May 24, 2008
We have met our missionary friends here in Dubai and Al-Ain and found them to be exceedingly warm and hospitable. We have been carted around the city, invited into their homes, taken out to eat, and treated to frank conversations of their successes, stresses, and struggles.
Don and Becky are an older couple running a Christian guest house 15 min from Dubai international airport. John and Bev have joined them in this ministry. Ibriham comes and picks you up at the airport coffee shop.
We flopped at their guest house for a few hours upon arrival. Later, after a two hour nap, we talked with Don and Becky over breakfast about their 11 bedroom rented villa with 10 bathrooms. She and her husband chalked up 8,300 guest nights last year! Wow. And this is done with a communal dining room, Christian emblems on the walls, outdoor pool, and lots of creature comforts--all for about $30/night. They do not have a website. They do not advertise. It’s all word of mouth as missionary workers from multiple agencies make their way through the Dubai melting pot, re-tooling in various ways. Christian workers and their families come here from all over the Arabian Peninsula (AP) for medical care, vacations, mental health needs, and stop-overs to and from their sending agencies.
As I work with the “soldiers” of Jesus here in the UAE I am reminded of an old etching on the walls of Gibraltar by an unknown soldier:
God and the soldier, all men admire
In times of danger and not before,
When the danger is passed and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted.
The day in and day out ostracism, contempt, and shunning which missionaries in Muslim dominated worlds endure is not insignificant. As an obvious foreigner it is palpable to me. I don’t wear long white gowns with red-checkered kaddifa head-dress. I don’t speak or read Arabic. Some of the Emirates take pity on me and are friendly. Others are not. There seems to be a quality of suspicion and edgy “carefultude” which colors one’s public persona.
I do know that if I openly evangelize Muslims I will either be deported or jailed. The UAE is very strict about this. This leaves the missionary walking warily. Not only can you be deported or jailed, but your agency can also be kicked out of the country due to your indiscretion. Thus the apparent objective, from a visitor’s pespective, is to win souls for Christ in a way that doesn’t leave a public ripple. Get to know your neighbor, make friends over time quietly with associates at work and school, create interest by your lifestyle and loving example as a Christian. And if you choose to evangelize, do so at your own risk personally and corporately.
So for us, as weak Christian soldiers, there is hope. God takes Jacob the worm and turns him into a threshing “instrument with teeth”. Frail reeds can become mighty pillars when we as soldiers travel the paths of obedience. On every side here there are Emirates where ignorance and Muslim affliction abound and oppression is rampant. So we hear a call, “come now, therefore, I will send you.” Like the Lord said to Moses in Exodus 3. Is he saying that to Bethyl and I for such a time as this and to such a people as this? I don’t know. I trust it will become more clear as we continue to walk the walk and quietly, discreetly, talk the talk.
We have met our missionary friends here in Dubai and Al-Ain and found them to be exceedingly warm and hospitable. We have been carted around the city, invited into their homes, taken out to eat, and treated to frank conversations of their successes, stresses, and struggles.
Don and Becky are an older couple running a Christian guest house 15 min from Dubai international airport. John and Bev have joined them in this ministry. Ibriham comes and picks you up at the airport coffee shop.
We flopped at their guest house for a few hours upon arrival. Later, after a two hour nap, we talked with Don and Becky over breakfast about their 11 bedroom rented villa with 10 bathrooms. She and her husband chalked up 8,300 guest nights last year! Wow. And this is done with a communal dining room, Christian emblems on the walls, outdoor pool, and lots of creature comforts--all for about $30/night. They do not have a website. They do not advertise. It’s all word of mouth as missionary workers from multiple agencies make their way through the Dubai melting pot, re-tooling in various ways. Christian workers and their families come here from all over the Arabian Peninsula (AP) for medical care, vacations, mental health needs, and stop-overs to and from their sending agencies.
As I work with the “soldiers” of Jesus here in the UAE I am reminded of an old etching on the walls of Gibraltar by an unknown soldier:
God and the soldier, all men admire
In times of danger and not before,
When the danger is passed and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted.
The day in and day out ostracism, contempt, and shunning which missionaries in Muslim dominated worlds endure is not insignificant. As an obvious foreigner it is palpable to me. I don’t wear long white gowns with red-checkered kaddifa head-dress. I don’t speak or read Arabic. Some of the Emirates take pity on me and are friendly. Others are not. There seems to be a quality of suspicion and edgy “carefultude” which colors one’s public persona.
I do know that if I openly evangelize Muslims I will either be deported or jailed. The UAE is very strict about this. This leaves the missionary walking warily. Not only can you be deported or jailed, but your agency can also be kicked out of the country due to your indiscretion. Thus the apparent objective, from a visitor’s pespective, is to win souls for Christ in a way that doesn’t leave a public ripple. Get to know your neighbor, make friends over time quietly with associates at work and school, create interest by your lifestyle and loving example as a Christian. And if you choose to evangelize, do so at your own risk personally and corporately.
So for us, as weak Christian soldiers, there is hope. God takes Jacob the worm and turns him into a threshing “instrument with teeth”. Frail reeds can become mighty pillars when we as soldiers travel the paths of obedience. On every side here there are Emirates where ignorance and Muslim affliction abound and oppression is rampant. So we hear a call, “come now, therefore, I will send you.” Like the Lord said to Moses in Exodus 3. Is he saying that to Bethyl and I for such a time as this and to such a people as this? I don’t know. I trust it will become more clear as we continue to walk the walk and quietly, discreetly, talk the talk.
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