UCG: Improving Ties In Jordan

The July 2007 edition of UCG’s “United News” reported:

Young Adults Chosen for Jordan Youth Corps Project
Two are set to teach in Jordan this year, and 10 to 15 will serve next summer in a six-week project.
by David Register

Matthew Bates and Mary Ann Miller have been chosen to serve as United Youth Corp’s first volunteers at the Amman Baccalaureate School (ABS) in Amman, Jordan. The couple, who will soon be married, will be teacher’s assistants at the premier preparatory school in Amman. They will report for new faculty orientation in August, and work at the school until graduation in June 2008.

The 10-month program will allow Matthew and Mary Ann an opportunity to teach young people and influence them with a powerful example of morality, discipline and Christian conduct.

The school will be providing housing, transportation and a small monthly stipend for the couple during their stay in Jordan. They will also have opportunities for travel throughout the region. Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, Beirut and Istanbul are within an hour’s flight or a day’s drive of Amman. During 10 months of immersion, they will learn to speak and read Arabic and have a chance to meet members of the royal family.

Matthew is a member from the Bakersfield, California, congregation and Mary Ann is a member from the Cambridge, Ohio, congregation. Both are recent Ambassador Bible Center graduates.

The Beginning

This opportunity came about after a visit to Amman by David Register, director of Education Programs, and Cory Erickson, elder from St. Paul, Minnesota, and Festival coordinator for the 2007 Jordan Feast site. In April they were invited by Princess Sarvath al Hassan, of the Jordanian royal family, to meet and discuss opportunities for United Youth Corps in Jordan. The princess serves as the chairwoman of the board of trustees for the school.

The princess discussed the need for assistant teachers who could bring “strong character instruction, youthful vitality, and new educational ideas” to the faculty and students at the Amman Baccalaureate School. University-aged volunteers from the Church served at the school as assistant teachers in the early 1990s. Their influence left a lasting impression with the princess and the faculty at ABS. She said that the school board had met a couple of weeks prior to the April visit and discussed the desire to have young adults from the Church serve again.

Since Herbert Armstrong, various COGs (like PCG) have had some ties with Jordan, normally through part of Jordan’s royal family.

COGs have considered that the area of (or near) Petra, in Jordan, may be the “place of safety” for Philadelphia Christians. The COGs do not teach the Protestant rapture concept as is taught by the “Left Behind” series of books–instead we teach that the protection will take place in the wilderness on earth (Revelation 12:14).

Two articles of possible interest may include:

There is a Place of Safety for the Philadelphians. Why it May Be Petra This article discusses a biblical ‘place of safety’ and includes quotes from the Bible and HWA on this subject.
Is There A Secret Rapture for the Church? When and Where is the Church Protected? What does the Bible really teach?