Rick was a Bullfrog

I feel like I have so much more time on my hands now that Im not writing in the blog everyday. I think it was good for season in my life. I know that it is what God called me to do. Perhaps I inspired some of you, perhaps it will turn into a book someday. Either way I enjoy chronicling my experience. Hopefully now that Im down to once or twice a week it will be meatier…rather than just trying to fill in the slow days. Then again I haven’t had a lot of slow days since I’ve been here. It has been a continuous adventure. At first when I started this blog it was meant to be a chronicle of cultures as I wanted to share my viewpoints of the Middle Eastern/Arab culture and how it differed from the West’s stereotype. Then it became more of a spiritual journey as I healed from my divorce. Perhaps God was having me live through the pains and despair again through this blog to showcase his faithfulness with the great comeback story and my fairytale romance with Jennifer. I decided once I met Jennifer not dwell on the divorce or the tough relationship with my children. I think that is the best move. I do love them dearly and hope we can have a restored relationship again someday. But what I want the theme to be more than anything in this blog and in my life is that God redeems and is faithful no matter what the race or creed you happen to be.

Im sitting in a packed arena awaiting the start of Muharraq vs. Manama. It’s a weird playoff system here. There are actually two championships. This is the first best of 3 championship. So Muharraq won in dramatic fashion last week, so if they take tonight, they will win the first championship. I’ll update the score at the bottom of this blog. They don’t sing/play the national anthem before games which is kind of weird.

Pastor Graeme and I went out to eat two weeks ago and he asked me to do something that I absolutely did not want to do. He was going to preach a sermon based on Jeremiah 7. In that chapter Jeremiah stood outside the walls of the temple and essentially told everyone they were going to hell. So Graeme thought it would be pretty neat if I would do the same thing standing outside the walls of Saar fellowship. I should tell you that I really can’t stand sidewalk preachers. I think they do more harm for God’s kingdom than good. Often they are the subject of ridicule and make Christians look, in general, like wackos. I have often engaged in debate with these preachers, while sometimes their message is sound their manner of execution is off. It is misplaced zeal in my opinion. So here Graeme is asking me to do what I generally detest. As I was researching the prophet Jeremiah’s life, Jeremiah didn’t want to prophesy either. Did any of the prophets actually want to do it? I think very few if any. God asked Jeremiah to do it anyway. Even worse God said you aren’t going to have a wife or children but speak My word anyway. At least I have both a wife and a child so who was I to say no to Graeme. So I got to church early and stood on a couple of chairs outside the front doors. Graeme had the elders out with me in case there was any conflict. So I started preaching and telling everyone that going to church was not enough. The good part is the words just kind of flowed out of me so I certainly felt an anointing. Now I didn’t preach anything against scripture as did Jeremiah, but rather just told people they better shape up. Now most of the people looked down and avoided eye contact. They tried to get past me as quickly as possible. There were a few however that stayed and listened for a bit. One even told one of the elders, what he is saying is right. There were a couple that engaged me in debate. But overall it was kind of an uncomfortable but positive experience. During the service Graeme called me to front to assure everyone I was not a freak. It was hard doing this in front of my friends that I didn’t tell what was happening. I can’t imagine what they were thinking. But Graeme allowed me a short forum to explain what we were doing it. Essentially going through the motions as a Christian like just going to church isn’t enough. Its interesting just two weeks ago an elder and I were speaking and we both agreed that the church needed to be challenged, to stir the pot so to speak. It was my job to make people feel a little uneasy and uncomfortable. I was to challenge them. And here just two weeks after, God answered the elder and my prayer. I hope this blog both challenges and encourages how you think and what you believe. I don’t think we were put on this earth to be comfortable. Now living in the Middle East in my current situation with my family, might not be the most comfortable thing in the world. But God has given me the strength to not only survive but thrive. Anytime that you are doing what God has called you to do He is going to reward you with blessings. They might not always be financial blessings, but blessing of peace and joy. You can’t put a price tag on those.