by Olivia Kelley
Day four in Israel started out filming at the Mount of Olives. When we first arrived on sight, it was extremely crowded and hard to film. However, our team worked together to block off a space on the Mountain and keep people away while the A crew filmed interviews. Afterwards, we had some time to check out the view and a few students even had the chance to take a camel ride.
Next stop was the Israel Museum. We didn’t film here, but we were able to walk through and see a model of what the Old City of Jerusalem looked like 2,000 years ago. We also were able to see the Shrine of the Book which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls. We were able to view them along with many other artifacts from the biblical era.
Before heading to our next stop, we said goodbye to our Israeli tour guide, Oshri. We were going to Bethlehem, which is unsafe territory for him as it is owned by Palestinians. We met our new tour guide, George, for lunch. He is a Christian who was born and raised in Bethlehem and he would be showing us around for the remainder of the day.
Our first stop in Bethlehem was the shepherds fields where the Angels would have appeared singing the night Jesus was born. We filmed overlooking the mountain that the fields sit on. We then did some exploring and had the opportunity to film inside of a cave that shepherds would have once lived in. Caves were common homes back then as they are temperature controlled. George even told us that his father lived in a cave as a child.
After having a short time of prayer together, we moved on to the Church of the Nativity which stands on the spot that is believed to be where Jesus was born. We did not film inside of here, because it was extremely crowded. We stood in line for about an hour to go down into the cave where the manger would have been. We all had the chance to reach down and touch the stone where they believe He was placed as well as view the manger. Then, we gathered in a circle and sang “Away in a Manger” together before heading out. We made one more pit stop in Bethlehem to do some gift shopping before making our way back to the hotel in Jerusalem.
