Bethlehem Marketplace Report

4,000 people came to pay their taxes and walk the sandy streets of Bethlehem the day after Christ was born. As in the past, 80-90% of the people we talked to said they were first time visitors. When the line at the front doors would get long, I would talk to some people to see where they came from and if this was their first time coming. The best story I heard was from a family from Ohio – mother, dad, and teenage daughter. The mom said “I heard about this six years ago. Our daughter is a senior in high school and this was one of the things we wanted to do before she leaves home.” I thought to myself, most families have on their “bucket list” to go to Chicago, or New York, or Orlando before the kids graduate and leave home. This family had Bethlehem Marketplace on their list.

 

We know of people who came from Toledo, Grand Rapids, and Valparaiso to name a few places. 

 

Thank you to everyone who came and to all who worked so hard to make the Marketplace a reality.

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Many families make a special effort to give a special gift at the end of the year. This year’s designated year end giving will go toward blessing our daycare families with a free day or week of daycare. Click here for full details on year end giving.

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At this time of the year many people say to themselves, “Come next year I’m going to be more faithful in my Bible reading.” Therefore, I ask the question, what do you use for a devotion guide / Bible reading guide? Would you share it with me? If it is online, please send me a link and I will see that it gets on the FMC website for others to use too. Thanks.