Calvary Church - c4

28 June 2007

Another interesting thing we forgot to mention is that from Aqaba you
can actually see 3 other countries: Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
If you look in the daytime picture, with the sea and land in the
distance  and coral reef in the foreground underwater, you will see
Jordan to the right, the Israeli city of Eilat in the middle and
Egypt on the left. The border crossing to Saudi Arabia is just to the
south of us. At night it's quite easy to spot Eilat as it is much
more developed than Aqaba at the present time. Landwise Egypt is the
easiest to spot as the Sinai Peninsula is just across the water from
us. The Saudi border is also best visible at night as you can spot
some lights across the border.

-C4 Team

28 July 2007

We have changed our locale now to sunny Aqaba in southern Jordan.
When we say sunny...we mean SUNNY! Yesterday's high was close to 115
F and today was supposed to be up to 108 F. Can't say most of us have
experienced this kind of heat, but we're making due. Thank goodness
for the air conditioning that is prevalent throughout this city!

The art sessions at Hakawati finished on Thursday. By the end of the
time, both we and the kids were learning each others names and we had
made a lot of good connections with the kids and parents. If you
check out the picture gallery you can check out a few pictures that
some of the kids took too on the photography session on Wednesday
morning. Not all of the things happened exactly as we had planned or
anticipated, but the kids had fun! The parents were all impressed by
our services and look forward to something similar in the future to
be offered for their children.

After we finished at the bookstore, we rushed home to change and head
out to Mahatta to help spruce up the Iraqi refugee school a little
bit. The school is currently not operating as it was shut down by the
government last year; however, they still provide other services for
the community and hope to be able to reopen the school soon. We
didn't have a lot of time there, but we were able to clean up some of
the children's toys and play area as well as help carry some old
unused desks that are not being used onto the roof for storage.

Thursday evening we were able to experience a bit of the Jordanian
cultural scene at the Jerash Cultural Festival, which had been
canceled the last two years. It takes place among the Roman ruins of
the ancient city of Genasa, one of the ten cities of the Decapolis.
The ruins were quite impressive as our team had a great time
exploring. The main event for the evening was actually a Latin hip-
hop group from the US, so we decided to opt out.

Yesterday (Friday) we packed up shop in Amman to load up the bus for
the four hour ride to Aqaba. We crossed the country on the ancient
desert highway which stretches from the capital all the way to the
Red Sea. It was quite an impressive landscape of desert and mountains
on the way down, some of which we'll get to see more up close when we
stop at Petra on the way back to Amman next Friday. Our hosts here in
Aqaba met us at the bus station soon after we arrived to whisk us
back to their guest house. Right away we noticed this city is much
more laid back than Amman...and much, much hotter! Aqaba's current
population is only about 40,000 compared to the 2 million of Amman.
Over the next decade, Aqaba is expected to grow to 1 million with the
creation of a special economic zone sort of like Hong Kong or Singapore.

We had a wonderful lunch of spaghetti and garlic bread and had the
chance to meet our new hosts. One of them is actually from PA! There
is a great team of people we will partner with here this week as we
are available to teach English, assist with aerobics classes, help in
the prenatal clinic, baking for the coffee shop, among other things.
After a rest in the afternoon, we joined our hosts on the beach for a
swim and a picnic. We were planning to have a campfire too, but I
guess with the 100 plus degree weather yesterday it just didn't sound
as appealing. With the wind, it felt like we were in the path of a
giant blow drier, and it smelled like it too. After that evening in
the heat, we were all extremely appreciative for the air conditioning
we were able to enjoy last night in our guest house.

Today we practiced some flexibility again. Late last night we were
advised that the VBS we were to assist with and thought was canceled
was actually on as scheduled. One of our hosts took us over there at
9 to help out wherever we were needed. They had a group of 7
youngsters in one room and the 12-17 year olds in the main
auditorium, so we split up our group. They were both studying the
life of Joseph through different mediums. Some of our team members
were able to assist with the counseling of the older students, and
all of our team helped out with the games.

This afternoon, we were able to check out some of the local sea life
at the Royal Diving Club. The Gulf of Aqaba, an extension of the Red
Sea, is known for its world class diving. We got a taste of it last
night where we were swimming, but the sight where we swam today had
much larger coral reefs with lots of fishies of all different colors,
shapes and sizes. Our group was able to go snorkling among the reefs
where we even spotted Nemo! It was truly an amazing sight to behold.

This evening the team was able to fellowship with our hosts in a
International Fellowship of sorts. Some others who attend were not
able to make it this evening, so it was just us signing and learning
together. It was a great time together as we looked forward to the
work ahead this week. Think of us this week as we build relationships
this week and seek to be available to help however we can to assist
our hosts.

-C4 Team

24 July 2007

Our arts & craft sessions are exploding in numbers!
Today  we had our first full day of crafts and art at the Hakawati
Bookstore. This morning we were expecting much lower numbers for the
digital media lab session as many of the children (or their mothers)
mentioned they had a summer camp they would be attending today.
However, some of those very same people showed up this morning. This
goes to show you that we made a good first impression yesterday with
our first session. We are excited to see so many turning out for
these fun relationship building times as we weren't sure how many to
expect leading up to our departure. We have also been receiving
extremely positive feedback from all the mothers that bring their
children.

This morning we had to practice some flexibility with our lesson as
there was another science session going on in the same space we had
reserved. While things may have seemed a bit chaotic to us for a
while because of our improvisation, it all worked out great in the
end. All the kids were excited to work on the computers and they
loved taking home their new CD suncatchers.

