Kuwait is One Hot Town!
"Hot town. Summer in the city. Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty." That is the first line of the Lovin Spoonful 1966 hit, Summer in the City. And boy is it hot in this city! I know, I know...it was my choice to live and work here. But in defense of myself, I really had not a clue that there were places on this earth inhabited by humans that could get as hot as it gets here. And lately the wind has been blowing, too. As I write this, it is currently 117 degrees outside. By Sunday it will reach 120 degrees. I heard it will reach 140 this summer, but before it gets that hot I plan to be cool in the shade under the massive oak tree in my front yard. I can see green grass only in my dreams right now, but in exactly two weeks I will be stepping off the plane at Des Moines International Airport luxuriating in the cool summer breezes of my beloved Iowa. Am I homesick? Well, maybe a little...
The Citadel
Our last stop on our Jordan trip was the Amman Citadel located in the center of downtown Amman. The Citadel sits on the highest hill in Amman. It can be seen from any part of the city. Archeologists have been working here since 1921, but much of the citadel remains unexcavated.
Amman is one of the oldest cities in the world. The Ammonites settled here sometime after 1200 BC. The BibIe records that King David captured the city early in the 10th century. It was here that King David fell in love with Bathsheba then ordered the murder of Uriah the Hittite by having his soldiers retreat from him in battle. The city has been occupied by the many superpowers of the Middle East throughout the centuries. Neglected and abandoned, the city fortunes did not revive until late 19th century under the Ottoman Empire. Amman became the capitol in 1921 of the Emirate of Transjordan, then in 1949 it became the newly created Kingdom of Jordan.
Temple of Hercules built by Marcus Aurelius during the Roman occupation in 162-166 AD. The columns are thirty-three feet high. They were re-erected in 1990.
Pretty impressive spot for a picture.
Ruins of The Byzantine Church built by early Eastern Orthodox Christians in the 5th and 6th centuries.
Governor's Palace and Mosque built by Umayyed Arabs in 720 AD and destroyed by an earthquake in 749 AD. It was never rebuilt.
Nazarene
One of our last days in Jordan I went down for breakfast and met a very nice older couple from the states. They were curious about why I was living in Kuwait so I told them I was a music teacher at a private school in Kuwait - just normal small talk expats engage in when we meet fellow citizens from our home country. I noticed that they were both wearing a lapel pin with an Arabic letter inscribed on it. They told me it was the letter "nun" in Arabic. This lovely couple I was speaking to were relief workers bringing aide to Christian refugees from Syria and Iraq. According to the UN website, there are 1.6 million Syrian refugees and 200,000 Iraqis who have fled from their homes because of ISIS. CNN reports that there are 645,000 refugees in Amman. As of December 2015, over 7000 Iraqi Christians were granted temporary shelter in churches and homes throughout Jordan.
Getting back to the lapel pin. Why the letter "N"? This couple told me that the "N" stands for the first letter of the Muslim word for Christians- Nazarene. Nazarene is the word used for Christians in the Quran. The pin is worn as an act of solidarity with Christian brothers and sisters displaced by ISIS. The symbol was painted on the walls of the homes of Christians who were targeted for pillage and destruction. These people had one day to decide to renounce their faith or die. Most of them chose to flee with just the shirts on their backs. They lost everything but their faith in Christ. Like the early apostles, they gave up all they had to follow Jesus. Many people would call that foolish, but most would be humbled by their courage. I was.
The man gave me his card. It turns out that they are a little more than relief workers. Dr. J.L. Williams and his wife, Patt, have an outreach ministry focused on brothers and sisters in Christ who have lost everything due to religious persecution or natural disasters such as the earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010 and most recently in Nepal. If you are interested in learning more about their ministry, I would encourage you to visit their website: www.jlwilliams.org
Marking Time
If you have been following my blog, you know how very anxious I am to get home. When I returned to Kuwait back in late August, I was more than a little anxious regarding threats of ISIS here in the Middle East. The embassy issued a terror alert and many of us were wondering what kind of world we had returned to. Ten months have passed. Soon it will soon be time to pack our suitcases and call the taxis to take us to the airport. God has indeed sheltered us all in the shadow of his wings. Soon we will be home.
"...and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy." Psalm 63: 5-7
