"You'll be married within a year"

It’s the weekend for me. This usually means very long talks with Jennifer. We are now less than a week away from her being here. Im pretty excited about it. The only visitors I’ve had have been my parents. While they were nice to have…something tells me I’m going to have a lot more fun with Jenni. I stayed up til 4 am talking with her. Then again at 9 am (my time) and we spoke for another two hours. I just can’t get enough of her. That is such a good feeling to have.

I went to lunch with Pat. He really is a good guy to talk to. I told you he is the coach out here for the Professional basketball league of Bahrain. He’s been coaching internationally his entire career. It’s a pretty good gig. He gets to see the world and meet all sorts of people. Throughout his career he told me that in all the leagues he has coached, his teams have won 20 championships. By any measure that is impressive. Especially because each stop he has he has to learn a whole new team, immediately.

My friend Isa invited me out to a birthday party. I always like the opportunity to meet new friends. Isa is a young guy, around 23, so all of his friends are on the youngish side too. I got along well with all of them. I really didn’t feel like the old man of the group. I don’t think like I feel my age at all. That is one advantage of being the middle child. I can relate to people older than me as well as people younger than me. Its quite a blessing. This was a group of Pakistani’s, Persians, and Bahraini’s all nice guys. The conversation always turns to, what are you doing here? Americans/white guys are quite revered here despite the pleading of a few radical extremists Muslims. So I tell them Im a filmmaker. They always respond there is a film industry here in Bahrain? Well…I believe I’m called to start one, if not here certainly Dubai. I haven’t lost the quest that God has originally sent me here for. (more on that in a bit) I think this is a time of preparation for me. The past year+ has been an incredible ride. All the foundation has been set. As Im about to embark on the next level, I think that God knew that I’d need a helper/partner to support me and help me get there. Isa said something to me that I had forgotten I told him. Isa is turning out to be a very good friend. He’s a passionate and very dedicated Muslim but we both respect each other’s beliefs. Isa somehow stumbled across my blog about six months ago. He started disputing my views on God. So I said lets go talk about it. He was expecting a theological smashdown. So instead of telling him what was wrong about his religion, I told him what was right about mine. This had completely disarmed him. He’s been a friend ever since. So anytime you get into a theological discussion, never attack, that will just put them on the defensive and they’ll stop listening. Instead humbly tell them what you believe and why. I told him all about my struggles, my sin, my loneliness and that led to even more credibility when things started turning my way. He recalled that day I met him, I told him “I think Im going to be married within the year. I don’t know to whom yet, but its just a feeling that God put on my heart.” I told my friend Darren this as well just to have a couple of witnesses. I thought about blogging about it like I’ve done so many other times with words that God has spoken to me but then I thought better of it. God spoke to Joseph about his brothers bowing down to him, prudence dictated that he should have kept some of that to himself. So I tried to learn and not repeat the mistake. Please keep in mind when I said that I’d be married within a year, that was a full three months before I would be introduced to Jenni. So God had already prepared my heart. So when I saw her the first time, not only was it love at first sight, It was crystal clear that God showed me “This is the one that I have for you.” So with confidence in God I move forward.

Anyways I digress, like always. As I spoke with the guys about my quest, to change the world. I always say I want to change the way that America perceives the Arabs. Their eyes always widen in excitement. Most American view Arabs as radical terrorists and that Im living in a war zone. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve blogged about this before and its worth repeating. The Middle East is much safer statistically than the U.S. There is very little crime here. Arabs are gracious and giving people…as long as you don’t cross them. Do an Arab bad, and all bets are off. They are passionately kind and passionately vengeful. It is extreme in both ways. That is part of the prophetic word in Genesis. So, Im trying to stay on the good side. These guys support my mission statement. They want me to succeed. The correct perception of Arabs to the world is very important to them. They always wish me well and root for me to succeed. I will succeed. It’s a part of my calling. Simple logic dictates, If God told me I’d be married within a year, and that is coming to pass, then everything else he told me will come to pass. The exact words from God to me on Sept. 15, 2008, “Now that you are the man that I always designed you to be, now everything I’ve purposed in your heart will come to pass. You are going to change the world.” Everything…and I mean everything is going according to plan. Im just here along for the ride.