Rick Beeman

What makes a missionary.   Is it building water wells in Tanzania?   Is it Building an orphanage in Romania?   How about a hospital in Ecuador?   Well its all of those things.   But what are those things all about?   Yes its nice to do humanitarian work and make the world a better place.   Im absolutely 100% all for that.   But doing those projects are just tools.   Tools to be a blessings sure.   But also tools to help build relationships.   The tool I used in Taiwan was my football.   I taught my Chinese students how to play.   On the field is where relationships started.   Here in Bahrain, my tool can be considered the acting school, or my Monday group.   This is where the relationships in my life are solidified.       Im convinced that relationships are what being a missionary is all about.   Therefore, you don’t have to be overseas to be a missionary, we are all called to be missionaries.   The great commission says go out into all the world and preach the gospel.   I am preachi...

Well it wasn’t a perfect day but still pretty darn good.   I’m wiped.   This was the second to last Saturday acting class.   But when we get done with these, we are doing day seminars on Saturdays.   What was I thinking scheduling myself to keep working these six-day weeks? Come July, hopefully it will quiet down.   I stayed up way too late chatting with new friends.   Its strange, most of the single people here in Bahrain, and there are a lot of beautiful single people, hang out in the clubs.   I loathe clubs.   I’d rather stay at home rather than go out.   So am I anti-social?   I don’t think so.   I love going to house parties, interacting with my acting students, love going out to dinners and lunches.   I love being around people, but meaningful interaction is what I’m after.   I can find that more readily online now, then hanging out at night.   So I was up chatting til 2am.   Could hardly keep my eyes open.   I decided it was time to go to bed.   So what did I do after I brus...

Well the day started off well…actually the night before.   Max called me.   I was thrilled to get it.   He wanted to know why I hadn’t been calling him.   He was reaching out to me.   It really made me feel good.   I could tell he really misses me and I miss him.   I know, if he had no consequences to his choices, he’d choose to live with me, as would Spencer, but X simply will not allow that.   They would have to face too many emotional ramifications from that side and they are scared to do that.   Its sad…divorce so sucks.   But at least I will be able to see them in a few weeks.   Im really looking forward to that.   So today was the day for our company picnic.   We all loaded on Khalifa’s boat and headed out to Adar island.   I brought my kayak along so the staff could give it a whirl.   We were all very excited.   We got to the island around 10am and it was already upwards of 110.   So its starting to get warm, but not humid.   Its more like Palm Springs weather.   We set up o...

I guess all my activity at work yesterday and teaching really caught up to me.   I was wiped out today.   I don’t think Im getting older.   Its just that the mental strain is really starting to affect me physically.   So I get into the office a little bit later, around 9:30.   Khalifa and I spoke on the phone and perhaps he could hear it in my voice.   He told me to take the rest of the afternoon off.   Go get rested so I would be fresh.   It was quite refreshing to be recognized for how hard I’ve been working.   But that’s the thing, it doesn’t feel like work.   I’ve been working a six day week, at about 60 hours a week on average.   But again…I don’t feel like its getting to me, because I enjoy what I do.   I guess I have to start listening to my body more. So I came home in the afternoon after I handled all my deadlines and just relaxed.   I watched a couple episodes of LOST, took a nap, then at sunset, took my kayak out in the Gulf.   I went for a long ride.   It was so peacefu...

It’s Wednesday today, so that means the long day.   A full day at the office and then teaching til 10.   Its only 14 hours, which isn’t all that terrible, but the mental drain is something.   I am learning how to pace myself however, that helps.   I sleep between classes for about 15 minutes in the teacher’s lounge.     It was an absolutely full day.   I haven’t even watched an Episode of LOST yet.   What’s going to happen to Jack and Sawyer?   Im on Season 3, and im completely addicted.   I woke up early again.   I wanted to go kayaking.   By the time I left my apartment building, it took me three minutes before my boat was in the water.   I love the simplicity of that.   Its kind of poetic.   I just back my mini SUV up to the water, open the back hatch…and Im off.   The water was like glass, so peaceful.   I can feel myself getting stronger and building up endurance quickly.   I went the whole way today with no breaks.   Its really exercising my abs and back which I didn’t expect...

Cancelled Czech I was so waiting to use that line.   So this world of online dating it has its pitfalls and its benefits.   The benefits to me is that being a professional writer…my prose works really well for me.   The pitfalls is when a relationship doesn’t work…or the other person wants it to stop.   They just simply disappear.   Actually most of the onlinr people do that.   Just stop responding to phone calls, texts, IM’s, emails, and hopefully the other person gets the hint.   (I by the way rarely get hints…you totally have to spell things out for me in big block letters. )    I think its all the avoidance of confrontation.   It kind of sucks but it is what it is.   I could sense the hammer was dropping with the Czech when she just stopped taking or returning my calls.   Yeah…I was upset for a day or two.   I wound up really liking the Czech.   But there were warning flags too.   I tried to ignore the warning flags.   For instance, a former online boyfriend of the Czech’s cont...

