Rick Beeman

I am exhausted. I am so glad the weekend is around the corner. I sure need one. I didn’t mention last night because I was still trying to process it. A really unfortunate event. I was so overwhelmed with responsibility I just didn’t know how to handle the news. I own a home in Houston. When I bought the house I was traveling back and forth to California for work and back to Houston for the 1st 3rd and 5th weekend visitations. I took the Friday off and took the first flight out on Friday morning and the last plane back on Sunday night. I did this for a whole year and only missed one weekend. I wasn’t hardly saving any money because most of it was going to the airfare but I didn’t miss any time with the kids. So I figured if I bought a house it would give my kids some permanency with regards to me. But since I was home only 6 days a month, I thought it was silly to leave it empty. So I started renting out the rooms. With the economy, I thought it was a pretty good move. Ge...

When God told me the next six would be difficult, I tried to anticipate it. I guess I didn’t anticipate it enough. Oh…just in case you are wondering, God is totally speaking to me in the midst of all the crap as a means of encouragement. But right now I feel like Im in the midst of the storm. There are so many little crappy things happening. Not one big giant issue, just about a dozen headaches. They can be rectified, but it’s a big hassle. But in the midst of everything, its not making my life miserable. I believe that God prepared me for this. Although I probably should have prepared more. There are issues from home, issues at work, deadlines, extra-curricular hassles, being lonely. But if I look on the bright side, Im healthy. I’ve had such a great run the last 11 months. Its been so full of joy and peace. Although the storms have still raged, I’ve had peace in the midst of the storm. But now its being really tested. God must have amazing plans for me by the end of O...

I can’t write a lot tonight because I left my power adapter at work. I only have a few minutes of battery time remaining. So Im going to try to post before my computer dies. More tomorrow. It’s interesting, Im pretty stressed at work with the three deadlines coming up. This is after I blogged that I don’t get stressed. So again I was short with my employees and again I apologized. We did the positive living group tonight, and what was the topic Joel was speaking about? Living a Stress Free life. Before I listened to a podcast in the morning from my church in California…the topic…hearing the voice of God. Hmmmm….do you think God is trying to tell me something…lol. God has a sense of humor. Things are going to be OK. What a good day it has wound being…more tomorrow. I have to post this today…even though its short so my mother won’t be stressed that I’d been abducted by terrorist…or in an accident or a plane fell out of the sky and landed on my flat. This is her way of seein...

What a tough day. The pressure got to me a little today. We were able to cover payroll this month barely. This is a regular problem for KSDi apparently coming out of Summer and Ramadan, still its tough. So while my focus should be on developing more business for immediate cash, I am drawn to production as we have three deadlines coming up in the next two weeks. The frustrating part is I have a staff that sometimes is making mistakes. I have never missed a deadline, but Im in danger of that record going away. Its so frustrating when you give staff deadlines and they miss them. That puts a lot of pressure on me to compensate. It also adds to the stress (which I rarely experience). Stress is absolutely non-productive. I found myself being very short with the staff. Nice Mr. Rick went away with very concise Mr. Rick taking over. I didn’t yell…but I expressed my displeasure with the staff. Its frustrating to be frustrated. I need to get in a better mind set. I prefer to work...

Another nice day for me. A little bit quiet. I slept in and played Russ racquetball at the Navy Base. Im proud that I didn’t hit him this time. That last time was weird. I do love going onto the base. I wish they would sell memberships, it has everything. But since Im not a navy guy nor a Dept. of Defense employee, I need to get someone to sign me on. Whenever we do go, we usually have lunch at Taco Bell…which they don’t have on the island. You don’t appreciate Taco Bell until you don’t have it. So think of me when you are downing your next chalupa. I came back and I was so tired and looking forward to my Sat. afternoon nap. But then I just started chatting with my friends. That is so nice. I am really cyber-connected. I have as many friends online then I do around Bahrain. That isn’t meant to make me sound pathetic. But I have several really great acquainstances here and 5 really great friends. I think that is a good mix. Since I don’t have my children/family regula...

