Category: Jordan

Today we visited historic sites in the northern portion of Jordan, in an area which in our Old Testament readings is known as Gilead. The area has been populated for centuries, due to the availability of fertile land and reasonable amounts of water. Our first destination is Umm Qeis, a historic site about twenty miles…

As we gather in the departure lounge in preparation for boarding our Royal Jordanian Airways flight, a sense of the “familiar” begins to gradually melt away. Strange accents, different facial features, headscarves on many of the women, kafirs on the some of the men, a smattering of Sikh turbans, the occasional thobe. Writing begins to…

In Matthew 11: 2-15 Jesus asks, “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? A man dressed in fine clothes? A prophet?” These questions are very relevant for me personally. What am I going out to the desert to see? For that matter, why am I going…

The “I” in the title can refer to either the reader or the author. I cannot answer the question for you, only for me. Here is a question to ponder: when a long-since-deceased artist made these paintings in the caves of Lascaux, was the artist creating art for the world to see and admire, or…