yesua

we celebrated christmas two days ago...just like you. we were privileged to share time with our arab friends on christmas eve, who cooked a meal for us (kufta (sp?) which consists of rolled meat and potatoes and tomatoes and onions). they are suffering, because their daughter is terminally ill with a brain tumor that has gotten worse in the last six months since her last surgery. it was difficult to sit with them as we considered her 2 year old life-light and what it means for them to possibly be losing a child. it was good just to be there with them knowing all we can really do is pray for them.

we then went to our friend doug and paula's house where we partook in their traditional mexican meal on christmas eve night. already full from our arab dinner, we still pounded down some guacamole, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, and bean burritos, followed by some cookies. we stayed the night at their place and woke up on christmas morning with "family". we had a christmas dinner with friends (10 of us) around a table, eating turkey, duck, mashed potatoes, yams, stuffing, apple pie, spinach-artichoke dip, and cookies. through much awkward conversation in their everything-goes household, we remembered jesus' birth and what it meant for us that allah was willing to to veil himself in flesh and become humble like us in order to give us the greatest gift of salvation from sins.

it is interesting being in a land where people don't celebrate christmas with people who aren't your family who are also missing their families. it was good. and as we considered our lives and where we were on christmas night, we knew without a doubt that we are right where we need to be. thanking jesus for giving us all that we need and for reminding us how precious and how fragile life really is.

you remind me of home

this our new place...for the next four months. our friends matt wickman and annamarie monkmeier (married, with different last names...freakin hippies) just had a new baby (blaze...freakin hippies) and migrated back to the states for four months to be with family and take a break from the middle east. they needed some people to rent out their place from them while they were gone, and we needed to move closer to work, so it was a win win. plus, their place is super nice, and we get to benefit from all of the nice stuff for a while. its a true gift. thanks matt and annamarie (and blaze)!

sacrifice (or happy holidays)

we walked out of our apartment and beheld a pool/stream of blood running down our outdoor staircase. the stench of blood and death were in the air as we heard our neighbors talking while slaughtering a ram/goat/sheep (not sure).

its the eid al adha, or the holiday based around remembering abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son (purported to be ishmael by the locals), and allah's provision of a sacrificial ram in his place. every year, muslims sacrifice a sheep/goat/ram as a rememberance and a duty to allah. they keep 1/3 of the meat for themselves, give 1/3 to extended family, and give 1/3 to the poor.

the parallels are hard to avoid. prophetic voices rang in my ears as i watched the blood sacrifice streaming down the stairs into the street, saying things of the blood of the lamb. but, i think the lesson to be learned here is completely different. its about sacrifice. true sacrifice.

when was the last time you saw a dead thing? or watched something die? or when was the last time you considered what God asked of abraham when he told him to sacrifice the son through whom he had promised to bless and multiply the whole world? and what the significance of blood is?

our brothers in the middle east know what it means to cut the throat of an animal and bleed it out, skin it, carve it, and give it away...not for sport, but for God. they are much closer to understanding what it really does mean to need a blood sacrifice for sin. in the west, we are insulated from this "barbarism". we are comfortable.

this is ishmael (i named him that as a sideways joke). he was sacrificed today. he knew it was going to happen. and he had to be dragged across the street and down the hill to his death. he wasn't willing. he was fighting the whole way.

this made me consider the willing sacrifice that was made for me. it made me consider all of the things in my life that i am unwilling to kill for his sake. it made me want to change, to make this christmas one of sacrifice and life-change instead of consumption and self-service.

counterfeit

i entered into the realm of counterfeit money the other day without knowing it. as you can see from the picture, the bill on the right is much smaller than the bill on the left. it was given to me as change at a store less than 50 yards from my house. its on normal printer paper that is crumpled up, but it was convincing enough for me not to think of it...until i tried to pay for something with it. i handed it to a sarfees driver as payment for our 40 cent ride up the hill, and he looked at it in confusion. he said, in arabic, "what is this? where did you get this?" i was confused and started feeling the blood run into my head in a sort of bewildered embarrassment. he told me it was not good, and showed me what was wrong with it (while driving - like lloyd christmas in dumb and dumber). i was confused and upset, since i had been duped. and now i have one less JD. i apologized to the driver and then laughed about how terrible this counterfeit JD really was. what a way to start a day of work.

american holidays in jordan

thanksgiving note #1:
jordanians (and for that matter, the entire world) don't care about thanksgiving as a holiday. they're thankful people, but they don't celebrate squanto helping the pilgrims learn how to live off of the land they stole from his people after they all died from diseases brought from the "old world". i don't know why.

