Welcome to Ras Al Khaimah: Thursday 21st – Saturday 23rd April 2016

We flew into Dubai and had a taxi lined up to take us down to Ras Al Khaimah, so it was a relief to see my name printed out as we came out of the arrivals door

It was a joy to share with Jon and Karen and the congregation at St Luke’s in Jon’s licensing service as the new Chaplain in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. We flew out on Thursday morning and there was a delegation of six people from Bahrain: Grant and Angela Murray, Angel Afolabi and Andrew Petty as well as ourselves. There were also friends from Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Sharjah and Dubai who swelled what is clearly a small community, at present, meeting in large recently built church. Archdeacon Bill Schwartz led the service and preached on texts that seemed made for the context though as Bill said were drawn up by some committee many years ago (Acts 11: 1-18 and John 13: 31-35).

Following the service Tricia had a nasty fall down a slippery rather steep marble ramp, protecting her fall with her hand. So we missed the lunch reception and were kindly taken by one of the congregation, Paul, an educational psychologist working with autistic children, to the public hospital in the city where she was examined, x-rayed and plastered for a chip on the bone though it seems from another examination at the American Mission Hospital in Bahrain today that there may be a fracture. We were able to enjoy eating outside in the village hotel where we were staying and to go for a walk along the beach.

We returned to Bahrain, via Dubai Airport, with Angela and Grant Murray, who’d hired a car for their three days in Ras Al Khaimah to do a little exploring.