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.  

Strategic Love

My wife and I were having dinner with a couple earlier this week, and we had a great time sharing a meal and catching up with each other.  It was a really enjoyable time, but because it was a work night, we had to pull ourselves away so we could get to bed on time.  As our friend was walking us out, he began to give me a little bit of a hard time about not hanging out as much as last year.  It was mostly joking around, but I still defended myself with all the different events that I have hosted or attended over the past several months.  However, he persisted that we used to hang out as a big group of friends every week last year, and my participation in these events has dwindled.  I refused to give up, explaining that I have done many things and even pointed out the events that he didn't attend.  While we left on good terms, I definitely thought about what he said. 

Loving one another.  This was the last theme of The Lighthouse Church and it is one of the distinguishing factors for Christians, because Jesus said that people will know that we are His disciples because we love one another.  The sermon series went through how we love unselfishly and without expecting anything in return.  We even went through the classic Good Samaritan parable.


While the sermon series was a good reminder of how we are to love generally, and I really enjoyed the encouragement and exhortation, I think that even more could be said on the subject of loving one another.  One of the ideas running through my mind is that we cannot love everyone.  If loving someone takes time and energy, then I am limited in the number of people I can love and in the amount of love I show someone.

Perhaps my friend is right, I haven't been loving the same people the same way as last year.  I think the reason is that there have been new people added to the church this school year, and I have been investing time in them.  That necessarily takes away time from loving other people.  Each moment I spent with one person is a moment I won't be spending with another.

Therefore, it stands to reason that we need to be strategic in who we love and spend time with.  We cannot love all people or at least love all people the same way.  So, how do we prioritize our loving one another?  That is a great question, and I don't have the perfect answer.

Of course, we need to love God first and our family second.  Beyond that, I guess it depends on a lot of things.  I make it my goal to try to spend time with the people in my small group and invest in them.  Additionally, I try to make a point to love and invest in people who are new to Kuwait in the church.  Finally, I try to love people who are partners with me in serving or who can give me wisdom and advice.

What do you think?  What is your strategy to love people?  I think if we don't have a plan of loving people, we will just gravitate towards what is natural, easy, and selfish. 

Harvest Festival: Post Event

The Harvest Festival on Saturday was an exciting event and a major success.  While I can't speak for the whole festival, I did talk to many of the people who worked at the booth from our church service. 

It was the first time that the Jabriya Life Center participated in the Harvest Festival in such a major way.  Of course, people from our service have attended and donated to the event in the past, but this is the first time that we operated a food booth.  As I mentioned in the last post, one of the largest draws of the Harvest Festival is the food because you get to eat food from all over the world, and the proceeds go toward missions.

our "fearless" leader, flipping burgers

Since the leader who headed up the Harvest Festival is an American, he decided to have typical 'American' food.  Nothing is really as American as grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, so that was the food we sold- a big contrast to all the Asian noodles and other traditional dishes being served.

Nearly all the food was donated from various vendors, which meant that all profits went toward missions.  There were also four propane gas grills that people lent out to be used for the booth, and many volunteers worked hard to prepare the food and set up/tear down the booth.  In the beginning, it seemed like there would not be enough volunteers to make the workload light; the festival lasts from 9am-4pm. In the end we had more than enough volunteers for two shifts, a set-up crew, and a team for clean up. This allowed everyone to enjoy the festival at the same time as serving.

serving the tasty food

I was really happy to see the collaboration among friends and others who are in life groups at Jabriya.  I was also glad to see a lot of new people in the church taking time out to serve in this capacity.

I don't have all the numbers from the entire festival, but I know that the money brought in by JLC's hamburger food booth was 475 Kuwaiti Dinar- about $1,675USD!  This proved to be a major success and was still just a small part of the large contribution to missions.

 

the performance stage with children singing

The rest of the festival was a lot of fun, with many people eating, chatting and enjoying the different sights and sounds of the festival.  There was music throughout the day, along with hundreds of children playing on inflatable slides and getting 10 times their daily sugar intake from cotton candy.

Thanks to all those who served, attended, or prayed for the event. Please continue to pray that the money raised will be used to have a major impact on God's Kingdom throughout Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

 

smile!- photo by Ptr. Mark, edited by me

Teachers Outreach: Part 2

The ideas for the teachers outreach seemed like they would be successful, especially handing out invitations to church with candy, providing buses, and having a specific day where people can hang out and eat after the service.  However, it took a lot more work than we originally realized to execute those ideas. 

