New Service at TLC Mishref

Last year, I was invited to go to out with friends to a very special dinner.  There was a new Texas Roadhouse restaurant opening up in Kuwait relatively close to my house, and my friends had tickets for themselves and for us.  The best part about this dinner was that it was free, which is one of my favorite words in the dictionary!  Because the restaurant was brand new, they wanted to try out the food, the staff, and the service on people before it went to the public.  They wanted to take care of any issues or problems that might occur before in a smaller, more contained environment.  This is what is called a "soft opening." I can't really get that angry about my steak being overcooked if I'm not paying for it, right?  Actually, everything went really well that evening, I had a lot of fun with my friends, and we had so much extra food that we had to take some home.

In much the same way, we have been having some "soft openings" for a new service at TLC Mishref.  Thankfully, the main service at the Mishref campus has grown a lot over the summer and has gotten even bigger with the return of many people from summer holidays and the recent outreach that we had.  So, now we are nearly reaching the capacity of our service each week, and the leadership has been talking for a while about opening another service at 8am. 

The leadership team decided to open the new service on October 3, but also wanted to have several soft openings to make sure all the bugs and glitches were worked out before we announced it to the entire church and the public.  We also started these soft openings so that if people from our 10:30 service wanted to come to the 8am, it would relieve pressure on the amount of people who are attending our main service and will allow more and more visitors to attend.

Our first soft opening for the 8am was on September 12th, and we didn't have any one running the sound or worship in the beginning, so I had to learn very quickly how to use a sound board and some of the controls.  It was also quite small, with about 10 people not including the worship team and other people who were serving in the service.  It was strange looking at all those empty chairs, but all new services have to start somewhere.  The original Mishref service also started at around 10 people over five years ago, and it stayed that way for a long time before it began to grow. 

The second soft opening was the next week on September 19, and it was a significantly improved church service.  There were plenty of people to run sound and media, a great worship experience, and pastor Mark, the primary pastor at both services, preached a really good sermon. We also had nearly 40 people that attended the service, not including volunteers.  It was a much improved crowd and I was surprised that so many people came.

We have one more soft opening on the 26th of September, and then we have our official opening of the service on October 3rd.  We plan on having breakfast cakes and snacks on the 3rd as a way of blessing the people who come to the official opening, and it should be a lot of fun.  Please pray that this new service would be blessed by Jesus and that we would have new growth.  We would prefer that new people come to this service who don't go to church, rather than people who are merely switching services out of preference.  It should be a very exciting event! 

Life Group Lighthouse Initiative

I've mentioned in other posts about the importance of small groups for Christians, so I won't do that here.  However, I did want to mention some of the initiatives that the Lighthouse Church, which is the English language congregation of the National Evangelical Church in Kuwait, is doing with life groups.

First of all, there will be a book series that all the life groups will be using for the next two years.  I think this is a great idea to have something in a book form that all life groups will be using.  The book is called Foundations for Living, and it's a series of four books written by Susan and Dick Driedger.  This will be exciting to have a clear method for all the life groups at the Lighthouse.

Second, these books are supposed to go through the Christian life, from being a non-Christian to having victory in the Christian life.  This is great because book one can be used to start new groups with those who are not Christians to introduce them to the gospel, and it can be used to help Christians get better at evangelizing and sharing the gospel.  The other books talk about who God is and basic Christian doctrine, having victory over patterns of sin in our lives, and how to live as a balanced and whole person.  These books go back to the basics of the gospel and what it means to be a Christian, and it can't be more emphasized or stressed to keep loving Jesus and what that means for us as believers.
 
Third, they flew the authors into Kuwait to conduct a  two-day training for all life group leaders and coordinators.  I thought this was a brilliant idea, to have the authors themselves explain how their books work and how to use them in a small group setting to maximize the impact they will have on ourselves and others.  The training was very successful, and there was a record turnout from all the other leaders.  There will be an additional training with the authors for those who could not make the initial weekend meeting.

Finally, there will be a life group presentation and an emphasis to for all the congregations to get involved in a group at all the Lighthouse services.  This will be Friday and Sunday on the 19th and 21st of September  There will be an encouragement from our senior pastor Warren about the importance of these life groups.  Additionally, there will be testimonies from different people who have been impacted personally and spiritually by being a part of a life group.  The pastor will also encourage people to join a life group, and there will be signups after every service for those who are interested to join a group.  The life group leaders will also be recognized, prayed for, and commissioned by the pastor of that service and the leaders will be available to help people sign up or answer any questions after the service. 

I believe this is the largest initiative that the Lighthouse church has done regarding small groups, so I want to encourage you to join one this year, or to get back together with your group from your summer holidays.  If you are not in Kuwait, please pray for our life groups this year, that the entire church would have deep relationships with one another and would grow in our love for Jesus!

TLC Mishref Fall Outreach

The Lighthouse Church in Mishref is having the annual fall outreach this Friday on September12th, which is one of the biggest outreach events of the year.  For those of you who are wondering,  here are some questions and answers regarding this event.

What is TLC Mishref?

TLC stands for The Lighthouse Church, which is the the officially recognized English language Protestant church in Kuwait.  It has a legacy of over 100 years in Kuwait, and officially has been given land by the Kuwaiti government to operate.  This is part of God's grace to the church, because land is only given by the government, and even Kuwaiti citizens need to apply for a house.  The Lighthouse Church is the English speaking aspect of the National Evangelical Church in Kuwait, which consists of multiple language services that happen every week.  TLC Mishref is an offsite location located in the district of Mishref, but is part of the Lighthouse.

