Excitement is mounting! 10 days to go! Have you bought your air tickets yet? Expo 2020 Dubai - a place to meet the world and share.

The skyscrapers in Dubai glisten like diamonds reflecting in the sun. The city is a glass window into a world of luxury where anything desired can be instantly at your fingertips. But a window only reveals a small picture of the yard. Perhaps a Mercedes in the yard might be in sight but not the crumpling shed on the opposite end of the yard.

Before moving to the city, Esther loved to support her friends when they were going through traumatic situations. She would call out their identity when they felt insignificant, but she found this difficult when many of the women she met in Dubai preferred to hide behind perfection and avoid depth in conversation.

Many people often assume that Christianity has only recently come to the UAE and most of the Gulf. However, there is a long history of Christianity that goes back at least to the 6th century and likely earlier.

“The UAE is one of the world’s largest sand deserts, with its 84,000 square kilometers [52,195 square miles], its skyscraping dunes and otherworldly salt flats stretching from the Arabian Gulf coast to the Empty Quarter, the largest contiguous sand erg in the world, to the east of the Hajar Mountains.”

It is a sub-tropical climate that is comfortable and enjoyable for 6 months of the year (October-March). However, June-September is quite miserable as the average temperature rises above 105°F (41°C) and the humidity rises significantly as well.

The UAE is located on the south-eastern tip of the Arabian peninsula. It shares land borders with Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Today, the land itself is mostly a desert with a few oases with one mountain range running through the country.