Last night we had our first session with the Family Ministries volunteers of Gateway Church in Dubai. They packed a meeting room of the Dubai Community Theatre & Arts Center. A recent partner with Orange, they were excited to share their stories and discover more about how to make First Look and 252 Basics curriculum work better in their setting.

As a portable church, the leaders and volunteers at Gateway are rock stars at making their children’s environments engaging and fun each week! Families gather on Friday mornings (the weekend in Dubai is Friday and Saturday) in a hotel lobby to check their children into conference rooms that have been transformed into colorful places for kids to worship God, hang with their small groups and leaders, and do hands on activities that reinforce that week’s bottom line.

Going into last night’s session, our team knew we wanted to open the week together by saying YOU’RE AMAZING! A theme of affirmation was woven throughout the evening through the sharing of stories, overview of the FISH! Philosophy, and Orange-focused breakouts with small and large group leaders.

This morning, one of the volunteers who joined us last night, sent this e-mail to her team leader:

Thanks for organizing Orange. It really ties into Gateway’s vision and personally to me it is going to change my life forever.

I think doing family well is so important, but the amazing thing is that I think about impacting my workplace with what I have learned today!

So I just wanna say a BIG THANK YOU for your love, effort, organization and the execution of your vision to change and build a healthy community!

Great things are happening here in Dubai, and we’re excited to see how Orange is impacting churches and families across the globe!

This blog post is part of a week-long series from an Orange Coaching team partnering with Gateway Church in Dubai. The team is comprised of the following church ministry specialists: Darren Kizer (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester) , Becky Kizer (Orange Specialist), Christine Kreisher (GT Church), and Stephanie Whitacre (Parker Hill Community Church, 1Semester).