Is it Sunday or Friday?

Today is Friday but I want to say Sunday because we went to church.  So I keep saying to everyone my days are all off.  Our work week is from Sunday to Thursday.  Anyway I think I keep repeating myself on this subject in my past blogs. 

So at any rate we went to church this morning and this is our 2^nd week in a row.  It is very moving for me when I go.  We meet in a house/villa and there are 3 services.  The singing is with a band and for all my C of  C you know this is different.  We know most all the songs.  Worshiping here has taken on a new meaning for me in my Christian life. 

What I mean is that we are in the Middle East the center of the Islamic world, in Qatar a very traditional Islamic state.  So when you come to worship it doesn’t matter what kind of church you are from just that you know you all believe in the Same God and that Jesus Christ was his son and he sent his son to die for our sins so that we can have eternal life with him in Heaven. 

All the Preachers/ Pastors teach from the scriptures and we have had awesome sermons.  When you’re in the Middle East and majority of the people are Muslim, this all takes on a whole new level of meaning in your walk with the Lord.  I have been moved to tears the last two weeks and you can ask Alan, I don’t cry very easily at all!  I don’t feel unsafe when I worship but we do have police outside making sure that we are safe.

We have met some amazing people and I am sure they will become very dear friends.  We can see Gods plan for us here every day.  I am not trying to be preachy I just wish my family and friends could experience this with us. 

We bought a scale the other night and got home unwrapped it set it down and I stepped on it to find out it is in kg.  Well that was good for me because it registered way under 100 so I was happy at first until I got an app to convert kgs into lbs.  We thought for sure there would be a switch to change it so it would read out in lbs.  But no there is no such switch.  Everything is kg, km, 24hr clock, liters anyway you get the jest nothing we have been brought up with is the same here.  So we will learn!

We met some new friends (Dee Dee and Jerry) the other night to eat at the Pearl, which is a new development on the water across from where we stayed in the hotel for 2 weeks.  The Husband, Jerry is in charge of the development of the Pearl which we found out is currently the largest real estate development going on in the world.  It was a Mexican food restaurant and the food was really good and then the Chef, really charming people and both fairly new to Doha.  A man that Jerry knew came and asked him when we finished eating if we would like to have a boat ride around the bay.  So of course we said yes! It was so much fun and very beautiful looking at the city from that perspective.

When we were leaving to go home and we got in the Elevator an Arab man asked Alan and I where we were from. We told him Texas and he replied the USA?  We said yes, and asked where he was from and he said Qatar.  He introduced himself and said he was visiting his family at the Pearl for the weekend.  He asked Alan who he worked for and when we asked him where he worked he said he worked at the Royal palace.  Wow!  We did not ask what job he did but who knows maybe he is one of the Ministers? 

Tonight we will be going to a Texas A&M Boot Scoot.  Everyone says it’s the funnest night of the year in Doha.  This is a night where all the Texans here in Doha (and there are a bunch) get out their boots and bling and have a great time.  Alan can’t believe we are going to an Aggie party but we are in the desert and when you are in the desert you do all kinds of things that you wouldn’t normally do back home.  So he says he is wearing BURNT ORANGE.  Anyhow if you are an American in the Middle East you just like being together with other Americans.  So I will blog about the party in a few days.

We met a Doctor at church today and ate out with them at Chili’s (free tea refills remember).  He works at Cornell Medical School.  He said we could call him anytime for medical questions which made us feel really good to know an actual American Dr. and will make our parents more comfortable.  I will close for today.  I am sorry it is so long today.