Gateway Church Dubai
30 Apr 2010
What a privilege to have a five-day trip to Dubai and spend time with Gateway International Church. For over four years, Clive and Heather Cernick faithfully gave themselves to this growing multinational congregation, gathering a very diverse group of people into an expression of one new man in Christ.
Having felt that their time in Dubai had come to an end, I must admit to having been somewhat nervous at the prospect of them leaving at a time when the church was flourishing. God, however, had the whole thing in his hands (as usual!!) - Steve and Heather Oliver (your wife must be called Heather if you want to lead in Dubai!), from the Free State in South Africa, heard God's call so clearly to move to Dubai and lead Gateway on into the next phase of Church life.
Liz and I visited them to see how they were settling in and to see how the church was adjusting to a new style of leadership. We found them to be in great shape even though the move for them as a couple must have been far from easy. Having seen them at work in Africa, I can honestly say Dubai could not have provided a greater contrast to their previous existence, but their joy in being in such a new place was so obvious from day one. The church have welcomed them with open arms, embracing Steve's apostolic call to the nations and supporting them in every way that they can.
I have never been in such a multinational church. It seems as if all the nations of the world are there. I preached on being a church with a heart for the nations and it was like seeing the message already in action. If anyone has the chance to move to Dubai, this church is one good reason to go!!
From Gateway we will look to plant churches all over the world as well as build a large and significant church in Dubai that will model apostolic mission. There are many challenges ahead but God's purposes will surely prevail. Due to fly back on the Saturday, a certain volcano decided to erupt and we ended up staying in Dubai for an extra six days. It was a weird experience. Friends kept sending us messages saying how lucky we were to be "holed" up in a place like Dubai. In some ways this was true and yet when you don't know when you will be able to return home, or how, it means that you are not able to chill out and you do feel very vulnerable. However, we were amongst friends and were able to hang out with the Oliver's a lot more (I think they had had enough of us when we finally did leave!). We also spent more time with a number of leaders in the church, I spoke at a life group meeting and Liz took a women's morning so we had plenty to do.
I look forward to a growing relationship with Steve and Heather: we both sense that God is calling us together in a joint venture to impact nations and also to visit Gateway to encourage them in all they are doing.
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