Here is a pic of breakfast and all the vege salads they have. I'm not a huge fan of any of them unfortunately.
The BYU Jerusalem Center is rad. Built on top of the Mount of Olives / Mount Scopus area. The view is superb.
Haha, nice sign...
Ok, this is the sacrament meeting room. It's tough to capture it in a picture but here is the view.
After church I got a nice shot. This has to be one of my all time favorite pictures. With Jerusalem and the flowers even I look beautiful!
After church we were off to go to Bethlehem. This is one of those times where I keep saying, "am I really going to the little town of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born? Really?" I was pretty stoked.
Now to go into Bethlehem we had to get picked up by a Palestinian because Bethlehem is under Palestinian control. If you dont know certain parts of Israel are Israeli territory, certain parts are Palestinian. So Steven our your guide cannot go into Palestinian territory. About 3 years ago they put walls and fences up so you have to go through a check point to get in.
Our driver is an Arab like most Palestinians. He was really talkative and outgoing which is great because most Israeli people are not. They are pretty tough and cold people. Which I can understand.
He explained to us how awful he feels it is that they are creating two states or trying to. He said its a huge pain. His sister lives 5-10 minutes from him but it takes 45 minutes to get there because of the wall and check point. His opinion is they need to go back to living as one big group again. Even though they were fighting and it was dangerous.
Being in Israel does not help you understand the situation between the Jews and Arab's much better to be honest. It is still confusing. There seems to be no real logical solution to the problems here. I can say the common people want to live in peace and many Arabs and Israelis are friends and work together and hate the problems that has been on going for decades. It seems the leaders are at fault according to common people. It feels really safe everywhere too. Tourism is one bit of common ground that both need and appreciate. It is extremely complicated here though.
Arrival into Bethlehem, which by the way is no little town anymore.
Here is the Church of the Nativity. This is where most people believe his birth happened. The archeology supports it pretty well because in First Century time period animals were kept in caves under the Inns. Technically, if Jesus was in fact born here it was in an underground cave like place.
Inside this church is shared by many religions and faiths.
Tradition says the birth happened right here in this cave area.
I personally think it is tough to say it was exactly here, but we know it was really really close to this area.
Catholic mass here on Christmas Eve is jam packed they said.
Other pictures of places that were under the Inn.
One of the first translators of the Bible lived here and did his translations here. I think his name is Jerome...? His tomb was here too.
I'll be honest, it was so chaotic and we were rushed in and out of this place so fast it was tough to really soak it up and even to reflect. But awesome to come where most people believe the birth of Christ happened!
Driving back to Jerusalem and Israeli territory. Here are some shots of the checkpoint and wall.
Not sure if you can see through this window but the wall and fence run all along there.
There you have it!
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