Encouraging words

What a great night it was. You know I’ve been venting a bit in my blog. Its amazing the encouragement that I’ve gotten through it and on facebook. I feel really blessed. I think Im finally turning the corner in terms of positivity again. Sometimes you just have to battle through it. We had the positive living group again tonight. It was the first one since I’ve been back. It was sooooo encouraging. Im changing the nature of the group to positive living/encouragement group. We had a guy named Moody show up to the group tonight. Moody came to the very last session before I left for my short vacation. This time Moody brought his father. Im great with people bringing guests. I like having a very eclectic group. It turns out both Moody and his father are Christians. They get Joel’s email updates everyday. Here are two Arabs that are Christians. Wow…imagine that…I meet Moody through a guy by the name Art, Professor Harlem. It was total happenstance that he was a Christian. Plus he lived in California and went to school to study filmmaking. Is this a divine appointment? Im trying to get Moody some work at KSDi but we are really slow. Everyone leaves in the summer and nothing happens during Ramadan. Hopefully we can do something for him because he has such a great attitude.

After the group we discussed the video which was all about not giving up on hope. If God has given you a dream, not to give up until you have that dream. That’s kind of exactly where I am at the moment so it was very encouraging. We all could relate to the video. There were six of us tonight. I told the group of our last get together how we all said something positive about each other. I told them I have a pretty good self esteem as it is. But my friend Khaled said something that really made me feel great. He said…Rick you know I love you…but there is one image I have of you in my mind. You are a bold risk taker. I can imagine you out on a safari leading the way through the jungle with a torch in the dead of night looking for a path to adventure. That simple compliment has stayed with me for six weeks. Im amazed how good it made me feel about myself…even though I have a really good esteem as I said. So I said if that had as big of an impact on me…imagine what it must do for hurting people. So I started and said something nice about every person in the room. I didn’t just say one thing, but I tried to go into detail. It was pretty amazing to see their faces all light up. I mean it was simple things like I think you have a really good heart, or you are so intelligent. But the mood in the room was like electric. It was pretty incredible. I think every small group in the world should do this. We all took turns and it was a very nice experience that I think Im going to make as the staple of the group.

I am amazed how much chatter this blog is creating. I love it. There was one gentleman who lives in Bahrain. I think he was wanting to debate some of my religious views. I politely answered him and he replied back. So Im going to watch his video on Islam because he asked me to do so. Then we are going to get together for coffee on Friday to discuss it. I think that is pretty neat. We don’t have to agree, but discussion is healthy. I remember when I first got to Saudi Arabia in 2005, I was in busload of Indian muslims that traveled to work together everyday. They were very reserved at first, but I cracked a couple of jokes and they opened right up. There was one guy in particular that I enjoy chatting with. He was very devoutly Muslim and hadn’t really ever talked to a Christian before. Because I was open to hearing about his beliefs and opinions, he respected me. Because of that respect he listened to what I had to say about my faith. We didn’t judge each other, we just shared openly and honestly. I did not try to convert him or tell him what was wrong about his religion and neither did he. That is the way I think it should be. We present the truth and let the Holy Spirit do His job. By the way just in case you were wondering, Islam and Christianity are very similar, along with Judaism. The major difference is the Trinity where Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God. In Islam and Judaism, they also both believe in Jesus, but not as a deity, instead a great prophet. If you have any other questions about Islam or the Middle East and feel uncomfortable posting a comment, please feel free to email me at rickybeeman@gmail.com