The first inkling one has that the influence of Amman Baptist School is far greater than the number of Baptists in the country of Jordan would indicate is the traffic jam caused by parents dropping off their children at the main entrance. Every school-day morning students assemble in orderly lines for announcements, devotional and prayer before the day begins.
The student population at the school, begun in 1974 by Southern Baptist missionaries as the second school in Jordan, exceeds 1,250 in the Kindergarten through Grade 12 with a nursery school provided for children of faculty and administrators. In 1991 the school was given to the Jordan Baptist Convention during a time when the International Mission Board was shifting its focus from institutions to church planting. The school is entirely self-supporting through the tuition paid by parents.
The buildings on this immaculately maintained campus in a posh section of the city are surrounded by a white stucco wall–a gift to the school by the late King Hussein when his children (those born to Queen Noor) were students there.
The school's director is Suha Jouaneh Shahin, a young woman who attended the school as a student. It is impossible for her to hide the pride she feels in her school as she leads a tour of the facilities. The editors of state Baptist papers whom Shahin has taken in tow are duly impressed. According to Shahin, 99 percent of Amman Baptist School graduates will go on to college.
Because the school believes that every student should receive the finest possible standard education, one will find impressive science labs beginning in the elementary school (complete with child-sized tables containing sinks and Bunsen burners) and computer labs for every school. Every student has an English teacher who speaks only English to the students. In addition, obvious attention is given to music and the arts.
ABS also prepares students for the tourist industry by offering training, in partnership with a major hotel chain, in hotel management. Every student is also required to attend chapel which is held once each week. During the chapel services the gospel is presented and an invitation to become a Christ-follower is offered.
Only about 60 percent of the students come from a Christian background leaving 40 percent who are practicing Muslims. Jordanian law requires the teaching of Islam, which the school does as an academic subject. It also teaches Christianity in the classroom.
Although not all faculty members are Christian, most are and many attended the school where they now teach. Dema Haddadin, Principal of the Kindergarten, grew up in a home identified as “Christian background,” but she had no relationship with Christ. While a student at Amman Baptist School, she found Christ as her Savior and became a believer.
In a country where Muslims are not free to convert to Christianity because family and tribe pressures exert firm control over the behavior of individuals, the Amman Baptist School is able to teach the ways of Jesus to about 500 Muslim children every day. It proclaims Christ, also, to students, like Haddadin, who are identified as Christian but are not believers.
The reputation of the school was never in question after the King's own children enrolled as students. Mr. Akel Biltaji, a Muslim Jordanian senator, who bears the title “His Excellency” because of his previous service to the government, praised the Amman Baptist School and told editors that Amereican efforts in the past to establish schools and universities continued to pay huge dividends in promoting understanding between cultures. In a not-so-subtile reference to Iraq, he emphasized that democracy can be more effectively taught than imposed.
One of Jordan's 20 Baptist churches, Rabieh Baptist Church, meets in the school's auditorium.