Day 1 & 2 in Dubai🇦🇪🐪🕊️

A day trip to Abu Dhabi for interfaith dialogue, a trip to a fancy mosque, and a spontaneous adventure to the desert on the official off day of COP28

Hello all! It's been a little bit since I've written a post for the newsletter. I've been having a fantastic time in Dubai. These first couple days though I am a bit jetlagged.

Flight:

The flight was terrific! 12-hours was not too bad. The Emirates crew was welcoming and delivered amazing service as they are known for. Once arrived, Carolina and I exchanged money at the airport and headed on the metro towards our programs’ hotel. I quickly went out with Brian Webb, one of the programs’ leaders, as well as Michael Matchell, a professor at Biola and my roommate.

Day 1:

The next morning I awoke with energy and excitement to start my time here in Dubai with the CCOP program. The day did not disappoint. After the first of our early team breakfast, our group departed on busses to Abu Dhabu for a day trip! Abu Dhabi is the next closest big city to Dubai. Here our group was welcomed by our gracious Muslim hosts at the Grand Hyatt Hotel where we were served not only appetizers and drinks before the forum but also an amazing lunch after. At the hotel a forum featuring the Christian leaders of our program and Muslim leaders and theologians from the UAE got together and spoke about perspectives on environmental protection from a standpoint of faith. This forum was awesome and encouraging to me and many of the members of our group as well as a good way to increase my perspective on Islam and its beliefs. After this forum, our gracious hosts gave us a VIP tour of the Grand Mosque of Abu Dhabi which is one of the most beautiful and extravagant places I have ever been. I am thankful for this experience to see more of God’s people and understand them.

Day 2:

Today is the official off day of COP28 so the conference grounds were not running. Because of this, my group headed out this morning to the Desert!!!! The UAE desert is a beautiful place and almost exactly what you would picture. It has rolling dunes, camels romaing, and a painted blue yet hazy sky (due to sand and pollution). We got to handle the national bird of the UAE, their desert falcon, ride camels, meander the dunes, go dune bashing in the company’s toyota land rovers, and sandboard!! It was so cool! It is pretty hot out there in the dunes. I saw some cool bugs, melons growing on the sand, and lizard tracks. Later in the day our group split for down time and then convened for a group dinner at the Arabian Tea House for an amazing dinner. This is the only time both groups for our program are in the same place and it was encouraging to hear stories and advice from the week 1 group set out the leave Dubai now. Themes from the dinner include realizing our special place in history, to seek out stories from people you meet, and to open up our hearts to listen and be stirred to action for God’s glory and for the goodness of his people.

So Jesus says love, because hate destroys the hater as well as the hated.

The quote below from MLK jr. explains what I’ve been reflecting on today and this week. I do this work as God’s steward and whether or not people know or believe yet in the environmental problems in this world, I do, and I will fight every day to love and protect God’s people because climate change and any present inaction will hurt God’s people and precious natural kingdoms.

“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. “love your enemies.”

Love you all! Talk to you again soon!

-James C. W.