TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Holy Land Day 5: From the Dead Sea to the Mosaic Churches of Madaba

Episode Date: May 2, 2022

The TruNews tour of the ‘other side’ of the Holy Land continues as the team explores the Dead Sea region. Along the way they encounter Lot’s Wife, the possible remains of Sodom, and the fortress where John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded. Rick and Doc also visit several ancient church sites in the city of Madaba, where stunning mosaic tile work echo a vibrant Christian faith fifteen centuries later. Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart. Airdate 5/2/22.Holy Land Day 1: Ancient Roman City and Elijah's Mountain - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49569185Holy Land Day 2: The City of Aqaba and the World’s Oldest Church - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49573636Holy Land Day 3: Wadi Musa, Moses’ Spring, and the Gateway to Petra - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49587574Holy Land Day 4: Explorations at Ancient Petra - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49599828

The following program is made possible by the faithful prayers and financial support of listeners just like you. To find out how you can help, visit www.truenews.com. Well, welcome to True News. We are coming to you from the other side of the Holy Land in Jordan. And what an amazing trip this has been. So this is now our second week. It's Monday for our second week here in Jordan. And we've been traveling for many hours today. We're going to show you in a few minutes some of the sites that we've seen. We're also going to show you things that took place over

the weekend while in our final days there in Aqaba. Right now, Doc, where are we standing? We are standing on a mountain overlooking the Dead Sea. but this is a very significant place. We're on what's called the Fortress of Macarius, also known local language Macaur. Yeah, and just a minute, we're going to tell you why this is such a biblically historical place. But first, all right, we're going to show you some of the things that happened in Aqaba as we spent our last days there. The people of Aqaba were so warm and friendly to us. Hated to say goodbye to so many new friends that we met. But we got to see some sites, including the oldest known church in the world. So let's take a look at what we were seeing in Aqaba, and we'll be back here in just a minute.

Well, after leaving Petra, I didn't think the trip could get any better, but it did. And we took a 45-minute drive from Petra, and we were taken, Basam, our guide, took us to a crusader fort that is perched atop what is known as Royal Mountain. Doc, this place I think is known as El Shabak. Yes, El Shabak, also known as Montreal. As in Montreal, Canada. So Mount Royal. And it was built by the crusaders. It was under the order of Crusader king the king of jerusalem baldwin the first in 1115 and so this uh you know when he said a

crusader fort i thought well this is going to be a little fort sitting on top of the hill no this was a massive structure at one at its peak use it's estimated that they had 6 000 people living inside the fort right so on top of a mountain yes in the desert and how they hauled all these stones and everything up to the top of this mountain it just baffles me but this was a massive structure built in 1115 and they held on to that for nearly 70 years rick, until it was captured by the Muslims in 1189. Yeah, led by Salatin. Yes. It's known as a castle.

It's basically a fort. And it had a very strategic importance because it dominated the main passage from Egypt to Syria. Right. And this allowed the crusaders to hold the castle in case there was ever any attacks, but also allowed those that were on their pilgrimages between Mecca and Medina, they were able to tax them because the crusaders held the territory. That's right.

So anybody that was headed to those two cities had to pay the tax when they got to that fortress. Inside the Crusader fort are two churches. Yes. And it was really overwhelming to be walking around in these ancient churches within this fortress. You could tell the architecture that was there. There was a baptistry that was built into there. One was in fairly decent shape. The other had collapsed part of the way. But still, the church was an important part of this fortress. After all, it was the crusade. It was a crusader fort. And there's a crusader cross that's carved into the

stone wall in one of the churches uh there's also water well yes i you know you know me doc throughout this whole trip in the desert i'm always asking where did they get their water well in this particular fort here in uh in uh el shabak they had a well that went down through the center of the mountain. And there was actually a staircase that led down through the cistern to where the well water finally struck. 375 steps down. So you could walk all the way down to the cistern inside. It closed off to the public now. But imagine having to draw the water up from there uh and but

there was enough water that not only took care of all the people in this massive fortress but uh historical records indicate that they were providing water for people in the community around them you know there uh there are ancient houses around the fort, and there's also caves. Everywhere we go, there are caves. Yes. That has really caught my attention, how many people lived in caves. So when we left the Crusader Fort just a short distance down the road, we had to make an immediate stop because parked on the road, I mean, on

the side, on the shoulder of the road was a Volkswagen Beetle. Yes. Painted in, you know, psychedelic colors. Right. So it looked like a 1960s hippie Volkswagen and a Beetle. Yeah, a little, a tiny little Volkswagen beetle and a sign that said the smallest hotel in the world.

