We’re in the airport in Amman again, and it looks like this time we’ll be getting on the plane. Thanks for your prayers. We had a fun day yesterday at the Dead Sea while waiting for this flight. We hope the rest of our connections work out, and we make it all the way back to CA soon…

We were supposed to be home by now, but due to a series of events (which includes way overbooked flights, and flight time changes), Katie and I are spending 5 unexpected days in Amman, Jordan. I don’t really feel like going into all the details at this point because I’m tired of thinking about it. It has been quite exhausting and stressful to figure out all the logistics and deal with the airlines.

We’re hoping to make the most of our time here to go do some fun stuff, but we’re not sure yet what we’ll be able to afford to do since these extra hotel/taxi/food expenses are really adding up. Plus, I was supposed to be back at work this week.

Anyway, I just wanted to update you on our situation. We’ll post more when we get a chance. Thanks for your prayers.

Katie and I had a day to relax today, while the rest of our group headed back home. It was great to get some rest, but we already miss the group, and wish the tour wasn’t over.

I spent a bit of time gathering some photo highlights from our first 3 days of the trip, which I have posted here:

http://www.dankatie.com/photos/08/07-israel/highlights1/

Be sure to check them out, and of course feel free to leave comments.

Actually, our trip isn’t over; we have another week by ourselves in a different place. We have a tiring schedule ahead of us: we have to leave for the airport at midnight, and our plane leaves at 3:30 am. Then we have 3 legs of travel until we get to our final destination. I think it will be 12 hours of travel, though much of that in airports.

Thanks for your prayers!

Once again, I must be brief. This trip is packed, and every chance we get to sleep is valuable. One highlight today was hiking up to the fortress at Masada, which is very significant to Jewish history. A second highlight was swimming in the Dead Sea, which was really cool, er actually warm. It’s hard to describe the sensation of floating in salt water so dense without experiencing it first hand. We’re staying tonight in a hotel right on the Dead Sea.

The photos below are from previous days (haven’t downloaded photos from today yet):

Another camel.

A shepherd’s cave. Unlike what traditional manger scenes would suggest, this is similar to where Mary and Joseph would have been when Jesus was born.

This is the Dead Sea from the eastern (Jordainian) side. This is only a small part of the Dead Sea, but you can start to get a sense for how big it is.

Another part of the same castle that I posted a photo of last time (with Katie in a tunnel).

A Bedouin man walking between two of their tents. We saw a lot of beduins in Jordan.

A shepherd leading his flock to new pastures.

A young shepherd with one of his sheep.

Another shot of the main facade in Petra.

A different facade. This one was used as a monastery.

Pagan Nabatean temple in Petra.

Us at the Jordan River near where Jesus was baptized. We are standing in Jordan, and Israel is on the other side of the river less than 30 feet away.

Alright, that’s it for now! Shalom.

This is the first time getting online since we arrived.

We’re doing great, and enjoying the trip very much. We don’t have time to write much, but here are a couple photos. These are all from Jordan.

Camels! Morning of the first day.

Arch at Tel Heshbon.

Herod’s Palace at Machaerus

Exploring a river gorge.

Our group where we turned around in the river gorge. You can go back behind the waterfall.

Katie in a tunnel in one of the castles built during the crusades.

A different castle (sorry, when I have more time I’ll elaborate).

Awesome facade at Petra (where we were today). This is where they filmed a scene for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Camels hanging out in Petra.

Here we are hiking up the canyon in Petra.

Katie at the entrance to one of the big facades in Petra (different from the one shown above).

Today we got to ride donkeys for part of our journey.

I wish I could post more, but it’s already 11pm, and I need to sleep!

The highlight of our time at LAX (waiting for our flight to Chicago) was this ad display:

No boot device, but at least we know the MAC address for easier hacking.

This reminds me of this error screen that I saw in DFW a while back.

It’s been a long time since we’ve touched this travel blog. We didn’t really use it on our last trip to SE Asia in January, but I’m hoping we’ll get to post here on this upcoming trip to the Holy Land. We will be spending 2 weeks in Israel and Jordan doing a walking tour of the places where Jesus walked. We will also be spending a 3rd week in a nearby country doing some photography and writing.

Needless to say, we’re really stoked, and eager to see this part of the world that we’ve never visited. I’m not sure how often we’ll be able to post, but we’ll do what we can. I will most likely also post some photos to my photoblog.

Note: See more photos from the trek here.

Hello family and friends,

Well, the trip is done. We are so thankful that God allowed us to be part of this journey, and we are also so thankful to you, our supporters in prayer and finance, for playing such a crucial role in how He made it possible.

