Sleeper Shifts

My night shifts have always been the most interesting.

Last night, I led evening prayer with a man who only spoke Italian. He told me that he didn't understand in his brain, but he understood everything with his heart. Pray for Pepe.

Then, I spent over an hour talking to Afran, a Jordanian doctor. He works at a Christian missionary hospital in the north of the country. We talked a lot about what missions should look like. The Jordanian government apparently has absolutely no problem with Christian missionaries or Jordanian Christians. In fact, they are encouraging the Christian minority to be more politically active. However, it is when people are stupid enough to hand out tracts in front of a mosque that the extremists start getting angry... which of course the government doesn't like.

Afran is the first Jordanian to work at this mission hospital in its 55 yr history. His colleagues all come from elsewhere and are often shorter term (usually no more than 2 years he says), and despite all their efforts and good intentions, never really get fully integrated into the culture. Pray for Jordanian Christian leaders to rise up. He says that so many of the patients at his lung clinic come to Christ... but the problem is the follow up. It's really hard to leave such a secure place as a treatment and rehab center into a Muslim culture.

Finally, last night we had a guest that was making a bit of a scene last night. The nightman was thisclose to calling the police. That was an adventure.