Update

As I was looking for websites that might help Emily in her research for an essay on Islam & Christianity when I came across this barricade: "This website has been restricted based on the instructions of the Ministry of Communication.We apologize for the inconvenience." Freedom of the press has it's limits it seems! Funny little discrepancies like this keep cropping up.

I can't believe it's been a week since I last wrote. Every day was brimming full with people and places. I am gradually becoming more and more attached to my new i pod touch. It is a wonderful companion to keep me organized and make the most of my time. I love being able to listen to Selah's Greatest Hymns and read from The Message in my palm while riding in a taxi!

The shape of my work is is slowly taking on more definition. I'm so thrilled with the people I've been able to meet who share my desires and have such wisdom and experience. I attended the first Kuwait Ladies Bible Study group on Tuesday and was delighted at such a well organized and diverse group of women coming together with a common purpose. We are doing "Me, Myself, and Lies" by Jennifer Rothschild. I am thankful that I had been studying the power of our thought life, it gave me some inspiration when I needed it most.

When Becky and I went to work with "our ladies" we had one session that was one-on-one, then were told the boss wanted to speak with us. We discussed several ideas for how we might spend our time and he was very grateful and trusting of our abilities. He is a very wise and insightful man and I am thankful for his guidance. He felt if we could do some group teaching, that might be the best place to start, so he asked an assistant to choose 15 ladies who were new arrivals and find a room...we were thinking; okay, so next week we will need to plan a workshop type of a thing.... when the assistant returned and said "they are ready." We looked at each other, sent a SOS prayer up, and headed downstairs to a room full of waiting, frightened, sad women. We excused ourselves to the ladies room long enough for a quick "what are we gonna do now????" then returned and plunged in! Becky was great to team with, God kept us both on the same page and hopefully someone benefitted from the exercises we did on managing our self-talk in times of stress. As we begin to hear their stories, it pains us that we are so helpless to assist them in the legal issues they face, but what a joy to take them to one who can!

I had a wonderful day out with my Lebanese fried who I met in the grocery store this week. She was so generous to give me a day of driving around Kuwait so I could see where some great shopping places were. Her 3 children were in school, but she is also a full time student working on a second masters degree, so I know she is very busy. We had such fun at the Iranian markets and I got the best prices EVER with her there to tell them in Arabic "you can do better than that!"

It has been fun to entertain here; everyone from young single American teachers we find in need of a home cooked meal with a family, to Muslim neighbors. We had a mother-daughter tea with the lady across the street on Saturday which was a hoot! They called first to see if there would be any males around & we assured them the boys would be gone all afternoon. I had made Coronation chicken salad, cucumber salad & blueberry cobbler, but they arrived carrying chicken, rice, and dessert! They wanted us to taste some of their food too. So we piled it all on the table and had a terrific feast. We think they enjoyed their own food more than ours...it was super delicious! They enjoyed looking at pictures and sharing family stories. When they left, they asked us to come to their house, same time next week! What should I take???