We are back!

After our 6 hour flight from Amman, we had a very nice visit in England. Luke's father and youth pastor, Nicholas, met us at the airport. Luke had a different flight several hours later, so they took us to Runnymeade where the Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215. (If you don't remember your history, the Magna Carta was the first statement of human rights and the limiting of a king's power.) When Luke arrived they picked us up an drove us to Luke's village, Mayfield, East Sussex.
The picture was taken at Runnymeade. If you haven't noticed, I shaved my beard off a couple of weeks ago.
Mayfield is very quaint. Luke's family fed us a very traditional English meal of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, potatoes, and several desserts, and then sent us home with several hospitable families from his home church. We left Luke in England Friday as his father Adrienne drove us to the Heathrow airport.
The flight was long, almost 12 hours, but the choice of movies made the time pass faster. Jackson's brother met us in the airport and drove us through heavy traffic back to Stockton. Jackson's mother met us with yummy homemade eggrolls and chow mein. We drove from there back to Redding and arrived around 10:30 PM.
When we woke up at 6:30 AM, Micah and Claire had already left for Washing state.
The whole 6 week trip was a real blessing to all of us and to our friends working in Jordan. Thanks for praying and keeping in touch. We will probably send more updates as we reflect back on the trip.
Grace and peace,
Michael

One More Day

It has been a few days since I posted; we've been busy teaching and finishing things up. I think we are all more comfortable teaching now. The class preparation was easier this week. We have had special events, too.

Sunday one of our host couples took all of us to a very nice Arabic restaurant. We ate outside under a Bedouin tent and were served the best food we've had here. It started with hummus, babaganoush and other dips. Shortly afterward we were served kebob meats. It was very delicious.

Monday we had our last lunch at our hosts.Today we had a team debriefing for three hours at the Center. We had communion, shared with each other about the trip, and worked on resolving some tensions on the team. We went downstairs to our last mensef meal and more debriefing with another team that has been teaching at the Center. It was a good day.

Every night some of the team hs been going out visiting and spending time with students from the Center. The last two weeks have definitely been the richest in terms of building relationships. Now we are in the "good bye" phase, collecting e-mails and calling for the last time. We will all miss Jordan when we leave. Pray for us as we seek to bring closure with our relationships here, both with workers and with our students. It is going to be very hard for some of us.

Tonight Kim made chili for chilidogs. We are having a party tomorrow night for the last half of class. We wanted to serve something American to try, in a small way, to repay our friends for their hospitality.

Also pray for each of us as we re thinking about the future. I know Kim and I are praying about returning here next summer, and so are two of our teamates. Ask God to make the way clear for us.

I may not get another chance to post. Our plane is scheduled to leave Amman a little after 9 AM Thursday. We have 20+ hour layover in London. Luke's church will be taking us in for the night. Then we arrive in Sacramento on Friday afternoon. We should arrive back in Redding in the evening. We look forward to seeing many of you in person soon.

Grace and peace,
Michael

Petra

PETRA!
Yesterday we visited Petra, the hidden rose-colored city carved into sandstone. Click on the title link to see a slideshow. There are 63 pictures with captions. You can speed it up, slow it down, or turn off the captions. Petra is truely amazing! Today, we are recovering. As usual our students have dates to visit and hang out with friends they have met here. Here is the link to the slideshow
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mhuster55/Petra.
Here are some links to Petra sites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra
http://www.raingod.com/angus/Gallery/Photos/MiddleEast/Jordan/Petra/index.htmlhttp://www.isidore-of-seville.com/petra/1.html.
Michael
P.S. Kim reviewed this post and said I don't have any mistakes today! She is embarrassed about many of the posts

