March 2025
Monday December 18 2023
Well, it was a few years in the planning but we finally made our trip to Jordan a reality! Here’s a little insight into what was a remarkable time together, only made possible by the kind donations of the local community and the Church of Scotland.
Leaving the UK on October 11, we were aware that war was inevitable in the Middle East. We’d been assured that Jordan was safe, however, and we’d had many messages of prayers as we were leaving Skye.
We arrived in Amman in the early hours and were soon met by the friendly smile of the Rev George al-Kopti, pastor of St Paul’s Church, Amman and our host for the week.
The church is based in one of the poorer districts in the east of the capital. It provides a care home for up to 10 Christian women in addition to the Olive Tree Centre, which provides Arabic and English classes, art and music lessons and additional life skills to Christian refugees and local Jordanians.
The conference was in another multi-use space on the campus, and we were met by around 20 youngsters, aged between 13-17. There was a combination of locals and teen refugees from Iraq, Egypt and Syria. We spent the next day and half with them and enjoyed a variety of sessions, sharing cultures, food and dancing.
On day three we set off to visit Biblical sites, beginning with the Baptismal site of Jesus. The River Jordan at this point is very narrow, and yet it forms the boundary between Jordan and the West Bank. This was a particularly poignant part of our trip. It was difficult to marry up the peace in which we were stood, taking it all in, and the onset of war that was taking place across the river.
The next three days were spent in the south, visiting Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. All these buildings carved into the sandstone, and the place was bustling with people, camels, donkeys and little markets all along the route.
Day two took us along the King’s Highway to Wadi Rum, the desert, where we would spend the night in a Bedouin camp. Our sandy adventure started with a half hour camel ride, and then a three hour jeep tour across the vastness of red and beige sands, up sand dunes, climbing unusual rock formations and stopping for some Bedouin hospitality along the way.
We enjoyed a lovely dinner, where the meat was dug out from the sand, having been slow-cooked by the heat during the day, in the traditional Bedouin manner, and sat watching the sun going down on the desert.
On the last day we visited Aqaba. We stood on the shore of the Red Sea, looking across to Egypt, up to Israel, with Saudi Arabia a mere 30km to the south. Heading back on the road we passed Lot’s Cave and the statue to his wife, before arriving at the Dead Sea. There we spent the most incredible hour floating on the water, lathering ourselves in mud, and then going back in to rinse it off!
We each learned a lot from this trip. We learned about other cultures. We learned things we didn’t all know from the Bible. We were encouraged by the other teens being so open about their faith.
We learned that loving Jesus does not stop wars. But we reminded ourselves too, that it was in Jesus that we were all united. We pray for all those people, young and old, whom we met, that some of them might visit us here, that their faith is strengthened and that whatever shape their lives take, that they might have taken some encouragement from our time together too, as we did from them. We pray for the whole region too, that peace will return.
We give thanks to each person who contributed to this trip, including the Faith Share Team and the Gaelic Committee at the Church of Scotland.
Shukran. Mòran taing. Thank you.
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