- That Jordan is so beautiful! I thought it would be all desert. It has an abundance of narrow walled in walkways and beautiful hillsides. I can’t figure out why they chose the hills to build all the houses on when there’s so much space. Perhaps they had been to Lebanon.
- That I finally found some Diet Coke! It took a Burger King. The Whoppers taste the same, by the way, but are bigger I think.
- That I saw a heart surgery patient today! He showed us his scar and I didn’t need the interpreter to tell me what he had done. Then he dug out a paper operative report from Syria. It was all Arabic, except for the acronym LIMA-LAD which is also the way the surgeons I work for describe their grafts. I was ridiculously pleased!
- That there can be so many heartbreaking stories, and so few easy solutions…. And I see only the slightest fraction, and can never fully understand. As I was told today, “The one who gets the beating feels something different then the one who counts the blows”, or some such Arabic proverb. I can’t blame their skepticism about my ability to tell the story… But they are also grateful that someone is trying.
- That the country of Jordan has such a palpable atmosphere of peace from the market to the highway. People feel relaxed. Their king, they say, sometimes goes to government hospitals in plain clothes just to see what the hospital experience is like. The country is swamped with refugees because it has a reputation for peace and stability, and unlike its many neighbors, actually takes refugees in.
- In a world where bullets and bombs rain, people get beheaded or cut into pieces, life savings are ruined in a moment and families separated…in this same world, there are people unceasingly giving their time and energy for others, people whose hope is only in God, people turning to Christ because they didn’t know there was a God of love until they met someone who knew Him. “Everyone in Jordan,” I heard today, “deserves to hear the Gospel at least once.” What a goal!
And now it is nearing midnight, and I wish you Good Night!
