Friday, September 14, 2018
Updated Country Profile - Jordan
Click here to access our updated Reaching the Nations country profile for Jordan. The Church has maintained a native Jordanian LDS community for several decades in two cities, Amman and Irbid, although there has been little growth for many years. Leadership development has also struggled to be consistently maintained as there have been several iterations of native members staffing essential leadership positions followed by senior missionaries or foreigners filling these positions. Nevertheless, the Church occasionally has Jordanian members serve full-time missions. Emigration of Christians from Jordan is a major challenge as less than three percent of the population is Christian today. The Church continues to lack full registration with the government but has historically maintained a positive relationship with government officials.
Jordan depends on Western alliances to survive among some extreme neighboring countries.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine witnessed the creation of the Naic Philippines District. I'm not sure which branches were upgraded to wards. It is the last district to be upgraded to stake in the Cavite Philippines Mission.
ReplyDeleteIt is the 105th stake of the Philippines.
In the ward I was in before I got married there was a brother whose parents were from Jordan.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteشركة تسليك مجارى بجازان
Matt, the above comment is spam. I know this because the exact same comment was posted on my own blog earlier today by the exact same individual, and I verified it was spam. You may want to delete that comment and this housekeeping one as well in the near future.
ReplyDeleteشركه تنظيف شقق بالدمام
ReplyDeleteشركه مكافحه النمل الابيض بالدمام
شركه تسليك مجاري بالدمام
شركه تنظيف سجاد بالدمام
شركه تنظيف منازل بالدمام
شركه تنظيف فلل بالدمام
شركه تنظيف مجالس بالدمام
شركه مكافحه الحمام
شركه مكافحه حشرات بالدمام
Work in Jordan---On November 1, 2018 I gave a speech at an HR Conference in Amman, Jordan.
ReplyDeleteOne of the other speakers was the Royal Jordanian Minister of Industry and Trade. He invited me to eat with him at dinner after the conference speeches and panel discussions. We had dinner talking about many things. He invited me the next day to visit him in his office. He asked me about my hotel and said a driver would come by the next morning at 9am to pick me up.
I came to his office in the ministry building where he had his office. Tariq Hammouri was his name and he had been in office for about nine months.
He then took me to a refugee camp on the outskirts of Amman.
I then opened my church tools on my phone and found the Isaiah quote that a people without vision are dead. I said he had a vision. He said, "this was a problem everywhere." He then wanted to see my phone and the Old Testament online. He then asked to show me the church app. So I showed him the home page. As I went through him I showed him lessons, manuals, temples and scriptures. He suggested we sit down at an outdoor cafe.
So we sat and ordered lunch, or I should say Tariq ordered for me, including lemon-lime water. He asked about the Book of Mormon. I then explained the history, prophets, and coming of Christ to the people in the Western Hemisphere. I explained again that the people came from Jerusalem in 600 BCE. Then as if on cue he asked about the origin of the book. I then told him the story of the first vision of Joseph Smith. He let me tell the story.
He asked if there was a prophet today. I said there were prophets today, ever since 1830 when Joseph Smith was given the power and authority to lead The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I said it was a persecuted church during its first 80-90 years of existence. It is less persecuted these days and is in 75% of the countries of the world.
He then asked if I had always been a member of this church. I said I had not , but grew up Jewish, then read the Book of Mormon while I was a student at the University of California, Berkeley. I said I prayed and received my first revelation about the Book of Mormon: it was from God. I received this confirmation during prayer and fasting. I said there was an invitation at the end of the Book of Mormon in the book of the prophet Moroni 10:3-5.
Tariq showed me he had the Book of Mormon app on his telephone. He said he had read eight pages. It all started in Jerusalem and they probably came out of Jerusalem stopping just a few miles to the west or just outside Petra, but Petra was not yet a city 2600 years ago.
I went to church the next morning. There were about fifty-sixty people, a number of them expatriates. I talked with the branch president who was Jordanian national. I said I had been with the Minister of Industry and Trade trying to get work consulting on an industrial park. He said they needed government help on permission for a building. Any help would be beneficial. He asked if I could say a favorable word to the Minister of Industry and Trade. I sent an email to Tariq that evening to see if he could help. He said he would look into it and see what he could do.
I submitted my work the following week: the proposal. I did not get the job. It was postponed in that year's budget. I have never heard back in this regard, but Tariq said he had enjoyed the Book of Mormon. I asked if he had questions. I asked him if he thought it was a book from God. Yes, he said it was the word of God. He thanked me for introducing it to me. He mentioned he had said some kind words to the Minister of Religious Affairs to look favorably upon The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Minister of Religious Affairs said he would.