Why do you have an annual outreach?

When I came to Kuwait over six years ago, I had a very difficult time finding a church.  My wife and I didn't know what it's name was or it's location.  I had tried to call the church, but the numbers seemed to be down and I didn't receive a response to my emails.  I remember walking around for over two hours trying to find the church, and eventually stumbled upon a service that was being held in the evening.  A wonderful woman reached out to us after the service, and explained all the different services and even gave us several rides to church going before we had a car. 

I don't anyone else to have to go through that difficult experience to go to church, which is how this outreach was born.  By removing some of the barriers to entry by making church accessible via the outreach, it will allow more people to get involved in church.  I know there are many Christians from multiple nationalities that are interested in going to a church, so we want to make TLC Mishref available for them if they are interested.

How do you distribute information about the outreach?

Most people who live in Kuwait live in apartment buildings with other people of the same profession.  For example, there might be an apartment building full of McDonalds employees or a building for all the teachers who are working at an international school. 

Making the bags of candy and having snacks

Because of this unique setup, we decided to create an invitation to church on this particular day.  The invitation is wrapped in a little bag, along with some candy, because even if you're not interested in going to church, we thought the candy would at least be a small blessing in the name of Jesus.  Who doesn't like candy?  If people are interested in going to church, they can use the information provided.

Once the bags are made, people who are already attending service at TLC Mishref will pickup the bags before the outreach and distribute them to neighbors in their buildings, coworkers, or friends who are not currently attending a service.  This year, we have created and distributed around 350 invitations and candy to multiple buildings.

What do you do on the actual day of the outreach?

At TLC Mishref, we have church on Friday at 10:30, and we will roughly keep to that schedule.  We will have worship and a sermon by pastor Mark Ingram, who is the pastor of that service.  After the service, we will have some sort of icebreaker or game to get people to get to know each other, especially new people who are at the service.  Afterwards, we will have a lunch for everyone provided by the church as a way to serve people and allow them to get to know one another on a more intimate level. 

Now What?

Come to the outreach on September 12th and bring a friend and we will all enjoy a good meal and fun!  If you are not living in Kuwait, please pray that this would be an effective outreach and that people would be able to find a Christian oasis in the desert of Kuwait.  

Is Church Important to Jesus: Part II

As I mentioned in my last post, church is important. Yes, we are saved and redeemed by Christ alone, and going to church for a lifetime does not save us. However, Jesus still valued and loved the church, and it is a part of our sanctification process. It's like giving. Giving does not save us. However, if we claim to be a Christian and never give and aren't generous, then we need to seriously think about whether Christ has transformed us and made us into his image. Jesus was extremely generous, and if our deepest desires have been changed to become more like Him, then there will be a desire to give. It is the same with the church. If we have no desire or interest in church, then that is an area in our lives that we need to re-evaluate and refocus back to God. Last time, I focused on what Jesus did in church. I will continue that discussion today, and also what he said about the church.

Jesus served in church

Yes, Jesus went to church, he did miracles in church, and he even served in church. The gospels record in many places that Jesus "taught in their synagogues" (Luke 4:15). Jesus was not merely a consumer of church, but he was a producer and a giver. Many in the church today, and especially for expats in Kuwait, have a selfish mindset when it comes to church. It needs to meet my needs, serve my purposes, and accomplish my goals. However, Jesus does not agree with that standpoint. Jesus went everywhere and preached in the synagogues, using His gifts to serve others. This was not a job he was paid for, but actual volunteering, even though Jesus was quite poor and didn't have his own home. I think we need to have the same mind that Jesus had(see Philippians 2:5). I think by serving in the church, we grow to love it, and I think Jesus did as well. If people come to church only to receive, I think we will ultimately become dissatisfied with it and will only go when it is convenient for us, if at all. However, I have learned that as I serve the local church, I become more invested in it and grow in love towards it, even though it's imperfect. It's one thing to say that I love the universal Church in some nebulous emotional way, but it's completely different when I'm concretely doing something for my local church. It's the same with anything; as we become invested, the more we value, love, and guard it. If you ask your pastor or another spiritual leader what you can do to serve, then I can guarantee that not only will you be a blessing to others, you will end up more blessed than the people you serve. Jesus said it this way: "It's better to give than to receive."

Jesus promised victory to the church

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." This is a powerful promise for us today. The church has survived and thrived for 2000 years, and will continue to do so until Jesus comes back. Jesus does not promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against your job, your campus ministry, or even your marriage. But he does promise it for the church. While this refers to the universal church, it also refers to individual local churches. I'm sure Jesus had in mind all the churches that would be started afterwards, and how they would continue on and be a sanctuary against the sin and death that exist in this world.  The gospels and epistles were originally given to local churches. The bible calls Satan the god of this world, and that the world value system and all the citizens therein are under his sway and domination. If it were up to him, he would destroy it, and he is always looking for weaknesses to exploit and bring it down. The church certainly has weaknesses and failures and flaws. There have been moral failures, abuses, and many hurt people caused by the church. This is why Jesus made that promise, so that we would persevere in our churches.  Let's not run away from the church, but rather run towards it and do what we can to help and to serve and to remove the blemishes from the churches we are apart of.  We are part of the process that moves the church toward victory!


So, the next time you are tempted to give up on your church because you don't like some aspect of it, or some individual in the church, remember that Jesus didn't give up on His church, and He doesn't ever plan to until He returns.

Is Church Important to Jesus?

