April already?!

As happens with most years, this one has accelerated after our school's winter break. I can't believe that the last time I posted anything was in JANUARY! At any rate, here are some random goings-on in our lives and a few snapshots to let you know we're still alive. We've a had a roller-coaster February, March, and April, but we love where we are and what we do.

Jordan
During the National Day weekend in Kuwait, we traveled to Jordan to visit our friends who previously taught in Kuwait. We did some sand-boarding, desert camping, doing the "Harlem Shake" (check us out!), eating lots of good food, and snorkeling in a matter of four days. It was an awesome time of catching up, and we hope to do something like that again.

 

National Day
Before our trip, I had the customary National Day extravaganza celebration at school, complete with a bazaar, food, dancing, and traditional outfits. My students are so adorable in their little dara'as.

Bowling Tournament
The Young Adults from church had a bowling tournament on three Fridays during March, and since Chris and I lead one of the life groups, we got to go have fun with them. These guys and gals take bowling seriously...fun!

 

Sri Lanka/End of March
At the end of March, Chris and his friend Kyle went to Singapore to an English conference, where Chris presented his foundation English program's methods for assessing grammar. GUST (the university where he teaches) sent him there with a nice stipend, which was great for us. On the way back, Chris and I met in Sri Lanka and Kyle carried on back to Kuwait. We spent 4 or 5 days there, mostly relaxing and spending unhurried time together. We also ate a ton of amazing seafood and swam/snorkeled each day at a beach we found the last time we were there, and we visited a turtle hatchery.

Easter/Early April
Easter for us was fairly low-key this year. Chris worked on Easter Sunday, but we had a big dinner hosted by some friends in our life group on Monday night. We sang some songs, took communion together, and enjoyed a great time of conversation. Also in April, Chris' flute quartet gave a recital in the auditorium of his university, and lots of our friends and his students came to support him. Thanks, guys! I will try to get some better pictures of that up later.

  
End of April
Finally, here we are at the end of April, when we celebrate Earth Day. My class made Trash Monsters out of reused tissue boxes and paper on Thursday, since we are on our Spring Break at school. We have one full month to prepare for the International Day show, when my students will be performing "Be Our Guest." My class is studying France this year, so we are doing a little throwback to Belle and Beauty and the Beast. It's every 1st graders dream, really. I also went to a women's retreat yesterday, held for ladies from all of the Lighthouse Church's services. There were 350+ women there, and it was seven hours of amazing worship and teaching. It proved to be a much needed respite and a great way to start off my week-long holiday.

 

 

Well, there you have it. That's the last few months in a nutshell. I'm sure I'm omitting something in there...until next time.

Merry Christmas 2012!

His power and glory evermore proclaim.

Those are the last words of of O Holy Night, one of my favorite Christmas carols. It has a charge, to proclaim or declare the power and glory of God.

 

I was just sitting here thinking that I ought to get some pictures of what our holiday looked like and came across this one. Every Christmas Eve, The Lighthouse Church in Kuwait hosts a bonfire and time of singing carols in one of its courtyards. One of the worship leaders and a few accompanying musicians stand on the steps outside one of the church buildings while others are gathered around the fire in many rows, 30 or 40 people deep, in all directions. Interspersed between the carols that everyone sings in English are presentations done by a few members of the various congregations that fall under the Lighthouse Church umbrella; Malayalum, German, Tagalog, Konkani, and Swahili are just a few of the other languages that we heard, all directed in praise to the King. What a proclamation of the power and glory of God, who is bringing people to himself from all over the world, including in Kuwait!

May we continue to tell of his goodness in our lives and in others.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to our loved ones near and far.

Stephanie & Chris

The Teacher Outreach

October was a busy month, evidenced by the lack of posts here. In October, there's usually a spill-over of tasks that need to be accomplished from September, but because there are only 30 days in that month, it just all can't be done.

