A few months ago my wife Molly & I took a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Israel as part of an amazing journey with the Israel Collective. These are my journal entries over the course of the trip. Today’s post is the fourth installment. More to come!

DAY FIVE / 2.12.22 / 9:40AM / Bethlehem

Pastor Steven’s First Baptist Church in Bethlehem.

Back to the West Bank today. We’re sitting inside Pastor Steven’s church in Bethlehem learning about the history of his congregation. His church is made of light stone on the outside and is a touch threadbare on the inside - but filled with spirit.

Quote of the day: “There is enough room in the heart of the Father to love the Jew and the Arab.”

Steven’s father is an evangelical pastor who founded this church. This means Steven grew up an evangelical Christian in an overwhelmingly Muslim community. It’s a persecuted church; Steven was once almost beaten to death and the building has been firebombed multiple times (14 to be precise).

Steven’s dad became a born again Christian and met the head of a Baptist Seminary during a fateful trip to the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem (my favorite). This meeting would ultimately result in Steven’s dad becoming a seminarian and getting his degree. He went on to found this church and ten other ministries.

Steven thinks about his work as developing ‘return on the soul’. He says that quick ‘fast food’ conversions don’t work here. It takes serious investment & time. People need to experience significant, sustained uplift to their soul within a committed community. The church maintains a safe house for converts. Oftentimes the families of the converts are (initially) upset and the converts themselves face danger & persecution. Steven’s church helps provide employment opportunities and various other support mechanisms for those who are persecuted. Steven is an energized, inspired man.

Evangelism is different within Muslim communities. Most Arabs in Bethlehem (and elsewhere) aren’t religious Muslims so much as they are cultural Muslims. Moreover, Christian conversion is a big cultural taboo and familial betrayal. It’s hard being a Christian in Bethlehem.

Did you know the name Bethlehem translates to “House of Bread”?

[Later that day]

Our tour guide in Bethlehem was Johnny - a lovely Palestinian Christian man who hadn’t seen tourists like us in MONTHS. We were one of his first groups back since COVID and he was very grateful to have us, as were so many other vendors and businesses we met during our visit. Yoav, our Israeli tour guide, didn’t come with us into Palestinian territory on this day because it’s dangerous for Israelis to go into Bethlehem without security.

As we made our way to the next stop, Johnny echoed Paster Steven’s story about the difficulties of being a Christian in Bethlehem. The city was once 80% Christian. Today that number is less than 20% because of twin pressures from 1) demographic change and 2) persecution of Christians by many in the surrounding Muslim community.

Where the heck are we? Bethlehem is just outside Jerusalem.

We then arrived at a local hotel where we met a young man whose real name I won’t mention. For the purpose of this entry, I’ll just call him M. We weren’t allowed to use our cameras or video recorders inside the hotel during our meeting with M out of concern for his safety. M is a Palestinian dissident who spoke with us about his criticisms of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), specifically their outrageous level of corruption and the abuse of basic rights they continually perpetrate against the Palestinian people. He told us that the PLO leadership is the main culprit behind the suffering of Palestinians and not some type of Israeli apartheid system. All M wanted for his people was basic rights, a better quality of life and the ability to hold his government accountable as a free citizen. I couldn’t help but think about how often we take such things for granted in the United States.

I was moved by his courage and his grasp of how important the principles of classical liberalism are. Such concerns have been on my heart A LOT lately. Economic freedom, individual rights, rule of law, free & fair elections; these are building blocks of a society where human beings can thrive. M learned his English by working as a waiter in a Bethlehem hotel restaurant. He had his intellectual awakening after meeting with an American guest who took the time to engage with him and provide him access to unbiased news and good faith counter arguments.

M was remarkable - a real inspiration. He made me think about how critical it is to appreciate basic freedoms and that Americans must better understand how rare and precious Western democracy is. We hold a privileged position within all of human history. When you couple democratic concepts with the right habits of the heart (tolerance, respect, charity etc.) and add a dash of market economics, whole societies can change. I hope he gets to see such change in his country.

Our time in Bethlehem ended with a visit to the Shepherds’ Field - a holy site where King David once tended his sheep as a boy, where Ruth & Boaz met in a simple & powerful affirmation of life, and where shepherds received their call from on high to find the baby Jesus (or so the Biblical story goes).

The fields themselves were more of scenic hillside honey combed with caves. The caves have been used by local shepherds for hundreds of years. The hillside overlooked a gentle valley and was topped by a church. We gathered in that church and sang … Christmas hymns! Appropriate given the location.

If you want to learn more about the Israel Collective, click HERE. If you’d like to learn more about our great tour guide, Yoav Rotem, click HERE.

Historic America in Israel: Aaron's Travel Journal PART 4