I recently had a discussion with a friend about church.  She mentioned to me that she was no longer coming to the service I attend.  She said she didn't like the preaching style.  I told her I was sorry to see her go, and she mentioned that she did miss the worship and the people that were a part of the service.  I then asked if she found another church that fit her style better, and said she hasn't been going to church at all since she left, and said that she'll just try again in the fall after the summer break.  I didn't know exactly how to respond, so I just gave my typical American, "yeah." 

That conversation made me think about what makes a good church and whether it's even important to go to church.  There is no specific command in the bible to go to church, although there are a number of biblical principles that point in that direction.  I then realized that Jesus definitely went to church (synagogue), and I think we can learn a lot from him. Jesus is both our Savior and our model of how to live this life in the way He did.

Jesus heard sermons that were not as good as His

I wonder what it would be like to be Jesus at church.  Even as fallen, broken sinners who probably have no idea what it's like to preach, we can be critical of preaching, as my example above shows.  But what about Jesus?  Do you think that The Man who preached some of the greatest sermons in the history of the world was occasionally not thrilled at the content of the messages?  Probably.  He is someone who could have honestly said to himself during any sermon, "I could do that better."  And yet, we never see in the Scriptures that he told other Jews that church was not important and he was just going to hang with the disciples in the Galilean countryside and do his own thing.  No, he went to church weekly.  In Luke 4:16 it says, "And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day."  There are plenty of other verses about him going to the Temple and the synagogue.  Jesus valued gathering with other believers, he valued sitting under the teaching of Bible, and he valued spiritual authority.  I think that we can learn that as long as the sermons are preaching truth, we should be going to church, unless we think that we are in better spiritual shape than Jesus.

Jesus did some of his greatest works at church

From what we see in the Bible, Jesus drove out an evil spirit, healed a man with a withered hand, and healed a crippled woman who was bent for 18 years in the synagogue.  Jesus did miracles in church!  He also did other miracles on the Sabbath, probably walking to or from church, or at another person's house for post-church lunch.  Can you imagine the guy who decided to listen to his favorite sermon podcast or sleep-in that morning?  "Yeah, I listened a sermon online from my home church because I wasn't sure about this new guy, Jesus."  Fail.  If you believe that Jesus heals today, then going to church is probably good idea, because that seems to be a great place for him to show up.  Jesus is still healing today, in our bodies, in our minds and in our souls.  I know many people who were healed in church, and we should be available for Him to heal us as well.  

If Jesus thought that there was value in going to a local church enough that he would hear teaching that wasn't as good as his own and would even do miracles in church, than perhaps this is something we Christians should value as well.

Easter in Kuwait

Easter is the largest holiday on earth, celebrated by a few billion people world-wide. This is the holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, showing that he conquered sin and death, and that all those who follow Him will also be raised to life again. His resurrection is the proof that Jesus was not just some unlucky Jew who was crucified. After being on Earth and spending time with his disciples for around 40 days, he went up into heaven.

However, Easter is not really celebrated in Kuwait and in most of the Middle East. It is less popular than Christmas. Most schools and some other places of employment give Christmas Day off. I think this is because many locals celebrate Christmas in some way, at least by giving gifts or having a tree. Another possible reason is that Christmas gets more attention through Western media than Easter does. Kuwaitis and Arabs hear Christmas music, movies and concerts for Christmas, but there are not nearly as many for Easter. The final reason is that it would not be necessarily wrong to celebrate the birth of Jesus, because Muslims believe in Jesus. They celebrate the birth of Mohammid, and because they believe that Jesus is another prophet, it's not a problem to celebrate Christmas.

Easter, on the other hand, is completely different. Muslims would not want to celebrate this holiday because it clearly shows that Jesus goes far beyond being a mere prophet who brings the truth. It shows that He is the Truth, and there is something uniquely powerful and amazing about Him. It even shows that he is like God, with the power to raise Himself from the dead, which would be blasphemy. So, this is the reason that most people have to work.

Because of this, the holiday can just become another day of work. I had the idea to let my students out a little early so I could celebrate, but I decided to keep them because we had a lot of work to do. Many people had to work, and had their normal commitments after work like tutoring, putting in extra hours at the office, or just unwinding at home.

However, my life group planned a few weeks prior to have an Easter dinner on that day, which breathed life and meaning back into the holiday. It was at the house of one of the couples in our group, and we made a celebration out of it. People brought deviled eggs, potatoes, green beans, dessert, drinks and even ham. It made the holiday a lot of fun. We were able to eat around the dinner table together and pray like a family. It was very meaningful and powerful to have a Christian family even though we were all away from our biological family.

My wife also wanted to attend an Easter choir that was performing at The Lighthouse Church. There were some other friends of ours that were performing in the choir, and they were playing a lot of worship songs along with choir music. I wasn't really excited about leaving the Easter party and then go back, but I consented to go.

The choir was a lot of fun with a lot of good music. There were worship songs that the audience sang along with, and it was a celebratory atmosphere. I believe that Easter should be a celebration, a party and a feast. When Jesus comes back, it will be the greatest celebration ever, and we will weep for joy and party forever.

After the concert, we hurried back to our life group Easter party and we played some games and looked at some pictures from our friends' travels. We stayed about another hour and we decided to go home.

Easter can be a lot of fun in Kuwait and can really accentuate the meaning of the resurrection, but we have to look for it and fight for it. The culture here does not merely push you along the lazy river of the holidays like it does in the West. If I don't make time to think about and make Easter meaningful, then it will have no value for me. In a way, that's more appropriate, because it pushes Christians in Kuwait to make it meaningful instead of a larger culture celebrating the shell of Easter without understanding its meaning.

