We got a late start toward Bethlehem because of some luggage issues. We were thankful that we did not have to change buses and that Meir got to ride with us. We stopped by the Three Arches shop to pick up our guide Joseph. He was a very sweet young Arab Christian man. His face was bright with love for his city and love for these holy places. He shared:
Bethlehem is the place that King David was born 1,000 years before Jesus was born in the same place. Joseph, earthly father to Jesus was born here as well. This is the Capital of Christmas. The oldest church is the Church of the Nativity here in Bethlehem. We are 12 kilometers from Jerusalem.
We continued driving to a neighborhood of Bethlehem call Bet Sahur: “House of the people who sleep in late.” This made me laugh and think of every house with teenagers… haha. The people who sleep in late here were the shift workers… the shepherds. So Bet Sahur is the House of the Shepherds.
Bethlehem is famous for its trees. Its olive trees and its Cyprus trees. They decorate the
We arrived at Shepherds Field. We like coming here because you get a better sense of what the cave/barn would have been like that Jesus was born in.
When we pulled up. There was a young man holding a sheep. Jennifer hasn’t met an animal on the trip she didn’t want to befriend. She went over to the boy and asked she could pet the sheep. He said here and just handed the sheep over. I think the picture kind of captures the joy of this dear ones heart… haha. She kept saying I’m holding a sheep!! (And she continued to randomly say it for the rest of the day… I held a sheep!) We slipped the little boy a thank you gift for being so generous to delight our friend.
We stopped at the church in Shepherds Field. This is one of the four churches Italian Architect Beluzi built in the Holy Land. The angel statues are stunning and wind blown achievements in marble and bronze. The structure itself is built to resemble a tent. A bronze statue of Gabriel reaches out to you from above the door.
We stepped into the room and Joseph asked for a volunteer to read the open page there. Jen still on a high from … yes… holding a sheep jumped at the chance, but the joy overflowed into her reading. As she read she got more excited because she was reading a Christmas story she had read and heard many times before, but now her mouth was forming those words close to the very place they happened. Her joy was contagious. Joy like a shepherd. Joy to the World!
Daddy asked for a song. It just so happened to be the song we girls were trying to figure out together earlier. “O Come All Ye Faithful… Joyful and Triumphant.” Its like became clearer that this song was our personal invitation to Bethlehem. “Come ye, come ye to Bethlehem.”
I pointed out the ceiling. That there were angels encircling the ceiling but all of the holes in the dome were to give the illusion of a multitude of angels appearing. Saying, “Glory to God in the Highest, Peace on Earth, Goodwill to men.”
As we walked toward one of the caves Mary and Joseph would have been sent to. Joseph our guide let us know that today was the first day of spring and was also Mother’s Day! He said Happy Mother’s Day to the ladies on our trip. There are a couple of reasons why this is beautiful to me. First, we may not be here on Christmas, but what a great other holiday to be here… Happy Mother’s Day to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. This is our first trip to Israel since Mrs. Bea Mullins passed away last year. We have remembered her in several places. She loved coming here. She started coming in 1971. Her last trip was when she was 80 in 2015. Shed be right here with us if she could, but we know she is.
Mother’s Day coincides with the first day of Spring here because it is about fruitfulness. I thought it was an interesting side note that none of the palm trees here produce fruit, but the ones in Jericho near the Dead Sea get more oxygen so they produce an exponential amount. Jericho has 1 million palm trees that overflow with fruit.
As we came to the edge of the mountain, Joseph reminded us that this field is also where Ruth and Boaz fell in love… very romantic.
He took us down over the mountain into a cave we had never been to before. He wanted us to get a more authentic feeling of what the cave would have been like. The one at the top of the hill has a new floor. This on is still dusty. It was probably a favorite to be used because of how the entrance was.
He pointed out that there was a tree whose roots were exposed in the cave. He began to share with us very personally. He said:
These roots are like my family. My family are Christians. My roots go deep here in Bethlehem. Christians were the majority here until the Ottoman Empire took over 1517-1917. The Muslim population now outnumbers the Christian. In Bethlehem, the city, there are 40,000 people. Only 15,000 of them are Christian. We are the minority, but because of visitors like you, we have a voice in what
Shepherd’s field has more than sixty caves. Shepherds were humble and they traveled a lot allowing the sheep to graze all over. I think this is why God chose them. They are humble enough to receive the news and they traveled about telling everyone what happened.
