Lunch at the Ritz

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 talk with. This is an opportunity where I can treat them to a five star restaurant, where normally they wouldn’t be able to afford it. I think they were a little uncomfortable with the opulence, but It was important to me to have them be treated in a first class manner. Ahmad, our driver who won last month, certainly didn’t want to go eat with me at the Ritz. He’d rather have the money in his pocket and eat Briyani ($0.75) and be perfectly happy. So that is exactly what I gave him. We were enjoying the Ritz this day. I just ate and ate. The food was amazing but it was quite expensive, even for Bahrain’s standards. We ate a fabulous buffet while we overlooked the pool. It was a very special meal.

One of my jobs as a General Manager is also being a teacher. I can’t do all the projects myself, especially if they are in Arabic. So its my job to teach my staff how to do it as well. Moody is a great guy, but he’s fresh out of film school. So Im taking the time to teach him all the tricks of the trade. He’s picking it up rather quickly. The more support I can have from my staff, the better the projects will be. We have to be efficient, because I think our sales staff is really going to be pouring the projects in soon.

I decided that I need to fast one day a week for the next six weeks to prepare for the turmoil that has/will happen. I fasted one day last week but not yet this week. I’m only doing a 24 hour fast which doesn’t seem like a big deal. Plus I had such a huge lunch, I wasn’t really hungry at dinner. But food has crossed my mind. I do a sundown to sundown fast usually. Where I skip dinner then have dinner as the first meal the next day. I’ll feel it tomorrow Im sure. When you do a multiple day fast the first day is always the toughest, then it gets easier. That doesn’t make sense but it works. Fasting is a very effective and little used tool for Christians.

I am very excited. My best friend the Iraqi has returned from Saudi Arabia. He didn’t like it there and was anxious to return. I have another squash partner now. He really wants to come with his wife to our Positive Living group. Its going to be nice to have such a dear friend back. Plus his building is not very far from me. Its 9:30 PM now, it looks like I’ll get a good night sleep heading into the weekend. Please remember to keep me in your prayers…they are working.