Night of Joy

Praying for new council members

Once a year, the Lighthouse has an evening set aside where the church leadership discusses the finances for the previous year, the budget for the following year, updates on various church ministries, and outgoing council members are honored and new council members are voted in.

This evening is called the Night of Joy, and I had the opportunity to attend this year.  I was able to support my wife, who was to be voted in as a new council member.

The Lighthouse Church is a pastor-driven church, meaning many of the decisions for the direction of the church are discussed among the pastors on staff. At the same time, the Lighthouse has a constitution which they are bound to uphold. The church council is made up of around 10 people who have monthly meetings with the pastors to discuss various issues and to give reports on specific areas of the church that council members are assigned to.

New and old council members

The evening went quite well. After a time of singing and worship, the finances were discussed from the previous and upcoming year, including a plan to have more money available in the future for emergencies or for generosity towards those who need it. The budget for the 2014 year was ratified at the meeting and approved.

Additionally, the evening recognized that there is a full pastoral staff once again, with the addition of pastor Dan and Pastor KR.  Along with Pastor Mark, these three will be the core pastors, who oversee most of the services at the Lightouse. Pastors Ken and Steve will be specialty pastors to help with certain aspects of ministry, and Pastor Warren will be leading the team with the vision of the church. 

The core pastors at the church

Old council members were honored and new council members were approved, including two from the TLC-Jabriya service, which was really exciting!  It will be good to have representation from our off-campus location. Pastor Warren announced that a new villa has been found for the TLC service at the Jabriya Life Center to shift to, and also that negotiations were in process. However, it was mentioned that this new building is much larger and can easily accommodate about 30% more people than our current worship hall, which is reaching capacity. I'm really excited to see how this unfolds.

Pastor Warren talking about the Lighthouse

The meeting also honored the staff and pastors and concluded with our Senior Pastor Warren encouraging us in this time of building at the Lighthouse, and to make it a launching pad for future church plants all around the world.

Organization or Organism?

A few weeks ago, I attended a church leadership meeting at our pastor's house.  While there was plenty of business to discuss, Pastor Mark allowed time to connect with myself and the families of those on our leadership team on a more personal level.  He grilled American-style hamburgers and chicken, and the people who came all brought something, too.  While we had our 'official' meeting afterwards, it was equally valuable for everyone to just talk and get to know one another better.

This is a perfect illustration that the church is both organizational and organic.  Churches, like any other institution, have a business side.  Programs, initiatives, problems, committees, leaders, and a host of other things are all required for a church to function effectively, especially as a church begins to grow and expand beyond a few dozen people.

At the same time, the church is not merely another organization, business, or institution.  The church is God's bride, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.  Jesus gave us a command and a promise before He went to the cross, which is to love one another; the promise of this is that all people will know that we are His disciples.  This is one of the reasons why the theme for The Lighthouse this month is "Love One Another." 

As a teacher, I have meetings.  A lot of meetings.  All the time.  These meetings are critical for the instructors to be aligned with our students, other instructors, our tests and our curriculum.  However, though there are occasional casual discussions and jokes in these meetings, they are not bathed in love like they are in the church. In every church, there needs to be a balance.  Smaller churches tend to focus a lot on the love and connections, but may lack the business aspect.  Larger churches have the tendency to have a good corporate structure, but may need emphasis on loving and caring for one another. 

Our Jabriya worship service is a bit of both.  We are part of The Lighthouse Church, which is a large, multi-congregational international church.  Under the leadership of Pastor Warren, our senior pastor, and the rest of the pastoral team, The Lighthouse has been growing by leaps and bounds in terms of church structure and alignment across all congregations.

The Jabriya service itself has grown significantly from around 20 people at its start to averaging around 150 people.  This growth has challenged our service to also grow in our organizational structure.  What a few people could do in a 20 person congregation translates to a lot more in a 150 person congregation, along with procedures, processes and a chain of command.

One example of this growth and challenge would be outreach.  When our service started, a few of us could connect with all of the newcomers and tried to take them out to lunch or coffee with our families.  That was pretty easy in the beginning.  However, this is now nearly impossible with all the people we have each week.  With the growth of the service and the increase in responsibilities and time constraints for each leader, we realized the need to delegate to ensure everyone was reached. That's when the greeting ministry started, where we asked volunteers to be in charge of looking for new people, connecting with them and following up with them sometime during the week. Our service continues to do well at connecting people, but we are back in the growing pains of growing structurally while maintaining this love and care for one another. 

Please continue to pray for us as we go through this process of becoming a larger church service, and that God would raise up more volunteers and leaders to help with all the great things that He is doing in our midst.

New Life Group!

tea, coffee, and discussion

I am posting to talk about an exciting new change that is happening at the Jabriya Life Center.  We are launching a new life group this week, so we would like your prayers! We are praying that it would grow both in numbers and in spiritual and relational depth, and that the members who attend would be eager to serve and be open to each other.

A life group (also known as a cell group, care group, small group, etc.) is just an opportunity for people to gather together outside of church to connect on a deeper level with one another and grow in their relationship with Christ.  While any church service is a critically important time to gather as a body and worship God, give, and receive teaching from God's word, it is not sufficient for caring for each other.  As our service has grown to consistently include 100 or more people, we can no longer know everyone in the church well enough through only a short greeting time or after the service.  The Bible also mentions meeting together outside of the corporate meeting: "And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes...."(Acts 2:46).  This shows that people gathered in large groups (temple, or the church) and in small groups (in the home). 

