On the Way out of Church...

Today is "church day" here in Dubai. I seem to meet "the world" on the way to the car every week.

As I stood after singing the final hymn I turned to Dave, a construction company owner in town to explore starting a company office here. Dave is in from Arizona and I had invited him to church. As we talked I got a call on my phone... from the other side of the sanctuary. It was Tim, from south India. He's here for an extended stay with his company and had a message he wanted to pas on from a friend. I saw him wave from the other side of the room and agreed to stay put until he got there.

In the meantime, Joanna and her father Frank had approached. They're both from south India as well and Joanna works in the office with me. Frank and I arranged for lunch together this week and we bid each other farewell. As I whirled around I found Tim had made it over to me and had a friend in tow. Sati was introduced to me as a recent University graduate from Tehran, Iran who had just begun work here in Dubai. We exchanged phone numbers said we'd be in touch with each other soon.

As Sati and Tim walked away I turned to speak with Nisin and Steven. Nisin is from Kerala in south India and Steven is from Nigeria. Both had business items to talk to me about and we decided together to meet at 3pm on the first day of the week to sort it out.

My guest Dave had waited patiently and we now turned to leave the sanctuary... finally. As we left the room the Philippino church was setting up. On the way out of the doors Nisin reintroduced me to Faris, an acquaintance from Iran.

Once out into the foyer I chatted with David about his plans for the afternoon briefly before being greeted with big smiles and hugs from two brothers from the Punjab state in north India. These guys had happy greetings in the Lord and inquired about how my family was doing. I responded appropriately with inquiries about their families as well. After discussing my recent business trip to Jordan I said my goodbyes to them and moved over to speak with a young Indian friend who is thinking of going to University in the US. We chatted briefly and agreed to talk later this week on the phone about the details. Wael, from Egypt, walked past and I patted him on the back and said hello. We had encountered each other last week when business had taken me to his office building.

Dave, myself and the family finally descended the stairs to the entryway to the church. I needed to use the washroom so we stepped into the the 1st floor area under the sanctuary where I was greeted by Denis, Dipak, and Shehan - three guys in the youth group. Denis and Dipak are from India and Shehan is from Sri Lanka. Shehan gave me a hard time for not coming to the Cricket World Cup final showing at his house a couple weeks ago. I reminded him that Sri Lanka was crushed by Australia and that it wasn't much of a game. He wasn't happy with me. In the washroom I met up with the south Indian father of the young man trying to make his way to the US for University. We talked for a few minutes and we pledged to pray for one another.

Making my way back to the entryway I greeted Lizal, the Philippino woman who does some housework for us. I told her we'd see her later tonight when she got home.

With a few more greetings, one to two Indian guys I met last year and another to a young British girl involved in the youth group, we finally made our way out to the car in the sand parking lot.

In many ways it was more quick than normal weeks. I had missed most of my friends form the Arab church and also friends from the Chinese church that meets before our service. And I hadn't gotten over to say hi to the 6 or 7 African friends gathered near the front of the sanctuary, some from Nigeria, Cameroon, and Kenya.

Regardless, I'm always happy to be late in getting home from church.

Revelation 7: 9

After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. 10 And they were shouting with a mighty shout,

“Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne
and from the Lamb!”