Christmas Day

We did get to Bethlehem for Christmas Eve but we weren't able to do what we had hoped to do.  We went as part of a group from Saint George's Church that is located just down the street from the garden.  Because the traffic is so busy on Christmas Eve, and because they also had archbishops from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, England and a few other places, plus 4 buses of tourists we had an Israeli police escort from the church to the check point/border entering into Palestine, then a Palestinian police escort from the check point to Manger square.  The traffic was crazy and backed up for miles but fortunately with the police escorts we got thru.  We were still stopped at times but never for very long. As we entered in to Bethlehem there were Christmas lights everywhere, all the street posts had rope lights wrapped around them; all the light posts had different lights attached  - some blinking - bells, angels, wreaths, Merry Christmas signs, etc.  When we got to Bethlehem we had to follow the group so we weren't able to venture off on our own.  Because we were part of the group we were ushered in to the Church of the Nativity for a service.  Outside in the square were hundreds - perhaps thousands of people.  There was a stage set up where different groups were singing Christmas carols thruout the evening.   There were also soldiers everywhere.  At every corner there were at least 6-8, and then more just standing along the streets.  I wish I had taken more pictures but I was too busy looking around at everything that I forgot to take pictures.
We had an hour long service inside the church of the Nativity.  We sang a lot of the carols in between different ones reading scripture.  Again very emotional singing the carols and standing in the place where Jesus was born.  We don't know that this was the exact spot, but we do know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, so we would have been within 1 km of where the stable/cave would have been.  It was also interesting as we sang the First Noel.  As you know the chorus ends with the line - Born is the King of Israel - well the words have been changed to Born is the King Emmanuel.  To sing O LIttle Town of Bethlehem - while standing in Bethlehem  - well it is hard to put into words how I felt.  Same with most of the other songs that we sang. 

Here are a few pictures once I remembered to take my camera out!
A version of our popular Starbucks

There were souvenirs shops everywhere.  I'm sure the prices would have been triple what they would be any other day.  We didn't see very many people in the shops.

When we entered manger square we were greeted with this huge Christmas tree - 55 feet. It was beautiful. 

There were hundreds of people behind the security fences.

Some of the lights.  All the buildings were decorated with lights.

A very moving night even if we didn't do exactly what we had thought we would do. A wonderful experience.

On Christmas Day we opened the garden for a Christmas Day service.  We originally thought we would maybe have 150 people attend.  We were thrilled when just over 800 people came - mostly Nigerians.  It was a wonderful service and we were happy that the weather cooperated with no rain. 

The Nigerians helping with the worship.  They have so much enthusiasm!  What a blessing they were to us on Christmas Day.

After the service, the volunteers got together for a Christmas dinner lunch - a typical turkey dinner with all the fixings.  We even got to enjoy Christmas pudding that came all the way from England.

 

Our time in Israel is coming to an end.  We have less than a week left which means we will be busy now with packing and cleaning our apartment for the next set of volunteers to use.  We'll try and get in another blog with some more pictures before we leave.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!  We hope 2013 is full of many blessings for all of you.

Shalom.

Don and Glenda