Time flies when you're having fun! It's been over a month since my last entry, for crying out loud. Lessee...what's happened in the past month?
Summer is upon us. Summer, that starts with S, and that stands for "Sizzle." It's May, and you could fry eggs on the brick pavers, not to mention the asphalt. I've been practicing my hot-coals dance every time I head out of the villa barefoot, much to my wife's amusement.
We've been back out to Abdullah's camel farm. His tent is gone for the summer due to the heat, but his workers are still there. Picked up a camel skull for my friend Gwen. It was at N 24^50.773', E 50^55.384', if you're GPSing, which should put you in the southwest desert of Qatar, a few km from the Saudi Arabian border.
One evening, as I was driving into our compound, the guard at the gate waved at me to stop. He came to the car with a small package of instant coffee, and asked me to look at the ingredient list on the back. The package was not in English, and the last two ingredients were "whiskey flavor, zonder alcohol." He was very concerned about this because he is Muslim, and alcohol is haram,unclean, forbidden. I told him I'd check it out for him. It was a puzzler indeed, until I figured out that the package was in Dutch, and in Dutch "zonder" means "without." On our way out of the compound later that evening, I stopped and gave him the good news. He was visibly relieved. A buddy of mine is getting a Bangladeshi Good Book for him, so you can pray that he will be relieved spiritually as well.
My son won the "clubber of the year" award in AWANA. He came into the program late, but still managed to finish his book, which involved memorizing a great many scriptures and a few songs. The memory capacity of a five-year-old is amazing, and our prayer now is for him to retain what he has learned, and for us to have the wisdom to continue to guide his learning in a godly manner.
I had the opportunity to preach at our church last Friday, and that went well. A lot of folks on both sides of the big pond were praying for me, and I could tell.
Finally, I bought a Jeep. It's a 1994 Wrangler Renegade, black w/grey interior, 4.0 liter (ahem, 258 cubic inch) high-output straight-six, 5-speed manual transmission, aluminum wheels, hard top, and of course 4WD. The synchros are shot in the tranny, so I have to double-clutch to downshift into third, and the rear end makes more noise than...well, than my rear end, but it's fun to drive.
Well, Madeleine Albright is supposed to be touring our facility this morning sometime, so I need to head to work. I wonder if it's OK to throw eggs at politicians over here?
Posted by jon at May 29, 2004 11:26 PM