Thanksgiving... and Beyond!

To catch you eager readers up, yes, we made it back to the States in good condition and with all our gear intact.  Which is amazing considering the amount of stuff we ended up taking... 3 crates, 2 large suitcases & 4 carryons... plus some redvines and a bag of Dorritos that only recently got finished off.  We knew coming into Chicago that it would be a bit colder, but the snow coming down as we drove out of the airport was a very nice touch... welcome back!

Thanksgiving in STL included a ton of family and a carrot soufle, corn cassaroule and pork roast to die for... it was nice to hook back up with everyone including a cousin (Jennifer) who brought books for young son that we'd read together as kids ourselves... total memory lane experience.  Since we're an international family, Suzi's parents do T-Day a few days later (usually on a Saturday) and watching MU throw away a perfectly good cross-border game was tempered only by a tasty Hy-Vee turkey at Suzi's sister's place in Columbia.

The rest of our time home so far has been shuffled tween family & errand running and quick trip to MI to see Adamaya... which needs another entry all to itself.  It's terribly nice to be home, albeit, our hearts & minds are floating somewhere over Gulf...

Given some time later this month, we'll throw up some pictorial essays on the site and few webcasts that never made it out of the can while we were onsite.  Our year-end newsletter is out... if you didn't get it, let us know! 

Last Nite in Amman

Here’s a few pix from our trip to the Gulf.  We’ll post some more to our site later when we have time to cull thru the masses we took over the past few months!

Scott gives direction to Adam while Suzi brightens our corner of the world w/ a bounce.

The Burj is a classic shot from Dubai... but it’s eclipsed by everything else these days.

We’re back in Amman... but only for the night.  We made it in for me to preach at the Sunday evening service.  Adamaya hit the road for MI this evening (don’t envy their trip... 4 legs in 48 hours!).  We’ll be out bright and somewhat early Monday morning for the States... it’s been a great 7 mos in the Middle East. 

We’ll be back... Insha’Allah!

The Last Week

Thanks to all who kept us in prayer over the last weekend. The conference went very well and we had very few hiccups... with the exception that our primary guest speaker from the States had to leave early and we reshuffled the schedule at the last minute. The Lord is good and we made it thru. We had over 150 visitors, including many from the north of Jordan. Much more to come in our newsletter.

At the moment we're in Gulf working with Adamaya... We'll be shooting footage for their presentation on this region and working with various churches here for the next week. Above is a picture of Adam in the Bahrain airport at 6AM... after our 2.30AM departure from Amman. We spent the night in Abu Dhabi and went to church with some of the team there. Today we moved north thru Dubai into Sharjah, one of the Northern Emirates.

Dubai is absolutely amazing. Literally, they are creating a monstrous city of architecturally amazing skyscrapers in the midst of the desert. There are so many buildings under construction at the same time. I canÕt imagine what the urban planning board must be like... much less the ministry of Labor that supplies all internationals that keep the UAE running.

For those who're counting, we'll be home in 6 days... Insha'Allah.

Voting PSA

This is your official Public Service Announcement from us... You'll only get this once.

Vote.

We did and we're half way around the world.  All you have to do is walk down the street to your local elementary school.  Or library.  Or neighborhood Church.

The world is watching.  They want you to vote.  Don't disappoint the rest of the 6,427,874,040 folks who don't get to decide who becomes the next Decision-Maker...

Vote.

Taffy plays the role of witness to our absentee voting

Jr. High Band

Remember being in Band?  Or Choir?  Or maybe after-school community something or other?  A few days ago we stopped by Sarah's Symphonic Band Fall concert at the Baptist School here in Amman. She's in the trumpet section and attends our Sunday Fellowship with her family.  The band is a community effort and is led by Ms. Barbara... a very efficient and professional director.

The playlist was varied, covering the Theme from St. Elsewhere, Raindrops and Liza Jane among others.  We attended with Cyndy, Nasri, Natalie and Jon.  Natalie and Nasri went to the Baptist School from KG to Senior year so this was a bit of homecoming of sorts for them to wander the halls and reminisce of their glory days.

BTW, if you're in town, stop by Bennigan's... mention you support the Baptist School Music program and they'll donate 10% of your bill to the school!

Cleaning Day... or Month

We've been doing a bit of Fall cleaning at the church to get ready for our Conference in November.  One recent Saturday, we pulled down all the curtains, took out all the chairs, washed every accessible surface and shampooed the carpet.  Good times and wrinkly fingers, you know?  Getting the curtains back from the cleaners and rehung seems to be taking a tad longer than expected, but that's life in Jordan.  Today I picked up the last of the curtains.  We'll have the guy come hopefully this weekend to put everything back up.

Prepping for cleaning

Our To Do list

 Suzi deep cleaning

Natalie gets a turn with the Shampoo

 Jon gets busy on the doors

Suzi & Ariana take a break

Everybody gets in on the shampoo action

Tamara hits the windows

Sari & Son: Prof Window Powerwashers

Dead Sea Quickie

So, there's advantages to living on the south of Amman... and one of those is a quick 30 minute trip to the Dead Sea when we have an afternoon off. 

Amman is 773 M (2,356 FT) above sealevel.  When you head west down, literally, the highway, the elevation begins to drop dramatically.  The drive takes you along a ridgeline and then into the Jordan River valley.  Our destination this afternoon was Amman Beach, 420M (1,378 FT) below sealevel.  Bonus: Since it's the middle of the week, it was empty!

The Dead Sea is more like one of America's Great Lakes... there's just nothing alive in it, and, due to the incredibly high saline & mineral content, anything thrown in it floats.  Everything is more harsh in the valley.  When we left Amman, it was 21 (69).  By the time we reached the beach parking, it was 34 (93).  The Dead Sea receives an annual rainfall of about 2 inches a year.  Due to the high demand for water from the Jordan River, the Sea has been dropped consistantly, losing one meter of surface area annually for the past few years.

Suzi explores before hitting the water; the Palestinian Territory is in the background

 

Anything that stands still long enough will be encrusted in salt

 

(Coolness Factor: On the way, you never know what you'll see on the road... a random camel or two or a herd of goats!)

Note the Omega/George Clooney billboard in background