Day 4 Church Hoppin’

O Little Town of Bethlehem, the Bread-house of the world…

We learned today that the (still) little town (“house of bread” in Hebrew and “house of meat” in Arabic), was the food provider of Jerusalem. It is poetic that Jesus, our living bread, was born here. It is poignant that today, Bethelem and Jerusalem is separated by the Wall. We went church hopping: the Church of the Nativity, the Syrian Orthodox Church of St Mary, and The Shepherd‘a Field Chapel. Since our tour guide is a member of the local Christian community, we were granted the insider access and could hold a little prayer / singing service at all three sites. Considering how only 1% of the local population is Christian, we were receiving highly privileged treatment.

Some of you may remember the song I wrote about kids playing on cobbled street. I got to see that scene today: I saw kids and their parents, and we greeted each other…My prayer in that song still stands. I will add this my prayer, taught to me by a local Christian: may there be more living stones in this place than the stones used to build these historical churches.