Jordan | Breaking barriers

Being a missionary in a country where even the word “missionary” is reserved for private conversations… was different. Knowing that our every step could change or confirm someone’s opinion of what a follower of Christ is was quite convicting and sometimes challenging. The fact of the matter is, we are called to represent a God who is perfect and without evil but unfortunately, there are Christians who don’t reflect the character of Christ.

Embracing the Truth

There in the middle of Jordan, we found ourselves proclaiming the truth to people who think they already know it and believe that there is more than one truth –  some maintain that “every religion has its own god” and believe that these gods could lead all of us to heaven where we will all be together after death.

It was here that we discovered that although various religions share similar ethical values, two seemingly parallel roads can and do take you in opposite directions and that any “good” value is only truly good if it is rooted in Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Life and death are two very opposite realities, yet sometimes we think that there is something in the middle that will also lead us to life- this is a nonreality. 

Stories from the field

For this blog post, we will share stories about those who boldly profess what they believe and include some snippets of what we got up to during our time in Jordan.

Jordan was truly an experience and a half! We had amazing opportunities to worship the Lord, share the Gospel and be part of so many different ministries there. Our ministry included: regular house visits to Islamic and Christian families, teaching English, Maths and the Gospel at schools, and some physical labour here and there.
We were also confronted with quite a few spiritual attacks where we could step up, overcome and learn. We’ll share more about this in our next blog post where we’ll dive deeper into two of these experiences.

The church in Jordan – our hosts and their ministry

Upon our arrival in Jordan, after a full day of travelling, we met our hosts, settled in and rested before joining in on the ministry there. The next day began with teaching at a primary school until midday and then going on multiple house visits to different families. Our hosts have established long-term relationships with these families over the past few years and we really hope to see them again someday after this life on earth. This is the focus of our hosts’ ministry- to reveal God’s character to their friends through fellowship. 

Every morning, after breakfast and quality team time, we met at 10:30 with everyone from the church who was involved with the house visits and school ministry. We worshipped together, shared about what the Lord had done the previous day, and prayed over each other and the ministry.

The church here is intentional and deeply involved in the community. Whether their spiritual beliefs are the same or not, they are boldly and confidently involved.

Here’s what some of our teammates had to say about our time in Jordan:

Renee summed it up beautifully:

“Being part of such an Islamic culture, I was expecting the Church to be more hidden, however, the church boldly proclaims their faith loudly, being one of the tallest buildings in the city, with a massive cross on the roof and on every wall. Every member of this ministry lives in this way, not conforming to the culture, but living as foreigners on earth and citizens of heaven.
Taking this attitude into the house visits made sharing the name of Jesus as the Messiah easier. The house visit leaders are not shy to share the truth, read from the Bible and share messages proclaiming the name of Jesus.”

Ashley’s take:

“We had the privilege to do house visits to different Syrian refugee houses. Millions of refugees from different countries currently live in Jordan. My heart broke and yet at the same time was overjoyed with the positivity of the refugees I got to meet. How do they stay so positive in situations like these?
I also take my hat off for the long-term missionaries working here, they have built such beautiful relationships with these people.
All the families we met reminded me of my own family and how important family is in your life. It reminded me to appreciate the people that God has blessed me with. It is a privilege to have family that loves and supports you!”

Part of the beauty of a Global Challenge One Year Expedition is spending time with people from all over the world and seeing how the Lord works in and through them as well. Niklas, one of our teammates, is from Germany- here’s what he had to say about His world-view being edited once again:

“Before Jordan, I never thought that you can minister to Arabic/Muslim people or that they would listen to you sharing about Jesus. But as soon as we went on our house visits, I was completely surprised!
The hospitality of the Syrian refugees and the open ear that they have is amazing. The stories of the past and what happened to some of the people were really sad and emotional, but seeing them trust the Lord and be bold encouraged me and strengthened my faith in the Lord even more.”

We are learning that the reality of “missionary work” is that it’s not as romantic as a lot of us thought it was. It’s tough, it requires dedication, sometimes sacrificing for something that you might never see the fruit of on this side of eternity.. and it’s about so much more… it’s for God to be glorified.

