The call to prayer...

The Muslim is called to prayer five times a day. The call to prayer is heard at dawn, at the midday, about the middle of the afternoon, just after sunset, and at night fall about two hours after sunset.

The muezzin, a man appointed to call to prayer, climbs the mineret of the mosque, and he calls in all directions, "Hasten to prayer." Many mosques no longer require the muezzin to climb the mineret. Instead, a loud speaker carries the message.

That loud speaker blares from every mosque in the city. Every nieghborhood has atleast one mosque. Wherever you are during the call to prayer, whether it be inside, outside or at the mall, you can hear the call. I have become more used to it the longer I've lived here, but it still takes me by surprise at times. I like to use this call as a reminder to pray for our Muslim friends. Please be in prayer with me over them.

My first bridal shower

Yesterday I had my very first bridal shower!

The wonderful girls in my company over here planned and threw me a wonderfully fun shower. They set up the table full of Arab and American finger foods and sweets. I could tell they worked really hard and I felt so honored that they would spend so much time and effort on this shin-dig for me.

Women from school and church, and some of my students' mom's came to join in on the festivities. I absolutely loved all the gifts, which include ingredients for Arab food, Arab decorative items, sleepwear and jewelry. Each guest was also asked to bring along their favorite recipe written down for me. They all know about my current obsession with learning how to make delicious simple American meals as well as scrumptious Arab ones for my future husband. Oh my just reading the names of some of those recipes made me salivate! I can't wait to eat them!

Towards the end of the evening all the women were asked by the hostess to say a few words of wisdom or advice about marriage as well as their favorite memory of me. This was a time full of eye openers, laughter and yes......waterworks for me! There I sat, in the middle of a room full of beautiful, wisdom filled women of God....and I got to pick their brains firsthand about what marriage is like. They loved on me and let me know in such a sweet, gentle way that marriage is the best thing they ever did, that it's amazing, but it takes work...and you can't do it without the Lord at the center of it. I felt so incredibly blessed the whole night by all these women. Thank God for girlfriends and fellowship.

Prayer

I have 9 of the sweetest most loving children as students. I thoroughly enjoy everyday w/my kiddos. I'm not just saying that either.....I thoroughly with all my heart enjoy my time with them.
One of my most favorite things I get to do at work with them is talk about Jesus and the Bible. They ask the cutest questions about what it means to live for the Lord and love. Sometimes their questions surprise me and make me sit and think for a minute before I respond. There's even been a time or two where I've said, "well, let me look that up and pray about it and i'll get back to you. Is that okay?"

At the start of everyday we have prayer time together as a class. At the beginning of the year they would say their prayer requests out loud and I would pray for them. Then around Christmas time I started to ask them if anyone would like to pray for one of their friends prayer requests. At first there were only the same two that would raise their hand, the others would avert eye contact and start playing with their pencil.... haha, some things never change.

After a while, when the kiddos started noticing that this was a safe environment and no one would dare make fun of or laugh at them, more of them started to volunteer to pray. Then before I knew it I didn't have to do any of the praying for the prayer requests, I would just close up the prayer time b/c ALL of them wanted to pray and talk to God.

Some prayers are of course simple and childlike..."Dead God, please heal Dani's tummy ache, amen."

And then some were more detailed and animated...."Dear God, we know you can move mountains, so we know that you can provide a car for James' family. We trust you and believe that you will give us our needs. Please provide for James' family. Amen."

I have learned a lot through prayer time with my kiddos about prayer in our spiritual lives. Whether our prayers are simple or detailed and animated. The Lord delights in his children talking to him and turning to him for hope, help and healing. The Lord loves to hear how much we love him and thank him...whether we say it in 1 sentence or 10.

Well, the school year is ending, and my kiddos have grown into awesome prayer warriors. Their trust and faith astounds me! So I thought I'd try something new in class. I broke up my students into 3 groups of 3 this morning and asked them to pray in small groups w/their friends.

Of course being a teacher, I had to model how to do this, which was interesting. Then I let them try it out on their own. The 3 groups sat around in different areas of the room and I walked around listening and praying over them. I was one proud and happy teacher and believer.

I can't wait to watch them grow in this area during these last weeks of school.

