Finding Peace in a Militarized Zone.

It is no secret that while Israel and Jordan are not involved in an open war with each other, there are still some tensions between the two countries as a result of the 1967 war. To travel from Israel to Jordan and from Jordan to Israel is a lot like traveling down a highway with guards carrying light machine guns and Jeeps with heavy machine guns guard the highway. There is a large section of the middle of the highway that seems to be a no man’s land. Somewhere in the middle of this no man’s land you pass through an area that seems to be a lot like going through airport security with scanners and employee’s questioning your reasons for travel. Along this road you cross over a little gully at the bottom of which is a small river, The Jordan River, the river where our Lord was baptized by his cousin, servant, prophet and friend, John the Baptist.



Today we traveled to this road and received permission from the military to go down into the gully. Among the trees and the water we saw the place where the local tradition says our Savior was baptized. At this holy spot we sang—reverently—sacred hymns. We sang: “Lord I Would Follow Thee,” “Come Follow Me,” and “Baptism” (the Primary Hymn by Crawford Gates: his granddaughter was with us today). The water was calm, peace and serenity were upon us, the music and words of one of my favorite songs/ scriptures came into my mind as I reflected upon my experience: “Peace Be With You” (by Leo A. Dean) “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)



We were not the only pilgrims there: There was a Catholic Monk in his traditional brown robes, a tourist group in red baseball hats, and another couple who asked me to take their picture. Many of these pilgrims went down to the waters edge and put their feet in the river, or washed their heads in the water. As I watched this I thought about their beliefs that the water was Holy, then I pondered on my beliefs about the place: It is obvious by The Spirit that is there that the place we were at is Holy. The place is holy, in my opinion, for two reasons. First- Our Savior obeyed the will of His Father there by being baptized, also giving us an example of what we need to do to be saved in his kingdom in Heaven. Second- People come to this place to think about our Lords life, and in doing so He sanctifies the place as he sanctifies the people who worship him. While I was at the traditional site of Bethabara, after I took the picture for the above mentioned tourists, I felt a feeling of unity and communion with them. Another scripture came to mind “not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”



In addition to singing we were instructed in the history of the area by our Muslim tour guide, Mohamed, and we were instructed from the Bible by our Old Testament professor, Brother Harper. The other class (Brother Huntsman’s class) had a testimony meeting, we arrived right at the end of their meeting to join them in their closing song and prayer; many of the students were crying for joy. Today is truly a day to be remembered.



On a less spiritual note: This past week has been amaizing! We spent much of the week in Jordan. We visited ancient roman cities, seeing colonnaded roads and pagen temples. We sang in ancient theaters and took pictures at ancient gates. We watched a local performance teaching us about Roman Soldering techniques—they had a group of men dressed in roman armor with roman weapons, following ancient roman orders for marching, placement of shields and spears. They also held a chariot race, and a choreographed gladiator fight. (to be honest I was really worried I was going to waste my time and money by attending the show, it was not a waste.)—We went to see king Hussein’s car collection, which included: several Ferrari’s, a Bugatti, about a dozen Rolls Royces, the whole gamut of Mercedes and dozens of other luxury cars, sports cars, and motor cycles. We also visited Jabbok (the place where Jacob wrested a heavenly being and his name was changed to Israel). I was able to go on Facebook for the first time since I left home (we are not allowed to use Facebook while we are in our Jerusalem Center) And we visited Petra.



Petra was AMAIZING! (In case you don’t know what Petra is, please follow this link—If nothing else at least look at the pictures) The coolest part of Petra was walking down a long narrow canyon (very reminiscent of the canyons of southern Utah) and suddenly walking in on The Treasury. The Treasury is a huge carving in a sand stone cliff face that has been featured in a variety of films, including “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade,” and “Transformers 2.” The pictures and the movie do not do this justice: the Treasury is over 9 stories high ( it’s over 131 feet high. For my friends that know BYU well, that means this carved building is only 30 feet shorter than the Spencer W. Kimball Tower). I was wearing my adventure hat while we were there and a number of the locals would call out to me “Indiana Jones! Come, come buy a ___.” This blank could be filled by any number of things, mostly small trinkets, but it also included a camel ride and a carriage ride. Regrettably the camel ride I did take was only a few feet (for a picture)… But I did ride out of Petra on a horse! It was super cool, and I did feel like Indiana Jones. I do recommend taking the long hike up the mountain to see El Dier “The Monastery.”



Thanks for reading and I’ll keep you posted.



Your friend,

Jared