Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

We're catching up today for the past three days, which have been quite full indeed.  On Tuesday, we got to meet with our ministry leaders for this region, which was very enlightening, surprising, and encouraging....things you won't hear from the media.  We'll have to share details in person, but suffice it to say that God is doing incredible things!  This is a golden time for outreach, a critical time to take advantage of doors that are opening and the seeking minds of young people especially.  The conference began Tuesday night with great excitement and praise as young women gathered from various towns, outside of Cairo primarily.  Laura was feeling ill, so a couple of us stayed behind with her (we have all had various degrees of tummy ailments, common for international travel).  Thankfully, she was feeling better by the next day, and we were all able to attend the conference for the sessions on Biblical counseling.  Today, Thursday, we returned to the conference for some impacting sessions on realizing who we really are, our identity in Christ, which is especially important for women here.  We had some very special times to pray individually with some of the young women, share personal testimonies, and feel strong bonds with our sisters here.  

It's hard to believe that our time here has drawn to a close.  We have shared incredible experiences, met extraordinary people, and have had our minds and hearts deeply touched by what we have seen, felt and heard here.  Many stereotypes have certainly been stripped away; we have a better big picture of this region, and feel even more challenged and convicted about the importance of strategic ministry here.  We are humbled by the courage and dedication of the believers.  It's safe to say that each of us has been changed with indelible memories etched in our minds.  We realize even more the power and essential role of prayer and desire to pray fervently for these countries and their people, especially our brothers and sisters.

This has been a tremendous team; they have given themselves openly and compassionately to the people and blessed them deeply.  Thank you for praying with and for us, for our ministry partners and "family" here, and for the outreaches into the most unreached areas in the world.  May we all pray increasingly for this strategic region of the world, support and encourage the believers who are serving faithfully, and may we see His work increase as more and more people come to know Him and find true life.

Sunday and Monday

Oh, come let us adore Him!  We had the privilege of worshiping last night in  one of the largest evangelical churches in Cairo where about 1,000 people came together for passionate worship and praise.  One of our local women's leaders shared the message about the power of prayer, our desperate need for it, and a challenge to be true pray-ers.  During Ramadan, many believers here, including this entire church, have committed to pray daily for unbelievers to come to know God in a personal way.  Tonight we went to their weekly Monday night prayer meeting; we guessed that there were probably 1,200 people there to pray!  It is especially heartening to see so many men involved in worship and prayer. An enormously gifted man led the worship tonight with a version of the ancient lute, accompanied by traditional drums, cymbals and other instruments.  The songs were so powerful with rich, meaningful words (they have headphones for translation for visitors so we could understand what being said and sung). There was a genuine crying out to God for Him to touch Egypt, fill it with His Spirit and turn the hearts of the people to Him.  There was special prayer for the president and other officials here.  At each point of prayer, we could substitute our own country's name when they were pleading for Egypt.  They were acknowledging their deep need for Him; how we need to do the same.

We spent the day with one of our ministry partners here, going with her to a very poor area where she has been ministering for seven years.  They were already singing when we arrived and greeted us with huge smiles and kisses on both cheeks, the traditional way of greeting here.  Several of our team members shared encouragement and words of hope from the scriptures, then we ended with a time of praying individually for these sweet women. It was truly a tender time of very sweet fellowship that will remain in our hearts for a long, long time.  Many of them brought their young children with them, beautiful children.  Afterwards, we got to spend the afternoon with our partners, learning more about their media ministry, their heart for their country, and there passion to reach the lost.  We got to view some of their productions and realize more how vital the media is today and what an enormous tool it is for sharing the gospel, especially in this region.  We are praying for them, that their ministry will be blessed and greatly expanded.

Tomorrow we will meet with more of our ministry partners here, and then the conference with the women begins tomorrow night.  Please pray for each woman coming to the conference, that this will be a time of refreshing, encouragement, and strengthening.  The work here is difficult; there are many, many challenges, and we must stand with them in seeing this land reclaimed for Christ.

Friday & Saturday

We are acclimating to Egypt.  Cairo stands in stark contrast to Amman with almost 20 million people versus 3.  We had prepared the group for the intense traffic, noise and congestion that we have experienced in the past, but what a difference to be here during Ramadan!  As we started our descent from the air, we could see that there were only a few cars on the roads!  It looked like a ghost town.  We are realizing how days and nights are exchanged during this fasting month.  Especially on Friday and Saturday, their weekend, we saw very few people out at all.  Since they stay out until the wee hours of the morning, they sleep as much as possible during the day when required to fast.  At night, even though people come out and begin feasting, they meet more often in homes for big family celebrations rather than going out as

we have seen in the past, so even at night, it isn't as crowded on the streets and in the central district as in other times.  It's actually a good time for a visitor to come, making travel easier.

