Time in Al Ain coming to a close

This past week has been full of ministry for us and we have been grateful for the opportunities we've been given.

On Monday evening, we planned for Mandy, Svetlana, Mithun and Jonathan to give testimonies at the Malayalam service. As we have come to expect, it didn't exactly go according to plan. They had us do worship as well and THEN they announced in Malayalam that we would be delivering the message as well. Good thing that we have Benjin on our team [our little pastor in training] and he was able to put together a beautiful sermon in approximately thirty seconds. We have really started to build relationships with some of the people in the Malayalam church and it is exciting to be greeted with such hospitality.

On Tuesday, we drove into Dubai and played at Jumeira beach all day. The water was like warm bath water [what more could we expect? it's been cooking in 100 degree heat all day!] but it was still a nice break from the heat of the day. It was a pretty incredible experience to swim in the Persian Gulf with the Dubai city skyline in the background. The air was dusty and visibility was pretty bad, but we could just barely see the outline of the Burj Dubai jutting out among the other skyscrapers.

On Wednesday, we led worship at the youth service for the Evangelical Church. We got to participate in their small groups and begin building relationships with some of the youth. Afterwards, we stuck around and joined the whole church for a movie night. They made popcorn and played "Shrek" to start off Pastor Brad's sermon series on Godly lessons learned from films.

Thursday we souvenir shopped at a local souk for a while and then had a late night band practice at the church we were playing at the next day.

We had a packed day on Friday. We led worship for the Evangelical Church at 10am and then booked it to the mall food court for a quick bite to eat. About 20 minutes after we arrived back at the church building, we began ministry for Word International Ministry, a Filipino church that meets in the same hall. We led worship, Daniel preached the message and then we had a wonderful, wonderful time of ministry and prayer with the Filipino people. At the close of the service, Pastor Edward insisted that we play another song. We launched into one of our fast songs and then they yelled "More! More!" We ended up playing three additional songs and the the people of the church filled up the front and started jumping and praising the Lord along with us. Afterwards, they took pictures with us and had us sign autographs like we were some sort of celebrities. It was crazy! We are just thankful that the Lord gave us an opportunity to spend time and worship with them. There was freedom in that church like we had NEVER felt before and we pray that through our interactions with them, they would see humility and the love of Jesus. After the Filipino service, Benjin's family invited us to the anniversary lunch of a couple in the Malayalam church at an Indian restaurant. We ate off of giant banana leaves and enjoyed fellowshipping with the Malayalam people and their beautiful children. In the evening, we hosted a worship night with some of the local churches. Our team stepped out in boldness and shared scripture and prophesy. We had some incredible flow time and a great time of ministry afterwards.

On Saturday, the girls spent the day preparing for our women's conference that evening. It was a brand new experience for all of us because we had to plan the structure of the evening, lead all the songs, be the featured speakers and facilitate ministry time. The Lord gave us boldness and courage to share our hearts for the women and everything went very smoothly. Some incredible things happened, we were able to pray for many of the women and we truly believe that the Lord was glorified. Afterwards, the boys brought us red roses! We appreciated them being there to support us and to play for us. They are truly a blessing.

Today, we are going out to dinner with Pastor Edward, the senior pastor for Word International Ministry [the Filipino church] and tomorrow, we will be ministering at his church again.

--Our time here in Al Ain is coming to a close quickly. Tuesday is our last full day here and on Wednesday, we head out for Dubai!

Here are a few more pictures...

So sorry that it has been a few days since our last update! Things have been very busy for us here in Al Ain. We finished our fourth weekend service a few hours ago and are getting ready for a good night's sleep tonight, so a better update will come in the next day or two as things slow down. In the meantime, here are some pictures!

The Food

Hi everyone this is Josh.

So I thought I would give you my viewpoint on all the things happening thus far, many of which are very great, but I would like to focus on one in particular- the food.

First of all, I have never really eaten any Arabic or Indian food. But after just 2 days of eating it, I would be content with it for the rest of my life. Benjin's mother has made us dinner twice so far, one night with Indian food, and another with Arabic. She is so great...she will come around with each dish and ask me if I want some; whether I answer yes or no, she gives me a huge helping. Then she comes around again and again....and my plate is never empty- it is awesome!

The Arabic last night was especially delectable. It was a "mixed grill", with grilled chicken, beef, lamb chops, kabobs, hummus, garlic paste and many other delicious items. It was impeccable.

Also, the maid that happens to be staying with us is cooking some authentic food for us as well...let's just say it is heavenly.

Oh and one of my personal favorite things so far...the shawarma. A simple bit of tender chicken with veggies inside a luscious wrap. Joyful.

Anyways, that is a short overview for all of my connoisseurs of fine cuisine out there. I will keep you informed on the delights soon to come. Love you all!

