JETS New Campus

Today I spent the morning in class with the students. One of the students, a Syrian named Sana'a who is married to a Jordanian, gave a great devotional on Isaiah 6. Steven Anderson presented the first lecture on the "Unity of Isaiah." and then I taught the next two lectures on Isaiah 1–6. This week each of the Master's level student needs to present a 5-10 minute devotional from Isaiah. We ended classes at 1:00 pm (Jordanians tend to eat lunch and dinner later than we do). After driving Hany home, to make sure I knew the way to his church for Sunday, Habil (acting academic dean here at JETS) took us out to the new campus that has been under construction for over two years.
There have been numerous delays in this great building project including unexpected taxes, a collapsed roof, costs for steel and concrete that tripled, etc. It is located in the hills outside Amman where you can see Mt. Nebo and the hills of Samaria in the distance. The campus contains a number of uncompleted buildings that are just waiting additional funding for completion. This new complex will be capable of training up to 500 Arabic speaking students as well as serving as a conference center for the 5 evangelical denominations in Jordan. In this picture (taken from the lower part of the property) you can see the prayer tower, to the left the academic building, to the right the administration building and library, and underneath these buildings are the cafeteria, chapel/gym etc. and in front of it all two Americans (Stephen and Steven) dreaming of someday teaching right here! The picture of the outdoor amphitheater is taken from on top of the prayer tower (Steven took this picture and many of the others I have put on this blog over the last few days with his good camera [thanks Steven]) shows the foundation of what will seat about 2,000 people. And in the future, if the Lord was to provide, there would be apartments for faculty and dormitories for students beyond the ampitheater. Just think of what God could do in such a complex! I believe it could certainly help to change the evangelical church in the Arab world and, Lord willing, even beyond.
The president of JETS, Dr. Imad Shehadah (a graduate of DTS) is in the states right now challenging God's people to give so at least the essential parts of this campus can be completed so students can be trained here this very next year (right now JETS occupies rented facilities). Would you pray with me that God would provide the needed funds? (the JETS website is: http://www.jetsedu.com/) I am looking forward to completing my course this week but already thinking about when I could come back.