So, you know, that got us. We had to stop. Yes, and it truly is the smallest hotel in the world. You can actually go on Booking.com and you can book that room for the night. We opened up the door, saw the bed inside, and it's for real people

booked that hotel yes and then the owner came out yeah we met the proprietor and everything and then the entertainment began that's right he was as much as a character as the vw buttle beetle outside he sure was he he brought us inside his place the people are so gracious everywhere you go they they want to serve you tea or coffee. I can't tell you how many times, Doc, I've been invited to go to dinner with people I don't know. Right. They just ask, would you come to my home and have dinner? Yes.

They're very, very hospitable, kind people. And so we went inside his little shop. It's kind of a combination cafe, souvenir shop, and tourist trap. Yes. All together in one little room. And a sleeping quarter. They were sleeping in there. And what was amazing were all the business cards that he had plastered on the wall from famous people. Ambassadors, yeah.

Yes. Reporters and presidents and kings. A picture of King Abdullah with the propriety was there. Yeah, a lot of people had stopped by. So you got to check it out. You saw what, Booking.com? Yes. The smallest hotel in the world.

Well, we left Aqaba early this morning and we drove to the Dead Sea. And the Dead Sea is much bigger than I ever imagined in my mind. It is a spectacular sight to see. But, Doc, we also saw somebody standing on top of the mountain. Yes, Rick, we saw Lot's wife. And according to the locals, that is actually what you're seeing up on top of this ridge overlooking the Dead Sea. That is supposedly Lot's wife. There she stands. And she was turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back at the

cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and longed in her heart to be there rather than to be led to safety by the angels of the Lord. And so her judgment came upon her and her judgment stands today. She's still there overlooking the mountain. Now, the other thing that we saw, and I really wish I had a geologist with us today. It's amazing what we saw. The mountains are brown. This is desert. And so everything is brown until you get to the site where Lot's wife is standing. And we drove up to the top of a mountain. Doc, it looked like, to me, the first thought that came to my mind is fire and brimstone rained down on this land. Right, Rick.

I mean, for miles there was nothing but black rock, and it stood out starkly among all the— I mean mean you look behind us here this is the color of jordan right here this brown but we drove through an area i would say a good uh 20 20 minutes maybe 25 minutes driving through of scorched black rock but the mountainside but the mountain sides are brown yes. It almost looked like a scene from another planet. The rocks were not only scorched black from the looks of it, but it also looked like they'd been just broken, broken apart. So I wondered, was it a meteor that exploded over that area? Was this the fire and brimstone that rained down from heaven on judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah?

Because it didn't hit everything. Remember, Lot was allowed to escape to the villages on the hillsides. Yes. Remember, he wanted to go to a particular place, and the angel said, no, not there. That's in the the kill zone well then you could if you could see this and we've got some of the footage from our drive up through here i mean you had to be out of a long distance range whatever happened there was cataclysmic and it extended several miles wide and at least a dozen or so miles long. And to think that the rocks, they were just tumbled everywhere,

that they were the same rocks that were there at the time of Lot. Right. And once again, it's not like the rocks were all black. Just several faces of the rocks were black on many of the rocks. So that meant that, you know, it's not black all the time. You could flip a rock over and it's brown on the other side. And everywhere the black rock was, nothing grows. Nothing is growing.

There might be a blade of grass trying to peek up out of the rock, but nothing grows there. And 20 foot away where the brown rock is, you'll see grass growing. Yeah, it was an amazing, amazing sight. So from there, we drove alongside the country roads. We're going to show you in a few minutes some of the other sites that we saw. Then we came to this site. And I got to tell you, this, our guide, Bassam, he's standing over there right now looking down the hillside

when he comes to America he's Jordanian when he comes to America I am going to get even with him I will get even all right so whatever what he did to us today we were in an SUV and we were driving on the king's highway we didn't know what we were were driving on the King's Highway. We didn't know what we were on. It's the King's Highway from the Roman time. Oh, before that. Before the Romans. It's a 5,000-year-old road. 5,000-year-old road.