thanksgiving note #2:
no amount of turkey, chicken, stuffing, salad, sweet potato casserole, apple crisp, apple pie, or delicious butternut squash soup can make up for the absence of our friends and family at home. not to be down on our friends here, but there's nothing like a game of apples to apples with ty, matt, ali, kent, nikki, lauren, phil, and chris. nothing. there is also nothing like going through advertisements with our family looking for those $3.00 flash drives at circuit city so we can get sweet stocking stuffers at christmas.
there's a huge, sad, gaping, hole of absence in our hearts (and specifically in mine (jeff)).

thanksgiving note #3:
i have been sick for the last week with a cold that won't go away. it doesn't make me any more thankful, just more aware of how nice it is to be healthy most of the year.

here's our list of things we are thankful for this year:
1. knowing that good news is good news to everyone, no matter who you are
2. jobs (stressful jobs, but they are jobs, and they are good)
3. friends/family who got us here on their wallets
4. death cab for cutie (they've been waking us up for 4 weeks straight. thanks guys!)
5. sunshine
6. learning a lifetime of lessons in 3 months
7. our marriage and our friendship
8. God's provision
9. pizza
10. popcorn with hot sauce
11. new friends
12. our bed coupled with our computer and episodes of Alias
13. God's faithfulness, even when we don't have faith ourselves ("i believe. help my unbelief")
14. jafra cafe
15. you

teachery

some things you should know about our new jobs:

1. jeff has to wear a shirt and tie every day
2. we have to leave the house around 6:30am every day
3. it costs us 6JD a day to get to and from work
4. working together has ups and downs (the only down is venting about things that the other can actually relate to, which brings with it empathy but no pity)
5. the school is nuts-o
6. the 2nd graders are literally "of the devil"
7. jessey is determined to win the war with the children "of the devil"
8. we have found another source of darkness that needs light, and we get to shine (insha' allah)
9. we are legal residents of jordan
10. we now have a local bank account that has no money in it

there are other, much cooler things to say, but i can't say them without raising flags (if you know what i mean), so we'll talk in person about the other awesome things that have been happening. so, without further ado, these two busy people are going to grade papers.

worth more than at least a few sparrows

its only been an eternity (if by eternity i mean 4 days), but we started full-time jobs here on sunday at a school in amman. a member of the royal family runs this school, and by our contacts with the american community school, we found out that there was a desperate need for a couple of teachers to teach elementary health science, science, and math. in a whirlwind of 2 days, we received a phone call from the princess (who founded and runs the school) who offered us jobs, and then we went to her palace (?) to meet with her last saturday. it was kind of funny, actually.

we were picked up by two military officers (royal guards) who drove us to the palace to meet with her. we got a crash course on the curriculum and signed contracts, both of us, to be teachers at the school. it was the weirdest thing ever, and we can see allah's hand in all of it. i was deemed the health science teach and science teacher (teaching 2nd grade science and health science, and 4th and 5th grade health science). jessey, being the former secretary of the math club at greenville college, was deemed the 2nd and 4th grade math teacher. and we started the next day...completely and utterly unprepared. the meeting was weird because of a few things:
1. neither of us have our degrees in teaching, although jessey does have 3 years of elementary ed
2. the princess was dressed in a sweatshirt and sweat pants, with a pony tail, and is completely down to earth
3. we were at the palace of a prince and princess
4. they wanted us to start the next day
the pay is beyond reasonable, and we are also getting residency in jordan, which means we can stay in the country without having to worry about crossing borders and we can visit sites like petra for 1JD, instead of 25JD for "foreigners"...its a huge answer to prayer.

our first day was spent just observing classrooms, no pressure. at then end of the day, we were given our teacher manuals and the teacher who was covering my classes basically said good riddance and i was on my own. yikes. so, the life of lesson planning, grading, wondering what the heck we are doing, and trying to get the 2nd grade class from hell to stay in their seats and listen has begun. the good parts about the school can also be difficult...it will take some getting used to, but its a good challenge and these are good jobs. very cool. the best part is, out of 50 lessons per week (each student has 10 periods each school day), we only teach 13 and 14 of those lessons respectively. so, once we get settled in, this could be the graviest teaching job ever...outside of the principal being a real-life cruella deville who speaks very little english.

here's what allah has done, writing a story with our lives.

