Life in the Middle East

Considering that I haven't really written about myself so much since before I went home on Leave in July, I think it's about time I write. 

So I went home after a year for vacation. It was great! Got to see some dear friends & spend some great time with my family. Although it was a very busy vacation. I was always doing something & coming home late to crash. The last 4 days of my vacation were spent in Latin America.

I was only in Kuwait for half of Ramadan. The one thing I like about Ramadan is that restaurants are opened much later into the evening. And since I get home by midnight that helps! 

Summer sucked of course. It began with a bunch of sandstorms & then BAM the blaring heat. The constant sweating. But there were some beautiful dusk nights. Now I can really feel the temps cooling. It's still over 100 degrees during the day but when the sun goes down you start to feel a cool breeze....perfect temperatures. 

I got pinkeye for the very first time in my LIFE! It was horrible because it lasted 3 1/2 weeks. It started in my right eye. Went to the doc, said I had Viral Conjunctivitis & gave me Rx (antibiotic for a virus?). However, after 4 days my eye got worse. I go back to the doc & end up seeing someone else. I complain about my eye getting worse & that the drops started stinging my eye after a few days. He said I was probably allergic to the preservative. He looks at my badly swollen eye and then tells me I do NOT have a viral infection but I have Allergic Conjunctivitis. He was baffled that the previous doc gave me antibiotics too. This doc gave me eye drop steroids that were anti-inflammatory. It was EMBARRASSING having to go to work with a swollen eye, face the soldiers, & run events. The new anti-inflammatory drops had to be taken 6x a day! Ya....that never happened. I used the drops as often as I could for the first 2 days. But I took my mom & boyfriend's home remedy of using hot compresses as often as possible. My left eye started getting pink eye & I used a few steroid drops in it too. After 2 1/2 days of using hot compresses, I started waking up to clean, normal eyes!!! LOL gross huh!? 

You know you wanted to see that

However, I haven't worn my contact lenses in about 2 months & so I'm back to wearing glasses. But hey, at least they're Fendi!

As for work- eh. I enjoy using my talents & creativity organizing events and such BUT I've never worked for a company as lame as the this one. BUT, I still have to be grateful to God that I even HAVE a job. Not just any job, but a job that provides housing & transportation. At least until the contract ends lol.

I haven't led worship since last December. But that's ok. I feel I have a new ministry- at least for the time that I'm here in Kuwait. It regards the Persecuted Church. I have a lot to say about this but quite frankly I'm pretty tired & I've emotionally dumped a lot on Twitter & Facebook about persecution that my FB friends are starting to tell me that I'm too negative. I see their point....but they've never lived in the Middle East either.

The ME... a place where you look at the local paper & read about maids setting themselves on fire for how badly treated they were by their Sponsor/Employer. Reports of couples being arrested for holding each other in a "passionate embrace" on the beach. Women having their babies taken away for committing adultery (sex outside of marriage). Human trafficking before your very eyes & with people (victimes) you talk to on a daily basis. Rapes EVERY DAY.

 Every day on the news there are reports of bombings- not in Kuwait, but countries SURROUNDING Kuwait. I read about the horrible treatment towards people (especially Christians) in Pakistan. ABSURD crap from Pakistan like the story of an 8th grade girl misspelling a 'sacred' word & now she's accused of blasphemy- which is punishable by death- and her family went into hiding! Then there's Somalia's famine being denied by Islamic Militant group al-Shabab, Nigerian Christians being slaughtered, the war between south & north Sudan where the Arab Sudanese in the north enslaved Christian Sudanese who lived in the south, warnings from the U.S. Embassy about a terrorist group kidnapping Westerners in Saudia Arabia, and then Kuwait finds terror cells & Iranian spies in their country- along with weapons hid behind a mosque. Oh yeah, Kuwait has stopped a planned bombing of our U.S. military bases too. Oh, and did I mention all the Kidnappings of Christians in Iraq? And let's NOT forget what our Coptic  Christian brothers & Sisters in Egypt are experiencing right at the moment either! Even though they've ousted their President, Christians have been attacked in increasing numbers in less than a year! On Christmas a church was bombed, villages destroyed, churches destroyed, & when the Copts decide to hold peaceful sit-in demonstrations to stand up against discrimination & violence towards them- people get violent with them. Like TODAY. A few days ago Indonesian Christians got blown up in church too! Miraculously, only the suicide bomber died, though I briefly read a headline that said 1 person did end up dying from injuries.

I post all the news reports on this. And I'm too negative. But it's reality. Reality that the main stream media in America seldom reports. But if we are brothers & sisters in Christ, we MUST be aware of what is going on.

So my goal is to be a voice for the voiceless. It's to create awareness of the realities of persecution to comfortable and easily-annoyed Americans. My goal is also to show American Christians that hey- there's MORE that we can do than just praying & turning a blind eye! Our brothers & sisters need our help! America needs to know the truth about our brethren! In America, Christians are a majority. But in the rest of the world (most countries), they're a minority, poor, & are considered 3rd class citizens. We won't be able to stop the violence against them, but we can certainly help rebuild destroyed villages, aide a widow, financially sponsor orphans, etc.  

I've provided links at the top of my blog where you can check out ministries that work with the persecuted church if you're interested.

Ok, it's 6am now!!! I'm gonna end up sleeping my day-off away lol. Good morning & good night!

One more thing. Just as I finish writing this I see this Tweet:


SAUDI ARABIA: Authorities arrested Hamoud for writing about his conversion to Christianity online.


I don't know who Hamoud is, but I do know he's a brother in Christ. God be with him & protect him in Jesus' name.