My trip to the Holy Land included a visit to Jordan to see the beautiful Petra.
And a real life miracle.
Our Jewish driver and guide could not cross over
from Israel into Jordan; therefore, our bus drove to
the border where everything was transferred to
another bus with Jordanian guide and driver.
We had to disembark, claim all our luggage,
(we were spending one night in Jordan)
and go through a customs check.
It was quite exciting!
Petra is a UNESCO world heritage site half-built and
half-carved into beautiful rose-colored stone. It was featured in the
movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
In order to enter Petra, one must either walk or ride a donkey cart. It was very hot, so I opted for the cart.
Here comes our cart.
And off we go!
The 20 minute or so ride into Petra was
through this "Siq,"
a narrow passage between two mountains.
This is the only way to enter Petra.
Now to say this was a rough ride is the understatement of the year. There were big rocks, and bumps, and no seat belts!
My head hit the top of the cart numerous times!
There were three of us to a cart--the driver and two passengers.
I was on the outside, and it was the roughest ride of my entire long life!
This is The Treasury--reddish pink stone!
It was spectacularly breathtaking!
Oh, and I actually rode one of those camels!!!
That's me on the right! Really! (But this wasn't the miracle!)
Flashback for a minute to that roughest of all carriage rides.
I was carrying my valuables in a zipped leather case
inside a tote bag which was open topped.
Can you guess what might have happened?
Well, it did. My bag of valuables must have bounced out of my tote bag. I had no passport or extra money.
In Jordan.
At the time I was hopeful I had left the zipper bag on our bus.
Upon returning, when I stepped out of the cart, however, I heard my name being discussed. When a policeman determined who I was, he asked me to "come with him." I shouted for Gary, my pastor, and asked him to come too. Thank goodness, he did.
We were taken quite a distance to a small office where there were three other police officers. We were instructed to have a seat and interrogated rather like we were terrorists.
I was asked repeatedly what else was in the bag.
We were asked random, meaningless questions.
At some point we noticed that my passport had appeared on the "chief interrogator's" desk.
It was mentioned that "two guys" had found my belongings, and they were telephoned upon our arrival at the office. I assumed it must have been two other policemen.
However, when the "two guys" came walking up to the door of the office, they were handsome, clean-cut, well dressed Jordanian citizens who were just visiting Petra for the day. One had my brown zipper case in his hand.
They had evidently surrendered my passport to the
authorities but had wisely kept the case containing
my cash--every dollar intact.
The case had been, sure enough, on the ground
close to the Treasury.
These fine men had sent me five emails and a Facebook message, and had called the American Embassy!
But the most amazing thing--they had waited for me!
It was over two hours before I got back to the arrival area...
and they had waited.
My "angels of Petra" would accept no reward.
Gary offered.
They just asked that I have pleasant memories of my visit to Jordan and of its people.
It took me a while to stop thinking about how bad it would have been if my passport had been found by a dishonest person.
Instead I began thanking God over and over for taking care of me by sending two kind, honest men to save our trip.
I will forever remember them with the most grateful of hearts when I think of Jordan.
And that was all they asked of me.
