Today we participated in a bit of volun-tourism at The Holy Land Institute for the Deaf in Salt, Jordan. I had no idea what to expect, but was excited to serve and meet the kids. What I learned about love and servant-hood and my own short comings was priceless!

Brother Andrew A.L. de Carpentier is the Executive Director and a very wise yet humble man. One of the things he said that stuck out was that the deaf communicate not with their mouths, but their hands – to say something, they have to do something. That pretty much sums up the whole place – show your love and communication thru action.

They house about 120 students there, mostly Muslim but a decent number of Christians. The goal is to teach them as much as possible to be an active, contributing member of society. We met the 6 or so who were graduating soon. They listed teaching, nursing, IT, finance and engineering as possible studies in university. Good on em!

The thing that shook me the most was probably an American named Brent. He came over to Jordan with the Mennonite Society to serve. He has a degree in Biology or something like that. He’s now learning Arabic and sign language to work one on one with one of the deaf and blind students whose name escapes me now. The thing that gets me is Brent’s commitment. This kid can only feel the signs that Brent makes so he is pretty much hanging on to Brent’s hand for communication. Imagine constantly touching and teaching things that you have just learned yourself. I’m tearing up as I think about this level of commitment. What an amazing example to watch.

I just posted some of the pictures I took today to Facebook while listening to the new United, Aftermath. I’m not too proud to admit I broke down and cried a couple of times as images and lyrics and spirit came together.

I would definitely be an ambassador for Volun-tourism! It’s such an amazing win-win-win. You get to go somewhere cool AND help and serve some organization AND they benefit from your service as well.