And it became so narrow with rock sides and, you know, big enough for about a chariot to get through not an suv and the climb up the mountain was so steep and um and all i could think was uh we're going to get up there wherever he's taking us there's no place to turn around and we're going to have to back up the whole way all right it got to the place where I just said stop I want out I'm walking the rest of the way and Doc and Lee we all got out I said you drive but he did he drove it all the way to the top and um it was it was an amazing ride uh I and now I'm looking forward to the ride down and I said to Rick boy this better be something special up here at the top of this mountain yes and it turns out it out it is really something special.

So we want to show you some more places that we saw today, and then we'll be back, and Doc and I will tell you why we took that treacherous ride up the King's Highway to this mountaintop. You need to know about it. So we are now in the city of Madaba, Jordan. And this is a Christian community, and it has a long, deep history in the Christian church world. The first evidence of Christianity in terms of recorded historical records is the year 451. And Madaba was mentioned in the Acts of the Council of Chaldean when the Metropolitan Archbishop of Bostra,

which was the provincial capital, signed the document on behalf of Gia Anno, the bishop of the, and they pronounced it Medini, Medibi. How would you say that? Medabini. Medabini. Yes, Medabini. And so it is known today as Mataba. The city was, at one point, Doc, was a thriving Christian city.

And it would be again in the future. Yes. That's what's really interesting about it. Yes, it is. And many active churches there today. The Church of the Map, we'll talk about that in just a minute. All right. So we have in this particular area, we have the Church of map we have the uh hippolytus mansion uh the church of the virgin

mary the church of the prophet of elijah along with its crypt where they buried the priests there the church of the holy martyrs also known as al-kader and the burnt palace and the church of the suma family so there's a number of churches historically related to the area of Madaba. Now the first one that we stopped at on the outskirts of the town of Madaba, it is known as the Bishop Melchios Church, and it was built in the 6th century. There is a partial inscription at the nave of the church, and it reads, Jesus Christ, have mercy of your servant, Sergius. And it also says, gives comfort to George and others.

Now, around the church, there are small stone houses and, of course, caves in the nearby hillsides. So you had people that lived and worked and, you know, went to this church. It was a whole Christian community here, really at the top of the world, it seemed like, because you're on top of this mountain ridge up there. The church was the center of activity and everything, and houses were built around it in community. And once again, like you said, there were people that had stoned up cave holes. The Holy Land was filled with holes, but it was also filled with people who were living holy in the Holy Land.

That's right. Devout saints of God in the early centuries of the church. Now, the next church that we visited is known as the Church of the Apostles. And it was discovered, buried in sand in the year 1902. And there's a dedication inscription found in a room in the east end of the church that stated that the church was built in the year 578 AD. Now, we looked at the mosaics in this particular church, the Church of the Apostles. This wasn't a planned stop, by the way. This was something extra that popped up on the way over to another church. And I'm glad we stopped, by the way. This was something extra that popped up on our way over to another church.

And I'm glad we stopped, Rick, because the mosaics that were in this particular church were some of the most well-preserved mosaics of any churches, and it was extensive. How big would you say the building was? It was, I would say, around 5,000, 6,000 square feet, the building. So all the mosaics, and we're showing you some images of those right now. I just can't go over, Rick, how detailed the designs were. There were designs of birds that don't even exist in the area anymore. It was just incredible, the detail and the artistry that went into decorating churches in this time. Yeah, the mosaics featured, you mentioned birds,

but animals, flowers, trees, fruit, beautiful mosaics. And the caretaker there would spray water on this and just bring out the color and it was amazing how how rich and deep the colors are at this so many years 1500 years later so amazing now uh in the video that we're showing you you know with at this particular church the arches that are shown are not the original arches. They have been constructed in later years. Yes, they built those arches to actually protect those mosaics that are on the floor there from the elements and allow people to be able to actually see and enjoy this rich historical connection to this particular church.