Ronen had the following to say about our time in Jordan:

“With my limited experience, I have seen that not everyone gets to see the fruit of their labour – in terms of walking a journey with someone and investing in them. This was also the case in Jordan.
Most of our ministry here involved going out with long-term workers during their house visits to Syrian refugees to share the gospel. A majority of the refugees are religious Muslims and this made talking about Jesus, His death and resurrection a lot harder. Regardless, we persevered in faith and trust that the seeds we have sown will fall on fertile soil.”

Sometimes we do get to see the fruit of our labour and this was the case when Ronen, Milan and Verney went on a house visit with a long-term worker.

“We did a routine house visit to a young mother of two while her husband was out working and with an eager heart I shared with her why we needed God’s righteousness -we cannot make ourselves righteous. Our translator (and fellow evangelist) saw this as an opportunity to share the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. After reading this part in her Arabic Bible for the first time, the young mother’s first response was ‘I believe.’ “

Sight-seeing, Travel & Tourist Attractions

Wadi-Rum, Petra and the Dead Sea served us well with their historic beauty and we’re thankful that we got to experience these worldly monuments for ourselves.

First off, we went to the Dead Sea to float around and add to its density (excuse the pun). It was so weird not having to swim for your life the whole time… it felt like you were wearing a full body life-jacket, inside of your body. Not sure if that makes any sense, but whether it does or not, it is definitely something we recommend you experience at least once in your life.
Important note, after you’ve taken a float in the Dead Sea, make sure to rinse off your WHOLE BODY with fresh water as the salt from the lake can actually be bad for your skin because of how much it dries you out.
Lastly, make sure you don’t get any of the water in your eyes or mouth because it tastes horrible and burns the heck out of you (you can ask Cayla more about how that feels).

After that, we went to Wadi-Rum. Wadi-Rum offers a beautifully put-together desert experience where you get to see and taste what luxurious life in the desert is like. Upon arrival, our team of 19 (we had two Americans temporarily join our team in Jordan) was split into 3 and loaded onto the back of trucks that took us on a desert safari that ended with the sun setting on the horizon. We had never seen sand match a blood-orange sunset so beautifully!
The mountains looked like they had been melting for years and the wind was cool, but so gentle at the same time. After mounting a hill barefoot and seeing the sunset in what felt like a cinematography movie scene, we got back onto the truck and went to our accommodation (still in the heart of the desert). Here, we ate traditional Jordanian/Egyptian food, danced, and drank tea together around a campfire under a view of the stars we’d never seen before and then we went to bed before going to Petra.

Lastly, Petra is a “historically significant” place where we got to see and touch gigantic structures that were hand-carved hundreds of years ago. It is incredible to think that people were even able to create such symmetrical and gigantic structures with the resources they had available to them at the time.

Petra is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and there is a lot to see. It took us an entire day to complete the main trail and even having done that, we would have liked to explore a bit more and take more time to learn more about some of the places.
Petra is expensive, but if you are ever in Jordan and you are willing to take on the many tourists, the people who try to sell you stuff everywhere you go and the long walks to see everything, we would recommend that you go there and experience it for yourself.

If you’ve ever been to any of these places, feel free to leave a comment on this blog and tell us about your experiences.

Yes, it’s really cool to have these experiences and be able to tell stories of where we’ve been and what we’ve seen, but these experiences also taught us that:

Humans put dead carcasses on pedestals, they then try to get them to satisfy needs that only God can- no matter what that costs them. How can life come from dead things?
Worshipping created things prevents us from enjoying them in the way that God intended for us to. It is also more harmful to us than we think. From what we’ve seen, one loses their dignity and integrity as they pursue the things of this world and expect life to come from dead things.

“What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”(Matt. 16:26 NLT)

To sum it all up, we have been inspired to live as citizens of heaven and foreigners of this world. We have seen that God keeps His promises. He is faithful, loving and gracious and He does still open people’s eyes to the truth.

So much happened here in Jordan and we simply can’t mention everything in one blog post. If you want to hear more about anything specific or have any questions, feel free to leave a comment on this blog post, send us an email or contact our team directly via Instagram.

Now that we’ve floated, loved and learned… we are off to Georgia and Armenia!