October 29, 2007

Jenessa Simmons
October 29, 2007
Day 1 in Jordan
Today was an amazing day! It started out a little earlier than usual; we were all on the busses at 7am and headed for the Border Crossing into Jordan. I was excited to get another stamp in my passport, but unfortunately none of our passports got stamped… Oh well, I can add that country to my list of “been there, done that” anyway.
Our first stop in Jordan was Mount Nebo, the mountain where Moses went to view the Promised Land. It was a little bit misty, but the view was still gorgeous (completely different than the view from Utah’s Mount Nebo, by the way.) There was an old church at the top with some beautiful mosaics on the floor, and outside the church were the remains of some old pillars, prime for picture taking.
The next place we went was the St. George church at Medaba, where there is a huge mosaic map of the Holy Land during the Byzantine period. That was super cool and old. Then on our way to the hotel we were staying at for the night we stopped at the supposed place where Moses struck a rock with his staff to make water flow from it.
The hotel we stayed at was in a place called Wadi Musa, which means the “riverbed of Moses.” Before this trip I never associated Moses with Jordan, but Jordan is part of where Israel wandered for 40 years. That’s good to know.
One of my favorite things that we have talked about in class this semester is Elisha and the miracles he worked. I think it’s awesome that he used the power of God to work miracles of compassion and love. His life is one of the most obvious testimonies, to me, of God’s love for the people in the Old Testament. It seems like so often the prophets of the Old Testament had to just prophecy of imminent destruction and the wrath of the Lord, and people hated them and drove them away – that is the general image I had of the Old Testament before taking this class. Elisha was full of kindness and mercy, and the Bible Dictionary describes him as “of a gentle and affectionate disposition.” I’m grateful to know that the Lord loved his children, and was able to show them his love through his gentle prophet Elisha.