Hello!  Still here in Bethlehem.  Wonderful day full of great conversations.  We are seeing wonderful sights each day, seeing the holy land is wonderful.  However, the people are what are making this the most amazing part of this journey.  Today we talked with many Palestinians about their life under occupation.  We walked some of the wall that is under construction, and let me tell you this is sad.  Very.  It is really hard for me to understand how a people who so hurt, destroyed in the Holocaust can so soon forget and be treating another people in this way.  Now, having said that I do acknowledge that not all Israeli's are Jewish and not all those who are Jewish are Israeli.  But in general this is the case.  Wait until I can post pictures...you will hardly believe this place.

A great thing about our hotel here in Bethlehem is that we are in the center of things in the city.  Everything we need, everyplace we need to be is close by.  Everyone here walks. In fact pedestrians have the right of way, they own the road...and cars simply have to inch along trying to get from place to place.  Trust me it is quicker to walk. 

We also saw Mar Saba Monastery today.  Men were allowed to enter and the women were allowed to hike up a steep hill and look down upon the monastery...beautiful. 

I hope you are all well and know that I think of you always.

Here is a part of the prayer service I led today in shepherd's field...
"Heavenly Father, we praise you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to be born in Bethlehem to become one of us.  As we thank you and praise you for the birth of you Son, we find ourselves in the midst of violence and hatred that seem to have no end.  we feel helpless in from of the political and military might of this world.  We look around us and find no salvation in human beings, but only in our incarnated Lord." Bishop Munib Younan, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and Palestine

(By the way we are meeting with Bishop Younan next week.)