Written By: Katherine Kunkle
We ate a quick breakfast, and jumped into the van to head to an area that looked over the valley, where we were told the story of Jesus’s birth. We then took the bus to a small Orthodox Church in Nazareth. At the church, we quickly discussed the history of the church and Christianity and the walked around to see a small fountain, located in the back of the church, that is believed to have been built before Christ. We also got to experience part of a Baptism that was taking place at the church.
Afterwards, we began to walk throughout the town on our way to a larger church that was built 30 years ago. We stopped at a spice shop, and walked through the market on our way. When we arrived at the larger church, we all separated and walked around to look at the mosaics of different countries outside, and then saw the inside. We left Nazareth for the day and headed to lunch, then back to the Children’s Village.
We were able to rest for about 2 hours, and then at 6:15 we went to a local synagogue for a Havdala service, the celebration of the end of Shabbat. At the end of the service 2 to 3 Americans paired with 2 Israelis and we discussed the ceremony and answered questions about a song that we read on a page that was handed to us. After discussing these questions, we headed back to the Children’s Village, ate pizza and then went to bed.