he saw in us two people who were crazy enough to move overseas without a clue as to what they would do, just knowing that that is what he required of them. he placed us, by his infinite wisdom, in a spot where we could start tutoring two boys early on...in second and fourth grade! he then placed us in substitute teacher roles, giving us classroom time with various ages of students. then, again in his wisdom, he connected us with another family, a rich one, to tutor their children (one who goes to the school we now teach at!). then english teaching began, requiring us to do lesson plans and be prepared for two classes a week. during that time, he allowed us to be tempted with money (see most recent blog entry) with a job that would reverse our marriage roles, with jessey taking on the role of the provider. this, i believe, was a test to see if we would jump at money, or consider what the ramifications would be for our relationship. thankfully, again in his wisdom, i had a lunch with my new mentor who challenged me to have a serious conversation with jessey about this. turns out, neither of us had peace about the job and decided that we should explore other options. it was at this time, that this opportunity came to us...to use all that allah has been preparing us for in jobs that will provide more than double what we need in our monthly budget...with six weeks paid off in the summer! our faithfulness has led us into two teaching positions at an islamic (yet open to everyone) school where we can have influence on the kids who will influence this nation in the future, as they are all from influential/rich families in amman (including a prince and 2 princesses). wow. its humbling to know that we are even worth anything to him, yet he sees us as invaluable to what he is doing in amman.

pray with us that we don't squander this opportunity and make the most of it, however long we are supposed to live/love people here...and that we get a hang of this teaching thing as quickly as humanly possible.

inti ptarfi ingleesi?

we have just finished our first two english classes at the al wihda center here in amman. for those of you who don't know, we are teaching english as a second language as volunteers at a english center near our home. jessey is teaching a level 5 class (which translates to about 1st or 2nd grade level) and i am teaching a level 4 class (which, of course, is slightly lower than her class). our students are mostly in their 20's, just normal people of the struggle, hoping to learn english as a way to get better jobs and provide for their future families. the classes are two nights a week, from 6-8pm, for 8 weeks. we spend about 4 hours a week preparing, and 4 hours actually teaching, 2 hours each night. i have re-discovered my passion for teaching, and am loving the task and the mandatory creativity that teaching requires of me. jessey is having a similar experience... although she was freaking out a bit before the first class. to be honest, we both were.

in my first class (9 men, 3 women) on sunday night, i taught on the grammar involved in "there is & there" are for the whole 2 hours. it turns out, english isn't the easiest language to learn. and it requires that kind of time to communicate some of the things that we take for granted so much. also, it requires us to re-learn our own language, because we can't plan for every question, and we need to know "why" the language works the way it does.

for instance, do you know what an uncount noun is? can you explain the difference between count and uncount nouns, or the reasons why you can't just add "s" and make every noun plural? why you can't say, "There are 3 breads"? that was jessey's first lesson in her class (which consists of 14 men, no women).
don't worry, i am keeping her safe.

i have some very bright students and some who are not so bright, but they are all at the center for the same reason: to learn. so, classes are fun and everyone wants to be there. plus, it only costs 18JD for the entire 8 week course, which is a steal if you have a good teacher (insha' allah we are good ones), given that rich families pay 20+JDs per hour for a tutor. its quite a ministry, and we are loving the heck out of it.

may Allah richly bless this opportunity, and give us more opportunities with our students outside of class
to connect and show them our love.

opportunity knocks (loudly)

we aren't accustomed to having good financial opportunities fall into our laps. we aren't those people who have cool things happen to them all of the time. we just plug along and trust that Allah will take care of us. that's how we made the decision to come here. we don't have much, but we have enough, and faith that we are worth at least a few sparrows to Him. here is the story of how Allah has provided for our every need in the last month or so:

1. Substitute Teaching @ The American Community School - we have become basically part-time employees at this school that uses an american curriculum and requires its teachers to have a north-american teaching certificate, as is accredited in the states. its like wandering into america when you pass the security office at the entrance. we have friends who teach there who informed us that substitute teachers don't need a certificate or a degree, which means both jessey and i can substitute there. jessey administered MAP tests for 2 straight weeks, full-time, and we both have subbed for teachers at least 2-3 days every week since we got signed up to sub.

2. Tutoring - through ACS, we have been placed on a tutoring list for families that want native-english speaking tutors for their children, usually in english. we have started tutoring 2 children of a wealthy family on the other side of town, to the tune of 20JD per hour (app. $30 per hour). the opportunity is great for us, not only because of the obvious, but because this family has needs that we can meet, both mental and otherwise (get the hint). the boy i am tutoring is the oldest son, and his father went to the university of texas and is an engineer. there is a lot of pressure on him to succeed. the mother also wants jessey to teach her some english, and the doors just keep opening wider with them to have a significant impact on their lives.

