From Umayri to John the Baptist

Thirty minutes after falling asleep, the phone rang. Three of our four pieces had been found and awaited my signature in the lobby. The joy of seeing luggage again. The shock that Vonnie's bag was still missing, with ALL our toiletries. BUT, there was a note promising it was on its way - with a new tracking number. There's still hope.
Morning started early with breakfast and meeting our driver, Moustaffa. I showed him our first goal on Google Earth: Tal al'-Umayri - the first dig we wanted to join. We bravely started out to find it. When we attempted to duplicate what we saw on the screen, we got totally lost. All the back roads; all the stops to ask if anyone had heard of it; all the shaking of heads. We DID find Tal Hesban, another Madaba Plains Project run by Andrews University. It was of great interest, especially with the sign directing us to the plastered wall of a reservoir that many think is the same as the pools of Hesban mentioned by Solomon. But we did not yet find Umayri! Until a Bedouin in a store suggested it was on a hill behind a service station. More time wandering. Finally, Moustaffa pulled over to where a Bedouin was selling fresh cucumbers on the side of the road. Yes, he knew where it was. For two Jordanian Dinars, he guided us to where his son was assisting with the dig! And there we found Doug Clark and Larry Herr, along with Henning Guldhammer's nephew, who is the official videographer for the dig.
Moustaffa then took us to Madaba (try looking for the plains of Medaba in the Bible) where Vonnie visited the little shops and I went to the museums. We also saw a church with a mosaic map of Jordan from the 500s. Wow! It was discovered under a plaster floor in 1999 and revealed a more ancient traditional site for Jesus' baptism by John. Mosaic work is a tradition in the area being carried on by a government supported shop for disabled ladies. We loved visiting a few of them, but couldn't afford their amazing work (6 months on ONE piece!)
Mount Nebo was next. Long revered as a holy place because Moses died there and was taken to heaven by Michael, it offered a wonderful view over the Jordan Valley toward haze-concealed Jerusalem. It really got both of us to thinking of what it meant to be in the same spot, ourselves longing to see a vision of the final Promised Land.
Once in the car, we switched back and forth, down, down, down into a barren landscape. It is hard to imagine the Children of Israel descending into this burning wilderness (it was something over 100 degrees!) towards the Jordan River.
Getting to the river is complicated because it is now the border between Israeli controlled Palestinian West Bank and Jordan. It is a militarized zone and people aren't allowed to approach it on their own. However, there is a bus for tourists, and then a guided path that let's folk actually get into the water.
Guarded by a Jordanian soldier, it reminded us that even John had Roman soldiers around his work. And it also reminded us that when Jesus came down, normal life was happening all around and many missed the eternal event that happened. So life continues today: "normalcy" can blind us to the extraordinary of God's daily actions.
With our driver Moustaffa's permission, we invited a young Russian couple to ride with us back up the hill to Amman. Although much improved, this is the same road I took in 1964 when I returned from a week in Jerusalem. How long ago that seems.
Moustaffa then took us to a dessert stand and we enjoyed a sweet topping of sugar and pistachios over melted goat cheese. It was delicious!
Now we're looking forward to Sabbath morning at the Adventist Church in Amman. (Vonnie still has no fresh clothes as we await her bag.)