When we served as volunteers at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, one of our coworkers was a Palestinian Christian from the West Bank. We visited his church in Bethlehem one Sunday and learned a lot about them: The hardship they endure because of their faith and the sacrifice they make for the Lord Jesus.
I’ve written that experience into my book, Love at the Garden Tomb (Amazon Author Page:
https://www.amazon.com/author/love.respect.grace). Below is an excerpt from the book. Since it’s long, I’ve broken it into three parts. This is Part 3.
Omer shot to his feet. “One more thing to do. I ought to take you to the Church of the
Nativity. Has Josh visited Bethlehem before? You’ve got to see the Church.”
“Are you sure you have time? I know Adam has seen it before. I don’t want to cause unnecessary trouble.” Josh also stood up.
Adam patted his shoulder. “Omer is right. Coming to Bethlehem and not seeing the
Church? It’s unthinkable. It’s the oldest church in the Holy Land that is still in use.”
Josh recalled the information he found on the internet. The Church was first built by Emperor Constantine. It was destroyed and rebuilt in the 6th century and then renovated by the crusaders five hundred years later.
Tourists packed the whole place. Josh strolled along with his friends. In the deepest corner of the church’s basement, he looked at the star that marked the spot where Christ was born, his mind drifting toward the Bible verses about the birth of the Lord. “She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
One simple sentence in the Gospel of Luke. Yet it conveyed an earth-shattering event. The Almighty God was not only born into human history as a baby but also let it occur in the lowliest place of a small town. Gratitude and guilt mingled in his heart as he repeated the sentence in silence, “No room for them in the inn,” and hummed a hymn to himself.
Have you any room for Jesus,
He who bore your load of sin?
While they emerged from the Church, Omer’s voice interrupted him. “The best place to view the top of the Church is from the olive wood factory. It’s just two minutes away.”
From the Blessings gift shop, the view of the three monasteries, the bell towers, and the large compound surrounding the buildings spread before Josh. “It’s gorgeous.”
Omer grinned. “If you’re done, we can go to the checkpoint now.”
“Let’s go. I really want to see what hurdles you have to face every day.” Adam tilted his body forward with curiosity.
“My brothers, unless you were there at five in the morning on weekdays, you wouldn’t know what we have to go through.”
“I figure it’s empty at this time. At least we can see the site with our own eyes.” Adam led the way toward the street. “Tell us again what it’s like.”
“Although the entire trip isn’t even 15 kilometers, as you can see on Google Maps, it usually takes me about three hours to get to the Garden Tomb. My work permit allows me to enter Israel, but I must leave by the end of the day.” Omer waved a hand in the air. “You’ll see there is a 26-foot-tall cement wall with watch towers separating us from Israel. We squeeze first into the ‘cages,’ the long, barred passageways. After that, we jam into ‘chicken pluckers,’ ‘the clicking turnstiles,’ and then pass the ‘aquariums,’ where the Israeli soldiers sitting behind thick bulletproof glass match each face to the ID. Because of the metal detectors, we need to rip off our belts and press our thumbs on fingerprint readers.”
Adam nodded. “It is similar to the security checkpoint at the airport.”
“Yes.” Omer gave out a hollow laugh. “Except we do it twice a day together with thousands of others. Furthermore, on the spur of the moment, the guards can close down the checkpoint for ‘security reasons’ and turn us back home. We’ll lose a day’s wage or sometimes even our job because of constant absences.”
As Omer’s car pulled into the entrance to Checkpoint 300, Josh saw the cement wall and the barred passageways. Yet nobody was in line. They waved goodbye to Omer and went through it in less than ten minutes.
Please pray for our brothers and sisters in West Bank. If interested, you can google using terms such as “Palestinian Christians” to learn more about this subject.