We learned on this trip that the wonderful outcomes of the journey truly had little to do with us and our abilities – coming from a different culture, lifestyle and language, we often felt helpless or useless in the face of these people’s need for knowing Jesus. But at the same time, God did use us and our decision to go to Sera-land*. Our decision triggered 3 coastal Sera* men to come along with us to the inland. These men were able to communicate in their heart language and within their cultural context, the love of Christ to their inland brothers and sisters. So while it seemed sometimes that we did relatively little, we recognize that without the distribution of the Bibles to the inlanders and the expression of love that the coastal Sera showed them, they might not have opened their hearts to Jesus – some might not have heard of Him at all … And without your prayers and support, we would certainly not have had the means to instigate the trip. So thanks be to God, who uses the little “loaves and fish” that we offer Him, and makes out of it a true banquet!

Praise God with us for what happened … not only did we reach “O-village”,* “A-village”* and “S-village,”* but Bibles were delivered to 8 villages total in the Sera region! Of the 90 Bibles that needed to be distributed, we took 66. We intentionally did not bring all 90, for a few reasons. First and foremost, given the estimated number of households and literate people in each of the villages we planned to visit, this was how many Bibles would be well-used in those places. Secondly, we knew from the start that there would remain at least a few Sera villages that we would not make it to – it just wasn’t possible on this trip. But our hope was that some of the Sera would then plan another trip to take those remaining Bibles to them. So we left 24 Bibles in “K-town*,” to be distributed to these remaining villages later. Again, our deep hope in this trip was to inspire the Sera believers to take ownership of having God’s Word in their heart language, and also to take ownership of their responsibility to love their inland brothers and sisters by reaching out to them.

And the wonderful news is that, on top of the success God gave our endeavor, we also saw two more major “seedlings” beginning to sprout among the Sera before we left:

1. One Sera man, Abel*, has begun preparations for a second inland trek to distribute the remaining Bibles to the villages we weren’t able to reach. He actually hiked 20 miles in one day to meet us when we were 3 days from our final destination. He is passionate about the vision of reaching inlanders with the Word, and we pray that God grants him perseverance and success in his desire for this second distribution trek. We left him a large pack and some money to help make the trip happen, and you can pray with us that the trip will be accomplished. This is a direct answer to our prayers that God would use this trek to inspire and reawaken the coastal believers’ desire to reach their inland kin. Abel was also a key translator who worked on the translation with Mom & Dad, as well as a key player in the composition of many of the Christian Sera songs that have so greatly deepened the impact that the Scriptures have already had on the hearts of the people.
2. Another Sera man, Albert*, has a desire to go to “A-village” and stay there as a Bible teacher. If you recall from our prayer emails before the hike, “A-village” was one of the villages most interested in spiritual things, and we deeply desired to bring Bibles to them so that they could have spiritual food. Albert’s desire to go there and teach them about Jesus and God’s Word is a huge answer to prayer. Pray with us that God will grant him success in this endeavor, and that the “fire” that the “A villagers” have for Christ and His Gospel will spread among the other inland villages.

As to our trip. What happened? How did it go? What was it like?

What was accomplished:

• gave 66 Bibles to 8 inland villages (according to the population and number of readers in each village).
• gave dozens of Bible Answer Books (laminated pamphlet/tracts that briefly summarize the Gospel message, breaking it down so the Sera can understand it on a foundational level).
• gave dozens of Parable Books (short, illustrated stories drawn directly from the Scripture). These aid in literacy, and the people find the pictures and the short stories interesting, while at the same time they learn about Jesus.
• gave 30 red Literacy T-shirts. We had these colorful shirts designed for the purpose of promoting literacy among the people. This tactic had been used many years ago by Mom & Dad, and was incredibly successful. The T-shirts say (in Sera): “I can read in Sera … Can you read too?” The people like these shirts a lot, and it actually really motivates them and gets them interested in reading.
• gave Alphabet cards – small laminated cards with the alphabet printed on them. The cards have pictures of objects that start with each letter, to help beginners learn to read.

What it was like:
One way to answer this question is to describe for you a typical day, although I really pondered whether or not to do so, since it so completely goes against the whole culture we were in (nothing was really very “typical” day to day, and things certainly didn’t go according to the clock). But in an attempt to share the experience with those of us who do perceive life this way, I’ll do my best to pick out the commonalities of most days…

5 am – Andy, Daniel and I wake and begin packing up our things in the dark, using headlamps and flashlights (we also begin the lengthy process of bandaging our feet for the day’s coming miles).

