Cool Revelations

Im very proud of my crew today. We’ve had five weddings in four days and two of those days were national holidays and a weekend day . They are working so many overtime hours, yet they all seem to have a great attitude. A typical Arabic wedding is a ladies only affair. The only man is usually the groom. There really isn’t a formal starting time. The ladies most of the time start milling in around 8-9. And the wedding usually gets started around 10:30. The meal is around 1. I say around because there really isn’t a set time. After the ceremony, the ladies dance and party away to the wee hours of the morning til 4 or 5 or even 7. I think the traditional Arabic ladies spend so much time behind the veil, these wedding are their opportunity to let their hair down so to speak. Their gowns they wear to these events are certainly extravagant. Its just a really cool thing to be a part of. Im in the back with the video switcher just observing and hiding because I’m man. For events like this…the men in the crew have to be behind the scenes and not seen while our all-female crew is in the forefront. Actually we’re not even supposed to have male editors look at the piece. But its hard enough finding all female photographers/videographers here. Imagine how challenging it would be to find an all female editing team in the Middle East. So we always hold our breath and hope the traditional clients don’t ask, who is editing my piece. They take weddings very seriously here. They spend tens of thousands of dollars on them. I know weddings are expensive in the U.S. but they spend about 3-4 times more on their weddings in the Middle East than they do in the West. Family is very important and very sacred here. With that said…I didn’t come over here to oversee a wedding production company. They have been doing this for so long, it’s a major source of KSDI’s revenue. Im starting to bring in other revenue, but its going to take about 2-3 more months, for the cash to start rolling in. Our revenue from weddings now is about 80% of our income, In about a year, I anticipate that figure to be 20% as we open other revenue generating streams.

I was listening to a Podcast of my home church in Livermore and Pastor Steve Madsen. He said something that really opened my eyes about my own situation right now. He warned the congregation that it was only a theory and to take it with a grain of salt. Steve explained that some theologians believed Paul was a divorced man. Paul was a Pharisee that was being groomed to be on the Sanhedrin. For that he would have had to have been married. He also would have had to have children, specifically boys according to the Jewish customs of the day. We don’t hear anything about Paul and his wife or children, except he does write the love chapter in Corinthians 13. And he also seems to know a lot about marriage when he writes to the Ephesians. So he must have experienced love and a family, because you write what you know. He also claims that it is good for him to be single, but better for a man to take a wife if he can’t overcome temptation. Paul was probably married and his wife most likely divorced/left him because of his following of the gospel. He went from being Saul of Tarsus…the wealthy, the up and comer, to the guy that was converted and later persecuted going from prison to prison. The theologians believe that his wife might have left him then because he was not the same man she had originally married. Paul said in Phillipians 3:8 “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.” Part of that loss, other than money and prestige was his family.

Now…please don’t misunderstand me. Im not equating myself with Paul. But our experiences hold many parallels. I was a missionary in Saudi Arabia..married in 2005 when my wife left me and later divorced me. Paul was also Educated…Well…I can say I do well on Jeopardy every once in awhile and I do have a degree hanging on my wall, He was also a type of lay missionary, a tent maker. A professional that used his skill to partially finance his missionary journeys. Im using my creative skill to finance my current missionary journey. Paul changed the world after he lost everything by making a choice to obey God’s call. The parallels between our stories are really cool. I lost everything too when I was on my second missionary journey (the first was with my family in Taiwan in 2003) in Saudi Arabia by obeying God’s call. Paul traveled around the Middle East too. Now that I’m on my third missionary journey (Bahrain) I can see how God is just about to use my skills to enact a great change in people’s lives. I’m already (by the grace of God)having an impact. With all the potentially major things happening with the media, the divine appointments God is setting me up with, I could make a significant global impact as well. All for the glory of God, mind you. I hope none of this comes across as egotistical. Im just a tool being used to spread the Gospel. Its just that the gifts that God has given me allow me to Broadcast that message to even more people. Im humbled. Im just hoping that God doesn’t call me to a single life like he did Paul. This what Paul Said about being single in 1 Corinthians 7: 8I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I. 9But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

I don’t want to burn…bring me a wife quick God please…I certainly don’t want to be like Paul that way. Lol….