What do I do on Sunday?

Today was my first Sunday here and since I am working with Christians and this is their day off. We worked a half day on Saturday.

Often when people think of Palestinians they think of Arabs and assume that they are Muslim. Palestinians are not all Muslim, in fact many of them are Christian. On Sunday at the Church of the Nativity several different groups worship. This morning I attended the Catholic Mass, but there is also a Greek Orthodox service and a room for tourists who want to have a service there.  Other churches that I know about are Lutherine, Evangelical and Maronite. About half of the population in Bethlehem is Christian, but it used to be a much higher number.

I am not Catholic and I do not understand Arabic, so I cannot tell for sure, but the Catholic Mass that I went to seemed pretty much the same as masses I have attended in the US.  There was a beautiful stained glass window in the church. The door to the church was extremely small. It is called the Door of Humility. It protected the church from people driving in with carts to loot and steal and also kept the most important people humble because they could not ride in with their horse.  You had to bend over to get in. 

I also had an illustration of how close Jerusalem really is. My husband, the professor, is staying in a hotel in Jerusalem with a group of scholars who are looking at archaeological sites. He called yesterday afternoon saying that he was only 15 minutes away! The problem is that in order to get into Bethlehem he had to find transportation that can cross the wall into the West Bank! He did find an Arab bus that took him to the wall, then he took a taxi from the wall to where I am staying. It took him an hour instead of 15 minutes, but it was great to see him. 

Tomorrow we will start learning Skype with the women and the kids will be starting their final videos!