Not Your Typical: Part 3

This mini-series has been about my journey to find a Christian oasis in the Kuwaiti desert. I mentioned my attendance at the Lighthouse church Sunday evening service and how it didn't seem to fit, which drew me to the Protestant service at the American embassy where I felt like I was at home.

However, that home was not meant to last. When I came back from the summer into my second school year in Kuwait, the embassy decided to no longer allow religious services to be held on their property. This was a big blow to the people at our church, and also to the people who were attending the Catholic service.

Perhaps the embassy pastor saw the handwriting on the wall before I did, so the embassy church seemed to be ready by providing another venue for the service. It was no longer at the American embassy, but in the district of Jabriya.

Worship Team at Jabriya Life Center

This area has several embassies around it, and it is mostly a commercial area. The place itself is in a Kuwaiti villa, which is a large, three-story house made of stone. Once you park your car across the street, you enter the villa from the back, and you head down a flight of stairs to the basement, which is a large area with enough room for around 180 seats and a stage area for the worship team and pastor. The floor is completely covered with brown, Arabic-designed rugs, and there is an area in the back where people can put their shoes to keep these rugs clean. There are two additional rooms in the back where children's ministry is held. The first floor of the villa had a living-area and a kitchen where people can have tea and coffee afterwards. The upper floors contained apartments for various people, including the pastor.


The name of the extension in this area was called the Jabriya Life Center, and it was rented and controlled by The Lighthouse Church. The embassy church was held at 11:30, so that time slot was held the same when they came to the new location because the Jabriya Life Center did not previously have a service at this time. Additionally, one of the pastors from the Lighthouse were assigned to that service.

So, we had a new pastor, a new location but the same time and many of the same people. However, this didn't last for long. Many of the people who I knew from the embassy started to disappear one-by-one from that service. Also, a few people from the main Lighthouse church location started to attend. It felt pretty disappointing that once we felt like we could finally get comfortable with a service, things were becoming very rocky again. It was as if our desires to find a service that felt like family where we could build close relationships were evaporating in front of us.

However, I felt compelled to stay and help out Pastor Dave with this service, even though the numbers were getting dangerously small. He was the pastor that encouraged me to start a life group when there were none in the service. We appreciated the fact that the service was overseen by the main evangelical church in Kuwait, even though we also were friends with the previous pastor at the embassy. So, with just a few of the original people from our previous service, a new place and a new pastor, we decided to stay and see what would happen.