But think, Rick, I mean, this was around 600 A.D. There was a thriving Christian community here at that time. Yes. That was before the big change that occurred after the Saladon's invasion and everything. Yeah. And the discovery of this church in 1902 is what triggered the discovery of so many ancient churches in Madaba with these beautiful mosaic tile floors. Yeah, because what had happened in Madaba over the centuries,

between the 6th century and around the 1900s, Madaba had fallen into complete disrepair. In fact, somewhat forgotten. And it's just, you know nobody was even living in this right and so when they began finding these mosaics this is about the time of the ottoman empire the turks controlled the area and the turks had a rule you could not build a new church somewhere but you could build a church on a site that a church had previously existed. Right. And so when they would find these mosaic floors, they would be able to say a church was here and build a church over it.

Yes. And that's what they've done in several of these locations that we're talking about. So next to the last church that we visited in Mattaubah was St. George Church. And it's Greek Orthodox. And it's, Doc doc we mentioned a few minutes ago church of the map that's saint george church right it has it's known by saint george church it's also known as the church of the map because there is this extensive map of the holy land right done in mosaic tile. Yes. I mean, really detailed. And they can trace the map to around,

the dating of the map to around 574, 575, because there are buildings that are shown on the map in Jerusalem that didn't exist in maps that occurred in 570. So this was the oldest known map of the Holy Land that had existed up to that time. And so once again, this was one of those situations. They found this mosaic, and they were able to construct a church at this point, and they built a church over the mosaic floor.

Two million. Two million pieces of stone in this map yes each one uh hand carved hand chiseled and hand painted so we actually got the opportunity to go into saint george's uh church and i mean it was just a beautiful church just by itself and then then you have the Madaba map right there in the floor in front of the altar, in front of the nave of the church. And what a connection, I mean, to think that you have this map here in the church dating from 574, 575, and then you have that connection to the year 2022. Yeah, so the church is's standing there now and the church that people are attending in Mattawa, the St. George Church, that is not the original, obviously, by the look of

the modern building, that's not the original church. But they built it over top the original church, and the floor is in the church. It's in the sanctuary. I'm talking about the mosaic floor. It's in the sanctuary of the church. So as you say, Doc, when you go to church there every Sunday, you're being reminded that saints have worshipped in that spot for 1,500 years. Right, Rick. And at the beginning of the 20th century, when they started discovering these mosaics,

they started constructing churches in the area. That brought other Christians to the area. So Moldova started out at the beginning of the 20th century as a Christian city with so many Christians coming to identify with all the churches. I saw a map that identified 24 separate religious sites within the city of Madaba. Okay, now we're going to tell you why we took that treacherous ride up the mountainside on the King's Highway. Risk our lives so you can have this exciting video today. It was quite a ride and I don't know how we get back down. It'll be very fast. I'm sure you're

going down quite quickly. But we want to tell you why we're here. This really is a special site. Yes, it is. It has a long history, but in Christianity, it is a sacred place. Doc, who built this fortress? This is a fortress on top of the mountain. Right. It was built by the Hasmonean king, Janus, in the 1st century B.C. So this, where we're at now, these walls and everything that are constructed up here, more than 2,000 years old. And, of course, the Romans, you know, overcame the Hasmoneans as the first

century BC ended. Herod the Great actually occupied this for a period of time. So the time leading up to the birth of Christ, Herod the Great, this was one of his fortresses that he used. Because they could guard the territory from an invasion from the east. From this point, they could see soldiers coming from the east. Right. And after Herod the Great passed away, it got passed down to Herod Agrippa. And according to what we know about this particular location, Josephus says that this place, this fortress of Machias, is the place where John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded.

Amazing. This is the place. This is it right here. I had no idea. My entire life as a Christian, I imagined that John the Baptist was beheaded in Jerusalem. I just thought they took him down the street and chopped his head off. He was brought here. Right.

This is an extremely remote location, but this was a Roman fortress. Yes. And why they brought him here, I don't know. And supposedly this is the place where Salome did her dance and everything before her heir to Agrippa. This was all here? Yes. It supposedly all took place here. Okay, so the whole thing happened here.

Yes. Not that they brought him here for the execution. No. They actually imprisoned him here for the execution no that they actually uh imprisoned him here the big party took place here and the beheading took place it was all one event rick so it is it's absolutely amazing here he has a history beyond that too uh it uh was uh later uh or during one of the jewish revolts uh it was held by the jews for a while the jews took it over in 66 A.D. And they managed to hold on to this place for what, six years?