One of the good things about my disposition, or the way that God made me, is that it is very rare for me to have two bad days in a row.   So this was kind of a bounce back day for me.   Not fantastic, but still better than the day before.   I woke up early and wanted to start my day of in a very healthy way.   So I went kayaking at 6:30 am.   It was awesome.   The water was like glass, and it was very very quiet.   Just me and   God.   That is what I want to do when I exercise have be a time of meditation too.   Its so much more fulfilling than lifting weights.   Still the exercise is so strenuous.   It’s a very good work out.   It got my day started off on the right foot.   I drove a minute to the water, backed my mini-SUV to the shoreline, took the kayak out of the back and was paddling within seconds.   That’s what prefer, just get out and go, with little preparation time.   I did notice that I paddled by jellyfish in the water so that kind of freaked me out.   But I didn’t fall o...

Im struggling with what to write about tonight for the first time in a long long time.   I haven’t been getting too much sleep lately.   There are myriad of reasons for that.   Work is actually going well right now for KSDi.   The other problems are recession issues.   Nader’s bank defaulted on some loans and they got rated very poorly.   I believe the bank is on the verge of collapse.   It is in all the papers.    So that has added an air of tension around KSDi.   I really admire and respect Nader, but this situation is really taking a lot out of him.   There’s not much I can do to help him.   Part of being so involved with a family business is the responsibility that I have when communication breaks down between family members.   I’m kind of caught in the middle of that right now.   Again.   Actually I’m well suited to being the middle-man mediator.   So its not something that I shy away from.    Wow…Im going to cut this way short.   It seems like I’ve lost some of the inspira...

So I got up early on Saturday anxious to try my hand at the kayak again.   I wanted to go first thing in the morning.   The problem was my body wasn’t cooperating.   I had a very low blood sugar.   Going out into the Gulf with a low blood sugar would not be a very good idea.   So I jammed down some breakfast first at my favorite Mexican spot.   The waiter said, I read your article in the paper yesterday sir.   Really? I thought it was supposed to be a small article announcing the success of the last acting class and the upcoming day long seminars.   So I flipped open the paper, and we had the small article written about us.   I was kind of impressed, a. he read the paper, b. he recognized my name and what I do.   It got my day off to a good start.   So after breakfast I headed to the Gulf.   This time, there were no Filipinos being baptized.   Just me and the water.   So I hopped it and didn’t fall out…not once.   It was still pretty grueling.   I just had no idea how much physical e...

Well I dropped Guy off at the airport yesterday.   After four months, he decided he wanted to be with his kids after they asked him to return home.   I can’t say his time here was an overwhelming success, but it wasn’t an abject failure either.   I’m a little disappointed because I expected a bit more.   Now, to celebrate having my own place again, (I let him stay for free) I walked around the flat in my underwear most of the day.   It is quiet, but I can crank my worship music again.   Anytime you have a friend live with you its going to test the bounds of your relationship.   That certainly happened.   There were some difficult moments especially since I was his supervisor.   But as I dropped him off at the airport, we embraced and I told him, “We’ll always have Youssef.”   It was quite a funny line, especially if you’ve seen Casablanca.   Youssef was our drunk Austrian friend who always managed to find us to be on our team at Quiz night.   He knew neither of us drank, so when we w...

I had one of the best days in Bahrain in a long time.   Perhaps it was because of a long conversation with the Czech the night before, or because Im getting my spiritual life back on track.   I didn’t fall off the rails in my spiritual walk, I just slowly drifted for the last few weeks because of the travel and busy schedule.   I just wasn’t as fervent as I had earlier been.   That of course went hand in hand with the disappointment regarding the children.   I think I figured out why X and new hubby are trying to so hard to influence/brainwash the kids.   The kids said no Bahrain and Europe, no to California and Disneyland, and no to the cruise.   I think they are trying to create an environment where the kids don’t have any fun with me.   If they do, they might think of me in a better light rather than the “big bad wolf” light that X and hubby are trying to portray me to be.   They might even long to spend more time with me.   I know its in God’s hand and light always exposes dark…a...

I had acting class today.   Wednesday is always a bear of a day.   I have my regular work routine, then acting classes til 10.   Its always quite a tricky day but it gets easier and easier.   Earlier, we were out scouting for a location for a commercial.   This was right near my house, which happens to be by a Royal palace.   We parked near an intersection by the palace and I was out checking camera angles when a policeman came upon us.   We weren’t there more than five minutes.   He told us we’d have to move our car and we couldn’t be standing near the intersection.   Apparently the King of Jordan was flying in and had a meeting with the King of Bahrain.   All traffic and activity stops.   So I had to cancel the shoot for the following day because I didn’t have enough set up time. Bummer. It was strange when I was teaching the children’s   classes.   They were so quiet and well behaved.   I really didn’t know what to think of it.   I didn’t have to yell or raise my voice or be mea...