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March 8, 2005

Hallelujah

This Sunday I decided to take the trip to a local chruch for their weekly service. I went with Haley's family so that I wouldn't be all alone and so that I wouldn't get lost on the way.

I arrived at the church (that looked more like a house) around 6:50pm for the 7pm service. They have limited translation services so Haley and I needed to sit where we could get headphones with the English translation. The entire service was in Arabic except for a special presentation made by a visiting group which was then translated into Arabic by the Pastor. It was neat to sing in Arabic and I did recognize some of the words because songs are pretty standard around the world. Lots of them use words like "king" and "love" and "Jesus" which I just happen to know. They also sang a song that we sing at home that is only a chorus of Hallelujahs. It was nice to feel that we were all worshiping together even if I couldn't understand exactly what they were saying.

The church is not the denomination I am used to (it was Assembly of God) so things were a bit weirder than even I am used to but it was nice to see. Two other girls from the program were there and it was good to see them. I didn't get a chance to meet many other people because I had about two hours of homework I needed to get done for the next day and it was already 9pm and I was exhausted. (Having my sister get up and turn the light on at 6am three days a week is not good for my sleeping habits.) Hopefully next week I will get the courage to go to the Lutheran church that I found in Amman. I'm a bit wary because I don't know where it is but if I take my time I might be able to find it.

Last night was my first night of Biblical Arabic. We went through some of Luke and read it both in English and Arabic. It is a welcome relief from regular class because the teacher had no problems with translating into English. The real problem with my other Arabic classes is that they try to define Arabic words with other Arabic words. Of course, if I don't know the common one then I probably don't know the obscure one and so I stay just as lost as I was before. I am hoping that Biblical Arabic will help me at church and in class because I will have a wider vocabulary in general. That does mean that I will have to study, however, and right now that isn't too appealing.

The Biblical Arabic teacher said we get to go to the baptism site soon and I am really excited to go. It is such a cool experience to be in such a holy land even though most people don't think of Jordan as holy. On our trip last week we passed the river that Jacob wrestled and angel for the name Israel and we saw the Sea of Galilee. It is awe inspiring to see these sites and replace the pictures I had in my head with real ones.

Man, I picked a cool country to visit!

Posted by rcollins at March 8, 2005 6:56 AM

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