Im sitting in an outdoor café waiting for my friend to arrive. Its an Italian style café but none of this Olive Garden look, this is authentic Italian, by Italians. It is very nice. The restaurant must be next to a mosque because the call to prayer just blasted me over the Mosque’s PA system. It was only a 1-2 line call about 30 seconds. The calls in Saudi Arabia go out for 5-10 minutes. I actually kind of like the calls to prayer as its soothing and very colorfully descriptive of the life and faith here. Its too bad they don’t have calls to prayers in the U.S. to remind Christians that they should pray. I wonder how many of us go an entire day without praying even once. I mentioned this before, I have a habit of rolling out of bed before my feet hit the floor to consecrate the day to God. Its my way of physically denying self. Since I have an addictive personality, I’m addicted to starting out my day that way, which isn’t a bad thing. If Christians had a call to prayer where it was expected even in your work place to stop what you were doing and talk to God, I don’t see how that would have a negative affect.
I think I figured out why I was so melancholy. I kept feeling that the Lord was telling me that something big was going to happen in December. So I circled that month on my calendar and anxiously awaited it. It gave me hope when the things were a little down, especially that tough 6 week stretch in October. I kept thinking of the great Tony Campolo sermon, “It’s Friday but Sunday’s coming.” So I modified…”But December is coming. Now December was a good month for me, a very good month in fact but it wasn’t life changing like I had anticipated it to be. Perhaps it was that the seeds were planted in December that will later bloom or perhaps my expectations were too high. I think Im really bothered by the fact that Im leaving my flat. I had a comfortable, routine here. My year in this flat has been very happy, perhaps Im nervous about leaving the security of that into the unknown. I remember when I first moved here and lived in a motel for a month. I didn’t exhale until I found a place to live. Perhaps all those anxieties are about to surface. Then again, I have to remind myself that God is not a god of fear or anger, so those anxieties can only be coming from one direction.
Im putting the finishing touches on the Adam Jones documentary. It’s a very simple, straight forward story. No bells, whistles or production flair. I didn’t think that the piece called for it. Instead its just a straight interview with Adam’s mother. We had other interviews to use but I thought “less is more.” Its really a powerful and effective piece. I’m going to post in online so you can see it. It will probably be up by Wednesday, I’ll let you know. Its in circumstances like this where media plays a very important role. You are dealing with a corrupt judicial system in Qatar. What can the mother do to fight this? The only way I can see is through international diplomatic pressure. The best way to do that is garner attention through the media. Stan, the editor of the Gulf Weekly, a huge and widely respected paper here, has taken up the cause with his paper, covering it extensively. KSDi is taking up the video/broadcast end. I contacted Stan today and wanted to work together on this project. So we are probably going to furnish DVD copies in all the issues of Gulf Weekly coming out next week. That should have a really big impact.
God is still moving in my life. But Im at a period of waiting again. Im sick of waiting, but I know he has a greater purpose.
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