Up at seven after not much sleep…too excited and too many lovely memories flying around in my head. Off to the Church of the Good Shepherd (Protestant Church of Oman) for the 9 am service. We got there early and met Jack, one of the pastors and benefited from the worship band practice! This building was just a proposal and a bit of land when we left Oman, but they now have 2 main halls one of them named in honour of Dr Don and Eloise Bosch, whom we know, a godly couple who for many years under the previous Sultan ran the only school and hospital in the country..
Sermon on sowing….1 Corinthians 3:1-9….how important it is to sow the seed of the word…I had often thought of that as evangelism but Jack was homing in on teaching children, young people and new Christians the faith (especially important where you can’t proselytise). I was curiously encouraged…as we have spent many years just doing that but in many different places and often not seeing the fruit…
We then headed off inland to al Jabal al Akhdar, Arabic for The Green Mountain, where we were heading to the top (couldn’t do it before as a military area…) to stay overnight. we went , passing through our beloved fabulous mountains, we suddenly started when we realised they were covered with a green carpet. This is a very rare thing and means that there must have been rain recently. As soon as the rain falls the seeds sprout very fast as they have to. We were there for 3 years and only saw this once. Later the mountains became marvellous shades of brown as ever. Was this a blessing for us and a sign that it is God who brings fruit and we don’t need to worry?
We loved the old haunts but were delighted with the road up into the mountain…fantastic scenery, rough, craggy, majestic. Got to the hotel but couldn’t check in as the appropriate person was having his (or her) lunch so we decided to get in on the act and had lunch. The next bit is in honour of my mum who often used to say, “It could only happen to you!”…one of the Indian waiters, Ibrahim, came up and asked Steve if he had been to Oman before. He was one of the company catering team and he remembered Steve from 25 years ago. He was very excited! He said he had been a bit wary of asking as Steve had become “very fat” and so he wasn’t absolutely sure it was him! How delightful that he remembered him but also wanted to connect with him after all this time...He was asking after our children too, very culturally appropriate here…
After lunch we enjoyed pottering on the plateau walking down wadis, through villages with terraced agriculture watered by the falaj system…many happy reminiscences of similar times with the family but in different places. Great day, happy to be back, enjoying getting back into speaking Arabic with these lovely hospitable people.
Sermon on sowing….1 Corinthians 3:1-9….how important it is to sow the seed of the word…I had often thought of that as evangelism but Jack was homing in on teaching children, young people and new Christians the faith (especially important where you can’t proselytise). I was curiously encouraged…as we have spent many years just doing that but in many different places and often not seeing the fruit…
We then headed off inland to al Jabal al Akhdar, Arabic for The Green Mountain, where we were heading to the top (couldn’t do it before as a military area…) to stay overnight. we went , passing through our beloved fabulous mountains, we suddenly started when we realised they were covered with a green carpet. This is a very rare thing and means that there must have been rain recently. As soon as the rain falls the seeds sprout very fast as they have to. We were there for 3 years and only saw this once. Later the mountains became marvellous shades of brown as ever. Was this a blessing for us and a sign that it is God who brings fruit and we don’t need to worry?
We loved the old haunts but were delighted with the road up into the mountain…fantastic scenery, rough, craggy, majestic. Got to the hotel but couldn’t check in as the appropriate person was having his (or her) lunch so we decided to get in on the act and had lunch. The next bit is in honour of my mum who often used to say, “It could only happen to you!”…one of the Indian waiters, Ibrahim, came up and asked Steve if he had been to Oman before. He was one of the company catering team and he remembered Steve from 25 years ago. He was very excited! He said he had been a bit wary of asking as Steve had become “very fat” and so he wasn’t absolutely sure it was him! How delightful that he remembered him but also wanted to connect with him after all this time...He was asking after our children too, very culturally appropriate here…
After lunch we enjoyed pottering on the plateau walking down wadis, through villages with terraced agriculture watered by the falaj system…many happy reminiscences of similar times with the family but in different places. Great day, happy to be back, enjoying getting back into speaking Arabic with these lovely hospitable people.
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