Jordan Trip 2019

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How Great is our God

"Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place And gave Him the name that is above every name."

Philippians 2:9

Walking to church this evening we met a young boy with an amazing spirit. He hides his arm, scarred from surgery as a result of a bombing. He was out selling gum at an intersection to make money to buy his family food. We bought the gum and he decided to come to church with us.

While most of the worship was in Arabic, we could sense His presence. Our new friend was all smiles, he felt God’s presence and love in the music and the message. Our friend could sense that this was different. He stayed with us for dinner and plans to visit us at World Relief “the tomorrow of tomorrow.”

The pastor, aware that there were non-Arabic speakers in the service, arranged on the spot for us, and other English speakers, to go to a separate room with a translator. This accommodation is made frequently, English speakers are frequently there.

How great is our God that we are in Mafraq today?

How great is our God that we chose to walk instead of taking a taxi, so we could share God’s love and hope for our new friend?

How great is our God that he could experience church with us?

How great is our God that He is not overwhelmed with the enormity of the problems that we are easily overwhelmed by?

How great is our God that we can worship Him together with the body of Christ across cultures and languages?

How great is our God that David (Madder) can slay a cockroach without a sling and stone? 

The Road to Jordan

Days 1-2 (June 27-28)
We arrived safely in Jordan today, but the journey here was quite an adventure. On Thursday, six of our seven-person team (Roger is meeting up with us on Saturday) left Baltimore at 1:00 pm, in two cars bound for Dulles. One group arrived, had little difficulty checking in and relatively short lines in security. The other group, only five minutes behind on the road, faced numerous obstacles. From the parking garage being closed as they pulled up to it, the ticket agents informing them that they had seats, but were on the “standby list,” too long lines in security, they arrived at the gate, only to have to stand in another line to find out which seats they actually had. With a sigh of relief and a prayer of praise, we ate a light dinner and waited to board the plane.

At 5:35 pm we sat, fastened in our seats, on the plane; the engine began to rumble, and we taxied away from the gate. Looking out of the right side of the plane, we noticed the sky was turning dark. The co-captain came over the speakers, first in German (we were flying Austrian Air), then English, to inform us we were surrounded by storms and that we needed to let them pass before taking off. Two hours later we finally took off. As we soared into the sky, David looked out the window, and through a break in the clouds, saw a rainbow, a promise that everything would be OK.

If you have ever flown red-eye, you know that it is a mostly sleepless night, fraught with tight quarters, crying babies, and flight attendant yelling at you to put your seatbelt on.
Luckily, we had a wide variety of free movies to occupy our time. For those of you who know us well, can you guess who watched which movie? Captain Marvel, Notting Hill, Bohemian Rhapsody, Sound of Music, A Star is Born.

Since our layover was consumed by the initial delay, we ran, Home Alone style, to catch our connecting flight from Vienna to Amman. Boarded, and buckled, we were in the homestretch, only three more hours until we would arrive in Amman, Jordan. Bubbling with excitement, we watched the desert landscape come into view.

We exited the plane and made our way to the security checkpoint, one of our team realized their passport was left on the plane. Now being on the buddy system, two of our team headed back toward the plane. Those remaining were to go through the visa and passport checkpoint, get the luggage, and find someone from the airline to help. After standing in the wrong line, we were redirected and quickly processed, luggage retrieved, and we walked through customs with waves and smiles from the officials. We walked around the bend, and there it was, Starbucks, caffeine to get us through the rest of the day. Back on the other side of customs, our two team members were successful and reclaimed the passport.

We were met by Lena from World Relief and took a short ride to our hotel in Amman. We checked in, rested and washed up, and headed out for dinner. As we walked, we spoke about how thankful we to be here. At dinner, we laughed over to bumps we had encountered to get here and marveled at all the blessings we had been gifted along the way.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Romans 8:28

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