Yes, something like six years. Well, I'll tell you, yes, it fell two years after Jerusalem fell. So Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D. And this fortress, which was being occupied by rebellious Jews, fell in 72 AD. Right. And the Romans, just like they did with Jerusalem, they tore the entire place down. Right. Just to show the Jewish rebels, you'll never occupy this place again.

And I never heard of this site before, Doc. This is really incredible. And to think of the places that we visit. And now, Rick, we're standing in the place where John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, the one who preached, the king is coming. This is where he was imprisoned. This is where he was beheaded. This is where he gave his life. It just baffles me. This is where he gave his life. It just baffles me. This is sacred holy ground.

And I can't help but think that Jesus had to come here because it says in the scriptures that Jesus, you know, well, he sent his disciples to talk to John and assure him that, you know, Jesus was the Messiah. Doc, I have a totally different view and appreciation now of the travel of the disciples. When I look at this barren wasteland, what they did to travel, to go someplace to obey the Lord, to serve the Lord, to preach the gospel. Yes. Those of us in this modern world, my, we should stop whining and crying about the slightest little inconveniences that we have to put up with. The disciples and the early church sacrificed a lot.

Some sacrificed everything. Every place we go, there are ruins of churches. Yes. Every place. They're just throughout Jordan and ancient dwellings around the churches. And I stand in these little stone houses, Doc, and I walk inside just the walls, no roof left, you know, and just walk in and look. And I think, and these houses are built near the church and you know, these were the homes of saints. Yes. And I just stand at these houses and wonder who were these people and what were they like and how did they worship the Lord Jesus Christ and what sacrifices did they make to spread the gospel and keep the gospel going. And so that here we are today in the year 2022 and the gospel is still being preached.

Yes. And their homes are still standing. Yes. And their churches are still there. They're not being used, but they're still standing. And it is quite a humbling experience. Also, the other thing that I've noticed is the vast number of caves. You see caves everywhere.

And now, Doc, my view, my understanding of cave people is totally different of anything I ever thought about. Because, you know, we've been indoctrinated with the Darwinian evolutionary concept of cave people. That they're hairy beasts and they're dragging their wives by their hair into the cave. They're ignorant. They're low IQ and whatever. No, folks. People lived in caves because there are caves everywhere. Hundreds of them just around here they're

everywhere and you could have a nice dwelling in a cave and and i can easily see now how people lived in caves it's no mystery to me now right and the starkness of this place i mean rick uh this was you know it's hard to get to i mean in a suv it's hard to get to. I mean, in an SUV, it's hard to get to. It's really chopper territory. But they said, we're going to build a fortress on top of that mountain 2,000 years ago. And, folks, these aren't little bitty rocks. These rocks are, you know, half the size of a man's torso. And there's thousands of them. You have to think about the slaves that were used to carry the rocks up here,

to chisel the rocks, to lay these stones. There's a Roman pillar standing over here. It's just mind-boggling, Doc, that this kind of work was done on a mountain this high. Rick, was this the spot that maybe John the Baptist lost his head right here How do we know if we don't we know it was on top of this mountain? But we don't know we don't know but we do know that this is one of the most Historical places we've visited yet. I was impressed with the mountain of Elijah Now I was impressed with the mountain of Elijah. Now, I was impressed with the oldest church that we saw.

But now, to be at the place where John the Baptist lost his life. My friends, Jordan is the other side of the Holy Land, and it does not get the attention it deserves. Christians need to visit Jordan. I think there are more sites in Jordan, biblical sites, than in the state of Israel. And that's why we're organizing our first tour coming up in October 2022. God willing, we will bring a lot of our supporters to come over here with their families and visit Jordan. You will see things that you didn't even know exist. And I can tell you because we're witnessing it. We didn't know

these things existed. I didn't know you could go to the place where John the Baptist was beheaded. I never knew it. Here we are. And we're standing here. I want you to join us on that trip. Email us at info at truenews.com, info at truenews.com. All you got to say is I'm interested. Keep me informed. Put me on your list. And we will get information to you in the coming weeks. Doc and I are here scouting out the nation of Jordan. And, again, I got to say the government of Jordan has been so helpful.

Yes. Anything we need, anything we've asked for, they have gone out of their way to be gracious and kind and helpful to us. So we're very, very grateful. The people are wonderful. The food is fantastic. You will like Jordan and you will like Jordanians. All right. Hey, we're going to travel to another site nearby and show you some more ancient church ruins.