For the past four years, I have been leading a life group at the Jabriya Life Center.  I've mentioned this in a previous post, but it started as a tiny 5 person group and has grown to more than 20 people during its life span. However, it wasn't all continuous and amazing growth without any problems.  I made mistakes along the way, and there have been times when the group has contracted as well as expanded. 

One of the issues that I have struggled with over the last two years is the size of the group.  As the group has grown to around 20 people, it is no longer easily manageable as a gathering.  Besides the general struggles of accommodating an assembly of that size and keeping everyone engaged in prayer request and the discussion, there is the spiritual issue of caring for all of the individuals every week. A life group leader is not just a guy who facilitates discussion questions from the previous week's sermon.  The life group leader is truly a leader, a mini-shepherd who tries to love, encourage, care about, pray for, and spend time with the people in his charge.  With a group that size, I always felt like I was leaving someone out, leaving someone behind, or just neglecting certain individuals.  It's a tricky situation.

tortilla chips count as breaking bread together

At the beginning of this school year, after four years of leading the group and much prayer and deliberation, my wife and I passed the responsibility to another godly couple who faithfully attended the previous year and were willing and interested to lead the group.  This freed me to serve in other capacities, including helping other "younger" groups within our church grow and encouraging those leaders. But, the large size of the group remained and the life group grew even more with new people coming to our church and getting connected. With over 20 people coming on certain weeks, it was too much to ask of the leaders to keep it as one group. 

After talking it over with the leaders, the members of the small group, and the pastor, we figured it would be best to open another life group on a different day in a different location.  This would naturally allow people to choose a life group that would be a little closer to their area, because we had people coming from different neighborhoods to the one life group.  We also wanted a different day because three life groups from our service already meet on Mondays and we don't have any that meet on Wednesday. This could allow additional people from the church to join who possibly couldn't attend on the days life groups were currently offered. 

So, our first meeting is tonight and my wife and I will be leading the group.  The tentative plan is for me to lead for a few months, and then to hand it over to another couple who is interested in leading the group after attending for a while. 

Even though it's painful to not see everyone in the same life group, I think it's exciting because of the opportunity to form new friendships and continue to grow friendships we already have.  Please pray for its growth, and if you are living in Kuwait, please feel free to stop by and see what it's like!

Harvest Festival

 Every fall, the Lighthouse Church has a massive gathering called the Harvest Festival.  It's like a combination of a concert, a yard sale, and a cafeteria all inside the church compound.  This year, the Harvest festival will be Saturday, November 9th from 9a.m. until 4p.m.- tomorrow!  I would encourage all who can to come and support the event, and everyone else who can't make it to pray for it. 

For those who have never been, it is really an excited and nearly overwhelming experience.  It is like a sensory explosion of sounds, smells, and sights.  First of all, there are people everywhere.  This is really fun because you get to see friends from your church service and people from all the different services.  Pastors, elders, and church council members are all there.  At times, it's like a sea of humanity ebbing and flowing around the church compound.

There is also a lot of music.  From Christian rock bands to soloists to ethnic dance groups, there is definitely a wide variety of musical styles on display during the festival.  Last year, one man played several different instruments during the same song, including a pan pipe, which is pretty unique! 

There is also a second-hand book, clothes, and item sale that goes on during the festival.  As an avid yard sale explorer back in America, I always find this to be pretty fun.  It's like a treasure hunt, where I will one day find my pot of gold buried beneath old books and clothes.


Last, but certainly not least, is the food.  The smell of food wafts throughout the church compound, compelling you to come and try some.  Many different booths offer foods from all over the world, especially amazing Indian and Filipino food.  Additionally, there is a bake sale with all the best homemade cookies and brownies in the world right at your fingertips. 

This year, the Jabriya Life Center is contributing a stand to the food area.  Headed by one of our service leaders, it will be an American barbeque stand.  It will have burgers and hotdogs that will be every bit as delicious as you would get in Texas or Chicago.  Many people from our service have volunteered to help make it a success, so please try to come out if you can.

For those of you who are not in Kuwait, please pray for the event.  All the money that is raised goes toward missions, which include several mission organizations, orphanages, and shelters that we support in India, Tanzania, and around the world.  The Lighthouse Church is one of the strongest international churches in Asia, so it is our desire to use that strength and influence to raise money to help churches and organizations that need our support.  Please pray that it would be a total success, and that thousands of dinars/dollars would flow from The Lighthouse Church to missions all over the world. 

Arabic Church

Near the beginning of the Arabic service

There was one activity that I had the opportunity to experience this week that I have not done the entire six years that I've been in Kuwait, which was attending an Arabic church service.  I have found a church home in Jabriya, and I am very happy there, but I have always felt that it would be interesting to see how Christians worship God in an Arabic worship service.  When I was in Jordan this summer, I went to a Sudanese service, because it has always intrigued and fascinated me to see how another culture and language worships Jesus.

The excuses for not visiting this service before have been plentiful.  I have passed it off as being a waste of my time because I don't know enough Arabic to understand anything.  I thought I didn't really know any vocabulary related to church or Christian things except basic words like God, Jesus, Christ, and the church. I also found the timings of the service difficult to attend.  There is a service on Sundays at 8pm, which is really late and the first day of the work week here, and I wouldn't get home until around 10pm.  The other service is on Thursday nights, and I never wanted to give up my free night (the end of the work week) to attend then either.

This past Sunday, I finally managed to push those excuses aside and convince a friend to go with me, so I wouldn't have to be alone on the drive or while I was at the service.  I probably would not have gone alone to do something so new and different.