A time of relaxation and preparation...

Our first full day in the UAE was Friday and it was a busy one. We went to an Evangelical church service at 10am, which was all in English and there was something incredibly powerful about worshiping Jesus in a Muslim country. At 1pm, instead of attending the Filipino service as we had originally planned, we joined Benjin Joshua’s family at their traditional Indian service which was all done in the Malayalam dialect. Benjin's uncle and father co-pastor the church and Benjin warned our band guys ahead of time that they might want to bring their instruments just in case. It's a good thing they did because we ended up leading worship! All of us girls had to wear head scarves, remove all jewelry and wear minimal makeup in order to respect the conservative culture. There are mats on the floor instead of chairs, everyone removes their shoes at the door and men and women sit on separate sides of the room. The Malayalam people were very welcoming and even allowed Benjin to translate the preaching just so that we could understand.

After church, we all headed to Benjin’s family’s house to eat Indian food and to fellowship. His family has been incredibly welcoming to us and it would make his mother happy if we would allow her to cook all of our meals, do all of our laundry and tuck us in every night. She has the heart of a servant and is definitely like a mother to the whole team.

On Saturday, we slept in and spent the day relaxing around the house. We ventured out into Al Ain to Jimi Mall for dinner in the evening and had some good team time later on.

On Sunday, we visited with Pastor Edward, the pastor of the Filipino church where we will be ministering this Friday. We also took a field trip to Jebel Hafeet, a mountain that overlooks all of Al Ain and then went to the Joshua’s house for some late night Arabic food.

This evening we will be attending another Indian service and are prepared to share testimonies and encourage the church with the word of God. We are looking forward to ministering more this week and are blessed that the Lord has given us some time to relax, recover from jet lag and prepare.

Here are some pictures from our time so far…

Making history: the first ORU team in the Middle East!

After a wonderful Team Dubai family reunion in Tulsa, we had two days for band practices, team fun, last minute errands and preparation.

We flew out from Tulsa at 3:30pm on July 1st and arrived at Dubai International Airport around 8:10pm on July 2nd. Just like we prayed, everything went smoothly. Our first flight from Tulsa to Atlanta was short & sweet and our layover gave us plenty of time to eat and call our families before leaving the country. Our flight from Atlanta to Dubai was very long (a little more than 13 hours) but very smooth, comfortable and equipped with plenty of free movies, music, games and TV shows to keep us entertained whenever we weren't sleeping. Once in Dubai, customs went fabulously (because it's a Muslim country where Christian proselytizing is illegal and we are a missions team, we were worried about getting questioned) we didn't have to have visas, we were reunited with our ninth team member, Jonathan, who met us after his flight from Bahrain & all of our luggage was intact and accounted for.

The house we're staying in is well air conditioned and has three rooms for the nine of us, so we're pretty well spaced out...but only one shower, so we're on three minute shower rules.

The humidity is SHOCKING. Even late at night.

It's 3:15am here (we are 10 hours ahead of Tulsa)...we are showering and hitting the sack because we are going to two church services in the morning...an Evangelical at 10am and then a Filipino from 1-3pm. The Filipino service is one that we will be ministering in next week, so we want to get a feel for it before then. We are excited for what the Lord has in store.

Team Dubai sends our love to the states!

One More Hurdle

We are only one week away from our Team Dubai family reunion in Tulsa! Unfortunately, only eight out of nine of us will be in attendance due to an error on the part of the International Office at our school. Our keyboard player, Jonathan Pinto will have to fly straight from Bahrain (where he currently is) to Dubai where he will meet us. We will miss him very much during our Tulsa band practices and on our 15 hour plane ride from Atlanta to Dubai, but we have learned flexibility many times this year and we know that this is nothing we can't handle.

Please continue to pray for our team: for safe travels as we come from all over the country to Tulsa, and again as we travel to Dubai, for final trip details to fall into place, for unity and for us to be faithful ministers of the gospel.

Here are a few pictures of our wonderful team from throughout the year...

20 days until Team Dubai family reunion!

Time apart: one month down, 20 more days to go.

In the last month, members of our team have been in Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Oregon, New Hampshire, Bahrain, Arizona and Texas. Not only are we all over the country and the world, but we are all DOING very different things with our time off. Studying organic chemistry, leading worship, spending time with family, vacationing, renewing Visas, life guarding, nannying, interning at churches, and designing, among other things.

Regardless of the fact that we are physically away from each other, the Lord has been faithful to keep our hearts united. We have continued to keep Tuesdays sacred as our team fasting days, giving up anything from food to facebook. As we sacrifice in order to draw closer to Him, He has been showing all of us a lot about focus.

Please pray that in these last two weeks, we will be continually prepared for this trip and our hearts would be more and more united as a family in Him.