Pastor John, you have been busy traveling the second half of 2013.

You traveled from Knoxville, the Minneapolis for the DG National Conference on CS Lewis,

of course.

And then on to Ohio, Atlanta, Idaho, Texas.

And now you're out of the country altogether, and we'll be spending just about all of

November in the Middle East.

I guess the place to begin is to ask if you've traveled to the UAE before.

I have never been to the United Arab Emirates.

I've never been to the Middle East at all.

In fact, it might help people to know where is that place.

I guess there's lots of people couldn't put their finger on it.

The major cities in the UAE, the United Arab Emirates, are Dubai and Abu Dhabi,

they're, of course, others, but those are the two where I'll be.

The UAE is on the southern part of the Persian Gulf, borders on the West, on Saudi Arabia,

and then across the Gulf is Iran.

So that gives you a perspective on where it is.

On this same trip, I'm going to Ethiopia to Abu Dhabi with Jason Meyer, my replacement

at Bethlehem.

This is really exciting to me.

We're going to a pastor's conference in Ethiopia.

He's not part of the event in the UAE, so we'll be working through the first five chapters

of second Corinthians there in Ethiopia.

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