Journey to Jordan

These past four days I have spent in Jordan. It was a really fun trip! We started off by crossing the Israeli-Jordanian Border at the King Hussein Bridge over the River Jordan. Our first stop after picking up our Jordanian tour guide and security guard was Mount Nebo. It is the place where Moses raised a serpent on a pole and looked out over the Holy Land before being translated. He also gave his last sermon in Deuteronomy on that mountain. It had a great view that showed me how small the Holy Land really is. To the north, the towers of the city of Amman were clearly visible and below us we could see the River Jordan, Jericho and even as far as the Mount of Olives.
From there we traveled south to a huge crusader castle called Shobak. It was sweet! The Crusaders originally built it upon a steep hill overlooking a wadi and it was taken over by Salahedin before the 3rd Crusade. It was a well preserved building with a tunnel that went straight down into the ground 35 stories to a well that supplied the castle with water in old days. To finish the day, we went to our hotel in Petra, an ancient city in Southern Jordan, famous for being used in Indiana Jones the Last Crusade.
Petra is one of the new 7 wonders of the world with the Great Wall of China, the Tajmahal, and Machu Pichu. Petra was amazing! It looked exactly like Southern Utah with red sandstone rock and slot canyons. Everywhere in this rock face were carved huge burial halls, houses, monasteries, and the famous Treasury. I loved Petra and found it just as impressive as the Pyramids of Egypt. We spent most of our second day walking around in the old canyons where the ancient city was located. The things they were able to carve out of solid rock just blew me away, like a huge amphitheater. The city was unknown to outsiders because the Bedouins kept it secret. They believed that the caves of the city held great treasures. Indiana Jones was the thing that made the city internationally famous and ever since then it has been the number 1 tourist spot in Jordan. To finish the day, we left for Amman, the capital city in the north of the country.
On the third day, we traveled to the ancient Roman city of Jerash which is north of Amman. It was one of the cities in the old Roman Decopolis in Jordan and Syria including Philadelphia (modern day Amman) and Damascus. Jerash is the best preserved Roman city in Jordan. The architecture of the ancient Romans is just astounding. The city included well preserved amphitheater, marketplace, and a huge temple for the Goddess Diana. Most of the city was ruined in a huge earthquake, but the Jordanian government, with some international funding, have been able to piece it all back together. To finish the day, we made a visit to the Branch building of the Amman Branch and had a fireside with the Branch President and then spent the night in Amman.
The Fireside was really interesting. President Hoffman works with the Defense Department in the Middle East and spoke with us about how the Lord uses us to be instruments in His hands. He started his career with the desire to learn Russian and work for the government in Cold War-age Europe. But when he took the tests for the defense department and got high scores, they decided that he was smart enough to learn Arabic and so he was assigned to the Middle East. He has done a lot of consulting with both the wars in Iraq, interviewing local Beduin tribes to see if they supported Saddam Hussein or not. He told a funny story of when he went to visit a Beduin Sheik in his tent in the middle of the desert. The Sheik gave him some water (after offering him coffee and tea) and asked him how he knew how to speak Arabic if he wasn't Muslim or Arab. It just blew his mind. Then the Sheik sneakily had him repeat the Shahada (I profess that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet. It is the first pillar of Islam that if a person repeats, he becomes a Muslim.) and after he said it, the man said, "Great, now you are a Muslim. Would you like to marry my sister?"
He spoke a lot of the importance of church members in spreading the gospel in the Middle East. 20 years ago, there were only a handful of Arabic speakers in the whole church. Today there are branches in Amman, Damascus, Cairo, and another small city in Jordan that have significant Arab membership. There is one in Northern Jordan that has only Arabs, the only Arabic speaking branch in the church. Today there are large numbers of Arabic speaking members that work in the governments of several countries and the numbers are growing. Who knows what the future will bring, especially with the war in Iraq and the new outreach President Obama has made to the Arab world. By the way, his speech in Cairo was very well written and well received by most Arabs. His words made me think of how I could be an instrument in the Lords hands to help the people here. They are such good people, family centered with values not much different from ours. Honest, modest in dress, they don't drink alcohol, and they fear God more than man. Just a little side note, they have a missionary couple called to the Amman Jordan mission and they teach the gospel to those who wish to learn, though the non-proselyting rules make it difficult. However, the church still is growing there.
To finish the day, we went to the Royal car museum. The Kingdom of Jordan is ruled by Abdullah III, a Hashemite. The Hashemites are descendants from the Prophet Muhammad and Abdullah is the 42nd is line, supposedly. They are beloved by the Jordanian people and also very wealthy. His museum included many Mercedes, Porsches, a few Ferraris, and surprisingly enough, some Harleys. He loves to ride his Harleys around the country to visit people. He is known to dress up like a normal person and go to government agencies and try to do things normal people do, like get medical attention at hospitals, receive welfare checks, etc. He then makes changes in his government according to what he experiences. The people love him for this.
On our last day, we went to a huge mosque that King Abdullah built for the people in Amman called the Blue mosque and we also visited the ancient Roman ruins of Philadelphia. On our trip back to Israel, we stopped by Bethany beyond Jordan where Jesus was baptized. It is the border of Jordan and Israel, so it was cool to have Jordanian soldiers watching us while we stepped into the River Jordan and only a few yards away was the Israeli side. Then we took a few hours crossing the border and arrived back in Israel. Our trip to Jordan was really fun, mainly because of the great group of friends I've made here and also because of how much cleaner and friendlier it was than Egypt. I loved the experience.