One of many reasons to be thankful on Thanksgiving

by Cindy

Jeff and I are fortunate to be able to celebrate multiple Thanksgiving dinners each year.  We always have at least one meal with our friends on campus and one meal with our friends from church.  We do get the usual fixins' of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, etc. but sometimes we get a few extras - depending on the culture of those in attendance.  These pictures are from our dinner with our church small group.

We had a beautiful sunset to start our evening.  The tallest building in the world is on the far left of the Dubai skyline and the Dubai Creek golf course in the foreground.

The crew that celebrated Thanksgiving together (only four Americans).

All the usual stuff plus a little Indian, a little Chinese and Papa Johns.  Is that considered Italian?

And the biggest event of the evening...a wedding proposal!

It's No Secret

One of the more common questions that we get from people in America is, "What's it like going to church over there?"  I think our response usually surprises them.  We say that it's a lot like going to church in America - we have contemporary worship, solid preaching, children's and youth programs, and weekly small group meetings.  There are about 500 people that attend our worship service each week.  If you'd like to look at our church website, it's the Redeemer Church of Dubai.  We're a protestant, non-denominational, evangelical congregation.  There are numerous churches in town - including Baptist, Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox churches.

What's different or unexpected, you ask?  Well, first of all, we meet on Fridays, not Sundays.  Friday is the Muslim day of worship, so most businesses and offices close on Fridays, so Friday is the most convenient option for us.  Friday is the day that most churches in Muslim countries meet.

Second, some are surprised to hear that we don't have to hide the fact that we're Christians.  Nobody has to meet in secret - it's all perfectly legal.  Our pastor's visa even lists his occupation as "PASTOR".

Thrid, and related to my comment immediately above, another thing that's different or unexpected is that it is common for the Sheikhs, the (Muslim) rulers of each of the seven Emirates that make up the UAE, to provide land for churches.  The original English-speaking evangelical church in the city meets on land donated by Sheikh Mohammed, the Ruler of Dubai (the website is here).  Sheikh Saud, the ruler of Ras al Khaimah, recently donated land for an evangelical church there.  The Quran teaches tolerance for "people of the book" (that is, Jews and Christians), and so there is no real religious tension in the Emirates - certainly less than in the US or in Western Europe.

Foruth, our church is different from what we experienced in the US because it's so international.  The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., once said "it is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning."  And it's true.  In America, whites worship with whites, Hispanics with Hispanics, African-Americans with African-Americans, and Asians with Asians.  In Dubai, we have Westerners (Americans, Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans, Dutch,  Germans), as well as Africans (lots of Kenyans, as well as a few Ethiopians and Tanzanians), south Asians (primarily Indians), as well as the east Asians and southeast Asians (primarily Chinese and Filipinos).  There are more Asians at our church than any other group.  We've got elders from each of these groups as well.

So being in church whenever we spend time in America is always good, but a little different - different day, different people, different world outside.  

Voting

by Cindy

I have to admit, I'm glad the election is over.  I'm ready to read about something different in the news and something different on Facebook.  I'm so quick dismiss the election all together that I have to be careful to not miss being thankful that we even had an election at all.  Living outside America through a major election cycle has been a wonderful reminder to me of the freedoms Americans have that many others do not.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all, quite frankly.  Some of the thoughts that are swirling around...

In the same week that America holds the 2012 election, China is being told who their leaders will be.  Their process was summed up well in this article by Bao Pu, "There are no laws -- or even any clear rules -- that govern the selection of leaders, leaving the matter of choosing the top leaders of the most populous nation on earth entirely at the mercy of the Party's forever changing internal logic."

A friend from Africa posted this on Facebook, "Coming from a continent where elections are not always peaceful I have so say the USA is amazing because whether your candidate won or lost your democracy works and people can be gracious in defeat and move on and no one has to resort to guns and violence. This is a very precious thing!"

Or my neighbor who is from Tunisia. They are holding their first elections in June 2013.  It will be her first time to ever vote and she's excited.  She's hopeful that the elections will be fair and honest.  She's worried about who will win.  She's aware that at this point, the process is just as important as the victor.  She watched the American elections closely this year because she longs to see something like that in her home country.

I took a very unscientific poll of my approximately 100 students, asking them if they could vote back in their home country.  About 1/4 to 1/3 of them can vote - India, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Canada and America.  Yes, several of my students are American citizens and a few of them did exercise their right to vote.

As I said, I'm still running this all through my head to draw conclusions but I'll add one more point.  The underlying assumption in all of this is that everyone desires democracy, or the right to vote.  One thought that has been reinforced by living in this part of the world, is that not everyone desires democracy.  There are many people, in various countries, that are perfectly okay with the leaders that are in place, perfectly okay with the fact they don't participate in the process, perfectly okay with the idea of not voting and truly believe that their leaders will always look out for their best interests.  As someone who was educated in America, that is something that is hard to grasp.

In some ways, I think I live the best of both worlds.  I'm thankful for the right to vote and I'm thankful that I live in a country where the rulers are generous and benevolent to those living in the country, even if we had no choice in their leadership.