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The feeling of sand going through your toes
Intense summer heat akin to what it must feel like to be in an oven
Bright, blue skies 98% of the year
Rejoicing and running out to play when rain, a rare and special gift, comes
Where everything is "inshallah" (if God wills it - hopefully it will get done, but not likely)
Where weddings are big, gaudy, segregated parties that go late into the night and when the Bride only makes her appearance at midnight
Where everything runs on "Arab time" - fashionably late is the norm, sometimes even a few hours after the time earlier agreed upon!
Having to use a few matches before the gas stove finally lights
Hearing the bell ringing through the streets of the neighborhood, signaling the arrival of the gas truck - you have to go out and flag him down if you need "buta gas"
Hearing the call to prayer go off at least a couple of times of the five a day
Where taxi is the standard mode of "public transportation"
The smell of dust in the air and finding sand EVERYWHERE in the house after a sand storm
Hot manaeesh (bread dough topped with cheese folded over) or grilled chicken, tabouleh, hummus and baba ghanoush as the standard, after-church lunch on Friday
Everyone out and about come eight o'clock at night
Crowded malls and overflowing parking lots late at night
The smell of fruity shisha (hookah) wafting from cafes
The rolling red dunes of the desert, our "backyard," literally minutes from our house!
Hearing arabic, urdu/hindi and tagalog all in the same place
Watching a "new" American Idol season on MBC 4 that is actually a few seasons behind the North-American current one
Being excited to go on an airplane, eat the kids' food pack that usually had a little chocolate bar in it, and watch as many movies as we could
Making sure shoulders and legs were covered
Small finjans (cups) of milky tea with at least four spoons of sugar in it
Shabab (young local guys) racing by you in their deeply tinted or mirrored Land Cruisers
Flocks of young boys playing football (soccer) in empty parking lots or streets using their shib-shibs (sandals) or bricks for goal markers
Streets lined with little shops full of cheap candy, grocery and other miscellaneous items
Always sticking out in a crowd! Being a tall, white girl in a sea of light brown always attracted (unwanted) attention
Where Fine (like our Kleenex - what they call tissues) is in every room of the house
Shawarmas and falafels from the shop at the side of the road
The abundance of mangy street cats congregating around the garbage bins
Beautiful in its own, strange way.

Today, I miss it.

Stirrings

Do you know those times where you can feel the pulling in your Spirit, just beckoning you to come away and be with Jesus? I feel it physically. I like to picture that there's something like a rope in my Spirit connected to His Spirit, and sometimes He tugs it - my deep responds by crying out to His. I felt the tug last night. I couldn't wait to just get away so that it could just be me and Him. I started playing some worship songs on my keyboard and singing out my own words out of the overflow of my heart. Music is something that almost immediately draws me into the presence of God and connects me to His heart very quickly. Some of the sweetest, most powerful times of worship I've had have been in the secret place: when I'm shut up in my room with my keyboard and I get to sing my own love songs straight to Jesus and hear Him sing over me. Last night was one of those times. The presence of God came so thick and Holy Spirit started stirring me to intercede. Here are some of the things I furiously scribbled afterwards; this is my heart:

Make us ready for Your coming. Make us holy, righteous, pure, and set apart. Make us ready. Raise up a generation who will be set apart and who will walk in purity and singleness of heart and mind! May there be no areas of compromise in our hearts! Burn away everything that is not of you. Refiner's Fire, come and purify the hearts of this generation. 

NO COMPROMISE, Father! 

Let us be a people of no compromise! May we only desire that which is righteous, pure, lovely and true. We need to be ready. Oh, would You make us ready. There's no time for slumber, there's no time for drunkenness, there's no time for half-hearted devotion. Oh church, get ready. 

WAKE UP! WAKE UP YOU SLEEPING GIANT! 

Sound the alarm, sound the alarm, sound the alarm for He is coming. Do you not know that He is coming soon? Do you not see? Do you not see Him coming down from heaven, coming for a Bride that's pure, spotless and white?Do you not hear? Do you not hear the sound of the trumpets, announcing the return of the Bridegroom? 

GET READY, CHURCH! GET READY! 

There won't be time when He comes for Him to wait while you scurry to get ready. There won't be time for you to get oil while the call to announce His coming has already been sounded. You need to be ready. Oh, make us ready for Your coming! Set us apart! No areas of compromise within our hearts. Holy and set apart. A generation after holiness; a generation after purity. You have to get ready. Sound the alarm! Wake up, Church!