On tuesday we went to Bethlehem. My teacher Dr. Mussallam that i have for my Palestinian class also is a teacher at Bethlehem University. We were able to go there and to have class with his students. It was really neat. We watched a movie that talked about the Palestinian side of the story and what happened to them during the 6 day war. It was really sad. I loved being at the school and being able to talk to the Palestinian students. Bethlehem university is a Catholic School that has both Christians and Muslims going to it. As you can see the campus of the University is really nice.

After going to Bethlehem University we went to eat at the Shephards field Village Restaurant. Here we all are waiting for our food.

Then after our lunch we walked through Bethlehem to the Church of the Nativity. This is a church that was built over the cave that the Savior Jesus Christ was born.

This is one of the statues inside the chapel part of the church. It portrays Mary as the protectorant of the baby Jesus.

Here i am in front of where the manger would have sat. The place where our Lord and Savior was placed on that blessed night. Obviously all the marble and columns weren't there when the Savior was born. They built a shrine on top of the place that the manger laid. The manger they said is somewhere is Europe. The neat thing that i learned was that the cave is shaped like an angel and where they believe the mnager was is right in the heart of the angel.

The highlight of my day in Bethlehem was when we went to the Shephards fields. It was probably on one of these hills if not on the very one that we stood on the the Shephard were watching their fields by night and an angel of the Lord pronounced the news that the Savior was born and was lying in a manger.

While we were at Shephards Field there was a little lamb there. What a perfect addition to our trip!

We had a wonderful program that night. We sat in the shepards field that looked out over the lights of Bethlehem. We sang christmas songs and were taught about the main characters in the Nativity story. We listened to musical numbers about Christ's birth and then ended with my teacher Brother Wilson telling us the Nativity story from Luke from memory. The spirit was very strong as we all pondered on what took place that night so long ago. It was amazing to like about being one of the shephards that night. I can imagine that the lights that glowed from Bethlem although smaller looked similar to the glow that we were able to see. What would it have been like to be tending your flocks and have an angel come and bare the good news that the Savior of the world had been born? What would it have been like to go and to kneel down by the babe that would be your king of kings and save you from your sins? I imagine it would have been a very wonderful, spiritual, humble thing to kneel by the Savior. I know that the Savior lives. I know that he was born on that quiet night in Bethlem so many years ago and that he live the perfect live while on this earth so that we would know how we needed to live. I know that if we follow him that we will be able to live with our Heavenly Father again someday.