Christmas in the Desert

On December 23 our whole squad left Amman to go to Wadi Rum for a short Christmas break. Wadi Rum is a desert tourist attraction that is hard to believe exists. Even when we were leaving on the 27th it still didn’t seem like the place was real, it looked like a screensaver. This is a place where a lot of films get made. If you’ve ever seen a desert movie there is a decent chance it was filmed in Wadi Rum. Films like “The Martian”, “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Dune” were filmed here.

We all slept in tents, not our own tents but the tents that they had at the camp. While we were there we got to experience traditional Bedouin food for almost every meal we had. It tastes amazing and it is all cooked underground. The first night we relaxed, played card games, hung out at the camp, got to listen to some traditional Bedouin music and we got to play the Bedouin men some of our own music, so we played some worship songs. 

On Christmas Eve some of us got the chance to go outside the camp and see other parts of the desert with a few of the Bedouin men. We got to see cool landmarks in the desert, see petroglyphs which are basically cavemen drawings, went sandboarding which is a lot of fun, and finished with a sunset in the desert.

When we got back to camp we had our own little Christmas Eve service. We sang worship songs, had a short little message, took communion, then we drew names out of a hat and whoever we drew we went over to them and prayed for them. When we went over to them and prayed for them we lit the candle that they had because it isn’t a Christmas Eve service if it isn’t in candlelight. After we finished praying for each other we all went outside into the cold desert and finished the night by singing “Silent Night” with all our candles lit. 

On Christmas Day we read the Christmas Story and did a white elephant gift exchange. It was nothing to fancy since all of us are going a whole year without a job.

Afterward, some of us went back out with the Bedouin men and we went on a hike and saw the highest point and Jordan and we could see Saudi Arabia in the distance. Then after our hike, we got to finish our time with a sunset camel ride back to the campsite. Riding camels is so much fun. 

After coming back to camp and having dinner we shared testimonies with the whole squad about what God has been doing these last few months and all these different ways He has shown up. 

Then the day after Christmas we had a short devo. Then we found out what our new teams were! I’m not gonna go into much about that right now. I plan on writing my next blog about my new team. After spending time with our new team I spent the rest of the day just relaxing and playing games.

Then on the 27th we left Wadi Rum and headed to Petra. Petra is one of the 7 wonders of the world and it’s so cool. It’s a city that was built into mountains and inhabited until about 600 A.D. It was a really fun way to end our time together as a squad before we went off with our new teams to start doing ministry back in Amman.