3. HZE - i'll try to make this long story as short as possible. through a friend, jessey was made aware of a company that was looking for someone like her to fill an assistant position. we met with the owner of the company over a 160JD meal ($240, which is more than our rent!) at a hotel bar, and he laid things out. its a company that makes environmentally safe landfills and pipelines and other things throughout the middle east. although the deal hasn't been finalized, yet, he did tell jessey that she could name how much she wanted to make. and its part-time. if all goes well (insha 'allah), this job will provide for all of our financial needs along with giving jessey residency in jordan, meaning she won't be required to leave the country to renew a visa, and, more importantly, will be able to visit petra for 1JD (there's a deal for residents).

some things to pray about. and to thank Allah for.

a day in the life

we took our camera with us to the balad (downtown) today
here's what we saw:

hippies?

business man

sign for the hotel you can stay in if you visit

same hotel: nice right?
plus, these guys tried to sell us a camera while we took a picture

cute old lady in our sarvis up the hill

husband and wife shopping

shopping for designer hijab

juice stand

lamb heads (?)

shwarma

this is where we get what we call the "sarvis"

men praying at 12:30

meat

lady shopping

must be some good shoeshere's where you apparently get black shoesand here's the man shoes storeTAXI!guy walking straight into a moving buslady and son shoppingour restaurant...our neighborhood.
dream.

everyday things...hayk

Have we ever told you that we can't flush the toilet paper down the toilet here? We have to put it in the trashcan. That was a fun habit to change...and we have a smelly can of toilet paper in our bathroom now.
OR
Have we told you our stove/oven and our heaters run on gas tanks, and we currently have one full and three empties? The only way to get new tanks is to listen for the ice cream truck song (which is really the gas tank truck song) and run out and catch the truck...that hasn't happened for us yet because we live on the second floor and can't get out there in time. So, soon we need to take an entire afternoon and go sit on the sidewalk and just wait. We can't figure out how everyone else gets this accomplished...
OR
Have we told you that we have to go down to the "water store" to get a big Hinkley type water jug that has drinkable water in it? It costs 85 piestres which is approx. $1.25 US and it lasts us about a week. The only glitch with that is that if it stays in the big jug too long, it will smell and taste bad! So, we've figured out a system. We bring the jug home and immediately put it on it's tiny base, then we fill up about 14 - 1.5 liter bottles and make a liter of Tang and fill our fridge. Exciting right?
OR
Have we told you about the water tank on our roof? We get water once a week. Therefore we have to be careful to ration out our water correctly...or we are stuck without water until it comes the next Tuesday! Obviously that means we can only do laundry once a week, and sometimes we have to leave things out of the wash that aren't as important. We ran out of water once, but thankfully it was a Monday night...the night before water day. The nice thing is that if we plan correctly we can do our laundry while the water tank is filling up, and than we aren't losing any water for the rest of the week...because the tank fills until it is full.
(On the note of laundry, it takes our washing machine about an hour and a half to do one load of laundry...then we take all of the clothes up to the roof, and hang dry them all. They usually dry within about 30 minutes and are really too crisp!)
OR
Have we told you that we have 1 mini water heater and it is solely for the shower. We have to turn it on at least 20-30 minutes before we desire to take a shower. If I decide I want to take a long shower, well, sorry Jeff. You just can't take one today. We need to save water anyway.
AND
This may sound gross to you, but I haven't tackled mopping yet. I've swept the floors in our apartment many times, but haven't mopped. Only because I haven't been brave enough to try it out. It involves a squeegee on a long handle....and you're supposed to pour your cleaning water on the floor, wrap a towel around the squeegee and mop the water into the drain on the floor. Sounds messy and complicated to me...

we have a word that we use around here: hayk. it means, "that's just the way it is."

and so...hayk

AQABA a.k.a. phoenix with a sea

jessey and i went to Aqaba this past weekend, on our own, on a bus. we purchased our tickets at the JETT bus station on friday and left saturday morning on an adventure we won't soon forget. there are some things that jessey doesn't want me to dwell on (namely the not so good experiences: with taxi(s) and the bus driver, and that it was 95 plus degrees outside) that i won't mention here. so, now that that is behind us, here's the trip highights:
1. THE WEIRD
- shower with no tub/no curtain/2 square feet of raised tile = flooded bathroom
- taxi's with no meters who tell you to decide how much you want to pay and then tell you to give them more when your price is too low
- fully-clothed women/teenage girls swimming in the red sea