Our hosts wanted us to experience the richness of Egypt while we are here, so we have been soaking in the history and culture before beginning our meeting times tomorrow.  We have had dinner along the Nile, accompanied by traditional music and dancing, as well as the "must sees" of the pyramids.  As we walked along stones of as much as 20 tons, it is surreal to think of how many people have walked this same path in the past 5,000 years!  As in Petra, you are struck by man's vain attempts to secure his eternal future, elaborate, painful attempts, at the expense of so many other people as well. It confirms the recognition of every person of life beyond this life, a yearning for it, that "God shaped vacuum" that exists in the heart of every person because He placed it there.

We had the opportunity to go to the Mukattam Cave Church, carved in the stone of this mountain range, where further down the range a huge rock slide occurred just yesterday, crushing a poor squatter's community, killing more than 20 people.  We didn't hear about this while we were at the caves, since it occurred a bit further away, and we don't see local news, but it grieves us to think of this loss.  The history behind this church is truly miraculous, as it was formed as a result of God's divine intervention on behalf of believers here centuries ago.  As they were challenged to prove that their God was real and His Word true, if faith as small as a mustard seed could move mountains, they were challenged to produce such a result.  As they prayed, an earthquake literally shook the mountain, sending a portion into the air and crashing down, thus becoming the Mukattam cave, meaning "broken in portions."  Through the years, poor people moved to the city to try to find work and became garbage collectors, gathering the city's trash beneath the Mukattam hills.  As one collector went into the believers' sector of Cairo, he shared with a pastor the needs of these poor people.  He eventually started a church in the area, and as the congregation grew, they eventually began carving out a huge meeting place directly into the mountain.  This initial meeting place holds 20,000 people!  It is a huge amphitheater, opening up to the sky, signifying the miraculous formation of this location.  There are now five churches carved into the caves, but what is stunning is the series of enormous carvings in the rock of passages of the scriptures, seen everywhere on the exterior as well as the interior of the caves.  Thirteen years ago, a Polish wood carver came to the caves, gave a wood carving to the pastor, and was challenged to create carvings in the stone.  He has now carved 57 scenes, with more than 300 characters, each with the Arabic and English translations of that portion of scripture.

We even saw the creator walking down the front path with his carving tools across his shoulder and noise blocking ear phones on, as he is now working on his 58th carving.  It's impossible to describe these scenes!  But what an impressive, powerful witness!  There were few people in the main church as we visited, but it was a joy for our group to pray and worship there, and wonderful to think of it being full every Thursday night.

Daily, as we meet with believers, walk among the people, begin to process more of what it means to live in this region, our desire to pray and encourage grows even deeper. We wish we could publish pictures of the people here and share more details of their testimonies, but for security reasons, we cannot. We will have to wait and share the details with you personally.  Tonight we will worship with our friends here in Cairo in one of the largest evangelical churches in the area where our host's father has long been pastor.  Tomorrow we will join one of our partners who ministers in a very poor slum area.  Pray with us that we will be extensions of His love and compassion as we spend time with them.

Thursday

 We made a leisurely return to Amman from Petra before attending worship with some of our Jordanian friends.  The wife of the pastor is a woman we have known from several training conferences in the past and is sister to the wife of the seminary president.  They have a lovely church and fellowship center, where they also have a well equipped clinic that is open two days a week for those who cannot afford treatment.  All treatment is free.  They also have a learning center for children, another effective way to reach out to the community, as well as services for Iraqis, Sudanese, and Filipinos various days during the week with their own Arabic services on Thursdays and Sundays.

We were surprised when we met the brother of our friend.  As we were introduced, we recognized a very familiar accent.  He has been living in Birmingham, Alabama for the past 40 years, retired and moved back to Jordan to do church planting.  How's that for a retirement plan!  His father founded a small church in a very remote area many years ago where they had fewer than 10 

believers.  After his father went to the States for health care and passed away 18 years ago, the church eventually closed as people died or moved away.  The brother now has a burden to reestablish a church in this region where there is now no witness.  It will be hard labor

indeed, as this region is known for occult worship.  How we need to pray for him and this area.