We are in the ancient city of Madaba, Jordan, and this is known as the city of churches. Yes. If we look like we're glowing, it's because we're inside a church and we're next to a stained glass window and the sun is shining in right now. In fact, the church that we're in is the shrine to the beheading of St. John the Baptist. And this is a Roman Catholic church, and the priest gave us a warm, gracious, friendly offer, allowed us to walk through this church and film video. Doc, I've heard of Madaba, but I didn't know how many ancient churches have been discovered in Madaba. This was a Christian city at one time. And a lot of the discovery that has taken place has been since the beginning of the 1900s.

Yes. And so the room where we're standing in kind of details that discovery as we, you know, as mosaics were discovered in different parts of the area, suddenly they were finding mosaics of churches everywhere in the area, and that brought people here to resettle the area. Suddenly they were finding mosaics of churches everywhere in the area and that brought people here to resettle the place. Actually the city itself had disappeared. Yes. And then when the ancient churches were found in the 19th century, this modern city that is here started developing. So on

this particular site here is an old first uh an old fortress and an old byzantine church and amazingly enough the acropolis all right you gotta walk way through so we're in we're in a a modern church building which is modern i don't know uh when this structure was built well they first started rebuilding parts of this about the same time they uh rebuilt uh some of the other churches here in the area so which would have been the late 19 early late 1800s early 1900s because you couldn't just go out and build a church anywhere you could only build churches on sites that had been churches it was still part part of the Ottoman Empire at the time.

The Ottoman Empire, you could only build a new church on the site of an old church. So when they discovered a mosaic, for instance, that gave them, you know, really the claim to say, yes, there was a church here. I want to go by this again, Doc. This church that we're standing in, the shrine to the beheading of St. John the Baptist, it was built on an ancient fortress. Yes. And do you know who built the fortress? I'm not sure who built the fortress, but I also know that there were...

The fortress was then built on top of the Acropolis. Of a Byzantine church, and then the Byzantine church was built on the Acropolis. So there's another church below us. Yes. Yeah, we actually went through it a little while. So what we walked through, that was the other church. Yes, that was the Byzantine church. I saw an ancient well.

It still has water in it. Right. A Moabite well. Yes, a Moabite well. We were in the land of Moab. Right. The land of Ruth. Yeah, the land of Moab. Right. The land of Ruth. The land of Ruth.

So if you come to Jordan, you need to schedule at least one day in Madaba. Yes. There's too much to see here in just a few hours. And we've only been here a few hours. Right. We've been traveling a lot today. But I want to come back and go through all of the ancient churches in this city. So what we're going to do now is we're going to walk you through some of the things that we saw here today

in Matava. And it's just a taste. We didn't get to all of the ancient church ruins that are here, and they are scattered throughout the city. They actually have a map of the city. In fact, the one church that we're going to show you, they have a map of the city of Madaba that shows all the churches. And this is an ancient map. Right. This is actually done in tile. Incredible.

Well, that's our program for today, our second Monday in Jordan, the other side of the Holy Land. And I really believe, Doc, there are more biblical sites in Jordan than in the state of Israel. You know, I've been to Israel, and I mean, as impressive as that was, and it was impressive, I've learned so much more in just the few days we've been here. I have a much deeper understanding of the scriptures now because of visiting these sites. We want you to come with us. We're planning a trip for our friends. Join us in October of 2022 if you are interested in knowing more. Email us at info at truenews.com.

We're going to start a travel newsletter. We'll get that out to you in the coming weeks, and we'll give you the details. You don't have to make a commitment yet. We don't even know the schedule and the fees yet, but we're going to be working on all that in the coming weeks. But I will tell you, this will be the trip of your lifetime. I promise you, you will never stop thinking and talking about your trip to Jordan. Every Christian should come to Jordan one time. It is an awesome country and I love it already. I've only been here one week and I love the Jordanian people and love everything about

this country. That's it for today. We have more traveling the rest of this week. We will be here until Friday. And stay tuned tomorrow for the next installment of True News from Jordan, the other side of the Holy Land. The preceding program was made possible by the faithful prayers and financial support of listeners just like you. To find out how you can help, visit www.truenews.com.