2. THE RESTAURANTS
- Ali Baba's: standard restaurant with american and arabic food options...most with meat. we ate hummus and batatas (french fries). favorite mis-spelled words: minereal woter, graps fruit, & red pull
- Dantilla: featuring ice cream! we were the only people at the restaurant at 7:00, for some reason, but the food was good and we spoke in arabic the whole time with the waiters. beautiful view of the red sea and nice people. we had potato wedges, tea, water, popcorn, and a strawberry shake. the shake was amazing.

3. THE SCHEME
we wanted to snorkel, because there are amazing coral reefs in the red sea, so we walked around sunday morning trying to find a dive company. we walked into the alcazar hotel where they have a dive group, and they told us where to go and said if we told them we were "staying at the alcazar hotel" (which we weren't) we would get a good price. so, we did. actually, jessey said "we just came from the alcazar hotel" which was the truth. we snorkeled in the red sea for 7JD a piece! it lasted for about 20 minutes, when i got tired of smelling and tasting salt water, combined with a fear of dying in the red sea, combined with losing my snorkel tube. it was worth it, and it was beautiful. we just laid around at this club we didn't belong in the whole day until we left. good times.

Quaker Oats (sowing and reaping principles)

"...the Quakers, for example, have succeeded in instilling feelings of love, compassion and forgiveness among their followers not because theirs is fundamentally different from other faiths but rather because of the way religious teachings have been inculcated in its followers. If the Quakers have succeeded in humanising behaviour, why can't other faiths do the same?"
~ The Jordan Times, September 28th 2008

i was reading the newspaper online (The Jordan Times) and stumbled across this article about how religion does exactly opposite of what it proposes to do, that is, to create unity amongst its followers. the writer, an arab jordanian, pointed out first that historically christians resorted to violence against one another when their fundamental views were different. he then pointed out that the same thing is happening and has been happening amongst muslims...killing each other in the name of God. he wrote about how the beliefs of these religions are so similar, and the result could be a better world, with people acting more humanly towards one another (like, "love your neighbor as you love yourself" maybe?).

but religion fails. miserably. all the time, everywhere. instead of instilling love it instills hatred, bigotry, violence, and evil. it truly does. whenever you say, "at least i'm not like _____ (fill in whatever denomination or religion you like: the baptists, the nazarenes, the pentecostals, the sunnis, the shias, the church of christ, the krishnas, the sabeans, the jews, the athiests, the agnostics, etc.)", you are the one for whom these words were said:

"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire."

but, amazingly, the truth still gets through. and in print. because the truth of the matter is that the quakers have lived out the kingdom message in such a way that it has a global impact, so much so that they make the opinion column of an arab national newspaper...in a positive light. oh, that we could all learn something from the peaceful, loving, brotherly/sisterly, hungry feeding, thirsty quenching, lonely visiting, religion that the quakers (and dare i say j-s-s) live out daily.

the eid

the video almost says enough. this was not a recording (playing through speakers), but the sound of thousands of voices through the loudspeakers of the starbucks-esque mosques (like starbucks, there's a mosque on (almost) every corner). we were not sure what this moaning/praying was about when we first were awakened around 4am...we didn't know for sure until we got into the downtown area around 7:45am, when i saw two men walking together and drinking mountain dews. ramadan is over, and we are now celebrating the eid. we even walked to tutoring today with a bottle of water, and drank it in public. we haven't been able to do something so crazy in a month.

the real question in my mind is this: what were people praying about this morning? were they celebrant? were they thankful? was anyone really serious in their prayers and worship this morning, or were they just glad to be done fasting? not sure. it is quiet around town, kids are out of school and families are spending time together, here and elsewhere. and, you can get something from a restaurant to eat for lunch, or snack on your walk if you want to. free at last. i think, in general, everyone is breathing sigh of relief, for they can do whatever they want to for the next 10.5 months until ramadan returns, next summer.

this was the view out of our second bedroom window this morning. pure beauty. it was ironic to look at such beauty and be hearing such chaos at the same time. his message to us is this: i am in control, and bring beauty into chaos...the earth is the lord's and everything in it.