Every Burp Helps

Wow! Luke, Katie, Kim, and I got a great sense of Jordanian hospitality tonight. Everyone on the team has had nights like this. At 6:00 we met two students at the Center. The two students are both well-placed professionals meaning they are in management. First, we went to a well-known (at least to Jordanians) hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Abu Musbah in the old town Amman. We were treated to "arroz", meat (lamb) & spices in a roasted pita. It was amazingly delicious. During the meal we had good casual conversation.
From there our friends took us to Al Quds (The Jerusalem) Restaurant for the dessert they usually eat called kishck alfariah. It is a milk based thick pudding with pistaschios & almonds covering the top. Again, a great treat with more talking.
After a while we got up to get coffee at a coffee shop. It turned out to be the oldest coffee shop in Amman, dating from 1924. To get in we went down an alley, through a narrow door, and up a flight of narrow stairs. We had Arabic coffee and tea. The sunset call to prayer came during the meal. Our friends took turns going to the mosque to pray. Kim and Katie were the only two women in the place.
We walked around downtown. Most of the street shops were open and bustling. We stopped in a gold shop long enough for Kim to pick out a nice 22 caret gold ring. We also stopped in an upscale watch shop that one of our friends worked in the parent company of. It was hot in the store, and we eventually headed out for a fruit shop. Luke, Katie, and I had what were basically smoothies that were very filling. During this visit the night call to prayer came, and again our friends took turns going to prayer. By now it was about 10:00 PM. The second one back from prayer pushed "passing fruit"(?) on us, and we were all completely stuffed! When we found out that they intended to take us to a dessert shop for knaffa, we had to polite decline.
After walking a bit more, we returned to the car, said goodbye to one friend and the other took us for a ride to where he worked. At this point it was about 10:30 PM and the neighborhood where his office is was packed with pedestrians! He drove us to a shopping center parking lot that had set up a huge playground with inflatable slides. He said, "Today (meaning Thursday) is Children's Day." So, especially during the summer, families stay out very late, talking, walking, eating, and bringing the children to playgrounds. Very different from the US!
When we finally got back to the apartment, we found we were the first group back. We were still all uncomfortably full. I let out a burp and said, "Every burp helps" to general laughter.
The rest of the team came in over the next half hour. We all had great times talking to the students we have met who have befriended us.
Well, it's 1:00 AM, and we leave at 7:00 for Petra.
Grace and peace,
Michael

The Week is Finished - One Week Left!

I think we all agree that the second session is going faster than the first. I think it is probably because we know the students better and we are more comfortable teaching. Every night some of us are going out with students. Meanwhile, we are all very concious that our time in Jordan is running short. One week from now we will be on the airplane from Amman to London!
Tonight most of us are going out with people we have met. Tomorrow we are leaving at 7:00 AM for our trip to Petra!
Thank for praying for us,
Michael

Second Session, First Day

Yesterday we taught the first class of the second two week session. Two TESOL students from the US have joined our teaching team. Katie & Heather will be teaching other classes for their practicum. Kim is their supervisor. We debriefed afterward, and the first day went well. Micah is teaching the Beginner 1 class with Heather assisting. Jackson, who taught with him in the first session, moved up to co-teach with Claire in the Beginner 2 class. Kim and I are teaching the Intermediate, and Luke is teaching the Advanced with Katie assisting.
We now have both a man and woman in each class which we already seen payoff. When Kim and my class went to break, the only woman in the class stayed behind and talked to Kim. About half of the students continued from the first session, so we have plenty of ongoing relationships. In fact, one of Claire's students is already arranging another picnic for this weekend!
We planned our Petra trip for Friday with Waleed, so that allows us to schedule other appointments for the weekend. It is hard to communicate how friendly and hospitable the Jordanians are. All of us on the team love meeting, socializing, and talking to our students and acquaintances.
Michael

Friday in Jordn

Morning

First, Friday mornings are very quiet since it is the holy day for Islam. The main prayer is the afternoon prayer time at the mosques, so everyone sleeps in late. Here is a picture you would never see in the US.

We rented a van and driver for 10 JD (about $14) each for a trip to Madaba, Mount Nebo, Jesus' Baptismal site, and the Dead Sea. Waleed our driver was a great driver and host for us. We arrived at Madaba to visit the church of Saint George, a Greek Orthodox church, to see the historical mosaics. We arrived early, so we had to wait two ours until the services were over to visit the church. We walked around the town and did some souvenir shopping and had another delicious hummus & falafel meal.

The church was beautiful inside with amazing recent mosaics and the ancient mosaic map of the Holy Land. I was excited to make out the Greek for Bethlehem.

From there we visited Mt Nemo, the traditional site of Moses' death overlooking the promised land. Here the whole team is. It has a beautiful view of the the Jordan river valley. Next we went to the baptismal site of Jesus at the Jordan river. Now it is only about 15 feet across! By the time we got down to the Dead sea it was blazing! We stopped at a beach resort with a beautiful pool (and showers.) "Swimming" in the Dead Sea was truly an amazing experience.

A friend with us doesn't swim and is deathly afraid of water. Waleed coaxed, cajoled, teased and dragged her into water a little more than knee deep. Kim and Waleed took her arms and told her to sit down. She floated with her head well out of the water and with forearms and lower legs all in the air! Waleed and Kim floated her out and kept trying to get her to relax. The funniest moment was when Waleed holding her said, "Look, I'm floating too." Sure enough, when she looked over his feet were sticking out of the water.

The Picnic

We got back to Amman around 4:00 PM, and got ready for the picnic Claire's students wanted to have. Except for Luke, who went to a wedding, we all met at Second Circle and took taxis and a car to a forest park in Marj Al Hamam. it was a fun hangout time. We taught them the game Samurai, which is a fast gesturing game. Everyone was laughing hysterically. We mostly just talked. Later we ate chicken. Talked more. We had a really good time with a lot of conversation.

Friday night in the summer is a major outdoor picnic time. While driving around we saw groups all along the highways picnicing and hanging out.

Michael