Five Things I'm Thankful For Friday

It's been quite a while since I've done one of these, but here goes...

This week I'm thankful: 

1. That God has me exactly where he wants me.  If you're wondering where that is (it's been a while since I checked in on here), I'm in the Middle East right now, staying with an amazing God-fearing (read God-loving) Christian family.  I'm in Dubai (see the map below) in the United Arab Emirates.  I am so blessed to be here.

Dubai

2. For random friends.  Do you remember when you were a kid and you'd meet another kid and in seconds you were fast friends?  It was magical, wasn't it?  Well, in my line of work, I'm often thrown into foreign worlds (hence Dubai) where I'm largely alone and on my own, and I meet other people in the same situation.  That sort of situation creates the perfect circumstances for that sort of childhood friendship to form.  Last night, new friend, Victoria, and I went to Bastakiya to wander around the narrow passageways of merchants selling their goods.  We had a blast and it was like we'd been friends for years.  (I had the added treat of getting to chat with her in German-- she's from Dusseldorf-- while we bargained with the shopkeepers.)

left to right: shoe shopping in Bastakiya, the shopkeeper, and narrow passageways in the old town

3. For my church community here.  Ever since I first set foot in this country in 2007, I have been blessed by the Christians that I've found in this city.  They have sheltered me, fed me, encouraged me, loved me, instructed me... the list goes on and on.  It's amazing to loved and cared for in the way that I do.

Some of the women from my church after Women and the Word, a class on reading the Bible

4. For the family that I'm staying with here.  It's wonderful to see what loving and serving one another looks like.  I love being welcomed in this home-- seeing the father read his Bible at the kitchen table, and his daughters respecting him, and the mother as she makes the house a home.

5. For my next door neighbors.  Our back door leads to a courtyard which is shared with the neighbors, and it's not uncommon for them or us to wander through each other's back doors.  And like my family here, they've also taken in a few "strays."  Tonight I came home to find one of them (a person, not a pet) settled in on our couch watching tv.  It's very communal, and I like it a lot.  The neighbors, by the way, are also an amazing family who love God, each other, and the people around them.  I'd say I'm doubly blessed to be engulfed by two such families.