Today I noticed that they are starting to “decorate” the city for Christmas. I’ll hold off on the pictures until they finish whatever they’re doing, but they are hanging lights in trees and such. I’ve even seen some Santa Clause statues. They very much try to make the westerners feel welcome for Christmas. We did actually get an artificial tree for our residence where we’re staying. So, I guess you’d say it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Bethlehem.

Tomorrow we are heading to Galilee for three days to visit Nazareth, Cana, Mt. Carmel and a few other places. I don’t know what the internet situation will be there, so you may not get an update until we get back on Tuesday. We’ll be going to Galilee for three more days later on, but it will be nice to able to visit the Church of the Annunciation in preparation for Christmas. This has been the greatest Advent ever. I should definitely feel prepared to celebrate our savior’s birth this year. It will be interesting to see how many more pilgrims will have arrived this week. They are hoping for a lot here and we will do our part in celebrating. Now, I’m off to dinner and I’m going to try to do better than the Blues Brothers this time. You are in my prayers.