MyVisit to Qatar

I had the wonderful opportunity this summer not only to visit my friends in Lebanon, but to visit my best friend, Charbel, in Qatar. I had never been to this Arabic country before. Physically, it is not a pretty country. It is located just north of Saudi Arabia on the Persian Sea. It is a desert country, with very little vegetation, mostly sand everywhere. My visit was lovely, though. I love foreign travel. My only complaint was how hot it was. Of course this is the hottest time of year there. We basically slept during the day and went out at night, but even this was hot.

I have a new appreciation of muslims and for their clothing. I met new friends who are muslim and they were very nice. I met people of many different oriental races.

The Christian churches are all in an area outside of Doha, the capital. It is called the religious complex. The churches are not allowed to have any signs on the outside to indicate Christianity. Two Christmases ago, Holy Rosary Church was threatened by Al Qaida that it would be bombed. Fortunately, with extra Qatari police protection, it wasn't. But, each time I went to Mass there (3X) I thought of the possibility of
martyrdom and actually looked forward to it. This gave me a whole new perspective on America's freedom of religion. More prayers are needed for safety for the Christians of the Middle East. No longer are they just nameless faces to me. Now many of them are my friends.