hurry up and wait (patience)

the waiting began on march 3rd. it continues...its been difficult to wait for august 21st to roll around. but tomorrow marks 3 weeks until departure. 3 weeks. after almost 5 months of waiting, we are on the doorstep of the biggest adventure of our lives. yet, we are nervous about one thing: being completely immersed in a new culture that we really know nothing about. not that we haven't been doing everything we can to learn, its just impossible to imagine a world so different from our own. it will be the month of Ramadan ten days after we arrive in amman. everyone (at least 97% of everyone) will be fasting from food and drink while the sun is up. we get 10 days to prepare ourselves for this festival/ritual/sacrament of Islam. and, it is our intention to participate. will we be able to survive? yes. will we be able to be an example of love to these people who are so different from us? i hope. please earnestly pray for us that we can be love and live love and show love while we are in this strange land. here's a picture of us now, prepared for jordan, so you can imagine us in the middle east. ma'salaami

foxes have holes or a place to lay our heads

not 3 hours after i (jeff) posted the last entry, we received word from Rick that we have a place to call home in amman. the neighborhood is on one of the "seven hills" or mountains in amman. its called jabal ashrafiyya. it is a furnished, two bedroom flat in a predominantly arab/muslim neighborhood. here's a quick look at some of the scenery:
(center: roman amphitheater in downtown amman - decapolis city of philadelphia)

(the abu darweesh mosque in jabal ashrafiyya)

needless to say, we're excited about all of the possibilities that are in front of us and the opportunities laid out for us. we are also proud to say we have sold our first house and are all but debt free going into this trip. wow. jessey keeps working on cakes...

...i keep working overtime, and with your support, we have now reached $5630 towards our goal of $9000. and we still have more than two months until our trip!

good hands (the kind we're in)

the last month of our lives has been unbelievable. we have been actively pursuing this trip for about three months now, and have been able to raise $4890 already...wow. it is humbling to know that so many people care about us and believe in us enough to help us accomplish our goals. in this last month we went from $900 to where we are now and have also been able to sell our house. everything is falling into place. we even found an Arabic Language learning course in the correct dialect for Jordan, which was confirmed by the owners of One World Cafe in Peoria who happen to be Jordanian. jessey has been baking graduation cakes to earn some extra money and also worked at Walgreens to help set up a new store for a two week stretch. i have been able to re-work my position at the Children's Home in order to get more hours and overtime so we can be doing everything we can to make this trip happen. from where we stand now, it is looking pretty unbelievable. thanks so much for praying for and supporting us. its working.

First and Foremost

Thanks for joining with us on this journey to Jordan. We will regularly update you on this blog with news before, during, and after our trip. Thanks again for supporting us...