Jordan Trip

Saturday morning, 23 January, at 6am we boarded a bus for the Jordan border with students from US, Canada, Australia, & New Zealand. Jack Beck, JUC extension professor, forewarned us of the possible long border crossing. It was not difficult, just took a while. Once we were all processed through in Jordan, our tour guide met us. His name is Zopher, a Jordanian educated at Texas A&M College Station . . . and proud of it! He dubbed Nat & me "Texas" and enjoyed talking with us throughout the 3-day trip.

We first toured the "Decapolis Cities", beginning with the ruins of Gadara http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umm_Qais It is here where some historians place Jesus' healing of the demon possessed man in the gospels, i.e. Luke 8:26-38. We walked through the tombs where the afflicted man lived. Didn't see any pigs . . .

and Jerash

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerash Nat & I even had opportunity to dance the jitterbug in an amphitheater. The band??? Arabian bagpipes & drums, of course!

Then we had a 5-hour drive to Petra, arriving late in the evening for dinner at the nice hotel, a warm bath, and good night's sleep. Up for breakfast at 6:30am, and a short walk to the entrance of the ancient city of Petra. I have long wished I could visit this mesmerizing place, having been told about it in a home Bible study several years ago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra .

The impressive eastern entrance leads steeply down through a dark, narrow gorge (in places only 3–4 m (9.8–13 ft) wide) called the Siq ("the shaft"), a natural geological feature formed from a deep split in the sandstone rocks and serving as a waterway flowing into Wadi Musa. At the end of the narrow gorge stands Petra's most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh (popularly known as "the Treasury"), hewn into the sandstone cliff.

It was a beautiful day, so when we rounded a corner and saw the Treasury, my breath was taken away by the sunlight dramatically highlighting the pink/peach colored building! And you can clearly see the hundres of bullet marks shot by the Bedouins and others. Al Khazneh has appeared in many Hollywood movies, gaining particular fame featured in the 1989 film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (represented as the entrance to the final resting place of the Holy Grail).

Petra is much, much larger than we anticipated. I'm certain we only scratched the surface of things to see there. But we already know we will return in April with Dr. Wright's class. He tells us that trip will be more extensive, so we're already looking forward to it! So on this trip, we just meandered around and drank in the sites. We also fell in love with a young Bedouin girl named Fosia (sp?). She wanted to give me a lovely beaded necklace, refusing payment. She just wanted me to have it. In the end, we thanked her very generously. Her English was very good. She said she learned "from the tooo-rists". We spent quite a bit of time with her, just visiting. We plan to find her again in April and take her a special gift. We would say that Fosia is the real treasure hidden away in ancient Petra!

Nat also bought some postcards from some really cute Bedouin girls dressed in traditional clothing.

After lunch, we drove to ancient Edom (descendants of Easau), then on to the capital city of Jordan, Ammon. It is a large, modern city with photos of King Abdullah and his late father, King Hussein, looming everywhere! We stayed in the beautiful 4-star Geneva Hotel. Dinner, accommodations, and breakfast were luxurious and abundant!

While in Amman we visited the museum which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_scrolls

8am on Monday, we were off to Medeba (Numbers 21:30) where we visited a church which houses the only known ancient map of Palestine including the city map of Jerusalem in existence. It was made about the year 565 from more than two million colored stone cubes. The center of the map is Jerusalem. We then had a leisurely three course lunch in the courtyard of a pretty European style restaurant.

Back on the bus, it began raining with small hail or ice pellets and the wind was blowing rather hard. It didn't stop us from visiting Mt. Nebo where Moses was taken by God and shown the promised land. He was also told that he would not be going with the Israelites to possess the land. Why? Numbers 20:1-13 To quench the thirst of the people during their journey, God told Moses to speak to a rock and water would come out. Moses not only spoke to the rock . . . he struck it. Water did come out, but Moses reaped the severe consequences of his disobedience. The scriptures go on to say that God buried Moses in the valley of Moab, and his grave has never been found (Deuteronomy 34:1-8). Our instructor, Jack, said that for water to come out of the granite like rock just by speaking to it would, indeed, be a miracle. When Moses struck it, he brought praise to himself from the people. Remember, God will not share His glory. I expect time has healed Moses' feelings, and we will see him one day soon in THE promised land!

This wrapped up our first field study trip with JUC. We were not disappointed!!!

We arrived back at JUC in time for dinner and to walk to Christ Church that evening to hear from two Holocaust survivors. It deserves its own posting.

Shalom y'all