TO CHURCH OR PRAYER WALK? THAT IS THE QUESTION!

Well it has been 2 weeks since I last blogged, so allot has happened, hopefully I can convey the most important events.  Wait, this is after all, MYY blog,  I can write whatever I want, you wouldn't know if it is true or not HA, HA!.  I can even ad lib and make super evangeLASTIC exaggerations, but I won't, you know me!

COMMUNITY

Alright enough fun and games last Friday (18 NOV) my ride to early church got messed up, so had a choice go to later church and try to get a ride or stay home.  I decided to go on  a prayer walk.  At the beginning of my walk I had headphones on and listening to random music I have on my phone.  As I started walking Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix) came on and then the loud Islamic prayer chants over the loud speakers from a  Mosque as they do 5 times a day.  It was kind of surreal it reminded me of a Vietnam war movie for some reason.  The music definitely did not fit the surroundings.  I decided I am going to wave to as many passerby's as possible.  In the past I had been walking around in some weird kind of fear, like the Qatari's were going to sneer at me or try to harm me.  Every time I have waved or said Hi, I had always received a cordial response, the fear was unwarranted (a devilish scheme).  So today I waved at everybody I could, with out running across the street which would be queer.  As I neared a corner I seen a man admiring his very small garden.  I said "nice, you have a garden and a patch of grass."  He came near and I talked with him (Amir is his name)  about his garden which has roses, onions (not ongions), corn and flowers.  He said he gets three crops of corn a year.  I would like to get him a plant, perhaps a Olive Tree?  Before I left I told him I will see him again as I am walking thru the neighborhood daily.  So I continued on my walk trying to remember where I had just come from. The street are not marked, they go all different directions, asphalt, concrete, dirt, rocks, dead end or just end for no apparent reason.   As I walked I saw three men walking by so I waved and said hi!  All three waved back and smiled.  One of them placed his right palm to his chest, then pulled it away, as he was making eye contact and then continued on.  I knew this was a friendly gesture so I looked it up on the internet when I got home and this is what I found. 

"Placing the palm of the right hand on the chest, bowing the head a little and closing one's eyes con-notates "Thank You" (in the name of Allah).


It is interesting the people of Qatar seem friendly, but I am told otherwise.  The management at work have had to deal with them on labor, supply and customs issues.  One of them said whatever you do don't let them do a favor for you, you will just have to repay it 5 fold.  I am cool with that, it would give me more purposeful engagements.  Our company has had some bad deals with some of the locals extorting money from our company.  They have mistreated some of our TCN's, so my boss negotiated a better deal for the TCN's only to be scammed for more money.  While I say this, I understand as you do, there are MORONS everywhere, and they make the whole look bad.


CHURCH
I introduced you all to Elder (young Nigerian) I met at church some time ago.  Well he is having pay issues with his employer who has not paid him in three months.  So, here I am encouraging his home group leader to give the employer another opportunity to do what is right.  Anyways now Elder needs money for school fees 4500QAR=$1,236.50US.  I am currently helping with this, encouraging small group leaders to meet the need or bring it to the church.  This is cool, we have experienced this and have gained wisdom from doing it.  I have encouraged them to help Elder and take him in, if he needs help.  They all have homes ect........

FAST FORWARD TO THURSDAY  24 NOV THANKSGIVING

We have three days off for the holidays.  Now what do I do with all my time? This stuff kills me with no apparent plan to be useful!  I decided, I am going to the mall to get something, I am sure I can do without!  So I head out on foot, 2 blocks away I start thinking about why I am here?  I turned down a street and God continued to remind of the fact I am his and like I wrote in my last Blog, I was reminded of our deceitful desires.  Okay, now I turn around and go do my normal walking path.  GOD IS GOOD!  I am tearing up, HE is so COOL!  He knows what we need, longs to direct us, longs for us to listen and obey, don't you SEE this is how HE reveals himself to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Okay no more tears!  Well, almost I am still soggy.  As I walk I see 2 little boys 6-7 playing Karate so I join in for a few kicks and chops as I walk by, I could have taken them both if I wanted.  Now I am at the same corner where I had met Amir days before.  I sort of linger by the garden hoping I would see Amir.  Instead I see an old man Ahamed, I wave, he waves in response and motions for me to sit.  He then slides his food to me to eat and shows me how to eat it.  As we are eating I hear him yelling to someone in Arabic but, no one is there?  I look across the street in the second floor window and there is a little boy he is talking to.  These neighborhoods are full of relatives, as they told me, so they can care for each other.  Soon a young man in his 20's (Abdul) rolls up in a Pathfinder and joins us (he speaks pretty good English).  Then another man in his 30's (Masad) who also speaks English comes out of the house.  We are eating and talking as best we can and of course I make them laugh!  I told them this is a joke you play on foreigners, you stuff them with food so you can laugh at them when they leave with a stuffed belly! They kept bringing food! We are having a good time and the Ahamed offers me some powder like snuff, I try it and it is nasty.  I show him my Grizzly snuff and he says he would like some so I said I would bring some to him tomorrow.  When I was leaving he said, I could come back anytime I wanted.