Some of the things had to be ordered in the USA, since it would be more cost effective to bring them back at the end of summer, rather than ship them.  We ordered a few hundred little gift bags so we could place the candy inside them.  That was relatively easy.  We also planned on buying candy from the stores when we returned from the summer holiday, and one of our church members is a graphic designer and was willing to make the initial welcome cards to church.  So far, everything seemed to be working out okay.

The problem came in actually making the bags and their delivery.  The first problem was myself.  My school year starts a little later than my wife's and most other teachers, and before we had solid ideas for the outreach, I booked my ticket to come back to Kuwait later in September. Therefore, even though I helped create the idea, I wouldn't be there to actually do the work to carry it out.  I felt guilty not being able to help, but I couldn't change the ticket.

Another problem was 'selling' the idea or getting other people from the church involved.  My wife and my friend, Kyle (who helped come up with the idea), ended up doing most of the work themselves.  We didn't plan ahead with building teams to help create and distribute the bags, so it ended up being a lot more work than it needed to be. 

In spite of my uselessness, they managed to get invitations to several of the buildings and I did end up passing one more set out to another building when I arrived.  The next thing to set up was the actual event.  Again, my wife did most of the work in getting gift cards for prize give away, buying the materials needed (plates, silverware, cups, etc.) and organizing the lunch itself with a catering company and church members.

It was a lot of work, but once we got the bags passed out and organized a bus and activities after church, we were excited.  The event itself went pretty well.  We didn't have a LOT of new people come that day, but there were about 10 new people along with everyone else from church. The worship included a lot of familiar songs, and pastor Mark gave a sermon about how we have come to Kuwait for a job, but God has brought us here for more than just money. 

The after-service lunch was also successful.  Some food was catered, along with a lot of food that members from the church brought.   The plates were randomly tagged so a few people would get gift cards, and people just talked and shared a meal together.  I think this is the meaning of community, people connecting together and sharing their lives. 

While we only had 10 new people come, something else happened.  I believe God was working to draw
other people to our service through our outreach in other ways, because as the weeks went by, more and more new people (not just teachers) started coming to our service.  One reason could be because people might have felt intimidated by a large event like that, but were interested in the church. 

By December, we had as many as 25 new teachers attending, with around 15 who were coming regularly.  We also had a regular bus transportation ministry that would pick people up in the area, take them to church, and drop them off afterward. 

I believe God used the seed we planted to bring new teachers to the Jabriya Life Center.  I was really happy to be a part of something that God used to provide access to church in Kuwait.  I believe with providing transportation and the growth of life groups that resulted, many people have felt genuinely more connected to God and have considered church a joy instead of a burden.

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...

Thursday is the New Friday

In Kuwait, the work-week is slightly different from the Western world. The work week begins in most Arab states on Sunday and ends on Thursday. In fact, the Arabic word for Sunday literally means 'Day 1' of the week. Therefore, people in Kuwait say 'Thank God it's Thursday.'

So, this last Thursday, I finished up my classes and had a meeting immediately afterwards. I was pretty ready to get out of work as early as possible and enjoy my life. As I was walking back to my office to grab my things, I saw one of my colleagues and he asked me how I was doing.

In my heart, I didn't know what to do, because I really wanted to be selfish and not have a long conversation. On the other hand, this individual is asking me about my life, so I didn't want to turn him down.

This summer, I have been praying for opportunities to make a difference as a Christian in my spheres of influence, including my work place. I have also been thinking that every Christian is in full-time ministry wherever they are, and all of our jobs and careers are opportunities for us to share the joy of Christ to those who are around us in whatever way we can. 

Because of that, I (reluctantly) decided to chat with him for a while. We talked about our lives for about an hour and swapped stories. No, I didn't share the gospel or the four spiritual laws, nor did I even mention anything about God. However, I did take an interest in his life, and listen to what he had to say and opened myself up to him.

I hope that God will continue to strengthen me to not be selfish with my time, but willing to give it to people in both planned and spontaneous ways, which I hope will show the love of Christ to the people I interact with.