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Has Jordan been helping us more than we know?

I don't know if they are or not, but I can tell you what our former pastor told us about Jordan. He has been to Jordan quite a bit over the last several years, as they have a school set up through Baptists. I don't recall if it was originally built by Southern Baptists or not, but, academically, it is very well known in the ME. The last King of Jordan (Hussein, I think) sent his children there because it was so far ahead of the rest academically.

Anyway, through the school, our former pastor has been trying to get more Christian outreach programs set up and he thinks he has found a way: through tourism. What most people don't realize is that Jordan is one of, if not THE poorest nations in the ME. They have no oil. They have no natural resources. They are dirt poor. They have been trying to find ways to get out of this poverty for some time now. What most people also don't realize is that Jordan is where most Christian activities took place in Jesus' time. There is a lot of speculation that John the Baptist baptized Jesus in Jordan. He told us that on one trip they were traveling down a road (if you can call it that) and saw a Roman road marker that was leaning over the side of the road. It was dated back to the Roman Empire when the Romans dominated that part of the world. Artifacts have been found laying in fields & along roads, but Jordan has no money to fund archaeological excavations or even to mark some of the areas that Christians would want to visit. They can't even afford to put the artifacts in museums, so they just lay there, rotting away. So, what our pastor is doing is trying to get Jordan to open itself up as a Christian tourist mecca (sorry, lack of a better word). King Abdullah is very keen on the idea, but has been told that Jordan has to "clean itself up" before American Christians will come there. Part of that cleanup includes safety from Islamic radicals.

THAT may be playing a part in their cooperation as told in this story. I don't know for sure, but when I read this, that was the first thing I thought of.

Who knows, but I am just happy they caught the bastards before the killed a bunch of people.