Praising Our Lord and Going Round and Round and Round

Day 8 - Friday, December 28th

Since Friday is the Holy Day in the UAE, Andrea’s church Al Ain Evangelical Church, meets on Friday also.  We had a quick breakfast – fruit and pastries and got ready to go.

I haven’t written about electricity but in the UAE, they have 110 volt and in the US we have 220 volt.  So needless to say, everything gets hotter in the UAE and you have to be careful with all small appliances.  Andrea had a hair dryer that she bought over there and it had the correct voltage.  I had my curling iron from the US and used a converter but even still, you have to be very careful and watch your appliance so they don’t get too hot.  Well, I was in a hurry and was not paying attention and let my curling iron get too hot.  When I went to curl my hair in the front, I burned my hair and literally watched it “fry” and fall in the sink.  Oh my gosh, I panicked and started yelling for Andrea to come to the rescue.  What was I going to do – Lynn, my hairdresser, was too far away to come to the rescue.  Well, we managed to fix it and get to church on time.  Needless to say, I was paying attention the rest of the time we were there. 

Nicole and Baby Ethan were going to meet us at church but when Andrea talked to her, they were having a sand storm.  Nicole lives across from the Oman border, about 25 minutes from Andrea.  That area is not as developed as Andrea’s – they have more open space so more sand to swirl around.  When we were driving to church, you could see how hazy it was off in the distance.  And it was very windy!!!
 

The first evangelical church in this region was the Al Ain Evangelical church, established in 1964 when this area was still an undeveloped country.  They offer all sorts of programs including Small Group Connections, Villa Fellowship, Women’s Ministry, Children’s Ministry, Youth Groups, Missions Outreach and more. The church in Al Ain reaches more than 40 different nationalities.  After the church in Al Ain was built, a church was built in Abu Dhabi and one in Dubai.  They are in the process of building a church in Ras Al Khaimah now.  When this church is complete, there will be a Christian church in four of the seven emirates in the UAE.

All visitors received a gift for attending - a  small booklet explaining all the programs at church.

When we got to church, we were met at the door by the preacher’s wife – she was a delight – just hugged us and was so happy that we had come to visit.  The preacher, Steve Tripp and his wife, Cathleen are from Colorado.  People from several, different countries were there – India, Philippines, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, Canada, US – all worshipping and praising our Lord.  What a great feeling!!!
 

Different groups lead song service each week – this week, a group from India were leading.   What a great song service.  As I stood there between my husband and my daughter singing “My Saviour lives, my Saviour loves, my Saviour’s always gonna be”, tears of joy and awe ran down my face.  How awesome to sing and praise our Lord and Saviour with our daughter in a predominately Muslim country.  How great is our God to be able to worship HIM so freely – we are blessed!  The Muslim Call to Prayer sounded as our service was ending and we were praying to the One true God!

Our speaker for the day was Jerry Longjohn.  He was a missionary and came to the UAE in 1964 when it was an undeveloped country and the region was part of Saudia Arabia.  He and his family flew into Abu Dhabi and landed in the sand – no air strip.  He came out to Al Ain to help start the Oasis Hospital and was the first minister at Al Ain Evangelical Church. Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan recognized that Christians cared for people with love and he wanted that for his people.  It was very interesting to hear all of his experiences with the sheikhs, the building process and establishing the churches.

We had lunch at Applebee’s at Al Ain Mall.  After lunch, we walked around the mall and then headed out for more exploring.

Because I was so mesmerized by the round-abouts  and the traffic was a little lighter today since it was the Holy Day and most places were closed, we spent a couple of hours driving around and around and around so I could take pictures. Yes, your typical American tourist. This was not the smartest thing to do but Andrea would stop and let me out at the entrance of the round-about; then drive around while I took pictures and then come back and pick me up.  Since it was Friday, the traffic was a lighter and we could do this.  Even then we had lots of people exercising their right to blow their horns, loud and long.  Did I mention they love their horns!  LOL  I don’t recommend it but it was fun!!!!

Here is a little info about the Round-Abouts

• Vehicles continuously move in a circle with four exits or roads to exit off
• Rule of thumb for driving round-abouts – inside lane has the right-of-way – for me, I just close my eyes and pray; for Andrea, she just seems so at-ease – just zips around and out ; maybe driving in Atlanta prepared her for this
• Lights circle the round-abouts at night and they flash
• All are landscaped and decorated really pretty and each has a theme
• The oldest round-about in Al Ain – the Clock Tower
• Most have names such as The Clock Tower, The Deer, The Tawam, The Diwan, Al Ain Hospital Roundabout.

After all the driving around and around and around, we headed home to take a nap, watch a movie, read and do some laundry.  

Lesson for the Day:

Doing Laundry

• There are no clothes dryers like you and I have in the USA. 
• Andrea has a washer/dryer combo – it’s one unit that washes your clothes and semi-dries them.  Then you have to hang them up to finish drying.
• They are very small – maybe 2 bath towels, two washcloths and two hand towels – is all that will fit at one time.
• It takes about 4 hours for one load of clothes to wash and dry.  Then you have the added time of hanging and waiting for them to dry.
• That means you are constantly doing laundry!