6 am – It gets light; the guides wake up and watch us (with some bemusement) as we continue to pack up all our gear. (They, on the other hand, each have a small sack, containing an extra shirt or a baked taro root. That’s it. They sleep on the ground in their clothes, and eat and drink when they reach a village, not before. So they just … wake up and start walking.)

7 am – If we’ve slept at a village, the women bring us and our guides a meal (typically tubers [cassava – which tastes like a boiled potato, or taro – similar to cassava, but with a more distinctive taste]; sometimes stewed meat as well [often venison]). We and our guides sit in a circle on the ground or on a raised sleeping platform, and the food is served in large pots, out of which everyone just reaches with their hands (no plates, flatware, etc). Villagers watch us through doorways and windows; the women stay in the cooking area out of sight.

If we’ve slept in the jungle (camping), we eat a quicker breakfast (of granola or trail mix that we brought with us) and depart.

8 am – Begin hiking (if we’d slept in a village; earlier if we’d slept in the jungle).

HIKE
HIKE
HIKE

We’d spend 8-10 hours making our way through the jungle toward the next destination, stopping about every 2 hours for 10-20 minutes to eat, drink, “use the bathroom” (as I continued to call it, even though toilets - let alone actual bathrooms - were far, far away) and rest (or pace, to avoid leeches – the longer you stop, the more leeches jump onto you). I say we “made our way” through the rain forest, and that is exactly what it felt like. There was no trail – a few of the guides would walk in front, using their machetes to clear some kind of squeeze-able way through the thick mass of vines, trees, thorns, etc. Then there was the mercurial nature of the terrain: we might gain 700 feet of elevation in less than a half-mile, and then descend those same 700 feet in just as short a distance. That usually happened once or twice an hour.

5 pm – It begins to get dark. Hopefully we have reached either the next village, or a hut in the middle of the jungle at which to camp for the night. If we haven’t, our guides use their machetes to hack out a small clearing in the jungle, covering the cleared area with palm fronds and banana leaves on which to sleep. Daniel makes the (semi) nightly call on the satellite phone to Mom & Dad to convey our GPS coordinates and any other essential information and prayer requests. We then set up our tents; the guides build a fire; we eat dinner and go to bed (falling asleep instantly, and hopefully not being woken in the middle of the night by our insanely itchy bites …).

If we did arrive in a village that day, we spend time “chatting” with villagers upon arrival (at least our guides chat, since none of us speak Sera; the guides talk in Sera, then translate for Daniel into the national language, Daniel then translates into English for Andy and me). Next we bathe at a nearby spring or river (with everyone watching, so you just “sorta bathe” … basically you rinse off, fully clothed and try to scrub a bit of soap on what you can). Then we return to whatever house had been offered to us to sleep in and set up our tents for the night. They feed us (usually the same kind of food, and eaten in the same way, as breakfast). We hand out Bibles and the other materials. We go to bed.

Another way to answer the question of what the trek was like, is to use adjectives to try to describe what we experienced internally. So here goes …

The trek was:

… BIG!
We trekked for 14 days, covering 185 miles (85 miles on foot and 100 by canoe or motorboat).

… DIFFICULT
Each of us was stretched far beyond what we could have imagined. I already mentioned that there was no path. In addition to that, the hiking was not really hiking at all, as you might picture it. What we did for up to 10 hours each day could be better described as climbing, crawling, edging, wading, balancing, leaping, scrambling, ducking … maybe you start to get the picture. (And oh yes: tripping, stumbling and falling – that happened a LOT!)

… HELD FIRMLY BY OUR FATHER
God protected us and our guides daily. We were beset with all kinds of setbacks and complications, but never did we encounter a poisonous snake, none of us got malaria, and there were no major injuries. Wow!

In addition, He answered our prayers for a Sera guide who A.) could communicate well in both Sera (for the sake of the inlanders) and the national language (for our sake, since Daniel speaks that language, and so could translate from English for us), and B.) had a heart for the Sera people receiving the Scriptures, and desired this trip to happen for that reason and not just so that he would get money or notoriety by coming on the trek. The man that God so clearly provided for us, who so fully met these criterion and far more, was Ben*. Ben became so dear to us on this trek. We already knew him quite well, since he was one of the main translators that the Peckhams worked with to translate the New Testament. On this trip, Andy, Daniel and I came to love him as a grandpa. He said to us on the day we left K-town, “Since your bapa (father) can’t come on this hike, I will be your bapa.” And he was. He protected us, provided for us, and quietly but faithfully walked every mile with us, always walking right behind me (Katie), since I was usually last, helping me when I fell down and even carrying my pack when I was too exhausted. More than that, Ben had an amazing rapport with the Sera people. Being an older man, all the villagers respected him deeply, and listened to him. All the young men who came with us on short legs of the journey called him tete, an affectionate and respectful term for “grandfather.” In each village we came to, and in the nights we camped in the rain forest with our other guides, Ben would tell the people about Jesus. He would tell them stories (in the Sera fashion – so that it fit their culture well, was easily accepted and made sense to them). He would tell stories from the Bible (you should have watched their faces as they intently listened about Noah’s ark!), and he would tell stories from his own life about how God had intervened and changed his life. And the people listened.