for just one night

ramadan is reaching its end. many people have bruised foreheads (literally) from praying so hard and hitting their heads on the ground so often during this last month. at the end of ramadan is the eid, which is a three-day feast and all out gorge-fest to celebrate the end of the month of fasting. kids have it off of school. most businesses are closed. many well-to-do families go on trips to other, more interesting, parts of jordan and the middle east. everyone, including us, will be celebrating the end of ramadan, but for various reasons. ours, of course, are more to do with having a place outside of the house that we can go to study, since all restaurants/cafe's are closed all day until after the iftar, which is the fourth prayer call, at sunset. i think everyone's looking forward to having lunch if they want to. i know everyone (i'm being totally serious, approximately 70% of the adult population smokes) is looking forward to smoking in public during the day.
tonight (the 27th night) is a special night of prayer, when the most devout will be praying through the entire night, either hoping that successful completion will bring them (guaranteed) salvation, forgiveness of past sins, or signs and visions in a prophetic moment. we pray too, tonight and every night, that these things will happen in people's lives in a fuller sense than they can even imagine. would you join us in this, tonight?

questions welcome

this is your chance. ask away, anything you want to know about life here in jordan, or why we are coming back. oh, and, how are you doing and what's new in your life?

also, become a follower of our blog (see sidebar), and let me know if you don't want to receive it in your email (if you did).

one more thing, read all the other posts here too. we love you.

death

our land-lady's husband died of cancer this morning. he's been suffering at home for the whole time we've been in jordan. very sad. i came home from the clinic today and there were 15 men sitting outside in the courtyard near the entrance to our apartment, smoking their marlboro's, kent's, and gittanes', dressed in white and/or black. i peeked into the apartment and saw about 10 women, sitting in a circle, wearing black and looking numb. i made a swift assumption...then wondered what we should do, as neighbors and as human beings.
thankfully, we had tutoring this afternoon with our tutor, so we asked her what to do. she gave us some things to say to the family and told us a little about what to expect. she said that the wife (our land-lady) will wear black every day for at least a year, sometimes up to 5 or 6 years. in this culture, they want to remember the dead, not move on swiftly and get on with life. she also told us to wear dark colors if we choose to visit, but not to make any food or anything like that.
when we returned home, one of their daughter(s)-in-law told us that the funeral will be tomorrow, in another city. she said the body will come to the apartment tomorrow afternoon for the women to view it, since they will not be allowed at the funeral. she also warned us that there will probably be a lot of bummed out people around until then.
so, we changed clothes and plunged into the mourning process with these people that we have only met during this waiting-for-death period...the brother from canada, the son who helped us with our internet, the son-in-law who lives next door, and her and her daughters that live close.
inside, the women were weeping and not a word was said unless it was to greet or offer quick condolences. just sitting around and crying. outside, the men drank a quick cup of coffee, water, and smoked and talked a bit. most were confused as to why i was out there with them...except for those that we had met.
although death has opened the door, we gladly will step through and seize this opportunity to dangerously love this family. pray for them...and us.

grace

traffic is really congested these days around 1-2pm, because everything closes down early during ramadan and people are anxious to get home and either a:) cheat and eat/drink or b:) forget about how hungry they are and relax. we were on our way home yesterday in a sarvis, and our driver was very agitated. he attempted to blow by a guy in a truck who wasn't moving forward with the line of 50+ cars at the stop light. the guy in the truck accelerated to keep our car from being let in. this started a very heated argument between the two that included very many choice words between the windows of the two vehicles (thanks to the tower of babel i couldn't understand any of them). the other men in the sarvis with jessey and i were trying to encourage the driver to drop it and to pursue peace, but the driver was incessant. 30 seconds later, after we had pushed in front of the guy in the truck, the driver of the truck came up to the window of our car. not good. our driver started yelling immediately, caught off guard by the sudden presence of this guy he truly hated at his window. but something happened. the guy at the window was pursuing peace. he was trying to rectify the conflict, to make things right, to show grace to the sarvis driver and ask forgiveness...in the middle of traffic. as cars began to go again, they smiled, shook hands, and we pulled forward. what? normally i would be holding that grudge for at least a whole day, telling everyone about the idiot in the other car who did this or that. apparently, reconciliation is more important in this culture than in ours.
i learned a lesson in grace in a completely different way last night. we had dinner at some friends' house. the meal is pictured above. i know, it looks absolutely everything except appetizing. like bugs or green sausages or even worse. i've never been a truly adventurous eater. i'm not the most likely guy to eat tomato paste out of the can, if you know what i mean. but, after a while, you realize that the most gracious thing you can do is eat the food that is prepared for you. what is pictured is grape leaves rolled and stuffed with rice and meat (yeah, and it doesn't work to be a vegetarian and refuse the meal either). the bigger green things are vegetables called marrow (?). you pull out the insides and stuff them too, also stuffed with meat and rice. my friend worked on this meal, rolling each individual grape leaf, for 3 hours. i had to eat it. and it was good...much to my surprise.
learning lessons that i didn't know i needed to learn.

