Bethlehem

To answer my mom's question...it does not lie silently and it is not little. The town has grown substantially since Jesus' birth. The shepherd's field (which we saw today) is now even in town! There are the remains of the caves that they used to live in though so it gives a whole new visual to the shepherd sleeping at the opening to the sheep pen. It far from silent. Bethlehem is in Palistine which is not part of Israel. There is infact a wall that surrounds Palistine and the refugees from the war are not allowed to leave the city! There is a large muslim population that lives here and the mosques broadcast prayer 5 times a day which includes one call to prayer circa 4 am which will wake even the soundest sleeper. People here are also terrible drivers...even worse than Ben and Andy so the there is always the sound of beeping horns.

This morning we had the opportunity to go back where we played last night and do a clinic with the women we played with yesterday. They were very happy to have us back because though they love to play volleyball, they have never been tought to play. We played the team at the Bethlehem University this afternoon. The most fun thisg for the girls was getting to mix with the other team and play. We are building some great relationships here. We have invited everyone we have met to a party we are hosting Sunday and it is amazing to see the positive response we are getting. Please continue to pray for our ministry and for the people that we are meeting. We play again tomorrow night. Thankfully we have the morning off and I think we are going to go float in the Dead Sea!