Welcome to Jordan!

The muddy, narrow Jordan

You could almost walk on water - without a miracle - on this side of the River Jordan! It's caramel brown, thick with mud, and so narrow you could pole vault across!

"Jordan hasn't invested much in Holy Land tourism," our new guide, Dani, tells us. He's apologetic, a bit defensive, a little embarrassed. "How many places did you see in Israel?" he wants to know. We tell him we saw many places, every day. "I can't go to Israel," he reminds us. "I'd like to visit all those places too, but our country doesn't recognise that country. We don't say the name, 'Israel' here. And we don't have many holy sites."

Dani, our friendly Jordanian guide

Bedecked Dani explains Rift Valleys

Dani is a young, bearded, gold-wearing Jordanian, with chain link bracelets, rings and a necklace. He says people would know he's a Christian by his gold. "Muslim men never wear jewelry." he tells us, "Jordan is 98% Muslim. Only 2% are Catholic or Greek Orthodox.... This is why they don't invest in Holy Land sites. There are many, many sites in Jordan," he says, "but no-one cares. We have to wait for foreign money, and it doesn't come."

Workmen clearing the roadway

But the sites he shows us are authentic and moving. After all, it probably was on this side of the Jordan river that John the Baptist ministered much of the time, and on this side that he baptised the Lord Jesus. In the past, symbolic white doves fluttered here, but there are none today; only muddy water and a group of workmen paid to clear the road to the river, anticipating the Pope's visit.

Israeli side - easier when soldiers work!

"Make a highway in the desert" takes on new meaning. The spiritual road, cleared here by John the Baptist, has long since been filled in by dirt, debris and doubt, and it seems like a token gesture now to level it for Christ's Roman representative.

Greek Orthodox church by the River

But redemption gleams from the crannies! There's a little gem by the riverside: a church, golden domed like the Dome of the Rock, but much, much smaller, and open to visitors. We go inside.

It's Greek Orthodox, and I delight in its curving wooden seats along the walls; the blue base for  iconostasis art, painted from ceiling to floor; the gleaming brass and candles. We study the stories on the walls, taking in Crusader angel motifs, and troop back outside.

And then I see it happen: the thing I've been hoping, waiting for all along the way. A baptismal site miracle! Or at least a divine moment. An instant of quiet in chaos. Vincent is still, stationary, seated in a curved bench, looking, leaning, feeling the air on his skin, stories in his eyes, the comforting weight of faith on his head. Vincent, with autism, hardly speaks, so I specially request that we visit Greek Orthodox churches, where one needs no words; the paintings speak clearly. Here at last, right where Jesus heard a voice speaking words of love to him from heaven, Vincent listens. I imagine the same voice speaking to Vincent; speaking for him, speaking with him. Listening to him.

Vincent, tucked into the church wall like a prayer

I remember our final group gathering, before leaving on this tour, when we wrote prayers on post-it notes and stuck them to a brick wall - symbolic of the prayers we'd post into the Wailing Wall once we reached Jerusalem. Each person took another's prayer, and committed to praying that for them. I took Vincent's. "I want to talk to God," he wrote.

I watch him a moment, in this shining sacred space. Maybe here by the muddy, narrow Jordan, that yellow post-it note becomes a flame, burning as gold as an icon's candle.

Jackie & Ken wait outside

Maybe, with his parents waiting outside, Vincent himself becomes a small prayer, tucked into a wall of faith, talking straight to God. I hope so.

We move on to Moses' country, driving on the King's Highway, chronologically reversing through time. Oh, but it's a dry land, and it's a relief to stop at the "Grand Canyon" of Jordan, and see the "third best view in the world." (Dani enjoys those qualifications!) This is the Valley of Arnon, wide and deep. On one side are the Mountains of Moab; on another, the Mountains of Ammon. The valley's enormous - over 200 sq. km of nature reserve.

Tradition says that Moab was the offspring of Lot and his elder daughter, while Ammon was Lot's child with his younger daughter - from the infamous episode after Sodom and Gommorah's destruction. These hills became their family homes. Remarkably, Ruth, great-grandmother of the great King David, came from Moab. The distance between dirt and glory is much closer than we think!

Seyi's swashbuckling suitor!

A shaft of blue parts the dust, and we see a large dam, sourced by seven springs, whose water goes primarily to Madaba. We follow it there, after rescuing Seyi from the amorous invitations of a Bedouin Romeo, wishing for her lovely hand in marriage!

Guide to Madaba Map - listing all the places depicted on it

Ma- (water) -Daba (fruit) is a land of plenty, and certainly was back in its heyday. Inhabited for over 4500 years, it is cited in Numbers 21:30 as a Moabite town. After the Moabites, it saw Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine rule, becoming a prominant Christian centre in the 700's.