It was at the main compound in Kuwait City, where most of the English language services are held.  They wrote down my name and the name of my friend as first time visitors when we entered the service.  I don't know if they do this for security purposes or if it was just to contact us after visiting for the first time. 

We took our seats in one of the pews and it started after a minute or two.  It seemed like a blur because it all happened in Arabic.  The man who opened up the service was dressed in a traditional Kuwaiti garment, and I presumed him to be Pastor Emmanuel Al-Gharib. (He is an ordained Kuwaiti Christian, and there are about 300 Kuwaiti Christians by birth, coming from 12 different families.)

The service itself was pretty interesting.  There were about four or five songs that we sang, and there was a keyboard and drummer who led the worship.  None of the songs were translations of songs that I have ever heard, and they all had a very Arab feel to the music in terms of the rhythm and chords that were played, relatively similar in style to Arabic music that is heard on the radio. It seemed like a fairly traditional service- for some songs we sat down, and for others we stood, the pastor the pastor reciting things throughout the service.  I say "things" because I truthfully didn't understand very much at all.  I could catch a word or two every other sentence, and I knew even less from the worship songs.  I had no idea what I was singing, but I tried to at least pronounce the words. 

Afterwards, another man in a grey suit came up to give the sermon.  I think he might have been Egyptian just from the way he said a few of the words. He preached from Ephesians 3:15.  One phrase that I did understand that he repeated a few times was "Everything is from God."  He spent most of his time expounding that and going through the Scriptures.  It seemed a little long, but mostly because I couldn't follow very much of what he was saying. Finally, they had something like a new members introduction because several people got up and the pastor spoke to them and they said "yes" at several points throughout the talk, so I'm assuming it was a charge for them as to their responsibilities in and to the church.

Middle of the service with the man in suit talking to us

After that, my friend and I decided to leave because it was getting late even though the service had not officially ended.  Most people seemed friendly just from looking around, and if I had to guess, I would say they are mostly Arabs from Lebanon, Syria and other countries in that region. 

Overall, I was a little discouraged about how little Arabic I knew, but I also remembered that I just don't have a lot of vocabulary to match something like a Christian religious service. Additionally, I was excited that I had that opportunity to see what an Arabic Christian service is like.  My friend mentioned to me hat it could be a place to take someone who would feel more comfortable communicating in Arabic than in English. 

Humbled by how little I knew, I thought about how hard it must be for all the Egyptians, Indians, Bangladeshis and others who come to Kuwait and are forced to learn English and Arabic very quickly to survive.  It makes me think more about showing respect and kindness to all foreign workers here, because of all the adaptations they have to make. It was a good experience, and one that I will probably draw from often.

Teachers Outreach: Part 1

Living in Kuwait has a lot of advantages.  For example, it's the end of October and the temperature is still in the 80's Fahrenheit, which makes for some excellent days at the beach, something my friends and I occasionally enjoy.  It also never snows, and it doesn't get too cold, which is great.  I would die a happy man if I never had to drive in the snow or walk through sub-zero temperatures again!

There are a few critical disadvantages to living in Kuwait, though, the main one being the dissemination of information.  What I mean is that taking advantage of opportunities in Kuwait is far more difficult than where I'm from in the West.  For example, I have found a good beach in Kuwait that is a lot of fun.  But, there is no website, Wikipedia page, address, GPS coordinates, or anything else of that nature to find it.  I had to literally go with someone who has been there before, which is how he found it as well. 

Another example is with performing arts.  There are actually quite a few musical and performing groups in Kuwait, but the only way to really find out about them is through word-of-mouth.  While there are websites, they are not readily accessible on search engines like Google.  Also, since there are limited and confusing street addresses in Kuwait, you usually have to figure it out on a map, which adds another layer of complexity and difficulty. 

Candy to be put into bags

Unfortunately, this also affects the church in Kuwait.  Because there are only a few addresses to the few churches in Kuwait, it can be really challenging to find and get to a new church.  I've documented some of my own difficult experiences here, but it is sufficient to say that it took a long time and a lot of work to find the church that my wife and I call home.

Because of all this difficulty, I wanted to make a change and a difference.  I wanted to break down the barriers to resistance to getting to church.  I'm not familiar with all the different cultural backgrounds in Kuwait, but I was familiar with Western teachers living in Kuwait, so that is what I wanted to focus on at first.  I wanted to do whatever I could to make it easy for teacher expats to come to church if they wanted to, and I wanted to at least give them access to information about the Lighthouse Church.

I was sitting with a friend at a coffee shop one evening a couple years ago when we came up with the idea to have a sort of 'teachers outreach.'   As we passed ideas back and forth, I figured out that it's relatively easy to access a large number of teachers because many from each school live in the same buildings.  Once we found the buildings, we could easily get information to hundreds of teachers.

Candy in bags!

All we had to figure out then was what to give them.  My initial idea was some piece of paper with the church information and address on it.  As it was further discussed, we decided to put some candy in it to bless people in some small way, so even if they aren't interested in church, they could enjoy the treats.

The idea was further developed that there would be an outreach Friday at the beginning of the school year in September, which would be a week or so after the information was distributed.  There would be a type of potluck lunch after the service, along with some games and prizes to entice new teachers to come to church that day.  We would also find a way to get some buses to pick teachers up for that initial Friday. 


"It's brilliant," I thought to myself on that evening two years ago!  My friend and I (arrogantly) gave each other high fives as we believed that we figured out how to bring in teachers by the droves. All we had to do was put our plan into action once the summer and fall came.  Little did I know how much work that would entail...