Pastor Deloris Henderson shared. It was AWESOME! (I'll transcribe it later)
The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
I had a song on my heart before Ms. Deloris began to share. Thinking about David writing the psalms. He would have started writing in a field not too far from where we were. So I began to sing Travis Cottrell’s “Forevermore” based on Psalm 145.
Ms. Deloris stood up right after I sang to begin sharing:
“Thank you, Pastor Thomas for this opportunity to share and thank you Elizabeth!!! For the scripture reference. If you would all turn to Psalm 145. (Everyone started laughing and shouting, “No Way!!!”) out of the mouth of two witnesses! I have a few words from Psalms 145.
Beginning with Verse 9-13 KJV:
The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee.
They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
I have chosen to speak from the theme of David who was a shepherd and also a king. He learned to be a king by shepherding sheep. We are told from the Word not to despise small beginnings. You can corral a thousand sheep and that will give you some principles for leading a nation. But also shepherding sheep, you have to learn how to be a defender of those sheep. David learned that by being out in the fields watching over his sheep by day and by night. Spending time with his sheep. He staved off wolves, bears and lions and your love for the sheep will outweigh you fear of the lion and the bear. Its just like a momma defending her child, a man defending his family. It is the same thing. You are afraid of the enemy, but your love for your family. Your love for your loved ones will outweigh your fears.
Your love and devotion for God will outweigh your fear of giants. We don’t start off fighting giants. We start off with small things. It’s a wolf… then it’s a lion… then a bear, but there came a time when his courage in fighting the bear and the lion helped him to step up to the line and fight Goliath. Goliath was intimidating, taunting the armies of the Israel, blaspheming God, but then David had a personal relationship with God. He knew God. He knew His God was more powerful than the giant or even the Philistine army.
A side note here is: Courage for one battle will give you courage for another battle. The bear, lions, giants. And your courage will encourage other peolpe’s courage. Cause when David killed Goliath, What did the armies of Israel do? First of all, they were back and being afraid. ‘We’re afraid! We’re afraid!” But when they realized David had actually killed the philistine giant.
They rounded the army of the Philistines and despoiled them. And later on in the life of David’s life, David’s mighty men realized he had already killed a giant and that gave them courage to kill the other four giants. Just because you kill one giant, that doesn’t mean all the giants are gone. Others are going to come.
Battles sometimes lead to bigger battles. In our lives as Christians, sometimes we are going to have to realize that we think, “Well, I’ve overcome this temptation.” But the enemy is crafty. He’s not going to come with that same temptation. Its not going to look the same. Its not going to be the same size. He’s going to bring out the big guns. That’s why we cannot fight 2019 battles with 1918 weapons. We got to have some BIG GUNS!!! Hahah, Amen?! (Amen!)
Your courage will encourage the courage in others. David took down a giant and the army of Israel stepped up. His might men stepped up to take down the other four giants. All because David had a personal relationship with his God and he knew his God. You have to have a personal relationship with your God. You have to know Him who He is.
If we call Him El Shaddai. And call Him God Almighty. If we call Him Elohim then we have to believe that no matter what the situation is, our God is willing. He is willing. Sometimes, we as human beings, we let our problems and our situations overwhelm us, but then we have to fall back and regroup. Either He is or He ain’t! (That’s good! Alright now!) And our God, He always is!!! He is always willing to step up to whatever the situation is whether it is a migraine or cancer or whatever it is. Cancer is not bigger than God.
Well if He heals me here that’s a testimony. If He heals me there, that’s still a testimony because I am going out believing that He was well able. He is a mighty God and we live to serve Him. That’s why… Pastor said it the other night, about why we should still have testimony in our services. To let people know what God has done. If He did it for you that builds my faith. Just like He did it for David in his day.
He killed the lion and the bear. He killed a Goliath. God built up the faith of the people. That is why the people were willing to follow David. It got to the point that David was so precious to the people that they wouldn’t let him go out to battle. You stay here because you are the light of Israel. The people believe in you and trust in your God. We want you to be protected. We need to treasure the treasure we have within us.
