Anjara, Jordan, is near where the story of Jephthah and his daughter took place, and local tradition says Jesus and his mother and disciples rested in a cave here during a journey through the land.
This girl proudly confided that she was the orphanage's first female. Today she is not its oldest girl, but she still enjoys her status as "trailblazer."
Father Hugo Fabian, the young Argentinian priest we met here, came to Anjara's Our Lady of the Mount Mission when the bishop of Jerusalem asked him to care for its shrine “butmore importantly to house orphans and run a school.” Indeed, the ministry runs a school with 210 students, and it has three homes for orphaned boys and girls. The mission also offers physical therapy forkids with special needs. The aim, the priest told us, is to create a place of spirituality and aplace of charity. “Our faith must be shown.”
In a town of 20,000, only about 1,000 are Christians—halfCatholic, half Orthodox, and five evangelical families. In an inspiring example of cooperation, all three branches of Christianity are partnering to accomplish this work.
On a pleasant day the girls study outside in make-shift shade.
The school opens its doors to both Muslim and Christian children, represented in roughly equal numbers. When their families forbade the kids to play together after class, the ministry opened (with the help of the Polish embassy) the first pubic library for children in thenorth of Jordan. Now after school, the kids can all be together, “not toplay, but to read a book.” In a not-so-subtle way of saying “follow myexample,” a picture of the king kicking back and reading hangs in a prominentplace over the library door. (FYI: They could use more kids' books in English.) The children also engage in cultural activities such aslearning to play violin and guitar.
Students here have plenty to do during the school year; not so in the summer.The town has no restaurant, and the coffee shop allows only boys. Volunteers come from Barcelona and Madridannually "to make activities for the kids," but the priest told us the mission wouldlove teams to come help the children learn English from native speakers. Such volunteers, they believe, help the entire community in Anjara to embrace the beauty of cultural diversity and respect of others.
The orphanage here is six years old. While ministering weekly insome of Jordan’s twelve prisons, Christians learned ofchildren in need and reached out. The kids in the ministry's care include those from Muslim and Christian families bereft of both parents as well as those fromfamilies too broken to care for their young. The orphanage's twenty-eight children are not only Jordanian; some were abandoned.
Click on picture to enlarge.
Because the work here is Christian in a Muslim country, the ministry receivesno help from the government; its workers live completely off charity. “At themoment we are really suffering businesswise,” the priest confides. Then he adds with good cheer, “but we have rice every day.”
Beautiful artwork depicting the life of Christ lines thechapel walls. An iconographer came three years ago from Bethlehem to do thework. (You can see photos and read explanations ateliasiconsanjara.blogspot.com.) Four works of art represent events related tojoy, life, sorrow, and glory in Jesus' life. The artist explains on his blog, “The design is an attempt to integrateelements of Arabic culture into the Iconographic tradition.” Notice the holy family depicted as Arabic (upper left).
Sister Angelo from Egypt looks after the orphanage's youngest charge.
When asked how old orphans are when they leave, the priest explained that in Anjara it is “unlike in other places where when a child turns eighteen, it is time to go.”
In a country where education is essential, a fact that partly accounts for its stability in an otherwise war-torn region, the orphanage pays for each child's college education. Though the workers try to find a biological-family connection for every child, theorphanage will always be “home.” When we ask about placement in families, welearn that adoption in Muslim countries is illegal.
“Pray for us,” the priest requests.
A winsome soul, he tells about some of thespecial-needs children under the care of a sister school, Child of God, in Bethlehem.Those abandoned at birth and of unknown parentage have “Child of God” listed as the surname on their birth certificates. To the government, the phrase refers to the school that has taken charge of their care. But by the glistening in his eyes when he tells us, it's clear that to this man the phrase represents a truthabout these children. They are God's own.
Check out this fun video that some of God's talented kids in Anjara made:
Disclosure: The Jordan Tourism Board covered most of the expenses for this trip, but JTB exercised no control over what we said or wrote about it.