We constantly find connection after connection with people we know in ministry and in the

States; amazing!  We did meet a young woman from the States who felt the call to come to Jordan, has been here for some months and has felt rather lost. We were able to connect her with a local young leader so that they can have fellowship together.  Everywhere we go, Laura, who works for EMI, has found connections.  This is always much fun, seeing how truly connected our "family" is.

We did get a huge praise report last night; while we were visiting a home earlier this week, we prayed for the husband of this family to be granted residency so their children could attend school.  He has been in this country for 20 years, but never has been granted residency.  The next day after we prayed, his employer, without prompting, other than by the HS, went to the ministry and requested residency for this man!!!  They could have charged him fees retroactively for the past 20 years, but they only charged him for one!  Talk about a powerful answer to prayer!!!!  We certainly rejoice over this!

We had a wonderful time of visiting with the pastor and his wife.  They shared so much insight about this country, the needs, the needs and challenges of the church.  I wish we could share details, but for security reasons we can't.  Suffice it to say, God is doing great things, but the challenges are increasing.  When asked how outreach is done here, the pastor said, "When they hear the music of our lives, they ask about the words."  What a beautiful expression of how our lives ought to be.....His melodies.

There are only 9,000 believers in Jordan, 55 churches (all denominations) comprising 2.5% of the population.  The request we consistently hear is to pray, pray for this nation, pray for this region. Only then will hearts and minds be prepared to hear, and then pray for more messengers to share Truth, His truth. 

As we head to Cairo, our hearts are full, our minds reeling from our experiences here, and we are filled with anticipation of what He has in store for us in Egypt.

  

John ready for Petra

Wednesday update

Up and at 'um early this morning, we boarded our bus to journey to Petra.  Zafer (attended Texas A&M), our guide, is quite the colorful character, though he does seem very knowledgeable about Petra.   We had heard that there was a possibility of canceling schools in Jordan today because of a massive heat wave they feared would arrive from India, but it wasn't too bad when we arrived.  We began the long walk through an enormous gorge, called a siq, with dramatic colors left from mineral deposits.  As the path snakes around, you would see the results of eons of flash floods and erosion.  Once you leave the siq, you enter an open area where the most spectacular structure in Petra is located, The Treasury.  This is the location featured in several movies, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, as you might remember a huge temple-like facade chiseled into the massive rock.  From there, you wander on through endless carved out caves used for tombs, amazing aquaduct systems, and some ingenious designs from this ancient civilization, the Nabataens.  We finally made it to the end of the maintained path to have lunch.  It was here that "the fabulous four," Kathy, Kitty, Julie and Laura, decided to take Zafir up on his offer to lead the "adventurous ones" of our group back via another siq path which would require some climbing and navigating through an obstacle course of sorts. Phyllis and I opted to ride the horse drawn cart back to the entrance, which turned out to be an adventure in itself.  We felt as though we were in a chariot race as we careened back and forth over the Roman stone paths.

We were blessed with a great breeze today, which was a life saver.  The afternoon heat becomes overbearing, but we made it.  We were all extremely grateful for a shower when we made it back to the hotel!

Now that Petra has been declared one of the seven wonders of the world, there is increased interest.  It was certainly worth the effort to see.  You could visualize the nomadic Nabataens crafting their monuments, and even picture the course of the Israelites making their way through the desert.  It was a vivid example of how man has always attempted to secure his own eternity, exhausting their wealth and energy to build what they hope will be vehicles to a secure afterlife.  When you see the eroded, lifeless structures of Petra, it is a sad reminder of how futile these man-made efforts are.  The Nabataens lost all their wealth, gave in to the Romans and abandoned this kingdom that they had spent hundreds of years creating.  It is now sand, dust and rubble, as are all man's attempts to do what only God can do.

Tomorrow we return to Amman where we will get to have one last visit with our new friends and attend a worship service.  We have met some amazing people; they've challenged us as we have hoped to encourage them.  We are so thankful for these relationships and purpose to continue praying for them and expecting more evidence of God at work here and throughout the region.

Monday

Today we ventured outside of Amman to a neighboring area to meet with a group of women at the Baptist Church. The meeting began with a time of prayer, then enthusiastic praise and worship. Though we could not understand the words, other than Amen and Hallelujah, we certainly felt the spirit and were blessed by their songs. We were asked to share some teachings on being a wise woman and how to study the Bible, so we spent time on these subjects, which seemed to really encourage the women. We ended our time with prayer groups so that the women could share their prayer concerns and we could pray together for one another. The needs expressed were in some ways not all that different from what we might hear at home: concern for children, family stresses, financial concerns, with the exception of so many parents having their children living in other countries. Being so far away is hard. The increasing cost of living here has driven many young people to look for jobs elsewhere, so the country is losing many of its bright and talented young people who otherwise would be enriching their country and preparing for leadership. This is creating quite a gap in the population here, which also affects the churches.