Don’t let people take your faith from you. You know, we see people walk away from the church. Walk away from God all of the time. We cannot let that happen to us. Why? Because He has been too good to us. If He had not done anything for me I could understand walking away, but I know its too late to discourage me now. You can go if you like, but I have promised God. I promised God that if I have to go, I’ll go by myself. And when this trip came down, I tried to get my sisters to come with me and they didn’t want to come with me. I’m going, if I have to go by myself and I am here today! Praise the Lord!!
We went to the Three Arches to get our shopping on. They now take you through the olive wood carving workshop to explain the different levels and prices of the olive wood statues. We recognized some faces in the workshop. Back there you see the prototypes of unusual requests… like E.T. and giraffes. A really cool behind the scenes.
Mom and I got to tell Maher Catawanti about Mom’s dreams about Mary. We asked if Mary
was there, he said she should be any minute. Mom said, “Many years ago I kept having a dream about the woman who worked by the back counter. Every time I dreamed of her, I would pray for her and her family. When we returned to Israel many years ago, I got to tell her my story. She came around the counter and hugged me. I asked her name. “Mary” That’s my daughter’s name. (mom also asked for a picture. Mary touched her hair and said, I’m a mess…” Mom replied, “You are more beautiful than in my dreams.” They laughed.) As we were finishing this story with Maher, Mary got to work. When she saw mom, she had a spark of recognition and came running to mom and embraced her. Maher said with surprise, “She remembers her!!”
I am so thankful for Ms. Deloris’s word on courage. We needed it to build up ours in the next few moments. As we were in the shop, Meir who was allowed to join us on the bus and in there, quietly let us know that there was a situation happening. Nothing to be too frightened of but we needed to be ready to move.
Apparently, there was a strike being stirred up throughout the Palestinian territories by the PLO. Most of the businesses and shops were shut down in protest of a man who had been killed earlier in the day. This Palestinian man in a different city in the Gaza Strip, way to the South, had wrestled a gun away from a soldier of the Israeli army. He shot and killed the soldier, injured another. Shot and killed a civilian and injured another. He got away, but this morning that we were in Bethlehem the IDF had found the man responsible. They surrounded the house. They said “Come out and we will arrest you and take you to trial… If you don’t come out, we will use force, we know you are armed.” The man began shooting. They returned fire. The Israeli police have trained K-9 units with cameras. They sent in the canine officer and he showed them that the man was subdued. The Palestinian leadership used this to stir up a protest. They wanted all of the businesses, street vendors, etc. to go on strike. The Bethlehem police had come once to shut down the shop, but the owner would not let them in. Protecting us as we were still in there. The Police left. Once every one was finished shopping Daddy gathered us to say, we needed to move quickly and together. We didn’t want to frighten anyone, but we didn’t want them oblivious to the tense situation. Normally the bus would have been right outside the shop, but the police made him move a block down. The Texas bus had just gotten in the shop, when we heard sirens pulling up to the shop. James saw the Bethlehem police jump out in full armor. With only slits for the eyes and they started pounding on the shop door again because the owner had let another group in to shop. Our group just kept moving quickly to the bus. The police left again after the shop owner would not open for them. The Texas group didn’t have any more problems.
I was just thankful for that word on building our courage earlier. I was also thankful that Meir was with us. And his partner in crime, Roni our driver. They actually serve on the Israeli police force together and were telling us stories the day before. Roni says that Meir likes to scare the drivers he pulls over with threats that hurt the most: “Call your friend to come pick you up… I am confiscating your car.” Roni says he has to stay in the police car because he’ll give Meir away by laughing too hard. Meir rarely gives tickets. He said “they remember the possibility of the maximum they could lose better than a slap on the wrist and I get to look like the nice guy when I let them go.”
May you have courage for whatever you face today.
Thankful for this word, for Meir, the courage of our friend at Three Olives and your safety! Remembering that my first prayer assignment on my first trip to Israel with Pastor Jerry was in that cave in Bethlehem. I believe Joseph may have been our guide on that trip as well. That trip is when God revealed to me the difference between doing "good" and being obedient. Praise God for loving us enough to work with, through and in us!
ReplyDelete