God not only gave us Ben as a guide, but two other young men came with us from the first village onward – Bernard* and Boaz*. These two faithful men were wonderful porters for us. One joy from the hike was the day Boaz hunted and killed a tree kangaroo. That was a thrill! (If you’re interested in hearing more about that, ask Daniel – he got the whole thing on video.) We also enjoyed (and wondered about the stretching of) Bernard’s tale of being flipped from his small fishing boat by a surfacing whale, and being stranded for 24 hours at sea, eventually swimming to shore!

… DISCOURAGING
A major loss we experienced right at the beginning of the hike was that Joe had to turn back because he came down with the flu. This meant that he didn’t come on the trek, at the last minute. He left K-town with us on the boat, and arrived with us at the first village on Day 1. But that night he began to feel pretty sick, and the next morning made the very difficult decision to turn back. This was mainly due to the fact that the motorboat was still at that village, and was heading back to K-town that very morning. Turning back and returning to K-town on that boat meant he could spend the next 2 weeks with our parents, rather than in a village where he would not be able to communicate with anyone and would also not get as good of care in recovering as he would in K-town. It also meant that, if he healed in time, he and Dad might be able to take some day-hikes out from K-town to give Bibles and minister to people (they did end up doing this!).

It was a really tough decision, and seemed to be the best one, although it did significantly impact our trip. It was a great loss to us not to have Joe along with us, and I know I especially missed his easygoing cheerfulness and patience in difficult circumstances. It was also a great loss to him to not be able to go on the hike, as he had wanted so much to go. He sent out an email several weeks ago, explaining what this was like for him and what he saw God do within the situation. If you did not receive this email for some reason, and would like to, please email Joe and he can send it to you (joe.peckham [at] gmail.com).

… JOYFUL
Some of the villages in particular were so glad to receive what we brought them. “A-village” stands out as the highlight of the entire trip. We arrived around 4 pm, and as we went to the spring to bathe, and as the women began to cook a meal for us, the headman of the village gathered all 8 of the village’s literate men. We set up our tents in his house, and ate dinner with him (with the whole village watching through windows and doorways, of course). After the meal, he had all the readers come in and make a circle. As we gave them Bibles, T-shirts, and Answer Books, the headman commissioned them with the responsibility of reading those Bibles, and teaching the rest of the village about Jesus. Now, you should know that the Sera are a fairly reserved people, at least initially. They aren’t as giggly or giddy as some people groups we’ve been around. But when they get excited about something, it’s like a fire in their bones, and you can feel the warmth! These literate men got so excited about the books in their hands, that they opened them and began reading them right away! In the darkness, the only dim rays of light came from the headlamps that Andy, Daniel and I were wearing. The men discretely inched their way into the light, to begin slowly tracing the lines on the pages with their fingers, mouthing out the words they saw. Other villagers around them, who could not read, leaned in to listen to what they were reading. This continued for a long time, and I can still picture their intent study and scrutinizing, for so long. As I sat there, as still as I could so as not to interrupt them, my heart was filled to the brim with joy, realizing that this was the first time the man by my side, who so obviously hungered for God, had ever encountered Jesus’ words and actions in the Scriptures. I was so excited for him, that he could know my wonderful Jesus too! THAT was why I came here! All three of us (Daniel, Andy and I) were struck by this experience, and agreed that it was the high point of our trip. Out of so many hundreds of moments on the trip when we wondered why we were there, what a gift that moment was, when we could so clearly see what made the sacrifice worth it.

There is so much more that could be said. Please feel free to email us individually if there are particular bits of the trip that you would like to hear more about – we would love to share it with you. We are so deeply grateful to each of you for your contribution toward this trip – whether it was by prayer, money, or word of encouragement. We thank God for you, and pray His rich blessings back on you for the gift you gave to us and to the Sera people.

Under the Mercy,

Daniel, Katie, Joe & Andy
*pseudonyms used, for security purposes

PS Don’t forget to check out the rest of the photos from the trek.