Jordan

Jordan was completely out of our comfort zone, and different in the best way. Since it was our first country in the Middle East, we were expecting a drastic cultural change compared to South America and East Africa – that is exactly what we experienced!

The culture in Jordan proved to be more conservative than anything we had experienced before, especially considering it is a country based on Islamic beliefs…needless to say we had a lot to learn about how to best reach the people we were going to be encountering during our 3 weeks of ministry. We were blessed with briefing and training by our first hosts in Amman which gave us a good starting point to work from.

It’s actually quite surprising how radically different cultures can be; how something as simple as the way you place your feet when you sit or where you place a word in a sentence can give people the wrong impression about you. We needed focus, practice and the Holy Spirit.

At the end of one of our training days, we were given a seemingly simple task: just go start a conversation with someone at a mall and try to talk about Jesus. It sounded simple enough until we realized how daunting that could be because most of the people there were most likely Muslims who are extremely passionate about their case against Christianity.
Each of us has memorable stories from that night. Surprisingly most of our conversations went well but based on some responses we couldn’t really tell how what we shared was received.

LISTENING IN LOVE

After our training period, we started to do house visits, which we engaged in for the remainder of our time in Amman and Mafraq. This was completely unlike any kind of ministry we had done before.

We were split into smaller groups and placed with interpreters who accompanied us on all our house visits. We met with several refugee families from Syria, Yemen, and Ethiopia and heard their stories. We give all glory to the Lord for guiding us in those conversations! Some of the war stories we heard were so intense and unlike anything we had ever gone through, we began to wonder if we could make any difference in the family members’ lives. We were there in obedience and many times we could not find the words to respond to so much pain, so we just listened.

In Mafraq, besides the home visits, we also participated in wheelchair distributions and helped out at one of the local schools that the church had opened in the area for Syrian refugees.

PARENT VISIT

This time in Mafraq was particularly special because we had our parent visit; where several teammates’ family members joined us in ministry and just spent time with us.

This felt like a breath of fresh air for the team! Living with new faces for a while and getting all the spoils that come with being around family made us all feel a little more at home.
After 10 days of spending time with us and doing things the ‘Global way’, we are convinced that the Lord began a good work in the hearts of our family members as well…

We have no idea what it’s like for those back home and how much they miss us, but it seems as though once they get a taste of the nations, there is a shift that happens in their hearts. We praise the Lord for this and remain thankful that He blesses us with the pleasure of seeing transformation happen in such a short time as this.

Where there is time to work there is also time to play. We took advantage of this during our parent visit, and we decided to spend a night in Wadi Rum, swim in the Dead Sea and visit Petra. These were definitely some of the most unforgettable moments we’ve had this whole year. Neither of us could believe how spectacular the views were…
We still haven’t gotten used to all the marvellous things that God continues to show us just yet.

Saying goodbye to Jordan was of course another one of those bittersweet moments we had to embrace. We were saying goodbye not only to the amazing food or the beautiful things we’d experienced but also to the relationships we had built.

PRAY WITH US
Our prayer is that the Lord will continue to reveal Himself to the people in Jordan and that He will continue to sustain all the long-term workers that are currently stationed there, whom we had the privilege to learn from.