I got up early to go to church. Reji doesn’t have a car, so I drove across town to get him. It was a small thing to do. I figure that’s an Act of Service. I like Reji a lot. He’s a great guy. The service was nice. I like being so involved in the church. I was planning taking long naps today, but instead I just lost myself for hours chatting with friends on the computer. I feel so anti-social when Im being cyber social. But I am getting friends from all over the world now. I was talking to my friend Misty in Florida. We were talking about drinking. Drinking and excessive drinking is so prevalent here. I have a theory. That people drink to hide the insecurity that they have inside. The more they drink the more their insecurity is numbed. That’s why they get more emboldened. Liquid courage because the insecurities are gone. Plus the alcohol numbs the pain and loneliness. I believe with Christians, we get our identity through Christ. Thus our insecurities, become second...

What a tale of two halves. I started out very overwhelmed at work. I have so much to do, and so very little time to do it in. I thank God that we were able to make payroll this month. That gives us another month to scrounge up money. I think we’ll make it, but this is all part of what God spoke into my heart. I know He will make a way. I need to be out there making money, but instead, I find myself trying to finish off three projects at the same time, plus run a company. It’s a challenge. So I was in a really bad mood this afternoon. I was not snapping at people, but I was expressing my displeasure and disappointment in them. Now I was kind of gentle…but when you compare that with my normal jovial, encouraging self, its like a different creature overtook my body. I did apologize to the staff if I constructively criticized them a little too harshly. They took it well. The thing that set me off was my deal for the Funniest Person in Bahrain. I saw the deal proposal and it ...

It was a really nice day today. I got into the office and got a lot accomplished. We have a busy crew now of 21 employees. We started out at 13. So in a year we added 8 staff members. My goal was to double within a year. I still have about 1 month to go before my first anniversary. But still, that is pretty close to me being on target. Money is really tight now. We have a good sales team in force, but its going to take 2-3 months for those monies to start coming in. I think that was one of the thing that God was preparing me for the next six weeks (now five) issue. Im so confident that he will make a way. Im not that stressed about it. Maybe if I wouldn’t have been prepared, it would have stressed me out a little bit. I took Manu and Jerilyn, out to lunch at the Ritz Carlton for their winning employee of the month the last few months. We give them a nice bonus check and I take them to the nicest restaurant on the island. I took Tanya along too. She is always fun to tal...

First day back in the office after Eid. The rest of the country was on holiday. But Khalifa reasoned that two days were enough, especially since there are only two practicing Muslims in the office. That still amazes me, two practicing muslims and eight Christians in a company in a Muslim country. That can’t be a coincidence. Bahrain has so many public holidays. Someone told me they have the second most holidays in the world. Im not sure if that is true or not. But it was nice getting a lot of work done in the office today. The next few weeks should be a firestorm. Everyone puts off business until the end of Eid. Then everything happens really fast. A lot of parents are upset at the Government. They closed the schools down until Oct. 14 as a preventive measure of the Swine Flu. Im not sure how much that will help. But you have to think that hundreds of thousands of pilgrims that descend upon Mecca for Haj, have to be concerned. But the Government of Saudi Arabia is convin...

Some day…no most days, I have tons to write about. That is kind of nice. I truly am living an amazing adventure over here. Work doesn’t feel like work, unless there are payroll issues, and I really do know a lot of people on this island. I am absolutely blessed. But today is one of those rare days where not much happened. The fact that I can think of being here for 11 months and I’ve only had about 10 of these days I think is pretty significant. Now keep in mind I wasn’t bored. Which still amazes me. I should have been bored by now, at least once. The fact that I haven’t just blows my mind. Whenever I do have a little bit of inactivity, I throw in a DVD so I’m always doing something. Today was the 2nd of the 3rd day of the Eid holiday. Our office had it off. But Moody and I went into the office anyway. We have a deadline to meet. The good part is that I went in late at 12, and only stayed til 6. So I was able to sleep in and it was a relaxing day. The next two weeks are...