Let me start from...I don't know. mid-September. Everything that I normally do to "adjust" to Kuwait in September was pushed to the end of the month because of the Teacher Outreach that we helped put together.

In a previous post, I mentioned that our Jabriya church service held an outreach for teachers new to Kuwait, hoping to help get them connected to The Lighthouse Church and other like-minded people in the country. Here's basically what our awesome team did (and what took several man-hours to organize with the help of lots of volunteers!), the fruit of which being that our service attendance has been consistently double in size over the past seven weeks.

 We...
- brainstormed ideas in the spring
- set a date to have a "welcome lunch" after the usual 11:30 church service
- ordered about 300 organza drawstring bags during the summer
- PRAYED and made some phone calls
- designed and had about 300, 3x4 invitations printed

- bought 24 boxes of gum, 9 cases of Kit-Kats, 2 giant bags of mentos, (and partridge in a pear tree...)
- stuffed the bags with the candy and the invitations
- passed out the candy bags to 6 or 7 schools' teacher accommodation buldings, one to each apt.
- organized van transportation for those who RSVPed, plus some extra
- made some phone calls...
- ordered sandwiches and different kinds of Arabic "fatayer" for 120 people
- bought ice, drinks, and plastic silverware, plates, napkins, etc.
- ordered Arabic sweets
- made some phone calls...
- purchased give-away prizes
- picked up ordered food on the morning of the lunch
- set up tables, chairs, food, and drinks
- prepared salads
- made some phone calls
- had an amazing service and lunch

Afterwards, I went into hiding with my coffee French press and a bottle of Ibuprofen for about a week, but it really all was amazing. We have met a lot of new people, made new friends, and helped people get connected to a church where they can grow and be stretched. To God be the glory.

Our friend and pastor, Mark Ingram, wrote a little article for the church's monthly magazine publication (page 7).  You can read it here: Contact Magazine, September 2012 (4/13 in the file- you need Adobe Reader to see it.)

Another September

There ought to be a classification like "Sweet 16," "AFC champions," or "Stanley Cup Finalists" for teachers who make it through the first month of school. Or the first two weeks. It could be based on a 1-10 rating of how much sleep a person got, how unscathed s/he looks, and how many students weren't lost. Actually, lost students would probably be cause for automatic elimination, but I digress. Working through the beginning of a school year is quite a prestigious feat that deserves a lot more attention than it gets. Just saying...

We're in it- another September here in Kuwait. This is the fifth school year here for Chris and myself, and it has started out as one of the craziest for me. The events of this September were not really all that extraordinary but the NUMBER of events and tasks that I've had to organize have been significantly more than in past years. Let me explain.

First, Grades 1-3 have moved into a new addition to my school, which is adjacent to the older building. It's a great place, with spacious classrooms and state-of-the-art technology, so I'm really privileged to have my classroom in it. The only hitch was that my assistant and I basically moved the entire contents of my old classroom into my new classroom by ourselves. Three days before students started. Needless to say, we were a little busy.

At the same time, I had the opportunity to oversee an outreach to teachers that we did through our church service. Since Chris was in the States later than I was, when I got back, I had to take over most of the responsibility for organizing the event and the preparation leading up to it. Now, I don't say that to make myself sound important at all. In fact, I feel like I struggled to survive through the last few days before the outreach, which happened to be days #3, #4, and #5 of school. Thankfully, Chris arrived on day #3 of school, so he could take over some of the phone calls and catch me as I collapsed into a heap at the end of days #4 and #5.

I'll write another post on the details of the outreach, which ended up going amazingly well. I know that God used it to get lots of teachers (new to Kuwait and others) connected to our service and other Christians in the country. And really, that was the point. For now, I'll get back to my school work and tidy up at the end of another Saturday.

From the Christian Post

Here's a great article regarding religious tensions that have been going on here in Kuwait. Please pray for the Emir and Parliament to rule with fairness and favor as God would have them govern. Pray for our church leadership to continue making wise decisions in light of the "changing winds." Finally, please pray for the people of the Church to be courageous and continue being salt and light despite this very slight persecution.

