Not Your Typical: Part 4

In the last part of the mini-series of my quest to find a church family in Kuwait, I want to discuss what has happened to our service in the Jabriya Life Center. From the Sunday evening service at the main church site to the embassy church to the Jabriya Life Center, it has been quite a journey.

Like I said before, people at the embassy started to slowly slip out from the service.   I found out later that the people from the embassy church found another location where they could have their original pastor. I felt like I needed to stay and be apart of this 'new' church plant and help out the pastor in any way I could.

However, there were many services where there were less than 20 people coming on a Friday morning, including the worship team. I usually sat near the front, and I was scared to turn around because I was afraid no one would be behind me.

It was a difficult in the beginning because there was not a lot of growth. I started a small group with three other people from the church and just prayed that God would bring people to the service. However, it stayed pretty small that year, but a few new people started to come.

My third year, they switched the pastors to have a new pastor come in and take over the service, because

Pastor Mark Ingram

the other pastor, Pastor Dave, was more needed in administrative roles. Pastor Mark was just a few years older than me and had a family, so we got along quite well. He asked me along with a few others to help lead service.

At the same time, a few more teachers started coming. Some came from the building I was living in at my wife's school, and a few more people started through teacher-friends that I have made over the years. The life group really started to expand and grow to the point where we split into two locations for a while. The church grew to around 60 people or so. God was really blessing it, and I was making some really good friends via the life group I led.

The fourth year gave us even more growth. During that year, our church grew in size to nearly 100 people on a given week. It was amazing. Pastor Mark was also drawing a lot of people because of his dynamic preaching and relatively young age, so there were a lot of young adults who started to attend. We started a transportation ministry also that year to help people who didn't have a car, and we did an outreach at the beginning of the year to teacher, which had some success.  Additionally, we did monthly potlucks after the service so people could get to know one another better and to invite newcomers, which was a lot of fun.

One of the sad things is that Kuwait is a transient place, so there are people who have left, including several good friends and life group members. However, last year, we still increased our size to around 120 people, and a few more life groups started in different areas. So, it wasn't just growth in numbers but in spiritual depth and stronger connections. I was given more responsibility in the church as one of the 'elders,' so to speak, and I have really enjoyed being part of this service.

In conclusion, God has been faithful to me and faithful to the Jabriya Life Center over all these years. I can definitely say that Jabriya is my church family, which has made Kuwait more of a home to me each year. Yes, there have been rocky and difficult times, and I'm sure there are more to come, but I also know that God will continue to bless His church in Kuwait.  The Lighthouse Church and specifically the Jabriya Life Center is certainly not your typical American church, but God is working in amazing ways here as well!