Bethlehem

A few days after we got back from Turkey, we took a field trip to Bethlehem! The Bethlehem field trip was one of my favorites by far. Bethlehem is just 5 miles south of Jerusalem and is currently part of the West Bank. It also is the location of Christ's birth- one of my favorite New Testament stories. We went to the the remains of the Herodian first, Herod's summer palace. Then we went to the super old and famous Church of the Nativity! It has the grotto where Christ is believed to have been born! It definitely wasn't what I had always imagined the birthplace of Christ to be- a humble stable- but it definitely could have used to be that way before a church was built around it. I loved entering the grotto and sitting where Mary could have sat as she brought the baby Jesus into the world. President Obama came to this church just 3 days later during his visit to Israel!

Entering the grotto at the Church of the Nativity

This star is said to mark the exact spot Jesus was born

This is the grotto where Christ is believed to have been born!

Next we ate lunch in a shepherd's tent restaurant where we all ate way too many delicious whole wheat pitas.

Then we went to a few churches commemorating the events that happened at the shepherd's field at the time of Christ's birth- an angel appeared to the shepherds and told them of the birth of Jesus and told them to go see him, then a choir of angels sang. Every year of seminary in Washington I was one of those angels in the nativity we put on, so I loved going to to see the places believed to be the same shepherd's field! The churches were absolutely beautiful and some of my favorite that I've seen on this trip.

This church reminded me of Disneyland with so many bright colors! It was so different than any other church I've seen.  It might be my favorite church so far on the trip.

Another church had BEAUTIFUL paintings that I admired for a long time.

The paintings seemed to just pop out of the wall!

Shepherd's field at one of the churches we visited with Hannah and Sierra. That's pretty much what it would have looked like!

My favorite part of the day was going to a real shepherd's field and having a devotional and testimony meeting with my class. It was cool seeing Bethlehem as the backdrop of the grassy hills and imagining the events that took place at a spot just like it. I loved how peaceful the Bethlehem trip was and especially loved going to the places where such amazing and world-changing events took place.

Shepherd's field just outside of Bethlehem