We know what happens next…
“The Story Doesn’t End Here”
The delightfully
unexpected is often the norm in a tourist-and-teaching setting such as
First-century Nazareth Village, just 500 meters from the ancient village’s cave home of
Mary and Joseph! Visitors on tour or for study from around 
the globe and a wide
range of religious (and non-religious) backgrounds, have made it a uniquely
international place.
But sometimes the
greatest surprises and pleasures arise from our Israeli neighbors themselves:
Jewish families spending their shabbat afternoon strolling through the Parable
Walk, into homes and first-century synagogue reconstruction, and listening to
the guides talk
about
this person Jesus who lived and taught in this area—and seeing thousands of
Muslim school children delight in the Bible stories, riding the donkeys, and
petting the new lambs!
Then
a new twist was added when the Village Christmas program brought another
interested group: a delegation and families of the Druze people of northern Israel!
Worldwide there are
about one million Druze living mainly in Syria and Lebanon, with
104,000
in Israel, including about 18,000
in the
Golan (under Israeli occupation from 1967).
The Druze community in Israel is officially recognized as a separate religious entity with its own courts (with
jurisdiction in matters of personal status—marriage, divorce, mainten-ance and
adoption) and spiritual leadership.
(cont’d)
Their
culture is Arab and their language Arabic but they opted against mainstream
Arab nationalism in 1948 and have since served in the Israeli
army and the Border Police.
They had been invited by
the Village who knew of their interests and culture. The Druze consider their
faith to be a new interpretation of the three monotheistic religions: Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
For
them, the traditional story of the Creation is a parable, which describes Adam
not as the first human being, but as the first person to believe in one god.
Since
then, the idea of monotheism has been disseminated by “emissaries” or prophets,
guided by “mentors” who embody the spirit of monotheism.
The
mentors and prophets come from all three religions, and include Jethro and
Moses, John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth, and Salman the Persian and
Mohammed—all reincarnations of
the same monotheistic idea. So the story of Jesus held obvious appeal for them,
so an initial exploratory visit was made by a group of sheiks.
The
group took the Christmas tour in the Village with participation of Nazareth Village staff and volunteers who played out scenes from the Nativity story,
followed by a first-century meal together.
It proved immensely
popular! There
were 34 Druze leaders in the
first group, and because of their approval of the experience, about 40 members of Druze
families with children followed a few days later. The sheiks
expressed
their deep appreciation after the tour.
Their
culture forbids a male religious leader be alone with a woman who is not a
close relative, nor even respond to her greeting unless a third person is
present. But Village Executive Director, Shirley Roth, was quietly approached
and thanked individually by each member of the group before they left.
One cannot really know
what impact such teaching moments have on the visitors. But Village tour guide,
Rani Espanioly, reported on a particularly moving one after the family tour he
led. “There was a very profound moment for some of them,” he said, “after
seeing the baby in a manger and the shepherds and others looking on. As the
visitors were leaving I made a closing remark that, The story doesn’t end
here; rather this is but the beginning. A young lad looked up to his father
said, ‘Why doesn’t the story end here? So what happens next?’”
It’s an inspirational
and incarnational moment of the type that keeps repeating itself
at
the Village. <>
“Jews…and Arabs,
we hear them preaching in our
own language about the marvels of God.”
It’s Acts 2:11 all over
again!
Right from
the time of Pentecost it was clear that God was as multilingual as the humanity
created in God’s image, and that preaching and teaching would always be needed
in many languages. How exciting then to finally have the story of Nazareth
Village, itself a major visual and experiential representation of the story of
Jesus, to be available in the languages of the local people of Israel and
Palestine who work there, and make up a significant number of the visitors to
our site.
The Bible Society in Israel (BSI) has prev-iously
been an important supporter of educa-tional materials in collaboration with us.
Five titles in the Village Vignettes series of parables and Bible
stories were funded by them.
The publication in 2005 of the
English edition of The Nazareth Jesus Knew was under-written by Sherry
Herschend, a Board member of the Miracle of Nazareth International Foundation,
which financially supports the work of the Village.
Since then our dream has
always been to have this unique story of the creation and ministry of Nazareth
Village available in Hebrew and Arabic. Now the dream has been realized with
the release of those two new translations last month, thanks to the generous
support of the Bible Society.
The English edition continues
to be a very popular souvenir item for visitors, and is often chosen for
gift-giving as well—with over 10,000 copies already sold and distributed.
The Director of BSI, Victor
Kalisher, believes that The Nazareth Jesus Knew is truly a book that
expresses the heart of the Gospel as demonstrated in the First-Century Nazareth Village project. “It also speaks to the heart of the local people of Israel—Jews and Arabs—because it both
expresses and explains the words of Christ, a local in our midst and community
of 2000 years ago,” he said.
“As Bible Society people, we believe that
the Words of God speaks more effectively to our hearts in one’s mother tongue.
This book helps to ‘translate’ the words of Jesus through the setting of the
place where he grew up.
“Through these translations into the
ancient and local languages of Hebrew and Arabic, we can now read and hear the
Word of Christ speaking to us as if we were there with him.
“I was blessed by having the opportunity
to lead this project of producing the Arabic and Hebrew translations of the
book and I am confident that the Lord will use it to open hearts of both Jews
and Arabs to the Gospel. Even the production of this book to Arabic and Hebrew
included a blessed partnership between Jews and Arabs—like the
Nazareth Village project itself—and in same spirit of love and reconciliation.”
Message from
the Executive Director
As we begin this new decade, it is with deep
thanksgiving that we pause to reflect on the many ways in which God has blessed
this ministry during the past 10
years! Yes, that is right…in June 2010 we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary of providing
tours for visitors.
A special
anniversary issue of the Nazareth Village Grapevine will be dedicated to
reflections and highlights of our 10-year journey later this year.
During our first staff meeting in this new
year, we focused again on the Nazareth Village vision statement: “To create
a living presentation of the life, times and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth for all peoples of the world.” This goal remains central to our thinking and
efforts. Working in small groups, our staff developed their team views and
methods for implementation in practical terms of this mission during their
daily work this year.
We are pleased with the
story of our ministry activities again this past year. Approximately 40,000 visitors from all over
the world came to Nazareth Village during 2009. As you read above, such wonderful visitors as
a group of Druze sheiks and their families spent a special Christmas program
with us here, and expressed their enjoyment for the experience of hearing about
Jesus of Nazareth—as understood by
Christians. Many Jews and Muslims were among our visitors during the year.
While we received about 9,000 less in 2009 than our 2008 attendance record of
just under 50,000, we are gratified that,
during a year of significant global economic downturns, we were able to
continue to be a major tourist destination in Upper Galilee, helping us achieve
the honor granted us by the American Charisma magazine which stated that Nazareth Village has
entered the list of the Top Ten Christian sites to visit in Israel! A great
endorsement!
We look forward with anticipation to this
coming year—hoping that many of you
will visit us! Bookings are already very strong for February and March. Join
us in prayer that many people will “come and see” and that lives be touched as
they experience “a living presentation of the life, times and teach of Jesus
of Nazareth” in the context and Land in which Jesus lived.
—Shirley Roth, Nazareth
