Jordan 4 MVP

Jordan was the trip of a lifetime, but maybe not for all of the reasons other people would see it as such. I was actually miserably ill with a cold almost the entire time, which made me not really want to site see. Sure, Petra is amazing, but when you feel like you're going to die, ruins just don't mean that much to you. It was strange, because I woke up that morning feeling like I would have a spiritual experience in Petra, but I got there and was so miserable. I just didn't care; I was so sick! So the whole morning I spent dragging my feet around, but after the tour had ended, I was sitting around with a few friends, and these kids came up to try and sell us rocks. Well, as cute as they were, I wasn't in the mood to purchase any rocks, but I did have a bag of fruit snacks with me, so I opened them and distributed them between these 3 kids. They were so sweet. Laila is the one sitting on my lap. The time we got to spend with them was certainly a spiritual experience and something I will always remember.

The other neat thing was getting to visit the Church Branch House in Amman. We got to meet the Branch President and a few of the Arab members there who shared their testimonies. An elderly brother got up to share his testimony and told us, "You are my family." It was so touching to hear that sentiment from someone who is living in another world and culture, but he still considers me a sister. It was so amazing. The Branch President shared things with us that were really eye-opening. I thought the days of religious persecution were basically ended, with perhaps a few extreme cases every here and there. Nope. Jordan is another country that will not officially recognize our Church. The building is labeled an educational and cultural center, but they cannot refer to the building as a religious center. This means they can't own property under the Church's name, can't perform marriages or funerals. He told us about two of the Branch members who were recently married; they had to join the Armenian Orthodox Church and get married there just so the country would recognize them as legally married, and then after that they were able to fly to Germany to be married in the temple.

Please keep praying for the Church in these parts of the world! That's what I was fasting for yesterday. I know I'm asking for miracles, but it could bless the lives of so many of our brothers and sisters, and I certainly know that God has and will perform miracles!