Im sitting at the Bahrain airport waiting for the arrival of Guy Schafer. Guy and I went to Grad school together. He is one of the most dynamic people I’ve ever met. He has his pain as well. His divorce was just finalized and he is thinking about Bahrain as an opportunity to start fresh, just like I did. There are many familiar circumstances between our stories. Not only will Guy be a great friend out here, I need him in the office. I’m being stretched so thin with my responsibilities, I’ll be able to delegate many things to him, so I can focus on the creative and training up my staff to be better filmmakers. I can’t make every project myself, so I have to multiply myself through my staff. I think that is what a good executive does. Guy is coming over for a three month trial. It’s a pretty big decision to move to the Middle East so he is coming with an escape plan if he doesn’t feel comfortable here, or finds he misses his children too much. With me coming here was easy. I was so in tune with the voice of God, that obeying his calling here was really no choice at all. Every day that Im here, that calling becomes more and more confirmed.
I had an interesting experience in McDonalds today. (Do you know no places here give free refills…not even the fast food places…with as much as I drink that has taken some getting used to.) Well I was approached by this young Filipino man. He saw that I was reading the Bible. He asked if I was a pastor…I had to think twice and then say not yet. Im not sure If I will be a pastor, but I feel like I’ve been given many unofficial pastoral duties. I told him no. He explained that he was new to Bahrain and he was looking for a church. His father was a pastor in the Philippines. We briefly spoke about the church I went to, which I don’t think he would be too comfortable at since its mainly white people. I told him about a few of the churches I visited, mainly the Filipino church. He got really excited. Then I remember, Bennie, our new accountant is a pastor at a Filipino Church. I took his number down and told him She would call him. He was very excited. And Benie, was excited too when I told her about the contact. All it took was me carrying my Bible into lunch to bless one bold young man. Im not sure how many other people notice my Bible when I eat. I take it out once or twice a day in public. In this country I stand out a bit. No one has ever hassled me about it. So Im sure I must have some sort of effect, just not sure what. I wouldn’t bring my Bible out in Saudi Arabia as brazenly as I do here. Bahrain is so much more culturally accepting of other people’s beliefs.
Im not sure about the coverage in the states, but Israel-Gaza situation is big big news here. Growing up in the U.S. I always sided with Israel. After all they are God’s chosen people right? But since I’ve been here, my attitude is changing. I can take a more objective view of things here. I think both sides are to blame and there is not an easy or pat answer. Its difficult to come to an agreement when each side believes the other side doesn’t have a right to exist. But what is currently going on with each side lobbing missiles or offensives at each other isn’t working either. There are Palestinian Christians, just as there are Jewish Christians in that region. And I’ve met many people from Palestine and Lebanon since I’ve been here. They are beautiful people too. The stereotype of them from a western perspective is as inaccurate as the stereotype with the rest of the Arabs. OK…what I believe just in case any of you are wondering. Im studying this in Ezra and Nehemiah right now. Yes God originally gave that land to Israel. But they strayed from God and lost their inherent blessings. It says in the Bible over and over again, obey my commands and you will be blessed. Well they didn’t and lost what they had. Is the land still theirs? Do they have a right biblically to it? I don’t necessarily think so. Empires have come and gone throughout history. Just because ancient Rome once spread throughout all of Europe, does that mean England belongs to Italy still? Or that Ancient Greece should still control India? Of course not, I think the same could be said for Israel’s land. The Palestinians and Israel’s are both there, and neither one is moving. So a compromise must be made, because they are going to fight to the death. So I don’t see any harm with Israel conceding land and allowing Palestine to become an Independent state. They are there already, just give them some land, and it won’t be the end of your country. You’ll just have a little less real estate. This is not a Holy War like many have come to believe. I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on this matter. Most of the Jews in the world don’t live in Israel anyways, yet they are fighting as if they did live there.
The BA flight is exiting now…so I better go get Guy.
An addendum, Guy arrived…its great to have him here. I took him immediately to Quiz night. We won the last round..woo-hoo. Now we are headed over to a friend’s house to watch the Super Bowl at 2 AM. In the staff meeting today, I announced that all people from North America were excused from coming into work in the morning so they could observe the unofficial holiday. Um..that would only be Guy and myself. What Im not looking forward to…is missing all the commercials, that was my favorite part of the Super Bowl, they don’t play the commercials here.
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