Ma Saa al Kheer, Good evening!

I’m a little later in writing this week. We just got back from the northern mountains of Jordan….. such beautiful country, with breath taking views, and wonderful historical sites. We were part of organizing a 4-day conference for the Young Single Adults in the Middle East. Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan were all represented. It was a wonderful experience being with these young people ranging from 18–30. We had several Americans that came that have been in Egypt going to school or working. They were a big help in helping us communicate with most of them only speaking Arabic. Many of the American students in Egypt are there because they are studying Arabic. It was good for all involved. On Friday we went to an area called Tishbe of Gilead, which is supposed to be the birth place of the prophet Elijah, the Thishbite.(Kings 17-2 Kings 2 and 2 Chr. 21:12-15) I just finished reading about him. It makes him come to life seeing the area.) Tishbe is an ancient village, it looks deserted, but there are still a small number of people living in some of the old ruins. Overlooking Tishbe are some old ruins of a large Christian church with beautiful hand carved stones and mosaic floors. This church site, called Mar Elias, was destroyed by an earthquake many hundreds of years ago and is said to be one of the oldest Christian churches in the world. On Saturday morning John and I were in charge of a service project. We decided to help one of the churches we have been working with as Humanitarian missionaries. It is an old Catholic Church that has an orphanage and school. It is in an area of Jordan called Ajlun. We started with fixing the many broken windows in the school, which would be a real problem since the cold weather will be here soon. They have no heat in the building and the children have to wear coats during school and most don’t have gloves to wear. But, we are working on getting some heaters for them through LDS Charities. The children have been playing in a concrete parking lot because the playground has been in shambles. We came in and fixed old broken swings and built new ones. Fixed an old beat-up merry-go-round and painted it with beautiful colorful colors. Found and brought in an old see-saw that we had welded and fixed up. Fixed the fences and took out barbwire that was all over it and painted all the poles in bright colors. Raked the dirt and evened out the deep ruts. Now, I have to add we had a hard time finding rakes. There is not much, I mean NO grass here to rake, but here is a lot of dirt and dust. Inside the kindergarten we painted cartoon character on the dull drab colorless walls. One of our missionary couples had some artistic family members visiting from the states and they came the day before to draw them on the walls so we could come in on Saturday to paint it. WOW, it looks great, so colorful and inviting. It is so wonderful to be a part of so much good, coming from so many different kinds of people and from so many different parts of the world. It was quite a sight to see. Especially seeing these young adults from different cultures coming together for the same cause.

Our next adventure was visiting Umm Qays one of the 10 Decapolis cities. This is a historical Roman city that Christ had visited many times. Still has the stone colonnaded main street running through the ruins. Within the city there stands a very large semi-circular theater- all the seats, and the stone seats actually had backs which also were carved out of stones with such beautiful stone carvings. Throughout the whole city there are beautiful detailed carvings with huge pillars and archways still standing in such magnificent glory. But the most breath-taking site of all was the view. As we stood on top of the mountain we overlooked the spectacular view of the Jordan valley, the Sea of Galilee, and the Golan Heights with the sunset starting to rest on the back drop of the mountains in the distance. It was a magnificent sight to behold. I felt such reverence standing there, witnessing such beauty and feeling the sacredness of this holy land of Jordan. Not far off where we stood was the spot that is recorded in Mark and Luke in the New Testament when Christ cast out a legion of devils, who then entered the swine and “the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea”). Well, enough of our history lesson for this week. It was a wonderful conference and everyone seemed to have a very good and rewarding time.

We had our first real authentic Jordanian Ramadan meal this week. We were invited to Al Hamra a community in the desert for a “break fast” by Abdulla Al Wash, president of one of the societies we are considering to work with. This meal is the evening meal that the Muslins break their fast. During Ramadan they don’t eat or drink during the day light hours. So by the time evening comes they are ready to feast! We were invited and introduced to members of the society. I’m sure they wanted the opportunity to show us what they do to serve the communities in that area in the hopes of partnering with them. There is a great need with their focus on aiding the handicapped. We weren’t sure what to expect. We had felt a little reluctant and apprehensive because of some past negative comments. Nothing to do with us, there had been some misunderstandings and miscommunication concerning another matter long before we got to Jordan. But we went…. praying in the hopes of clearing up the matter. As we were looking for the place, we saw Abou waving us down. He is a tall black man we had met a few weeks ago while at another society whom we had felt a friendship with immediately. We both felt relieved and very happy to see him. When we walked up and started meeting the other members we felt peace and felt good about being there. We were very welcome. It’s those feelings that you thank the Lord for!!!! When we got the invitation that morning I knew I would probably be the only woman there. I was! Women and children do not eat with the men; they stay back in one of the back rooms and wait to eat after the men finish what they want. We were invited into a small room that had two bare metal tables set up. On each table there were three very large round platters of rice piled up into a mound with meat (I think it was chicken) placed around the base of the rice. We all stood around the tables, left hand behind our backs, right hand ready to dig in. Now, can you picture this…. me, the only woman in the middle of all this, no spoon, no napkin just six big community platters with each having 4-5 men digging in, all at one time. I wished I had taken a picture! The rice is rolled up into a small sticky ball with the right hand (must be the right, has something to do with the customs) and then the thumb is used to flip the rice ball into your mouth. Now, I have to tell you, they did eventually bring me a big spoon to eat with. But I did try the hand thing. You would of been proud of me. Dad had a good time. You know him- He said he thought it was a great idea. It sure saves on the dishes!

We think of you all so often and pray that you are all well. We love hearing from you and thank you for supporting us through your emails. We feel so blessed. We are learning and growing with each experience and thank the Lord every day for His love and tender mercies in our lives and yours. Have a wonderful week! Have some fun!

Quote: “You won’t get any fun out of the things you haven’t done”

We love you all,

Love your Jordan Missionaries