Church 'Evicted' After 7 Years Proof of Kuwait's New Islamist Policy?

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 5:10

Why do we live here?

Really? Why am I enduring the 110+ temperatures right now? And, why am I spending more time here in the summer than I will be in the States? Whether you've heard us overtly talk about it or guessed at the reasons on your own, here's an article written by a pastor in Dubai (a city in the Gulf) that speaks to why we live here. It's as if someone took our hearts' thoughts and wrote them down somewhere. Even more, we're praying for some of you to join us. Let me clarify that there are other reasons why we live here too, but this is primary.

I'll include the link from The Gospel Coalition here, but I want to highlight some of the author's sentiments that model my own here:

Come Help Build the Church on the Arabian Peninsula

When the Saudi Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Abdullah, recently said it is "necessary to destroy all the churches in the region," I wondered: Does that include our church here in Dubai?
The Grand Mufti, Saudi's highest Islamic authority, was in nearby Kuwait, supporting legislative attempts to eliminate the churches there. He invoked an ancient hadith, an official Islamic teaching saying "there are not to be two religions in the Peninsula" and concluded, "Kuwait is a part of the Arabian Peninsula and therefore it is necessary to destroy all the churches in it."
The sheikh may threaten to destroy churches here, but Jesus, the Sheikh of sheikhs and Lord of lords, promised to build them, and he is doing just that. There are encouraging signs among English- and Arabic-speaking congregations in Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and elsewhere. In view of the massive ministry needs and opportunities here, more followers of Jesus should move to Arabia to plant their lives, build solid churches, preach the gospel and reach the nations.
Why haven't you moved to Arabia? Here are some mistaken perceptions preventing people from moving into the Grand Mufti's neck of the woods.

1. There are no churches on the Arabian Peninsula---so why plant my life there?

Actually, there are local congregations in all of the Gulf states, including places like Aden, Yemen, Muscat, Oman, and Dubai, U.A.E. Many of these are English-language congregations since English, as much as Arabic, is the medium of business in many of the Gulf states. These churches are demographically diverse, reflecting the culture at large. In our church in Dubai there are people from more than 60 nationalities.
To be sure, most of the church-going folks are expatriates (foreigners) and not locals. And many of the churches here are weak in their doctrine and living. But the best way to reach the nations is to build healthy churches where Christians are growing and increasingly motivated to reach out with the good news. And you can do that even in the most resistant regions of the world.
The crying need here is for stronger churches and pastoral training. In most of the large cities of this region, expatriate churches already exist, but they are woefully underequipped. The Bible is not central in their gatherings, the gospel is not clear in the people's minds, and their witness is weakened as a result.
By training pastors we can change the ecclesiastical landscape in a generation. At our church, we have trained church leaders from Syria, Egypt, India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, and other nearby closed countries. We have also planted Redeemer Church of Dubai, a thriving congregation reaching people on the other side of the city.
More opportunities are coming. Just recently, the Sheikh of the northern-most emirate in the U.A.E. (just 60 miles from Iran) granted land for an evangelical church building in his emirate. So we need to gather a church there, and then we need to establish a visible presence that makes sense to the locals, who compose half the population there.