Ok…I’m kind of jazzed right now. I am totally addicted to the internet. I just signed up for the NFL.com package where I can watch every single football game the entire season. Its only available for people outside the U.S. So the crazy part is, I won’t be subject to blackouts, and I can watch all the Oakland Raider games. I know Im kind of a sports dork. But Im a pretty passionate fan. The 10am games or the east coast games start for me at 8:00 PM, so its kind of prime time for me. Whereas the late/west coast games start at 11:00 PM, which is a little inconvenient. When I lived in Taiwan in 2002 that is the the year the Raiders went to the superbowl. Can you believe that, the one year that the Raiders are good and Im out of the country missing it. But I used to wake up at 2:00 AM (Taiwan time) and listen to the radio simulcast of the game, not even video. So I’m glad technology has caught up. Plus I get to watch in HD. Now this is only available for people overseas. So I...

What a satisfying day it was for me. Not any one particular thing stood out as amazing, just a lot of little things combined together. I slept in, which is always a good thing. I don’t get to do that too often. First order of business was to meet Russ at the Navy base for a game of Racquetball. Russ you might remember from last week was the recipient of getting hit five times with the ball. I was more careful this time. He ran into me once, but I made sure I kept the ball away from him. It was good exercise and a even match. Darren, whom I would later see twice more met us on the base. We all had Taco Bell. The navy base is the only place in Bahrain you can get Taco Bell, so it might as well been filet mignon in a five star restaurant. Its all in your perspective. Came home took a nap, finished watching Prison Break Season 3, sent emails, and chatted with friends. By that time it was 6:00 and time to play Darren at Squash. Now I’m scheduling two strenuous racquet sports ...

Another very satisfying day. Now I don’t want to get all self-fulfilling prophecy, but I thought for sure God told me the next six weeks would be difficult. Now Im not wishing or hoping for the bad times. The week certainly started out challenging, but the last two days have been fantastic. Maybe it is a respite, or a test for me not to get too lazy. Now it is very important to me, that this blog is not perceived as egotistical nor tooting my own horn. I have a failed marriage, nearly a failed career that was resuscitated, and a strained relationship with my children, and many other inadequacies which I have mentioned in previous blog. I acknowledge my faults and try to be very real and transparent as that is what I believe Im called to do. So when I talk about my exploits, my intention is to not talk about how great “Rick” is. Rather its to show God’s faithfulness through a willing vessel. If God can come through for me an ordinary guy, surely he can come through for everybo...

What an amazingly cool day it was. It’s 2 am, I just got back from a Brazilian themed party at Mo’s house. Basically that is a party where you have to wear yellow and green. There is a lot of alcohol at these parties, but I don’t drink. I just go to connect with friends. I think its important that they see me in those environments. So lets go in order of what happened today. I’m so overwhelmed with deadlines at work, I didn’t hardly get anything done. Hopefully over the long weekend, I’ll be able to make up for lost time. So that’s the question, when is the long weekend. At the end of every Ramadan is a 3 day holiday called Eid. It’s the closest equivalent to our Christmas. The question is when is Eid. It might be Sunday or Monday or even Tuesday. The problem is that it hasn’t been called yet. There is this special counsel that looks up at the moon to declare when Ramadan is over. The problem running a business is you don’t know when to tell your employees to work or not...

I wrote a long entry, that I just deleted. It wasn’t the right thing to say. Its interesting as I sit down and right this blog. I rarely plan ahead, instead I just type. It’s a stream of consciousness type thing. I really feel led by the Holy Spirit when I type. Im not saying Im a special writer, but He is giving me the words both to say and to not say. Like the few paragraphs that I just deleted, I didn’t have a peace about it, so I felt compelled to delete them. I do that periodically. So I would say most of the things I write here are inspired by God. That’s why its so difficult for me to write when there is sin in my life. Im totally upfront with most everyone about the flaws in my life. I’ve been criticized that Im too honest. But I think that is what God is calling me to be, transparent. How many ministers or church leaders do you know that are specific with their sins and trespasses. Although I do have to be careful with my confessions, as X mines the blog searchi...

