public restrooms. We sat around and sang Christmas carols with a neon restrooms sign nearby. Hannah slipped and fell pretty hard. She was more worried about cracking her camera than she was cracking her head.
The only picture from Shepherds Field. Christmas Eve! Happy, tired and only a little cold.
At this point we called for the buses to come and pick us up. They came and we drove back to the Jerusalem Center. You can see why it wasn't the most spiritual, but it was the most memorable. It was a day never to be forgotten. Sometimes when things don't go as planned they create the best memories. Back, at the Center we read from Luke and headed to bed.
Back at the Jerusalem Center we borrowed a tree to take down to my parents apartment for our Christmas morning celebrations. I loved the simplicity of the our preparations for Christmas this year. I may never go, probably will, but wish I didn't feel like I had to. We will have to see.....
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