Stones on the altar

Our time in Jordan is almost over. Some of our team will be travelling on to Israel today, while the rest of us will begin heading home to Hong Kong, Brazil, Switzerland, Spain... and all the other nations we come from. One day during our time here, we walked from the hotel to a nearby field where there was an ancient well. It was in this part of the world that the Lord spoke to various people of the Bible as they paused by a well. From there, we looked out over the hillside and took time to pray for the nations of the Middle East. We proclaimed words from Isaiah 19 vs 23 - 25, which talk about some of God's promises for the nations in this part of the world. We were reminded that when Abraham and other Old Testament patriarchs entered new territory, they usually dug a well and built an altar. As we worshipped and proclaimed God's character in this region, each one of us, from the youngest to the oldest, took a stone and added it to a pile - just as Jacob or Joshua had built altars of stones thousands of years ago. In this way, we were proclaiming that God is Lord over all the earth, and we were praying, "Your Kingdom come" for these nations of the Middle East.