God is very faithful. The fact that he forewarned me about the next few weeks and by faith, I shared it in this blog I think proves his faithfulness. The bombs keep dropping, yet my faith is not diminished one iota. In fact, its increased. If God is going to be faithful in forewarning me about the bad times, don’t you think he’s going to be faithful and come through with the blessings he foretold me would come in the future. Something, I don’t know what is going to happen by December. Im not really sure what its going to be, but I know its going to be big. This was prophesied and spoken into my life several times, starting about 10 months ago by my co-worker Reji. Since then God has kept encouraging me to hold on til December. Usually whenever God gives me dates like that He always comes through. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at work right now. The pressure of meeting payroll is big. But Im trying not to stress about it. I know that God is control and He will make a way w...

I touched on this a little earlier…but I felt like I should go into more detail. The story occurs in Daniel Chapter 1-3. Where Shadrach, Meshac, and Abed-nego were being faithful to God yet being chastised for it. They did nothing wrong, yet they suffered severe consequences because they would not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar and worship him. Because of their extreme faith, they were thrown into the furnace. But Nebuchadnezzar was so pissed, he ordered the fire to be seven times as hot as normal. It was so hot that the guards throwing the three into the furnace were killed. So after they were thrown in, Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace and saw not just three men in the furnace but a fourth one as well. The fourth was Christ in the midst of the fire next to three. Nebuchadnezzar ordered them out and not a hair on the head was singed, nor their clothes damaged. I told you earlier that God told me two weeks ago that a fire would be coming. I was able to prepare, like Shadr...

We are having cash flow issues at work again. I think that was one of the issues I think God was trying to warn me about. I spoke with Tanya today and that is an issue the company has faced for years. Get fat during the good months so you can hibernate/survive during the summer months. Nader did try to warn me about it. But I guess I had to experience it the first time through. I did bring in three major video projects and that has kept us afloat so far. We have thousands of dollars of outstanding money that will come to us in the next 30-60 days because of it, but we just have to make payroll until that happens. One of the reasons why I was so upset on Thursday is that I was not able to hire one of the candidates for the sales position that I wanted to hire. The reason, he was too young, just 23. But the kid is so sharp. We still wound up hiring a very good and sharp salesperson. Im excited about him. We haven’t had any productivity out of the sales position since I’ve be...

Something very strange and bizarre is happening and Im not really sure how to explain it. I don’t want to get all “God told me this or that” because sometimes you can take that too far. Im not sure If I have already. But usually I can clearly recognize the voice of God. Whatever that voice tells me, usually comes to fruition. I also don’t want to go the self-fulfilling prophecy route either. Because that can be equally as powerful. So I have blogged in the past about the early warning system that God usually gives me. He’ll impress upon me, that the next few days or weeks will be difficult and I need to prepare. I usually prepare by prayer and fasting. Like a soldier prepares when he is going to war. Then almost every single time the storm happens exactly the way God said it would. Usually Im prepared and I can maintain my faith, peace, and joy no matter what the circumstances. Off the top of my head I can think of this happening at least 10 times over the past three years...

Well today was a better day, if for no other reason than it put distance between the day previous. I suppose I just need to hunker down and trust God that he’s going to handle the financial details of my business. This is a unique situation for me. Im not used to being responsible for the bottom line cash flow of a business. I have done GM type duties in my other positions as producer of various projects. But those were all short 3-5 month deals. This is long term. I have made some mistakes the first time around, and I’m learning from those. I just had no idea that our cash flow would so quickly dry up in four months. I needed to have more in reserve during the down time. Hopefully we can keep the ship afloat. The long term prospects seem so promising. I know as General Manager my duties seem so widespread sometimes. Im concerned I might be spreading myself a little too thin at times. Hopefully once we get a competent sales executive in, that will run a little bit more sm...

I have felt all week that something bad was going to happen and that I needed to prepare myself. Usually when I get these early warning signs from God to prepare some hardship. Usually the warnings in the past have had to do with some sort of shenanigan’s from X. But not this time. I had an early morning meeting with some pretty important clients. The big project we’ve been working on for awhile…they essentially tore to shreds. There were a couple things that I didn’t like the way they handled the project. First of all..they had no comments on the rough cut, and said they deferred to another division for all their comments. So we adjusted the project based on the other division’s recommendations. Now three months later, once the project is complete they have a wealth of notes and we essentially have to recut everything. Why didn’t they tell us this months ago? It would have saved so much time. Some of their comments were helpful…the rest were kind of pointless. So it creat...