This evening's session went superbly. We had more children show up
than we were expecting as the word is getting out, and we may sadly
have to turn some away tomorrow as we're running out of space. The
demand for this type of service is out there as the kids in Amman
don't have nearly as many kid-friendly places as back home or even
parks to visit. Tonight we also got an excellent report from our
hostess who told us two wonderful connections that have been made as
a result of the Doodlebugs Arts & Crafts session @ Hakawati. The
first one was basically a job offer for our group from another
bookstore owner nearby that would like to do something similar to
what we are doing. While our schedule does not permit that, a door to
a new relationship was opened. Also, one of the little girl's
grandmother, who works for a cancer foundation here, would like our
hostess to come do some workshops with recovering cancer patients in
a local hospital. Remember not only our team but our hosts as they
follow-up on the relationships that are built over our time here.

-C4 Team

23 July 2007

We've just finished our second full day here in Jordan! It's hard to
believe it's only been two days with all that was packed into that
time. We arrived safe and sound Friday afternoon after a fairly
uneventful trip. After some money was exchanged, we got our visas
while waiting in some semblance of a line and proceeded to pick up
our luggage where all was present and accounted for...praise God! On
the other side of the wall we were greeted by our co-workers to whisk
us to Amman.

Saturday evening we simply had time to get settled in and relax a
little while we chowed down on Pizza Hut for dinner. Hawaiian pizza
with hamburger and pineapple is interesting, and we're not sure how
they got pepperoni on our pizza. (Muslims don't eat pork.) The Ps
gave us some orientation information and filled us in a little more
on our less tentative itinerary for our 2 week stint in Jordan. No
major changes...just a few embellishments here and there.

Sunday was a marathon sightseeing day! Our hosts were determined to
keep us awake all day to get our body clocks in tune with the 7-hour
time difference. After breakfast, we packed tightly into our two
rental cars with our hosts and their two kids. Let's see...there's 9
of us, our hosts, that makes 11, two kids, 13! Just picture 7 people
packed in a silver Toyota Corolla and that's what we were doing
yesterday. First it was off to Madaba where we enjoyed the city of
mosaics. Actually, we only saw a few in the St. George's Church known
for its ancient mosaic map of the Middle East. Afterwards we did some
shopping on the way to our next destination--lunch! Our host had
already ordered us a fine Arabic meal of various dips, salads,
chicken and potatoes. It seemed the dishes just kept coming! It's a
good thing they did too because we were going to need that energy for
the afternoon.

 From Madaba we drove up to Mt Nebo where Moses was taken to view the
promised land before he died. The view was breathtaking, and it was
an amazing experience to reflect on the Israelites passage to the
Promised Land from Egypt as we looked down onto the plains of Moab
towards the Dead Sea. From here we packed back into the cars to wind
our way down the mountain towards the site where Jesus was baptized.
We loaded onto a bus which then took us closer to the Jordan River.
Security is actually quite tight right now considering all that's
going on in Jordan's neighborhood right now, so the bus had to get
special permission to go down to the river. Even once we arrived to
the river, we were greeted by soldiers who escorted us down. Today
the river is quite narrow due to damming of the Sea of Galilee, and
Israel is just a stone's throw away, if that. We were all
experiencing the exhausting Jordanian sun by this point, and it was
hard to imagine how Jesus could have spent forty days in that
wilderness after being baptized. We had had enough after 40 minutes!
The bus finally came to return us to our cars and we blasted the AC
on our way to the Dead Sea.

At the Dead Sea in Jordan, there are several hotels that open up
their pools to day visitors. We checked out the famous Dead Sea Hotel
where they have a nice swimming pool and access to the beach. Yes, it
goes without saying, but you really do float! It's something you just
have to experience yourself. A nice afternoon in the pool helped us
forget quickly how exhausted we were only a short time before from
the desert heat. It was a packed day, but the Peiffers managed to
keep everyone awake...until the car ride back to Amman.

Monday we loaded up our cars again to head over to the British
Council for an Arabic tutoring session with our host's teacher
Sultan. He taught us a few letters of the alphabet and some simple
phrases of greeting that can be practiced during our visit. When we
say simple, that does not mean they're the most simple to say. For
lunch we grabbed some falafel sandwiches and chicken swarma at some
local eateries. Afterwards we made it over to the Bible Society to
check out some of the things they had in their shop such as the
Arabic/English Bibles or the NLT Bibles that many picked up, which
oddly enough were cheaper here than back home. From there we made our
way back to the house when our host decided to test Drew's driving
skills by quickly cutting across 2 lanes of traffic for a short-cut.
The Jordanian police guarding a nearby office were quite amused as
they laughed along with us at the beeping traffic.

After returning, we gathered up all the supplies we'd need for the
evening arts & craft session at Hakawati Bookstore. We still weren't
quite sure what to expect for the turnout, but we were told the word
was definitely out as 30 had been signed up and more were told about
the session. In the end we had about 30 kids, so we had enough
supplies. By the looks of things tonight, I think we can say that our
preparation has payed off. All the kids had a great time and their
parents were appreciative of our help. Our hope is that our True Joy
will shine through our smiles as we relate with the children and that
it will open doors for our hosts and their co-workers after we leave.
We have five more sessions to go! Everyone on the team really chipped
in to help tonight, and it was a complete success.

This was a lengthy update, but don't expect so much the next couple
days as our schedule pretty much repeats itself both Tuesday and
Wednesday with morning and afternoon craft sessions at the bookstore.
We'll try to get some new pictures up of the craft sessions the next
few days.

-C4 Jordan Team