Bedtime with the Bedouins - Part One

WOW has this post been a long time coming!  Let's go way back to July 5th when I left America.  I saw the insides of airports and airplanes for a long time before arriving in Amman, Jordan, on the morning of the 7th at 4:30 AM! 

An amazing family here (a lovely couple and their four cute kiddos) woke up during what I consider to be the middle of the night to pick me up from the airport and take me down to Petra for the day (3 hours both ways + 6 hours exploring one of the ‘Wonders of the World’…in the summer heat.  Are these people great or what?!).  For beating jet lag it was perfect – not only did I take a long nap in the car, but I’ve slept every night I’ve been here, hamdidillah (praise God).

The next day we drove up north to Mafraq, a city near the Syrian border.  I swiftly unpacked into the room the hospital had prepared for me and went to sleep again (I really kind of like this sleeping thing, apparently).

On day three I started my hospital orientation with a nurse from Holland.  About an hour into orientation, a woman came through the door and the nurse and her started talking in Dutch.  A couple minutes later the new woman turned to me and said, “Would you like to come with me and stay with a Bedouin family tonight?”

“Yes!” I said, thinking something like 'when am I ever going to get another chance to do this?'

“Okay, great, we’ll leave in about an hour,” she said and left the room.

Packing a few minutes later, I started laughing.  I did not know this woman’s name or where we were going.  Before you completely question my sanity, I did know why we were going (relationship-building, etc) and that she works in a clinic a few hours away associated with our hospital AND again, when was I ever going to get another chance like this?  Ha ha.

We drove about an hour away TOWARDS the Syrian border…like ‘hear-bombs-all-night, see-that-village over-there-being-burned’ type towards the border.  First a nice paved road, then a dirt road, then a pothole-riddled sand “road” till we started seeing homes like this:

Arg!  It’s time for me to head to Amman with some friends for the weekend so I am going to have to finish this story later [this was actually posted on the 25^th, but didn’t make it up for real till now, sorry :P].  Love you all, please continue to pray for me, know that the LORD, He is God and we should shout joyfully for His name, serve Him with gladness, be thankful to Him, and bless His name “for the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations” Psalm 100.