O my goodness! God is up to something. I blasted out of our Westbrook services this Sunday as fast as I could so that I could get to Gente Unida Ministries 2nd Anniversary service. Two years ago this week, actually ~ September 18, 2005, this ministry officially began holding public worship services. GUM normally meets on our Westbrook campus for a 1:30 PM service but this week they meet at Irene King School in Romeoville for an earlier service that included lunch and a special concert by our friends Contagious. I knew they were going to have a great day but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw and experienced. The parking lot was jammed and the room where they were meeting was beyond “standing room only”. In fact over 300 people were in attendance at this celebration day. The room was filled with electricity, the spirit of God was for sure present and God was absolutely lifted up. I was blown away, and walked out of there so humbled. To Pastor Amado, Pastor Jonaton and to their entire team~ Great Job! Congratulations on 2 amazing years of ministry.

One of the interesting things about a trip like this, is that you will often run into the same family. On Sunday afternoon Christie and I ran into a nice middle-eastern family two times on the same day. This is pretty amazing since the ship is filled with about 3,800 passengers. Anyway, after seeing them the second time we introduced ourselves and commented on how unique that was. Would you believe that the very next day as Christie and I were jumping on a subway train in Rome, heading for the Coliseum we bumped into them again. (In a huge international city, filled with millions of people, 90 miles from the ship). The next night, I sat in a lounge on the ship and talked with the gentleman. The guy was awesome and very engaging. Turns out he graduated from the University of Texas and worked for 15 years or so in Dallas and Orlando. Several years ago he returned to his home in Beirut, Lebanon and opened his own Civil/Structural Engineering firm. We had a great time, and even though some of our viewpoints differed~ he is Sunni Muslim~ we had many, many more things in common. He taught me a great deal from a Middle easterners standpoint about the war in Iraq. We even talked a great deal about God. He was quite intrigued that I was a pastor. The very next morning, we ran into them again heading to the Italian Isle of Capri.
I have lots of friends, but this new friend is the kind of friend that I would wish for everyone~ warm hearted yet filled with intrigue because his culture is not mine. I’ll say it a thousand times… If you want to build a multi-cultural ministry you have to look for opportunities to engage in multi-cultural friendships. To Mohamed, Rania and girls~ it was great connecting with you.