What an incredibly productive day. Again Im not sure what I got accomplished, but I know I was busy. I didn’t even have time to chat on the internet…well…lets just say not that much time. Im really enjoying having Nader in the office. He is a tough boss, but he’s fair. We both have the same goal in mind, to grow the company. I have a day full of meetings tomorrow, so I guess a lot of the time was spent getting ready for those. In one day I have seven meetings at four different locations from 9a to 10p. They are all really big meetings too. I guess the pressure of being the sales manager is on now. Writing of which, We are conducting second interviews tomorrow for our sales manager position. This time around Im extremely confident that we will hire the right candidate. I already like all three of the candidates we are calling back. No wonder we are having cash flow issues again, we’ve had no production from the sales department (other than myself) for the last 10 months. ...

I was talking to my friend Imran yesterday. Imran is a Pakistani guy that recently won the second round of Bahrain’s Funniest Person. Imran is a hilarious stand up comedian that is trying to get his own stand up show off the ground. He wants me to figure out how to be a part of it. So anyways, he called and asked if I was busy, I said no. He said…are you ever busy? That got me thinking. I covered this in an earlier blog, but its important to cover it again. I don’t think Im ever busy. I can’t remember the last time I was busy in fact. Even a few months back when I worked 6 day weeks for 5 months straight at about 70 hours a week it didn’t feel that busy. So am I busy? Lets review what I did today. I have two big projects due on Oct. 1, we are on a tight five week production deadline for both of these projects and they need to be in Arabic, this adds another big hoop to jump through. We are interviewing for a sales manager so I had 8 interviews this week one today, Had to...

I was thinking yesterday about this. I don’t think I’ve been bored for months. I really don’t think I’ve been bored at all since I’ve been here. That is a pretty amazing thing if you think about it. I live alone and have tons of time on my hands. I don’t really have a go to friend to hang with, and no romantic relationships..at least not locally. So theoretically, I should be bored quite often. But Im not. I actually crave the times that I am alone. I have a healthy balance of exercise, work, and leisurely activity. My day overall is pretty full. I think that is a little indication that Im right where Im supposed to be for this season of my life. God is handling all the details. Since Im doing His work, he is rewarding me with peace, joy and contentment. Im pretty blessed overall. I am a little wiped out right now. Perhaps Im getting too much exercise. Darren and I are totally hooked on playing each other in squash. We are very evenly matched players. Except he kicked...

(Forgot to post last night...Sorry) I am so out of routine with Ramadan. Normally I do my bible reading at lunch wherever I go out and eat. Well…I can’t go out to eat at lunch, so my devotionals have fallen a little bit by the wayside. I don’t like it when Im out of routine, im more prone to spiritually stub my toe, or run out of gas emotionally speaking. So I had to mix it up a little bit. Im instead doing my devotions before bedtime. Its working, I feel like I have more sustained energy, spiritually speaking this way. Its like I need my daily fill up. I was so busy and productive today at work…yet I have no idea what I really accomplished. I know I felt a great deal of satisfaction. Its weird when Im dealing with managing as opposed to doing projects. There are lots of little vital things to do that don’t really get noticed. But when I complete a project I have something tangible to show for it. I did do the proposal for Bahrain TV. I know they don’t have a lot of money...

Another very full day for me. I stayed up real late Thursday night chatting with old friends. I love that social outlet which the internet provides. So I only got 5 hours sleep heading into church. Our regular pastor, Graeme, was back from his long vacation. A lot of people now are coming back to Bahrain as the school year is about to commence. Things are getting back to normal. Well as far as normal can be during Ramadan. I was all excited after church to take a 3 hour nap. I watched a couple of episodes of 24 season 4. While the show is riveting…this particular series is about Arabs that control a device to meltdown nuclear plants. Now the plot and characters are formulaic, but it’s a formula that works, thus they’ve had seven seasons sandwiched around Kiefer Sutherland’s rehabbing. But their depiction of Arabs is sooooo far off the mark in this one. I know its Hollywood. But the perception of the Arabs is solidified through Hollywood and the media. T...