God is good!

Hospitality

The Arab people enjoy practicing their well-known tradition of hospitality. As a result, they have a wide variety of food always on hand to offer their guests, even the enexpected guests. It's almost impossible to decline an invitation to the table in an Arab home w/out offending the host and hostess. So you might as well accept the invitation and eat hardy b/c you are in for a real treat. I have been the lucky person to receive such invitations several times since coming here.

Arab food is prepared with such feeling and pride. Arabic dished can even satisfy the health conscious b/c many of these delicacies are made w/grain, cheese, yoghurt, fresh and dried fruits and veggies. The simplest ingredients produce a surprisingly attractive and delicious creation. It's understandable why Arabic foods have a long-standing reputation and are rated among the finest foods in the world.

While I'm here I figured that this would be a great time to start learning some recipes to cook for my upcoming marriage. I've started simple, learning how to make hommos, fatoush (an arabic salad w/cucumbers, tomoatoes, mint, sumac, parsley and friend pita pieces...YUMMY!), zaater bread and a tasty chicken dish that I can't pronounce. I look forward to trying these new recipes out on friends and family back home!

A visit

This past weekend my campus pastor from back home came out to visit. He was coming to survey the area and see about potentialness of sending teams of students out here for missions trips.
Oh my goodness, it was so nice to see a familar face from back home. The second I saw him walking up my heart was so joyful and I felt like I was seeing a father. It was like having a piece of Huntsville here! It made me miss home so much!
While Eli was here he really blessed Sarah and I. Even though he had a busy schedule and many wanting his time, he made time for us and sat with us to talk about our year here. He was really genuine in wanting to know how we were doing and what our experience has been like. He also helped us think about what our next steps would be concerning missions when we got home, and how we could bless and help other students who would like to go out into the field after school.
I felt a real care and love from him as the three of us sat there and brainstormed and discussed. I felt like I was really being pastored, he even asked me questions about tangible life things concerning post Will and I's wedding. He is so gentle and yet firm with us, which is something we all need from a pastor. He made me feel like he was pleased and proud of me, which is nice to get every once in a while when you're out here and you sometimes feel like you're not doing any good, or enough. Of course, that's the enemy lying to me and I must rebuke it in the Lord's name everytime!
I'm so glad Eli could come see and experience this country and culture. His visit was a true blessing to me and my heart right now.

Easter

Easter here is a week after Easter in the States. Today, while Americans are celebrating Easter day, we here are celebrating Palm Sunday.
In the churches here Palm Sunday is made a bigger deal than in churches back home, atleast the churches I've been to. I got to experience the tradition of Palm Sunday in church this morning. In the middle of praise and worship the worship team started singing an "Easter" song and all of the young children walk aroung the perimeter of the church and through the aisles waving big palm leaf branches and some holding lit up candles. It was neat to watch and I enjoyed it so much. I wish we could do this back home in the States.... we just need some really big palm leaves!

Next Sunday is Easter here, and is also the beginning of our Spring/Easter Break. During this time I will be in embarking on my adventure of Biblical sites in Israel. Joanna, Becky and I are going there for 6 days and 5 nights. I'm looking forward to seeing the locations of so many historical sights. I know I'm going to be in reverance and awe the whole time. This will be one vacation and trip that I will never forget I'm sure!

Take me out to the ballgame, take me out to the field.....

Spring has sprung in Jordan and baseball season is here!

Baseball is not a very popular sport among Arabs, but the families at Whitman LOVE baseball. It makes them feel like they have a part of their American (or other European cultures) here with them.

The Amman Little League was started by some families at Whitman years ago and it is still going strong. Every spring students of all ages sign up, get assigned a team, get their gear ready and prepare for weeks of baseball fun with friends. They have baseball games every Friday. Today I got to attend the first baseball game of the season. It was a lot of fun! I felt like I was home. There we were in the stands, a bunch of English speaking people, with our sandwiches, coolers of water, and sweets, watching the game, cheering for the young ones down on the field. Such a blast!

It's also a great time to sit and chat with some fellow workers and get to know them better. Fellowship!

Next week I have got to remember to take some sunflower seeds and maybe we can try doing the wave in the stands...!