rent/netflix/download/buy/stream/watch this movie

where in the world is osama bin laden?

yes. that's the name of the movie. and its a must-see if you want to get a feel for what we are experiencing here on a small (minute even) scale. its a movie by the same guy who did 'super-size me' where he ate only mcdonald's for i don't remember how long and almost destroyed his body permanently. anyway, it just might help expand your mind about what is going on in the world and what arab culture and the middle east is really like, and how our nation's foreign policies and bad decisions (my opinion) have shaped their opinion of you.

vote responsibly, please.

communicating between the lines (use your grey matter)

one of the chosen women asked me, 'why don't people in the promised land know there are chosen ones here in the wilderness?' the question struck a chord deep in my heart. why do all those who reside in the promised land, chosen and yet-to-be-chosen, think of the wilderness as a place devoid of chosen ones? why don't we have a concept of his worldwide people, including the wilderness? it seems to the chosen few here that everyone else thinks the wilderness contains only forgotten, lost, or ignorant fools. this is not the case.

johnny sax-o-mo-phone told me today that in his war-torn land to the east there are almost no more chosen people, because of the misguidance of the promised land. they have all run away, fearing for their lives. this happened because the promised land is full of people who claim to be chosen, and they have wreaked havoc on the wilderness, giving them only the option of being murdered or running away. this has left his land without a chosen people, not even a remnant. this made me wonder if ignorance is something of an epidemic in the promised land...ignoring the world and only thinking of itself.

guy whostandsinthestreet told me tonight that, although he does not want to be chosen, he loves the promised land and THE son of man...because his book tells him he should. he told me how he recognized the shared heritage his people, the chosen people, and the original clan have and how he believed that there should be no more war, no more fighting, no more hatred between us. beautiful. hard to believe. hard to comprehend how close guy is to being chosen to play kickball on the promised playground...and how far away at the same time.

this is the most difficult thing to communicate...but so important for you to know and to think about, and to check yourself on.

frank's birthday

frank turned 9 today, though he will tell you he's 12. either way, he's divisible by 3. we had the privilege of being invited to and attending his birthday party this evening (even though we had never met him). he attends the local church we do here in ashrafiyya with his parents. they wanted us to come and meet him. we were more than happy to join in the party, as we are party people...holla.
it was 98 degrees today (and, ironically, nick lachey performed downtown at the amphitheater this afternoon). no one has air conditioning, including us. so, needless to say it was hot in the apartment. add to the heat about 15 5-11 year olds and 10 adults, and there is a lot of hot air floating around the place.
we knew no one. what i mean by that is, we were not friends with anyone at this party (although, everyone is a friend we've come to learn around our neighborhood). we are the new foreigners in the neighborhood, thats about it. but, it turned out to be a lesson in etiquette and family interaction that was priceless.
things we learned:
1. when someone arrives to the house, everyone stands up and greets them
2. its almost impossible to explain to someone that you don't drink this or that, so you just drink it
3. every drink is served on a tray
4. when coffee (turkish, black) is served, it is the indicator that you are free to go whenever, as this party is OVER (leaving before this point needs a good excuse)
5. when someone leaves the house, everyone stands up to say goodbye to them
6. kids are expected to take care of themselves while their parents visit with each other...therefore the kids see what they can get away with behind their parents' backs
7. they sing happy birthday in english and in arabic while the candles are lit (see video)

frank's english tutor is leaving monday for awhile and we were able to step in to help him out with his english homework. this is why we are here. this is why we exist. this is why we dropped everything and moved to jordan for such a short time. to make an impact in whatever small way on someone's life. and the opportunities just keep falling into our laps. al hamdu lillah.