2. It could be dangerous out there---better to stay at home.

True, church buildings in this part of the world are exposed for all to see. They stand out like an island in an ocean of neighborhood mosques. But that's the idea---a city set on a hill, a visible community of people who know Christ and live in counter-cultural obedience, serving the people and investing in relationships for the long run. The local people here typically appreciate genuine Christians, and many of them are interested in learning more about Christ. We want to be as public as we can be.
It's true that "proselytizing" is illegal in the Gulf countries, and that the blanket distribution of tracts will get you arrested and deported quickly. But, actually, I find it's much easier to talk to a Gulf Arab about Jesus than it is to talk to another American about Jesus. Muslims claim to revere Jesus as one of their prophets, and their culture and language are infused with religion, so it's simple to talk with them about religious things, correct misunderstandings, and proclaim the good news.
It's also true that some Western believers were recently murdered on the Arabian Peninsula, but this is the exception, not the rule, for life in Arabia, because it is in the best interest of governments to protect expatriates. Local believers, of course, risk their lives to follow Christ. We must count the cost, too.
The opportunities for gospel advancement afforded by vibrant church life in unreached areas far outweigh any risk. Realistically, Western believers who reach the local people with the gospel will probably face only threats or deportation; others may lose their lives. The indigenous people who follow Christ will suffer more. But even if Arabia gets more hostile, even if believers begin shedding more blood for the sake of the kingdom, Christ is worthy of being proclaimed, especially to people groups who, like the Gulf Arabs, have not yet responded to him. As I tell our people, our church being closed down by the government is not the worst thing that could happen to us. No, the worst thing is that we would be a non-factor in the advancement of the kingdom here. 

[Stephanie's note: Some of our church extension buildings already have been closed down in Q8, because the landlords fear outcry from the government or other locals.]

3. Churches don't reach the unreached people---they only get in the way.

It is true that many "international churches" have the reputation of being irrelevant, tepid communities more interested in replicating their culture back home than in penetrating the indigenous people with the gospel. It's also true that many nominal Christians scandalize the indigenous people by living more in step with Hollywood than with Jesus, thereby confirming the common Muslim perception that Christianity equals worldliness. But that's just more reason to move out here---to reform existing congregations or plant new ones: Preach the Word, administer baptism and the Lord's Supper, exercise church discipline, love one another, and reach out with the gospel.
The church is the ordained instrument for reaching the nations, and any missions strategy that forsakes the existing church is misguided. Don't think of frontier missions as only one-to-one, cloak-and-dagger evangelism. No, the church is already here, publicly making inroads among the local people. Local assemblies are already meeting in places like Doha, Dhahran, and Dubai, and many churches in this region are looking for pastors. The church is the means, or as Charles Bridges put it, "the mirror that reflects the whole effulgence of the Divine character. It is the grand scene, in which the perfections of Jehovah are displayed to the universe."
When Samuel Zwemer came to Bahrain in 1890, he first established a church---consisting of the believers on his team---and began reaching out to the locals with the good news. That church still gathers today, and local people of Bahrain are becoming eternal beneficiaries of the faith-filled work of Zwemer and the generations that followed.
We're looking for faithful, humble men and women to come and join us in the effort to penetrate the region with the presence and power of the gospel, and we're holding out the local church as the bridgehead for operations. But these churches desperately need to be reformed, new ones need to be planted, and this will take the investment of many lives. Pray with us. Come and join these churches, strengthen them, support pastoral training here, plant your life in Arabia for a few decades. Come and plant a church or reform an existing one. Even in frontier missions contexts, the church remains "the manifold wisdom of God" (Eph 3:10).

Meet the whole church...

Well, that's practically who was at this memorial service, in addition to a number of guests. The only ones really missing were Ptr. Mark and his wife Christi, who oversee our service. They will be joining us again in Kuwait soon, but are stuck in the U.S. due to some visa issues. (I know. What are the odds that they have the same names as Mark and Kristi?)

Pictures of the service

Leaving a Legacy

We are back in Kuwait and settling into our routines here. It's only been about two weeks since we arrived, but life is already full and hectic with the beginning of the school year. Chris will start at his university on Sunday, and my students came this past Tuesday. Out of 20 girls, I have one that won't talk, one that won't stop crying, and one that won't stay in her seat. I'd say that's pretty good for only having three days of school.

