Aug 18
The weekend in Kuwait is on Thursday and Friday, not Saturday and Sunday. Church is held on Friday and Saturday becomes the start of the work week. Seeing as today is a Friday, it was the day for us to go to church. I was looking forward to going to Zab’s old church because he had told me a lot about it through the years. The church is amazing. There is a large compound that was started as an American Hospital. Now it is home to the National Evangelical Church of Kuwait. Within the walls there are many buildings where there can be 5 or so services going on all at the same time on Friday mornings. We walked by services being held in many different languages. There are different denominations and styles of worship all happening on these grounds. Zab attended a church on this compound when he lived here called “The Lighthouse Church.” This church alone has 9 services on a weekend, 6 on Friday and 3 on Sunday. The church in Kuwait is huge. God is doing an amazing work here in this Muslim country. There is hope for people, and there is the message of God’s love and healing to all.
So you may or may not be wondering how Zab and Lowell met. And you may or may not care. I, however, am going to tell you, because it is relevant to our visit at the church, and without us meeting, there would be no Zab and Lowell’s blog, and what would you do with all your time now spent on reading these long posts?
David Peacock is a Pastor at The Lighthouse Church who is originally from Canada. One of his sons, Jordon Peacock, went to SABC (Southern Alberta Bible Camp). When Zab moved to Canada and was looking for Universities to go to and Jordon suggested the University of Lethbridge. Zab decided to go there, the second day he was there, he met Bette Greidanus (my girlfriend’s mother) and she got him involved with Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship (which I was the Activities coordinator at that time). We met in the club; we became friends and then roommates. Zab has been to my house for many of the major holidays including Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter. He saw my hood and became a part of the family, so he wanted to bring me to India and Kuwait to see his hood and where he grew up. So that is the short version of why I am in Kuwait and why it matters that we met Pastor David Peacock.
When the Peacock’s saw Zab there was a lot of hugging and then they told him how much he had changed and how they did not even recognize him. It was fun to see this reunion. I started talking with the other son, Tyler Peacock. He asked me where I was from and when I told him Carstairs Alberta, he told me that a really good friend of his from college lives there. Turns out Tyler went to Rocky Mountain Bible College in Calgary Alberta with my Pastor’s son, Mike Duncalfe. What a small world. Sorry if that little ‘Christian Connection’ story was boring. It always amazes me how we have connections all over the globe.
The service was really good and because it was an all English service, I could understand it all. We talked and visited awhile after church before walking back to our air conditioned vehicle. It was over 40 degrees out and I was loving it. I think I might pass out if I had to be out for an extended period of time though. =) We drove along the Arabian Gulf Road in Kuwait, all along the Gulf Coast. It was beautiful. We saw the famous Kuwaiti Towers, beautiful mosques, and insanely large palaces. We spent the afternoon resting and then went out for the evening to a city called Fahaheel to enjoy the night life. We went to a bunch of shops with Zab’s parents. The streets and stores were very busy and the heat was amazing. The sun was down and the breeze was blowing. If felt like I was standing in front of a furnace that was blowing hot, dry air out at me. This is amazing evening weather. It was around 37 degrees.
We ordered Turkish food and brought it home with us to eat. We had chicken, beef, and mutton Kebabs, with thick pita style Turkish bread. There were two really good sauces to put with it. They were toum, a creamy garlic sauce, and moutabel, which is made from eggplant. This was the first time since we arrived in Kuwait that I had not eaten Indian food. I enjoyed the Turkish eating, but I still think I prefer the Indian.
We finished eating around 11pm and then Zab and I stayed up talking and watching television. In Kuwait they get so many channels! We were flipping through the Christian ones and watched some of the ‘prosperity preachers.’ It made me slightly angry to see the message of wealth, power, and fame that these men were preaching. This is not the Gospel of Jesus. He told us to feed the sick, help the needy, and give to those who do not have. Jesus told us to preach love and salvation to the world, and to live as He did. The message we were hearing was that you needed to pray for yourself, that you will become rich, and you must send money to a preacher with a bad haircut and flashy clothes and in turn, God will make you rich. Ick. It leaves a bad feeling in my stomach. This is the message that is being proclaimed over the television to millions of people? No wonder Christianity has such a bad reputation in so much of the world. (This is just how I feel, and my own opinion. You may choose to disagree with my views...)
On that depressing note, we went to bed at midnight.
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