Back in Deir Debwan

I made it to Deir Debwan today.

I woke up early and ate breakfast and then attempted to go back to sleep. I didn’t.

Then on the bus to Ramallah, I met this German kid who seemed real eager to talk to me. We talked. Turned out he is a tourist with friends in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv who wanted to visit Arab cities. He hand been to Bethlahem the day before and was going to Ramallah today.

I was scared to talk to him in English in the bus. I didn’t want to be noticed.

But then I spoke to him as I was concerned for his own safety

He met some other germans on the bus and made plans to meet with them later. I took him with me to meet Saleh and family. I saw Saleh’s wife first and his son. Then we were taken into the underground wine cellar he’s making which is made from a Roman cistern that was on his property. Amazing.

Then I finally came home. Dad was inside the kitchen looking at food on the table. Yusra was outside washing the mustaba.

Dad looked really good. He walks very slow. Tiny tiny steps. I can barely make out some of the things he says.

 He’s driving Yusra crazy.

She’s still here. I gotta say I have no small amount of admiration for her. A few years back in 2013, when I came here. She and my sisters concocted a plan. The Holy Spirit alerted me to it before I even got here.

It was kind of strange – I was supposed to start my program on Al fady TV station. Father Zakaria had specifically pointed me out and said that I had waited a long time and needed to be the first to have his own show.

Just then my dad had a stroke (a few months earlier Rick had a stroke) and I had to come care for him.

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What’s funny is that I am here just as I finished my 100^th episode of my program Message of Grace.

I guess I could say a few words about my program: It started out slow, in terms of calls and audience participation and then never really got the calls I thought it would

At the lowest point I can remember Peter (who  says what I think everyone thinks) said: Your boring show and No one watches this show and so on.

These words hurt a lot mainly because I believed he was right.

But in spite of this, they always wanted me to continue the show. At first it was every other week on Monday and many, many Mondays it was cancelled because of holidays that fall on Monday – Presidents Day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and so on and so on. So much so that since 2013 when the show started (after I went back after being with my Dad) I, in 2018, have only 100 shows. Azad has more than twice that many. Jaffar almost three times. I’m not sure of YOhanna.

But they didn’t want to cancel the show. I was really discouraged the other day when I got no calls after a program and went and talked to the manager Riddha. I told him my concerns and said “Maybe we should cancel the program as people aren’t calling,” etc.

He was adamant that we shouldn’t. He was completely convinced of the shows importance in delivering Father Zakaria’s message in English to the Western World.

I gleefully agreed. Then another thing happened “Jacob.” Benyamin’s son got saved.

He started coming on the show with me and sharing his testimony. It became (at least on Youtube and Vimeo) some of my most popular shows.

In fact Jacob hosted me on our 100^th show.

His excitement for the Lord is wonderful as he started coming to church with me at Cottonwood and going to home group meetings where they focus on the gifts of the Spirit. He is soaring there.

So I now feel the show is in a good place. We get some original calls – from England, Europe and some in the U.S.

I must admit I wish there were more calls from Muslims. That hasn’t happened in a big way. Yet.

I feel good about the show though.

Immediately after the 100^th show I came here to see Dad again as  I was implored to do. Himaydi came and spent three months here and he left. He has been faithful and for his sake I feel I owe the family to help.