Jordan!

Welcome to Jordan! What a fun trip this was! It was a great trip because we got to see lots of things, experience a different country, but also it was a little shorter, so we didn't experience as much 'wear and tear'. Our first day, we stopped at Mount Nebo, which is where the Lord told Moses that he would not be able to go into the Promised Land because of his disobedience! I can't imagine looking out over the Jordan River Valley (like we did) into the Promised Land, being so close to the final destination of 40 years, and realizing that because of sin, blessings were revoked. Wow. The 3rd picture is in Petra, and the believed spring where Moses struck the rock for water. That was cool.

Day 2: Petra!

I've seen Indiana Jones, but I had no idea how amazing this site would be! It was so cool! We spent most of a day here, which was much needed for such a grandeous site! So you start at the top of this gorge and walk through it, which is beautiful. It looks a lot like Lake Powell or other parts of Southern Utah. It's so cool. On the sides of the canyon are mini carvings out of rock, gutters, and other things mounting up the the beauty ahead. So we're walking through this gorge and all of the sudden you see through a little crack the more beautiful of the buildings of all of Petra. It's amazing. The edifice is so Roman and their attention to detail is exquisite! Indiana Jones led me astray, though, because the room behind the door isn't too big, and definitely doesn't lead to the Holy Grail... Probably everyone else knew this about Petra, but there is more to the place than just this one edifice! I had no idea! It's a huge complex of tombs and other buildings carved out of rock. Amie and I are doing the classic "back to back" in front of a big set of tombs. It was so cool. We hiked up to what they call the "Monastery" (which isn't a monastery, they just call it that b/c of the size), which is the largest of the buildings. It was quite a hike, but definitely worth it. I loved Petra!

Here I am with King Hussein and King Abdullah II. Their pictures are everywhere. They put the current king, Abdullah, next to pictures of his deceased father, Hussein, because everyone loved Hussein and they want the people to affiliate Abdullah with Hussein, even though Abdullah grew up in England and went to college in California. So their pics are everywhere. On our way back to the JC, we stopped at the Jordan River, which was one of my favorite places. It was peaceful and hot, but so humbling to be there. You can see behind Amie and I that it's not a very clean river, but maybe it was in Biblical times, I'm not sure. It was so cool.

So Jordan was really fun, but of course it's always fun to come home to Jerusalem. This week we have the first of our finals, and we get to start New Testament, which I'm excited about. Things are good over here! Shabbat Shalom!