We as a team have all really enjoyed our time in Jordan. Everyone is nice and welcoming. We have been blessed by cheap housing and one lady even payed for our bus fare. We have enjoyed the cool nights as we sit on rooftops watching beautiful sunsets. We as a team have also been intentional to meet with God as different person leads each morning The second day we where attempting to head to the city center by bus. We stopped to ask a local police officer for the bus stop. After a very long conversation using broken english and google translate he invited us to his house for the day instead.
We had a great time meeting his family that day. His Father Mechlick spoke some english which was a blessing. We spent a lot of time sitting in the front of his house eating fruit from his trees and drinking coffee and tea as well as being taught Arabic. He even took us to Mt. Nebo which is where Moses viewed the promise land before he died. It hit me hard to look around and know that the Israelites walked through the same land that I was standing on as they crossed the Jordan into the promise land.
View into the promise land from Mt. Nebo
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He invited us all back on Monday for a Muslim holiday that celebrated when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac (Muslims believe that it was Ishmael) and God provided a ram instead. They celebrate by sacrificing a Ram and sharing it with family, friends and the poor. There was not much of a ceremony that went into the sacrifice or even the meal, I guess I was expecting something more old testament for some reason.
We did not end up sacrificing the Ram until tuesday so we actually spent the night on Monday. He took us to mt Nebo again to watch the sunset over the promise land. After dinner we headed up to the roof to smoke hookah and sit around a fire with everyone before heading off to bed.
Ben and I where the last ones left upstairs with Mecklick. He asked if Ben and I wanted to sleep on the roof, we said yes so he made us a bed and told us to lay down. He then grabbed some blankets and we both thought he would lay them over us. Instead he laid down right in between us with the blankets over all of us. Now these mats really only had room for Ben and I. But he fit right in even putting his hand on my hip at some point in the night. We had reached family statues quickly as I had only just meet Mecklick two days ago. Ben and I both went to bed that night laughing..
Ben heather and I ended up staying one more night as Mecklick took us to the dead sea on Wednesday. Swimming in the dead sea was more than I imagined it to be. You really do just float, you don’t even have to tread water you just bob up and down with the water line five inches below your neck.. It is even hard to do the breaststroke because you feet float to much out of the water. It was a great experience and one that I was on my bucket list for a long time.
With Mecklick at the dead sea.
It was wonderful hanging with the family even if it was hard to communicate at times (thank God for google translate). The family loved us very well and made sure all our needs where taken care of. They knew that we were Christians, but they did not mind they said we where Saldeer re (friends in Arabic). We even got into small discussions comparing the Koran to the bible as well as talking about old testament history. This really showed me the importance of relationship building for long term missionaries. I wish we had more time to return as well as speak the language to share more of God’s love with the family. I hope they saw something different in us as Christians than maybe what they have perceived from past experience or the media.
Dinner the first night
Please continue to pray that we can continue to make contacts like this in the future. Also that we can convey through our love for each other as well as the people we meet the Love that Jesus has for everyone. Thank you so much for all your prayers over the last eight months. I believe that they are part of the reason why we are in Jordan and seeing so much favor from God.