a smiling moon

tonight, throughout all of the middle east (and of course, other parts of the world as well), people are outside, looking to the skies, to see if they have to give up lunch (and cigarettes, alcohol, water, and afternoon delight during the daylight hours) for the next 30 days. Ramadan is upon us, and there is an air of hopeful anticipation that the moon will not indeed be the woeful crescent that indicates the start of the month of Ramadan. people on roofs of houses, shop owners sneaking a peek at the skies, leaving their merchandise unattended, and children playing on the stairs, waiting for the moment that the moon will break through the haze over the city of Amman and tell them if they can eat three meals for one more day. but, chances are very good that September 1st will be the first of 30 days where folks will not be allowed outside of their houses with a snack in hand or water for the walk to the bus. for 30 days, break-fast is at night and start-fast is the morning meal. this is a foreign concept to much of the west. but here you are required, by law, to respect the religious order of Ramadan and not disturb the fast by walking around with water or food to eat. its mandatory. so, as you can imagine, everybody dreads this month of the year, as everyone is agitated (imagine 1 million chain-smokers without cigarettes all day) with each other, and possibly God. hopefully we can learn to trust God more and have the opportunity to share with our neighbors and friends that fasting can be more than just an obligation, more like an opportunity to encounter God on a deeper level. we're keeping our eyes peeled tonight, too.

neighborliness is next to godliness

i finished a steroid treatment for poison ivy on the day we arrived in Amman. about two days later, i noticed i still had poison ivy on my leg (it never goes away, a constant annoying personal struggle, which has me dedicated to never going into the woods again). we contacted a doctor friend to find out what we should get from the pharmacy here and then started a journey to find a pharmacy. we walked down the staircase (jabal ashrafiyya (our neighborhood) is a large hill on the east side of Amman with many staircases built between buildings for easier travel on foot) to the street below ours and stopped in the liquor store to ask for help...hoping for help in english. after i botched asking if he spoke english in arabic (i used the female form of the question) he said yes. so i asked if he could tell me how to get to a pharmacy. it was at this point that i realized that he did not actually really speak english, at least enough to help us with this question. but, instead of saying, "sorry, i can't help you because i don't speak english well enough" (which would have been awkward because saying this would mean he really did speak good english), he called someone on his cell phone, explained in arabic to the person on the other end that we needed help, and then handed me the phone. i said hello, and the person spoke fluent english, and gave me directions to a pharmacy. my new friend, the liquor store guy, thought the directions sounded too long so he grabbed the phone again, explained something again in arabic to the girl on the phone, then handed it back. she then told me directions to an even closer pharmacy. i thanked the stranger on the phone (thanks) and liquor store guy (shukran) and then we went on our way. turns out, the directions were perfect and the pharmacy is really close to our apartment...and the cream i needed was only 1.40 JDs ($2 US). i stopped back in to thank liquor store guy again and was impressed at his willingness to help us out. like he had our back. what i've learned from this and several other experiences like this is that, for the sake of maintaining honor, my neighbors will do whatever it takes to help out so they don't bring shame on themselves. oh that we could all learn a lesson in "loving our neighbors as we love ourselves" from this.

for what its worth

we arrived in Amman, Jordan around 6pm local time, after our 12 hour trek above prince edward island, the atlantic ocean, ireland, england, the mediterreanean, and israel. after basically paying a guy to leave us alone with our baggage, we joined rick (schupp, as in shoop-shoop-a-doop) in his hyundai van for the crazy drive to a community fellowship group his family participates in (the driving is crazy due to the fact that there are apparently no rules of the road manuals in amman, jordan). and it was dark when we arrived . so, for what it is worth, for what we have seen of amman, jordan, with the roadside picnic-ers and the western-styled arab scene girls alike, its been interesting...and we drove by the world's largest popeye's chicken (possibly a true statement) on the way to the schupp home. day one. complete.

tomorrow is day one

two weeks without work has helped us do some reflecting on our past and get ourselves prepared for this trip. today, we sit one day from departure, getting packed and saying some last goodbyes. here are our goals for this adventure:

1. To meet our neighbors and share a meal with them
2. To learn as much as possible in four months about Arab culture from the people around us
3. To focus on learning Arabic
4. To gain a greater appreciation for everyone (we meet) and everything (we have)
5. To learn how to be deeply and truly kind and show kindness in every action and facial expression
6. To use this four months to prepare for the rest of our lives, no matter what our vocation or location may end up being
7. To change

May we not become a stumbling block to anyone and may we see the roots of love grow deep within us and may you not recognize us when we return.

the point, reiterated

the point of this blog is to give our friends and family regular updates on our trip to amman, jordan as we have no other solid way to communicate with them. also, jordan is a "closed country" so please be mindful of what you choose to comment about. thanks, keep reading, and please do make effort to interact with us throughout this experience.

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...