El Oriente Medio

Well we made it hear safe to the middle east. The flights were long, but everything went exactly as planned--- no planes missed and no lost luggage. We spent the day with a local pastor here and an American that is serving here. Small world, but the American girl that is serving here is from where we used to live in Louisiana! What made it even seem like a smaller world was when we were traveling through the capital city and I look over to see a car with a sticker that said TAF (Tiger Athletic Foundation) with the LSU tiger on it. It was a very odd moment.

We have done some touring of the downtown area here, neighboring cities, and the local church. Today I am not really sure what we will be going to do, but tonight there is a service that we will be attending. We appreciate all of you who are praying for us. It is a much different middle eastern country here. It is very modern and luxurious, but is still recovering from the war that took place here. The war destroyed many parts of the country--- and on top of that it destroyed the economy. We passed through an entire downtown district that is completely shut down with 300+ businesses being shutdown because of a rebel group that occupies that area. The government protects the radical group in the district to prevent anyone from doing anything to them because of the retaliation it could cause if someone were to attack the radicals. It is a interesting place--- there is a lot of religious freedom, but there is some kind of undercurrent that exists. Well that is all I have, hope to update you some more on what is going on here.