Jordan

Jordan was so much fun! Our first stop was at Mt. Nebo which is where Moses was translated- the picture on the left is a representation of the serpent that was put up for the people to look up to and be healed. We went to Petra and it was so much fun! Now I can say I've walked where Harrison Ford walked! They filmed one of the Indiana Jones movies at Petra! It was so awesome. There were so many cool things to see there. I met a Bedouin man there and a few of us went to his house (which is in an old tomb) and he gave us a tour. It was really cool and he had a beautiful garden (picture on the right). I also rode a donkey for the first time and let me just say that it was a big adventure and I have so much more respect for Marry- I rode the donkey for an hour and I was very sore. I can't imagine how Mary must have felt riding it for so long. There was some really cheap jewelry there and us girls were in heaven! That night we took a bus to Amman (the capitol of Jordan) and we had a few hours of free time so we went to a shopping center down the street. Our favorite store was a DVD store where every DVD was $2!!! I couldn't pass up this opportunity so i bought 17 movies! I know that sounds ridiculous but hey, I got 17 movies for the price of 2 or 3 so I used that to justify it. In Amman we went to an old Roman city from the time of Christ- our tour guide said that it was very likely that Christ came to this city during his time in Jordan. That night we went and had a fireside with the branch in Amman. It was really interesting to talk with the people there. It would be so hard to stay excited about the church because they cannot proselyte to any Muslim and Jordan has a high percentage of Muslims. The guy who spoke talked about all the service the church does in the area. He talked about a Leper colony in Egypt that was really poor and the people there eat such bad food because they don't have any way to keep their food good. The church bought fridges and microwaves for every person living there! I thought that was so cool!
Our last day there we went to an Islamic Mosque and it was so awesome! All of us girls had to wear these really attractive black robes because the women have to be completely covered. It was cool to go in there and learn more about the Islamic religion. After that we went to the spot where Christ was baptized! It was a cool experience but it was also really hard to pay attention to our tour guide because it was 118 degrees! I'm not sure if I've ever been in temperature like that. But i guess any time you at 1300 feet below sea level it is going to be that hot!
It was a great trip and I'm glad to be back in Jerusalem. There was a terrorist attack in the city when we were in Jordan so we have been on house arrest since we got back on Wednesday- we couldn't leave the center at all and that was a little sad because we only have like 4 more days that we can spend in the city. But I guess it was kind of a blessing because we had a midterm the day after we got back so it made us all study. We finally got to go out today after church and it was so nice to spend time outside! Things are going great here and I'm still loving it! We leave for Galilee on Tuesday for 10 days and that's going to be so awesome! Love you all!