Life can be hard here, and as we heard the requests of the women, we realize more fully how difficult it is to be a woman here, especially a Christian woman. It was an enormous blessing to pray with them and for them, to share their burdens. One of the women present invited us to her house for some refreshment. While there, she shared that her husband is Egyptian, and since he is has not been granted official residency here, their children are not allowed to attend the public school, and they cannot afford private schooling. We prayed for God to miraculously intervene for them.

Before we left, we visited the medical and dental clinic adjacent to the church, which is a ministry outreach of the church to the community. Many here live in impoverished conditions and have little means of getting health care, so this has been an important way to minister to the people. The clinic is only two years old, a very nice facility well equipped. They have little funds to operate on and are praying for a full time doctor and perhaps a gynecologist. They have teams come occasionally to provide free clinics for those who have no means to pay, and we were invited to bring a group here for ministry. What an opportunity to reach out to people who have come to Jordan from surrounding countries for refuge, but find themselves very poor. Here workers can pray with them and share the gospel as well as meet their physical needs. Truly a significant outreach.

To sit with these women is to wish to be a sponge and absorb all that they are sharing with us. We have so much to learn from each other!

This evening we are going to enjoy a visit with a young woman we met yesterday, another wonderful opportunity to listen, learn, ask questions, and increase our understanding of the needs here.

Tomorrow we will meet with another group of women here in Amman, as well as visit the seminary. Please pray for these women! They have such hearts for the Lord, to serve Him, to minister to people, to pray for not only their country, but the world. They are touching so many lives in many ways, but they need encouragement. May we stand firmly with them.

SaturdaylSunday update

After what seemed like a "never ending journey:, we made it to Amman at 2:00 AM Sunday morning. The trip was lengthened after a 12 hour layover in Frankfurt,when several of the team members took a train ride out to the country side and enjoyed a nice view of the country along the Rhine River and enjoyed a brief walk around the quaint town of St. Goar. The rest of us stayed around the airport and rested the best we could and did some work. Unfortunately, the only bag that didn't make it was Kitty's, though she has been quite a trooper about it. By the time we made it to the hotel and checked in it was 3:30 a.m. , so we were really pooped and had a very short night's sleep.

One of our local leaders invited us to her family's home for lunch, which is always a special time. Not only did we have delicious traditional food, but a wonderful time of fellowship with her family and several of her friends who took time off from work(Yes, Sunday is a work day) to meet with us. It was an added treat for John and me as they presented us with a delicious cake decorated with candles that set off a small pyrotechnic display i honor of our 40th anniversary (which was Aug. 31, that day). What a great way to celebrate an anniversary!

Later in the day we met with two Jordanian sisters that we meet last year in Tunisia at the conference and had some time to spend with them, which was a particular delight for Kitty who had gotten to know them at the meetings. We are always amazed at the "connections" we find all over the world! One of our friends in Houston had mentioned that she knew a woman in Jordan whose husband was president of a seminary and wondered if we might connect with her at some point. Realizing that Jordan has 6 million people, this seemed rather unlikely, but as John asked one of the women if she knew such a woman (not having her name), she smiled and said, "Yes! My sister!" who was sitting right beside her. It is indeed a very small world!! So this just added another "connection" with us in Jordan. We had a good visit and will be be visiting the seminary later this week and having a meal with them. Everyone was ready for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. As they abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk, the believers here are committing ongoing prayer for them to come to know the Lord, the Bread of Life and source of Living Waters that never run dry. We are humbled by their heart for prayer. May we have such hearts as well!

Already we are feeling very bonded with our "family" here and feel "full" from a very blessed day.

Heading out tomorrow

Our team is heading off tomorrow and then to the AW for a couple of weeks of visiting with our partners there.  It will be a great experience for all of us, most have never been to this part of Africa.  We are looking forward to some incredible meetings and seeing some wonderful sites from many years ago.  I hope that you will join us as we travel to ancient cities and places where many have walked before us.

Our blog entries may not appear everyday, so please keep checking back with us.  It will be early Sunday morning before we make our first stop in Africa for the first week.

We would love hearing from you while we are gone so please feel free to drop us a note on the blog.