Window on the World

Introducing the WCG in the UAE
Real Sojourners in Christ

From Randal Dick,
superintendent of missions

Meet your brothers and sisters in the UAE (United Arab Emirates). They have gone from a tiny group of scattered members down to one family to a thriving group of about 60. In the last few years, they have been blessed to have some conversion growth as well as their own recently ordained pastor, Juanito “Nitz” Malaga, and his wife Joy.

Let me give you a little description so you can better understand the situation of the members. Dubai, one of the emirates, is a very small place. You can drive across it easily in an hour or so. What’s more, the life of Dubai lies along a little strip of the coast. Get much inland, and you better have a four-wheel drive equipped to handle sand dunes – it is just desert.

Dubai, unlike many of its neighbors, has very little petroleum resources. Yet, Dubai is one of the wealthiest and most prosperous places I have ever seen. To give you an idea: If you want a vacation of most luxurious standard, you might go to the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. Dubai has started construction of an artificial island that will arise out of the sea in the shape of a palm tree (as seen from the air). There will be an improved Atlantis Resort there.

Dubai has the world’s only six-star hotel (I think self proclaimed, but I’m not arguing). As if that is not enough, ground breaking is about to take place on what will be the tallest building in the world – in little Dubai!

It is into this world that our members come as true sojourners. They experience in a very real sense what it was like to be part of a “household” in the early church. They are like highly educated bond servants. Unlike Roman times, our bond-servant brethren are bound by economics—contracts. There is so much prosperity and commerce in Dubai that the small, very wealthy native population has gone outside to look for laborers. Approximately 80 percent of the population of Dubai are guest workers, and most of them are from Asia. They come under contract. Let pastor Juanito (Nitz) Malaga and his wife Joy tell you the rest:

The members of the Worldwide Church of God in Dubai have come here with an overall intention of finding a better livelihood compared to wages in home countries. Members and all workers in general find employment in Dubai in two ways:

The most ideal situation is to be recruited and offered a contract while still in your home country. Firms in Dubai (and the rest of UAE) have contacts with employment agencies in countries like Philippines, India, Pakistan, etc. They send recruiters regularly for this purpose. A successful applicant is granted a working visa just before his flight for Dubai at the expense of the hiring firm. I fell into this category 21 years ago. Also members like Douglas Macaraeg, Bonie Benitez, Jovy Manzano Nuas, Alex Villacruz, and Carina de Vera.

Some who are not able to pass the recruitment as well as those who are not satisfied with the offer come to Dubai on visit and seek a job locally. The problem with this approach is that the visitors have to shoulder all the expenses themselves. This forces some to grab any offer and receive much less than they expect as they have run out of money to spend.

Sometimes members already working here are allowed to sponsor a relative or friend. Some of the members who arrived here this way were Gary and Adette Bigtas, Ning de Guzman, Bolyn Aragon, Ardette Villegas, Margie Manzano, Lett Manzano.

The congregation:

In this part of the world, Friday (the Moslem holy day, observed from sundown to sundown) is the designated weekend or day off where people rest. For us this is the day we can congregate and have a worship service or a Bible study. As far as we know, all Christian denominations in the UAE meet on Fridays.

Some members have problems getting the day off. The sponsor might not give them time off, or perhaps they work a rotating shift.

Members who are caught in this situation are not always available to attend every Friday, but nevertheless join us when able to.

One innovative way our members are able to fellowship is to supplement Friday meetings with a mid-week meeting on Wednesday night, where we sing hymns, study the Bible and pray for one another. The meeting starts at 10:00 P.M. and usually ends past midnight.

Though most of the members here are Filipinos, we are delighted to be joined by the family of Joseph and Latha Cherian from India. They have their children with them, Danu and Mina, who are also employed, with Mina pursuing her studies at night.

We also have members in Abu Dhabi and Oman. One recent addition to our church family here in Dubai is the member couple Cesar and Johanna Ortiguero-Dela Paz. Like the rest, they also came here to better their economic lives. They accepted the job offer last year right after Johanna’s pregnancy ended in a miscarriage last December, the same time when the job offer opened. They arrived last April. Now she is on the way to motherhood again and the group here prays and anticipates with eagerness the arrival of their first baby. The Lord blessed them by giving Cesar a good and better paying job as network administrator in a scaffolding factory company.

Because of the nature of our being sojourners in a foreign land, the number of members fluctuates from time to time. Some move to another country and some return home at the end of their employment contract or after losing their jobs. Just the same, we are blessed to have our little flock in the wilderness of the Middle East as our spiritual home here on earth.

So, this is our wonderful group of true sojourners. They have no rights, like in Roman time. They are forbidden to evangelize the citizens on pain of deportation. They respect these laws, as they should. But there are many noncitizens, and our members are able to do their work and in various ways let Christ’s love and power be known to all around them. Please pray for them, and keep your eyes open. It will be interesting to see how Christ will use them to glorify himself and his kingdom.

Joy and Juanito “Nitz” Malaga,
with David Silcox, national director
of the UK and Ireland.
[Photos by Randal Dick]

Children lead congregation in prayer.

Miles of high rise apartments
house Dubai guest workers.
Our members meet in one of these buildings.

Hit Counter