The Madaba Map - a mosaic on the church floor

It also became famous for its mosaics, and at last we get to see the original 6th century mosaic map of the Holy Land, including a detailed depiction of Jerusalem with its walls, streets and churches. If only all maps could be so clever! This one has brought many archaeological mysteries to life - researchers followed what was pictured here, and sure enough, discovered buried sites. The mosaic was buried too! An earthquake leveled Madaba in 797, and it was abandoned for over 1000 years, till a few Crusader families from Kerak chose to settle there. As they dug foundations for their homes, magnificent mosaics were unearthed; and now every wall of this church is hung with a series of them, depicting the events of Jesus' life. Rocks and stones crying out!

At the 2nd best restaurant in Jordan!

It's lunch time, and we eat at "the second best restaurant in Jordan, where George W. and Laura Bush ate!" (thanks, Dani!). Their framed photo proves it! Getting lunch is a slow process, but all part of the journey we're on; we're here to taste and see, to learn and listen! Entering the time line of this land - past and present - is one way to do that.

Khaled drives us up a hill and we enter a new air, fresher and clearer. Thin green trees sway in a mild breeze. The last stage, to the mountaintop, must be taken by foot, like the trail I once took up Mount Sinai - though this path is paved and smooth. We're arriving at another great mountain in Moses' life: Mount Nebo.

Behind me - the amazing vista Moses saw - Promised Land

On this Mtn, God took Moses to Himself

Moses saw all these places - so near - from a distance only

At the top, like Moses so long ago, we survey the wide valley and the vista beyond. Moses must have longed for the "beyond," as he saw that land. He had brought the children of Israel so very far; all the way from Egypt; from inner and outer slavery. Now they knew for sure that they were bound to no-one but their God. They were to enter the good land! It was very near.

Moses would not go there. The baby rescued from water, the man who had parted the shining waves of the Red Sea, had been so angry that he needed to provide water for these complainers again that he struck the rock, instead of speaking to it as God commanded. Water gushed, but Moses' spirit was crushed. How tired he must have been, looking from Mount Nebo after all those years. Maybe it was a relief not to have to lead the people any more. God knew. In the silence of the ages, Moses died on this mountain, in the arms of God, and was laid to rest by God himself. His grave and body were never found.

Mosaics, now stored in a shed where birds make their home

Closed 4 years

The church in his honour has been locked up 4 long years; "under repair." Maybe it will take a full 40 years of wilderness waiting to see it open! Who knows?! ... But it's maddening, nearby, to see massive mosaics, formerly in the church, now in open display, ruined by seeming neglect and bird droppings.

A new sight in a women's washroom! No-one used them ...

(And I'd never seen a women's washroom full of urinals before!! - The men's had none! They must have mis-labelled the doors, and never bothered changing them.) "We're not business people, we're Bedouins," Dani says happily throughout the day, speaking of the Jordanian people. "We don't care about money; you can trust us!" Perhaps, but maybe not with ancient treasures! Trust includes doing good, not just not doing bad! But who can judge? Moses had his foibles, and God believed in him.

We drive to the site where Moses struck the rock: Meribah. "You can drink the water, even now!" Dani tells us. Bobbing in the water is an empty pop bottle, so we decline; but apart from that it really is sparkling and clear. The Rock itself is here too - housed in a small building that looks from the outside less like a shrine and more like a water pump station. Turns out, in some ways, it is - this water supplies the whole town! Thanks be to God, for perfect faithfulness in spite of petty failure.

The group enters the castle

Kerak Crusader Castle - another church era!

Our final stop for the day is Kerak castle, Crusader fortress in the 1100's, bastion of Christian warriors and prison for their enemies. We marvel at the solid structure, with its trapezoid "arrow" windows - small and narrow outside, broadening to much larger within - so nothing could enter except air and light.

Hole in ceiling lets in light & air

We wander through big stables, cavernous meeting places, prison cells and a chapel. It's all here - except the knights themselves, but we can almost hear their clanking armour, smell their woodsmoke fires and feast around their table.

Broad lookout - for safety - from the hilltop castle

It's odd to have this European architecture in the middle of the Mediterranean, but whoever said the history of the Holy Lands was graceful? It's a muddled jumble of hopes shattered, dreams repaired, and bruised again. As we leave, small smiling Muslim children say "Welcome to Jordan!" I think to myself, "A few hundred years ago, their parents would have been locked in those prisons!"

Dani has told us he will never have children because he has only despair for his land. There will never be peace. He can't even run water freely - he gets only 6 hours of running water each week to fill his water tank. Jordan, named for its river, is not flowing with abundance for ordinary people. Dani's vision is a reunited Jordan/Israel. "Geographically we are one!" he declares. "Together, we are the most beautiful land in the world." ... Easy to say the word "utopia," but harder to deliver.

It's peaceful when we get to our hotel, just outside the gates of Petra. This day has been eye-opening, and a little unsettling.