God is awesome, you see, I bent my desires of  going to get some crap I could do without, to see what God can do, do YOU SEE it!  Our desires, is to get and do what we want, which may or may not be in conflict with what HE wants.  I want what HE wants and what HE desires!

When I get back home I see some guys loading up a truck.  I ask what they are doing and they said we are camping at the dunes and watching Baja Races.  I immediately ask, "may I go" and they said "yes".  These are guys from work that I have not interacted with.  God is cool, obedience=blessing, he knows I like racing and cars. I didn't plan it, God did.  Now I have to hurry and pack, ooh "crap I told Ahamed I would come by and bring him some chew tomorrow, but I will be camping.  So I grab a can and go back to Ahamed's.  On my way I see three men at a Mosque and I waved but they didn't wave back.  I continued on, then I see two boys 11 or so pushing a electric scooter and I noticed the chain was off.  I stopped them and told them, as best I could, that I could fix it.  As I am working on it one of the men from the Mosque came over, he was making the boys laugh as I was doing the repairs, it was cool, this old wise man spending time with the kids.  They loved my Leatherman multi-tool that I used.  You all know, I don't leave home with out it.  I finished and walked to the corner and there is Abdul driving his Pathfinder.  I stop him and open the passenger door and handed Him the can for Ahamed.  He said "how much", I said "free, gift, friend", he says "no, how much", i said "okay, 10,000QAR=$2,747.78US", he laughed and conceded to take it for free.  At that time the old man that was with the boys and I, came over and then recognized him as the old man that I had eaten with named Ahamed. I left after giving him the snuff in a hurry because I had to go to the beach with my co-workers.

I'm sorry if this is getting long, but if you have something better to do than see how God works, then by all means, get on with it.  The sooner you get tired of doing stuff your way and your stuff, the sooner GOD can use YOU!

South of Sealine Beach, Qatar, looking North

THE DUNES

There is 5 co-workers and two of their Filipino friends camping with us, what an adventure.  When we camp in the woods, we follow roads or trials, here you just point in direction and drive up, down, over and around dunes and pick a spot of sand.  I have pictures of the dunes on Facebook.  Myself and another stayed up till three in the morning talking.  He is a MK (missionary kid), pretty awesome how God paired us up so I can encourage him.  Here come the tears again, NO, I can fight them off, kind of!  Again neat time with them, not one of them got drunk and the talk was not nasty guy talk, I could not believe it!!  The next morning we go to the races but they start at noon and we have to be back for a Thanksgiving meal with the company employees.  The meal was okay, allot of food, but I could tell the idea was to get drunk, so I left after eating of course.  As I was leaving, the Eddy (MK) asked, "did you have a good time", I said "yes" and he agreed he did too.  No tears, yet.

I am not sure how to summarize my ramblings......Well if we follow our desire to do GODS will and seek HIS direction it will be a blessing, encouraging, faith building and beneficial to all we meet.

OOOOH, YAAAA!
When I got back from camping I got on Facebook and posted a video by THIRD DAY "Thief" my mostestestest favoriteestest song ever.  Chrissy Urlacher and Dylan Williams commented on it.  Chrissy messaged me to have a Happy Thanksgiving with my Family and that she LOVED ME, I responded in kind.  Now she has no Idea I am in QATAR and I have not talked to her or Joey since they left......2 years ago?  I was shocked and hopeful.  Seconds later, seriously seconds later, she says Joey's doing real bad they are talking about hospice and she has to go to the hospital now.  She asked me to pray, because she knows I WILL, here come the tears.................okay, I told her to call Fred and he will help her!  She talked to Fred and Krisitn and confessed her family is doing horrible since they left and Joey's heart is hard.  She also says Joey will kill her for talking to us but she says she doesn't care this has gone on long enough!!!!!!!!  HALLELUJAH, AMEN!  God is showing JOEY mercy and GRACE.  Pray that Joey gets squared away for himself and his family before he meets GOD.  I know if we are truly willing to be used HE will.  It freaks me out!  I was on Facebook, thousands of miles away and he was using me and showing himself, unreal. 

Again HE is wanting to see if you are awake and listening,  ARE YOU, OR ARE YOU TO BUSY?

DON'T BE WHERE THE WORK AIN'T! ............ well,  "where is the work"?  First take your eyes off  YOURSELF and ask HIM to give YOU eyes to see the needs and HE is faithful, HE will show YOU.  The next step is up to YOU, are YOU willing to do IT?

HE IS GOOD!  AMEN