Understanding the Church

We had a really good church service on Friday at the Jabriya Life Center. I was hoping to take several pictures during the service, but I felt a little guilty to be taking pictures of people who are devoting their hearts and minds to Jesus while I'm casually taking pictures of those moments. I did manage to take a few, and next week I'll try to get one of the ushers to do it so it's not distracting to myself and to others.

The Lighthouse church has been doing a sermon series about the Apostles Creed and going back to basics in our Christian faith. It has been a powerful series explaining the basic tenets of Christian Life, including the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Creation and the Virgin Birth. This week Pastor Mark discussed the "Holy Catholic Church."

Worship at Jabriya Life Center on Friday

While it could be easy to recap the entire message because it was really good, I wanted to highlight two things that were interesting to me being in an international church in  with Kuwait. The first was the number of people previous Roman Catholic or Orthodox Christian backgrounds. Pastor Mark asked how many people came from that kind of background and the majority of the congregation answered affirmatively. In an international congregation with people from Asia, North America, Africa, and Oceania, most of them came from this kind of background.

I believe that these backgrounds are legitimately a part of the Christian faith, but from talking to many people from these backgrounds over the years, the majority would say they were not real Christians. Yes, they followed the rules to the letter, but many of them did not have a heart and love for Jesus as our Savior. As a result, many of the temptations and tendencies of people from these backgrounds are to become too entangled in the rules of Christian faith, rather than the heart of faith. Of course, it is important to follow God's commands, but it's equally, if not more important, to have a love and desire for Jesus that generally fuels these commands rather than out of sheer will-power.

The second highlight from the sermon was when Pastor Mark was discussing the importance and value of the church. He mentioned that the church is an imperfect structure because it has sinful people in it, and that people will fail us, including parents, spouses and friends. The church is no exception.

He then asked how many people have been hurt by someone in the church, and I was blown away at the response. Nearly everyone in the church had put their hand up. It was both heartbreaking and unifying to see the overwhelming response of people who had been previously hurt by the church in our congregation.

The previous week, there was an opportunity for prayer after the service, and I prayed for a young woman who was clearly in distress about being hurt by the church. She didn't give me many details, but she was in tears about it. I happily prayed for her healing and I also encouraged her that the resilience to come back to church after something traumatic like that is a sign of genuine faith in Jesus. In my mind, I thought that was a unique experience for someone in our church, but seeing all those hands demonstrated that her experience is tragically common.

Church Picnic at the park

I believe that the Church will fail people, because it is full of people. I also believe that people should not associate a negative experience with the church as a rejection of Jesus and Christianity. At the same time, it is also critical as the church to be sensitive and strive by the power of Jesus to not cause further damage and to bring healing.

I hope that I can encourage, love and support people in the church through my actions and words. We are taught as children that 'sticks and stones my break my bones, but words will never hurt me.' However, the Bible gives much more weight to the power of words and says that 'life and death are in the power of the tongue.'

As a Christian, I want to be on my guard to not tear people down, even if it's for a humorous purpose. We need to be sensitive and have the church be a hospital for healing, not another courtroom of judgment and damnation, especially in the same household of faith.  

Eternal Perspective in the Culture of Now

Kuwait is a very rich country, as most people know.  It's the 11th most oil producing country in the world, and it only supports a local population of a little over a million natives.  The oil companies are run by the government, so most Kuwaiti citizens get generous monthly stipends along with a lot of other perks.  Of course, this creates a strong desire and tendency toward materialism and living for the moment. 

It is not only Kuwaitis that get a lot of money, though.  An additional two million foreign national workers also live here in order to make money and enjoy a better life than they might in their home countries.  Kuwait needs servers to work in its hundreds of restaurants, engineers to extract oil and other byproducts, managers to operate the giant malls, military contractors to strengthen its army, and teachers to teach Kuwaitis and other students in school. 

These ingredients create a powerful recipe for materialism and love of money.  This is expressed in a myriad of ways, from Kuwaitis driving Maseratis and Lamborghinis to educators tutoring an additional 20 hours a week on top of their full time jobs.  Many other workers who make less money live together in tiny apartments so they can save to buy their dream house back home.

Unfortunately, I'm not immune to this desire for material things.  When I walk into The Avenues Mall, (which is becoming one of the largest malls in the Middle East), my heart is drawn toward many of the items that are on display.  I'm tempted by all the delicious food from hundreds of restaurants that cater to every taste imaginable.  While I normally dress casually and comfortably regardless of venue, my wife has mentioned the pressure that exists for women to be well-dressed; even the most conservative of women wear 3-inch heels under their abayas (black traditional dresses) and tote a Gucci bag alongside them.

At church, we face this issue because many who are here came to make money, predisposing us to allow money to slide into that "god" position.  And like with every false god, we as humans try to protect it, defend it, and preserve it.  In our sinfulness, we take the words of the Bible and twist them to suit our own agenda- I have been guilty of this on more than one occasion. I have thought in my heart that I don't really have to give sacrificially and I should just give whatever I feel like, avoiding the tithe.  The problem with that was I never really felt like giving anything. 

Thankfully, God has worked on my heart in this area.  I have found myself giving more since I've come to Kuwait.  I am realizing that all these miniature kingdoms that we try to build here in Kuwait or in our home countries do not last.  Even if I kept every fil (Kuwaiti penny) for myself and was able to retire early, I would be unable to hold on to it.  The more I try to save for myself, the more I want, and it becomes a never-ending desire for money.  This is because if I look to money for security, prosperity and happiness, it will never satisfy.  In fact, the more I crave it, the less happy I become.

