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