PENSACOLA (FBW)— It’s a place unmistakably rich in biblical and historic tradition. Some say it could be the very site where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

For Brian Barlow, missions pastor at Hillcrest Baptist Church in Pensacola, the completion of a new baptism center at Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan, in the middle-eastern country of Jordan, the site also represents the ongoing goodwill between Jordan’s King Abdullah Bin Al Hussein and the Baptist Convention of Jordan.

Barlow said the dream of such a site begin in 2005 when he and Nabeeh Abbassi, then president of the Jordan Baptist Convention, talked about the significance of such a site to believers.

A meeting with the King took place in 2007, permission was granted in 2008, and a positive relationship between Christians and Muslims in the Arab country was furthered.

“It was an absolutely wonderful feeling to see that dream come to fruition,” Barlow said. “It’s a wonderful place. It’s a beautiful place.”

Barlow, former general director of the Baptist School in Amman, Jordan, visited the site with a team from Hillcrest in December. He said they were first non-Jordanians to see the new baptism center which was dedicated March 20.

Baptists are the only religious group granted Jordan River frontage, Barlow said. The land, the building on the site, and the upkeep of the buildings was funded by Jordan’s King, while the project was overseen by Prince Ghazi Bin Mohammed.

The Center is not limited to use by Baptists. It will also be available to those of the Christian faith who practice believer’s baptism by immersion.

Barlow, who left Jordan in 2006 when his job at the Baptist school came to an end, served as one of two Southern Baptist missionaries at the school. Barbara Johnson, from Bartow, continues to direct the school’s music department—but other than Johnson, the school is funded and sustained by local nationals.

“I’m so proud of my Jordanian friends,” Barlow said. “They believe in themselves and with God’s help and a lot of hard work, look at what they’ve done.” He said the school’s entire board of directors is made up of Jordanians.

Hillcrest Baptist plans to take two trips a year to the region, Barlow said, visiting the baptism center, and working with the school’s music program and English as a Second Language classes.

In October, Barlow said other churches in the Pensacola Bay Baptist Association plan to join with Hillcrest for a trip to Jordan.

“Everyone is very welcome in Jordan,” Barlow said, “where typical Arab hospitality” is practiced. He said there is not a language barrier because English is taught as early as first grade and people want to practice the language.

Baptism site & school are models of goodwill in Middle East

“Welcome to Jordan,” is a common phrase as one moves around the country, he said. And for those concerned abut safety, Barlow said he feels more endangered in downtown Pensacola at night than in the streets of Jordan.

At the school, founded by Southern Baptist missionaries Paul and Virginia Smith in 1974, students are tri-literate by the time they graduate.

The Baptist School in Amman one of the top 10 schools in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, education-wise, and has a 98 percent graduation rate, Barlow said.

In the school’s first year, the late King Hussein and Queen Noor brought their children to the school along with King Hussein’s brother Prince Hassan and his sister Princess Basma, according to Barlow. (For more about the school, see the Oct. 9, 2003, Witness article, “God is moving despite unsettled times in the Middle East.”)

“The Arab people place such a high priority on education,” Barlow said. And while the school is unapologetically Christian, it welcomes Muslim students as well. “We want to love the children equally.”

With the school and now the baptism site as models of goodwill, Barlow said the Iraqi government has also glanced in Jordan’s direction for input.

Modeled after the three gems of the Middle East—the Baptist schools in Jordan, Nazareth and Beruit—plans are in place to establish a Baptist school in northern Iraq, Barlow said. A Baptist church has also been planted there.

“That’s part of the big picture” of what God is doing all across the land, Barlow said.

http://www.floridabaptistwitness.com/10060.article