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Adel offered to drive us to other attractions in Bethlehem. Adam tossed over the keys and away we went. We stopped at the Milk grotto and then the Shepard’s field. The Milk Grotto is a church built above the cave where the Holy Family hid before fleeing to Egypt to avoid Herod’s decree. A drop of milk that fell while Mary was nursing Jesus is said to have colored rocks in this area giving chalk from the rocks fertility powers.

The adjoining town of Beit Sahour is the setting for the biblical book of Ruth and where an angel announced the birth of Christ to sheppard’s who watched their flock by night.