The Elusive Search for the Empty Quarter Desert

NO, this is NOT it. Due to very bad directions given by several sources on the internet (and bad direction following on my part, no doubt), I was not able to find the famous Empty Quarter Desert which is just outside of Ibri. The weather must have been 45 degrees Celsius on this day.

These are some of the scenes I took in driving (incorrectly) on the road towards Salalah.

I’m sure you know what the Arabic reads on the side mirror…


An Omani version of the Sphinx?!



Well, this can captured exactly how I was feeling after my long wild goose chase! Like all the energy, color and life was being sapped out of me….The next day I went out, once again, but this time armed with directions from my colleague, Baxter, and 2 friends to help out (Said and Jonathan). The Empty Quarter Desert was quite an awesome scene and God willing, I’ll share some of that with you tomorrow…

Another Interesting Round-About in Al Khuwair, Muscat

                              One of the more bizarre round-about art works I’ve seen! The hands were a little creepy, I thought. Anyway, it makes driving around more interesting because you never know what you’re going to see next. Reminded me of the expression, “Busy hands are happy hands. Idleness is the devil’s workshop.“

The Church at Ghala, Muscat

Like Ruwi, this is a church compound. There are several churches: a catholic church (if you look carefully, you can see a big picture of Mary on a building…), an orthodox church, a normal Protestant Church and even a good Christian bookstore.

This is the front of the Ghala Protestant Church where I attended last Friday.



A wonderful bookshop with tapes, CDs, DVDs, bibles, childrens books…whatever you’re looking for.

Services at PCO (The Protestant Church in Oman) in Ghala

This is the 9am service on Friday. It is more of a contemporary service and it is held in Ghala Bosch Hall which is in the back of the church.

This is Good Shepherd Chapel, Ghala where a more traditional service is held at 11am on Fridays. They have Communion every week. In addition, they have Arabic Worship Service on Thursdays at 7pm in Zwemer Hall, Ghalah.

The Gift of God

“The way we honor Christ in death is to treasure Jesus above the gift of life, and the way we honor Christ in life is to treasure Jesus above life’s gifts.”

“The health, wealth, and prosperity “gospel” swallows up the beauty of Christ in the beauty of his gifts and turns the gifts into idols. The world is not impressed when Christians get rich and say thanks to God. They are impressed when God is so satisfying that we give our riches away for Christ’s sake and count it gain.” (John Piper in the book “Don’t Waste Your Life“)