Each September, Chris and I make goals for the year. We don't necessarily write them down, but we spend a lot of time talking about areas that we want to focus on during the upcoming year. This process usually starts with small ideas carried over from the previous year, and we speak light-heartedly about things throughout the entire summer, but we get down to business when September comes.

I found it fitting to our discussions yesterday when our pastor at church spoke about leaving a "legacy." Usually, people think of a legacy as something that remains when a person dies- what he was known by, what she did for the community, etc. However, we don't have to be dead at all to leave a legacy, or a trail of memories and actions that we are known by. One example Pastor Phil gave was that of a slug; it leaves a slimy, grayish line everywhere that it goes, and a person can often identify it as uniquely being a slug trail if he sees it. In a similar way, we leave our own trails. Our legacy. Everywhere that we live or visit and with everyone we interact, we leave memories of how we spoke and what we spoke about, how we treated others, how we responded in certain situations, and what was most important to us. The question, "What kind of legacy do we want to have?" is a refreshing angle for Chris and I as we make our goals for the year. We want to be known as people who love God and have structured our lives because of his love for us.

The message at church is part of a new series, but was also given in light of today's memorial service for our beloved Senior Pastor in Kuwait. Pastor Jerry (PJ, as we call him) passed away this past July after a sudden and short battle with brain cancer. The church wanted to wait to have a celebration of his life and "promotion" until many of the people traveling over the summer returned to Kuwait. They are expecting an attendance of several thousand people, maybe 5,000 Muslims and Christians alike. It's obvious that he's left a great legacy of loving people in his 26 years as a pastor in Kuwait, and 72 years of life on this earth. My friends on the worship band for tonight's service have asked me to take some pictures, so if I don't fail, I'll post some tomorrow.

Summer Visiting and at the Freemans'

Last Sunday, Chris and I had the privilege of hanging out with a family we know from Kuwait. I taught a girl in 1st Grade this past year whose family frequents the U.S. on summer vacation. Her dad studied at Penn State and Pitt and lived in the U.S. for something like 12 years, so the family was visiting friends in the Pittsburgh area. Since her mom and I struck up a great acquaintance during the school year, we said we'd try to see each other when they came, so we did! We took a ride on the Gateway Clipper, had shakes at the Hard Rock in Station Square, and ate lunch at the Grandview Saloon (formerly Coal Hill Steakhouse) on Mt. Washington. All in all, I would say it was a great day, except for the elderly gentleman who somewhat impolitely told us we talk too loudly. I guess there are some things you can't leave in the Arab world...

So far this summer, we've been busy dog-sitting, baby-sitting, and reading, and probably an equal amount of running around Indiana to visit and enjoy time with our friends there. This week, we also headed out to our friend Emily's, who will be coming to teach in Kuwait this school year. She taught in Taiwan for a few years and wanted a change, so we emailed back and forth a  few hundred times about teaching in Kuwait. She'll be coming in the fall, so her family graciously had us over for dinner and picked our brains about living there and in the region. I think that's the most I've ever discussed Kuwait while being outside of it, so it was fun.

Yesterday, we drove to the greater Boston area to visit Chris' family for a few weeks. We missed out on our home church's Open House, which let the public come in and check out the new building before the first Sunday service takes place this Sunday, July 3rd. If you have a chance and are in the area, you should go see what it's like. Sunday Services are at 10am, and from what I hear, they have an awesome new children's ministry area if you have little ones. You can see more about who they are here.

Our friend, Kyle, came up from Michigan today to spend a few days with us and see the area over the 4th of July weekend. He taught in Kuwait with us in 2008-09 and will be coming back there this coming school year for another round as well. We're excited to catch up and do some adventuring, including the 4th of July Spectacular, the Sam Adam's Brewery, and kayaking- all some of our favorite things to do in New England.

I'll be checking in periodically throughout the next three weeks, but I can't make any promises!

the Sunday that topped them all

This past Sunday was a crazy day.
1) We started exam week with the HS students, which means tomorrow is the last day.
2) I thought I lost the car keys, so I was 20 minutes late for work (1st time ever).
3) I drew a fun sketch of my friends as birds while I was proctoring an exam.
4) I went to an amazing church service.