Only God can provide me security, prosperity and happiness, and I won't necessarily get it in this life.  In a country that lives for the now, I have to really work to focus my mind and thoughts on heaven.  I will get all those THERE, not necessarily here.  I may lose everything here, but I am guaranteed I will get it there.  I have investments, including some in the stock market, and I have found it to be similar to gambling at times because anything can happen.  Investing in eternity is no gamble, however.  It is completely sure and I'll get 100 times what I put in on Earth. Jesus calls us to do this in Matthew 6:19-24.

So, while it feels at times like I'm just throwing away money when I tithe to the church or give to those in need, I need to remember that it is not.  I am worshiping God by giving to Him and breaking that love of money that is so prevalent in the culture here.  I want to build my house on the Rock of Jesus, rather than in the sands of Kuwait and this earth.

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!

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.  

Not Your Typical: Part 2

I discussed in my last blog post about the beginning of God's plan to put my wife and I in a church where we fit best, and mentioned briefly about some of the difficulties and novelties of a church in a land like Kuwait.

Once we started attending the service on Sunday night's, we did end up meeting someone who God has definitely used in our lives over the years. Her name is Darlene, and she was a huge help for us in our first couple years in Kuwait. Darlene is a spit-fire, no-nonsense Texas woman who was always on the go. She worked full-time, played on the worship team, attended several church services and did about a dozen other things in her weekly schedule.

She was very kind to us and very generous to immediately start giving us rides to church and back because she wanted to help us out. This was extremely helpful, because getting a taxi in Kuwait can be an exhausting experience. Imagine stepping outside into a giant blow dryer on maximum heat. Being outside for anything more than a minute and your clothes are wet from perspiration, so waiting for a yellow cab to approach can quickly become an exercise in patience and stamina.

Even worse than that was once a taxi approached, we needed to communicate where we wanted to go to a non-native English speaker, which can be a daunting task, especially since we lived near a very loud major highway. Additionally, the fact that we have white skin makes them see dinar(name of Kuwaiti money) when they looked at us, so we had to act like we weren't very interested or desperate even though we were about to melt into the pavement, and we had to haggle hard to get a price that was even remotely fair for a Westerner.

Typical Taxi in Kuwait traffic

The very idea of having to do this every time my wife and I wanted to go somewhere got old and difficult very quickly. Needless to say, some of the very first Arabic words I learned were numbers to negotiate price and directions to wherever I was going, which still serve me to this day.

So, the fact that Darlene was willing to pick us up and drop us off from church on Sunday, even though we had to be there early for her worship team practice, was a wonderful relief and made an indelible mark of gratitude on us.

Even so, I didn't feel like I was really fitting in on the Sunday night service. I was genuinely exhausted from teaching all day, and because people immediately had to leave after the service for the next one, it still felt pretty lonely.

Darlene also invited us to attend another church service that was held at the American Embassy on Friday mornings. After checking it out, my wife and I really liked it because our minds were refreshed from getting some sleep at the end of the week, the traffic was a lot less crowded on Friday, there was a bit more time to linger and chat after the service, and there were a lot of Westerners attending. We began making more friends and getting to know the people from the service pretty well. The service was a lot smaller, more traditional music was sung, and the pastor also had another full time job so he didn't get the same opportunity to prepare as the pastors at the Lighthouse, but we believed that this is where we could find a church family. Or so we thought.

Not Your Typical: Part 1

Even though I've lived in Kuwait for over five years, I still have to field questions in the summer, such as, "Do they have houses over there?" or "Do you have to ride a camel to work?" My wife and I have to be really still in our sand igloo or it all comes crashing down, and my camel needs an oil change and rub-down every two thousand kilometers.

Another question I get asked a lot is about church. People are very surprised when I tell them I go to a thriving church in Kuwait. In fact, the church service I go to is an off-campus site of the main evangelical church in Kuwait, which literally has thousands of people who attend on a weekly basis.

My first year in Kuwait, I had a difficult time finding the church because the phone numbers on the website didn't seem to work, and there is no really functional address system in Kuwait(another story for another time). Because we didn't have a car, we ended up taking a bus and walking around downtown Kuwait City for the church until we stumbled across the main site.

The area itself is this massive site with several buildings where the different church services are held.  There are lights and plants and concrete all over along with several large awnings.  Additionally, there is a book store, library, some offices, a school and a house.

Once we found the church, we started attending a Sunday night service. However, that wasn't really working for me because Sunday is a work day, and because it was my first year teaching in Kuwait, I was super drained after work, and barely had the strength and motivation to worship in spirit and in truth or to listen attentively to the sermon.

Another thing that was hard was the difficulty in connecting with people. Because there are so many people who need to be fed through the church, there are several services that are one after another, so it felt like there was a need to get out and let the next service in.

Finally, we were quite the minority as Americans. While I certainly love people from all languages and cultures, as a first year teacher and going through some major culture shock of my own, I really wanted some sense of familiarity with people from a similar background, profession, language or shared experience.

It was very strange to be sitting in service with a couple hundred people who are mostly from the Indian subcontinent while the worship leader is a Filipino man playing southern gospel songs, followed by a message from an older American gentleman.  After a long day at work, that was definitely sensory overload!

However, we believed that God would be faithful to us and that we were called as Christians to be apart of the Jesus' church, and we definitely grew through that experience.  While that first year wasn't MY ideal church experience, I realized God used it to lead me to the next level of my faith and eventually to where I am today.