Mission 193 to The Kingdom of Bahrain and The Sultanate of Oman
Mission team Adrian, Sharon, Annie and Joseph Holland.
When I first heard about Mission 193 at Bible Week 2006 I instantly knew that I wanted to go to Oman. My father worked over there for 2½ years in the 70s and my mum, my sister and I visited him for 5 weeks, Christmas 1977. I celebrated my 10th birthday in Oman. I had visited Oman as a child and now I wanted to take my own family to visit that very special place and also to take the Gospel with us.
Some months before we travelled, we were informed that we could no longer have a direct flight to Oman and would have to go via Bahrain. Upon checking the Mission 193 website, I was delighted to discover that no-one else was scheduled to visit Bahrain, so what a great opportunity not to waste the 4 hours that we were to spend in Bahrain airport. We registered with Mission 193 and bought the Bibles but, following what I now realise was a word of wisdom, we felt uneasy about taking the Bibles in our hand luggage in case it caused a hold up in customs (in a Muslim country!) Instead we donated the Bibles to Arab World Ministries before we travelled. We still took the Word with us as, The word is very near you, it is in your mouth and in your heart (Deut 30:14). At the airport we declared the scriptures which proclaim that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14) and we prayed for the country. We brought Bahrain Bear home with us as a souvenir.
We landed in Oman at 12:45pm local time on Monday 24th March. At customs we were asked to open our suitcases. The police then took both Arabic Bibles out and wanted to know why we had them and could we read Arabic. We explained that we were just bringing them as a gift for the country and didn’t want to offend anyone. They took Adrian into a side room, questioned him, confiscated the Bibles and issued him with a receipt for the Bibles, saying that we could collect them before we left Oman. Naturally we decided that we would leave them with them: We pray that they would fall into the right hands and be read!
We were staying in the capital, Muscat. Oman has changed so much since I visited 30 years ago: The landscape is still the same: one sixth is mountains; the rest is costal and desert. It is a hot, dry climate with little vegetation other than date palm trees, which are abundant. Apart from the landscape, the country, and Muscat in particular, is beyond former recognition. Prior to Sultan Qaboos succeeding his father in 1970, there was only 6 miles of tarmac road, no hospitals, and no schools. If you wanted to import a car, you had to have the express permission of the Sultan. The past 37 years has seen the development of highways, schools, hospitals and universities. Today, all Omanis, regardless of their financial status, all own a car and a mobile phone! The price of petrol is only 15p per litre there, so running a car is no problem. The Muscat area in particular has an ever increasing number of attractive, large buildings, such as government and embassy buildings, shopping centres, hotels and even an ice-skating rink! In ‘Old Muscat’ the buildings are not permitted to be more than 6 stories tall, which has meant that the city has maintained its attractive, prestigious appearance and is in keeping with the Sultan’s palace, which was built in the early 1970s. This was the only place that we visited that I recognised from my former visit: I was overwhelmed with emotion at the sudden transportation back in time that I experienced at the sight of it.
As a holiday destination, Oman is idyllic: Unlike neighbouring Dubai, tourism is still a new concept. This means that one can walk on the beach and swim in the warm sea without being concerned about disturbing other holiday makers: There simply aren’t any!
We visited the ancient Muttrah Souk and also had a day long tour of the historic capital, Nizwa and the surrounding areas.
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On the Friday, we went to church in Muscat. The site is the location of a Catholic church, a Bible society bookshop and the Protestant Church in Oman, which is the Church we visited. There are services all day on a Friday (their weekend) in different languages. We went to the English service at 9am. There were about 350 people there from many nations, including, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Korea, Philippines’, USA, England. It was just like being with All Nations Church! We sang all the same songs we sing back home, including, “We want to see Jesus lifted high, a banner that flies across this land” and they really meant it. They prayed that a highway would open in Oman for the Gospel and for God’s grace upon Sultan Qaboos and for the troubled areas of the Gulf, such as Iran and Iraq. Worshipping with those people, in that place, was one of the most moving experiences of my entire life: The realisation that the same Jesus is in that place, all those thousands of miles away and that God’s presence is in every corner of the Earth.
We were only in Oman for one week, but we certainly left a piece of our heart there. We will continue to pray for the country, and especially our new friends there. We will certainly return to Oman some day, in the not too distant future.