Here are some explanations, but first, here's a picture that I had to have taken covered for a visa. In this part of the world, the head scarf is called a hijab, so I was "hejba," or "covered," for the picture. The resolution isn't great, but you get the idea!

Sunday:
1)+ 3) The students come in and take one or two exams everyday, depending on the subject. Because Sunday was a two-part religion exam, the second part being Qur'an recitation (obviously I don't speak fluent Arabic or read much of the Qur'an), one of the religion teachers was in the same room as me conducting the process. That allowed my friend Kristen and I to talk and doodle...ahem...supervise. Afterward, some of the other teachers came up to our room because we were in the canteen, where students go for their break between exams. Now, before you think I'm a real artist like Jan McK or JJ A., I learned how to draw this through a 3-D practice book:


2) The evening before, Chris and I were out. When we got home, he threw his keys on the coffee table and they fell off. (Not so exciting so far, right?) To be funny, I did a hockey-type movie sending them across the floor and under a chair, which I did not remember until I had been looking for them for a solid 15 minutes the next morning. Usually, I get a ride with others from work, but because I ALSO FORGOT TO SET MY ALARM, I didn't wake up on time and the downward spiral toward being late began...My parents will tell you that punctuality has never been my strong point, but there's something about marriage that can change all that!

4) Occasionally, our church will do a combined service on Sunday nights when there are significant holidays, like Easter or Christmas. You may think that's not uncommon, but when you gather people from more than 20 different services in one place, that makes for a lot of worshippers! Now, picture that the congregation has to make an "L" shape, with the worship team and pastors in the middle so that everyone can see, half of the people being outside in the 100degree heat and the other half inside...in the 90degree heat because the A/C is on but the doors are open. That's how we celebrated Pentecost Sunday, and it was awesome.

The service lasted about two hours, which is not unusual, but I was especially drawn to one part of it, where one of the Arab pastors was praying for the country. He decided to use a translator so that he could speak more quickly, even though he is fluent in English. The whole thing was so amazing- back and forth, Arabic and English, interceding for the country- that I just wept. God used it to renew and refresh my love for these people.

Almost Spring Break

I am sitting here in the school's teacher lounge thinking, "just a few more hours..." with regard to Spring Break! It's not that I'm not content with working or the students (or anything, I think), but I'm just excited to be on a holiday! We have something like 30 school days left and 2mths + 2 weeks before we leave for Summer vacation, but who's counting?

The last picture on the blog was of an Aquafina water bottle. "Mabrouk" if you know Arabic and could read it or if you guessed it from the colors.

This coming Sunday is Easter, and throughout this week and last week, I've been taking time to reflect on Easter celebrations past, as well as it's most important meaning. Chocolate bunnies, peanut butter eggs, and fake basket grass are all great, but none of them compare to the fact that Jesus died for you and me- and better yet, that he rose from the dead. Here's something I read:

"It's not enough to know that Jesus died on the cross and rose again on Easter morning. People need to know why. They need to know why Jesus was betrayed, why he willingly gave himself into his captor's hands, why he endured their whips and scorn, and why he ultimately died for them. They need to know why he came alive again, and why this true story has everything to do with our lives today."

Pastor John Piper writes a book, The Passion of Jesus Christ, and gives 50 reasons why he came to die. You can download the book for free from desiringgod[dot]org, but here is a sampling of reasons:

1. to absorb the wrath of God
5. to show the wealth of God's love and grace for sinners
11. to complete the obedience that becomes our righteousness
19. to give eternal life to all who believe on him
39. to free us from the fear of death
47. to rescue us from final judgement
50. to show that the worst evil is meant by God for good

Happy Easter! Christos Voskrese! Slava Isuzu Christu!