CINDY BRYANT

Greetings from Mahatta in Amman, Jordan. Our fifth day on this mission project was filled with interesting information, plenty of emotions, and shopping till we dropped!

We began the morning with Chris D, a friend of Jonathan, joining us for a breakfast lecture. He is an assistant professor at Jordan Evangelical Theological Center. His specialty is historical theology. He shared with us about Arab history and culture and spent over an hour describing the challenges that missionaries face when they try to evangelize Arabs.

Next, we visited with another of Jonathan’s friends, Jesus D. Jesus is head of the Kelsey Arabic Program. He gave a very engaging presentation about the importance of teaching Arabic in an integrated way which deals with both the written form and the differing dialects of the language. The data and teaching philosophy that he shared was very eye-opening and compelling. Jesus was knowledgeable and offered the best strategies for evangelizing people in Arab communities.

Then we went to the offices of Hope & Trust, a ministry that helps refugees prepare documents for Visa applications. The mostly Syrian and Iraqi refugees living in Amman cannot legally work. Many of them survive by visiting local churches every week for food and household supplies distributions. Lorna and her volunteer staff connect refugees with services and programs in the community and partner with various Embassies to assist with Visa approval and resettlement in other countries. The majority of Iraqis are now hoping to move to Australia! (Hope & Trust also served us a fabulous Jordanian lunch!)

At 5:00 p.m., the women on our team gathered in the sanctuary of Grace Church for their weekly women’s meeting. We hosted a women’s conference on Tuesday, where we had 45 attendees. We did not finish all of our lessons, so we continued with those tonight – now with 75 attendees. Our conference was titled “The Goodness of God: Our Emotions and the Truth of the Gospel.” Yvonna spoke about loneliness, Melanie spoke about fear, Rosebud spoke about bitterness, and I spoke about envy. We each gave a personal testimony and a key verse from the Bible to encourage the women to move past their negative emotions and into a life filled with service, trust, peace, and contentment by faith in Christ and calling on the Holy Spirit for help. The Iraqi refugee women listened, laughed, played games, and ate chocolate with enthusiasm. We are so grateful to God for the opportunity to encourage these beautiful women. Please pray for their faith to be strong and their hope to be in the Lord!

Oh – and after dinner, we went downtown to shop for our family and friends who have been so generous in supporting our project to Jordan. We love and appreciate each of you and promise we will come back soon.

2026-05-14T14:53:44-04:00