Amman

This weekend, our team went on a trip to Amman, the capital city of Jordan. Amman is a bustling town, with about 5 million people in the greater area. From Aqaba, it is a four hour drive through desert, with an occasional speed bump to spice things up. We left for Amman on Saturday at noon and we arrived shortly before 5. We had the chance to see the Wolskey's old house in a small city outside Amman as well as the old center that has since been shut down. The drive itself was a little frustrating, as the youngest child was screaming at the top of his lunges for the duration of the trip. However, besides momentary frustration and a headache, we were ready for an exciting weekend in Amman. 

After quickly settling into the guest house, we made our way over to another workers house for Papa John's pizza. Most of the pizza here is Lebanese, so to have Western Style pizza was a blessing. During the meal, we had  the chance to meet most of the Amman team as well as the other students doing similar things as us. It was fun to hear stories and to see the passion that filled the room. On the trip we definitely eat like kings, so the meal was followed by the best brownies and ice-cream. After meeting the workers, us and the other students went out to watch Transformers 2. This was a riot as a large portion of the movie is filmed in the area. In fact, the majority of the final fighting scene is filled in Wa

di Rum, which is where we went on a jeep excursion the day prior. The audience was a little disappointed at the point when one of the guys says, "The Jordanian's are here" and only two helicopters rush in and get smoked after 5 seconds of combat. And now that I am part Jordanian, I could empathize with the pain.

Upon our arrival to the guest house, Tim and I moved our mattresses out to the roof and slept under the night sky. The temperature is substantially cooler and the cold breeze felt incredible, so good in fact that we slept right through the morning call to prayer at 4 in the morning. 

In the morning we made our way to the best falafel and hummus shop in Jordan, in fact, this is the place the King goes to get his share of hummus. Then we went and shopped around the old downtown area of Amman, followed by a trip to the ancient Roman ruins. We saw ruins that were from 2nd Century AD which was one of the craziest experiences I have ever had. Just the fact that the sites we were seeing and walking through were so old was unreal. We first walked through the ancient Roman theatre, which could sit 

6000 people and was built right into the side of the hill. From the top of the theatre, we could see the citadel, which is most known for being the place where Uriah the Hittite was killed. After walking through the various museums around the theatre we went up to the citadel. 

From the top of the mountain, you could look out to the largest residential area of Amman along with the largest free standing flag waving in the background. We continued on to the citadel, were ancient columns stood towering a hundred feet in the area. Most of the columns were ruined but the b

ase still stood firm. We proceeded to the Amman historic museum were pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, this is actually were the Scrolls were originally kept until they were moved to Israel. However, seeing part of the scrolls made the scriptures come that much more alive.  We walked around for a while in the museum finding many incredible artifacts, including an old Roman statue of Marcus Aurelius. After leaving the museum, we walked around the ruble of the main part of the citadel, next to the gigantic columns. 

Next we went to Fudruckers, home of the only American beef in the country. I think that it was so good that it actually gave everyone on the team the stomach sickness, but others say it was just bad meat. I thought the place was legit, as the restaurant provided valet parking as well as luxury burgers. After this, we went to an Arab church located a few miles outside the city. This was a special experience as we were able to experience the gathering of believers in a Muslin country. During the message, I was thinking how cool it would be if the Lord gave me the ability to understand the message so I could interpret to the team, and I honestly thought it would happen. Well it did not happen, but we did sing a song that said Hallelujah over and over so I could understand that. Honestly, it was sweet just trying to engage in another form of worship and gathering with the church. Afterward we meet with some of the members and pastors for tea and dinner, were we prayed and I shared my testimony. 

After a fun time of meeting with the members of the church and the young guys, we left to meet up with the Amman team from the previous night. We caught up with them at the local smoothie shop and enjoyed some laughs and stories of their time in Amman. Finally, after a long day Tim and I slept outside once more. We woke up at the crack of dawn and went to a home visit for a guy whose father had just past away. It was a little awkward sitting in the somber living room of a guy, with 9 of us looking at him, but his story was so powerful. Turns out he is a convert and has totally been blacklisted from everything as it is illegal to covert here. Just a testament how it is often a sacrifice, yet how we gain what we cannot lose. Then we eventually made our way to the Dead Sea.

On the way there, I was driving and was humbled as I passed through holy ground. As I drove I saw signs pointing to the Baptism site of Jesus, Jericho, Jerusalem, Mt. Nebo and Arron's Tomb. Places that I have only heard stories of were within eyesight and I just could not believe that I was in the vicinity of such places the God used to shape history. As we drove past Jericho, the Dead Sea filled the horizon with a beautiful blue shade that went beyond the eye could see to the south. It is actually about 60 miles long and 2 miles wide. As the weather was about 110 degrees outside, the water was also about 80 degrees which did not make it the most refreshing experience, but it was the first time I could float on water in my life. It was truly a powerful experience and again it just makes the scriptures become more alive as I put an image to the scriptures I read about. Praise Him.