As a centrally accessible and extremely transient location, Dubai is a rapidly evolving quintessential melting pot of Arab, middle-eastern, African, Western, and South Asian cultures. It is easily one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse cities in the world, comprised of more than 95% expat population(ie. migrants). 28 years of residence here has given me the contextual intelligence and opportunity to establish inter-faith dialogue, foster meaningful and harmonious connections and most of all celebrate and share social and cultural experiences with people looking for a “home away from home”. Having been part of the inception of Gatekeepers Church, Dubai, I have amassed diverse and vast amounts of experience in creating and developing faith-based communities (church). We grew as a local church from a handful of people in a room to over 2000+ people (men, women and children spread out across the cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, and Al-Ain). Though originally a community of predominantly south-Asian majority, we were successful in reaching, assimilating, integrating and impacting people from well over 120+ different nations who became part of our church congregation.

Over the last decade, I have held leadership roles that held oversight of community life, leadership development, and overall spiritual growth and emotional health of the church congregation. My priorities were to build holistic, robust and flexible ministries and growth models that would facilitate the ongoing spiritual growth of both individuals and families.

 

Another key focus was being intentional about bridging the gap between people of various eclectic backgrounds be it in faith, creed, age, social strata and most importantly racial and cultural ethnicity. Through constant trial and error, various initiatives were executed to see this through. Despite some failures along the way, this focus eventually became pivotal in enabling us to see growth, genuine transformation and long-lasting impact in our church congregation and therefore - the city at large. We were successful in seeing people step out of their comfort zones of familiarity and convenience and truly achieve integration with those that were “different” from them.(ie. the affluent and the underprivileged mingled, people of various nationalities and cultural contexts grew spiritually and thrived mentally and emotionally as they did life together. The young and the old were trained and empowered alike to make a difference in their social and professional circles).

One of the practical ways we achieved our goals was through the training, equipping, mentoring and coaching of people. Given below are a couple of examples. - Built a leadership team that had oversight over leaders who were in charge of creating, nurturing and growing multi-ethnic, multicultural groups of people spanning various cities here in the United Arab Emirates. 100+ volunteer part-team leaders from all strata of society were envisioned and trained to participate and contribute to the overall vision of our church community. Our congregation members that represented various industries in the city would often share stories of the positive impact they were making in society as they fostered authentic, compassionate and harmonious relationships in a Christ-centered context.

- Having logged in literally 1000+ hours of mentoring, training and coaching over the course of a decade in ministry, my priorities became building a robust team that would cater to all the pastoral needs of our diverse and dynamic community. The result was a team of coaches that helped bring solutions to various areas of pastoral care. Over 40+ volunteer part-time coaches were trained and deployed to care for individuals.

Our ongoing work has also led me to various countries for the work of community building, missions, relief work, church planting and leadership coaching. India, Mozambique, and South Africa to name a few. Since then I have also transitioned to the role of a leadership coach, and executive consultant for both the Church and Corporate world. Presently, I am involved in consulting, coaching and assisting leaders at my current church, City Lights, Dubai. My work has been around replicating the success I saw in my previous role and helping facilitate similar transitions from my previous church context and experiences. I am now thrilled at the opportunity to see how my experiences translate into a similar yet challenging new context in the San Francisco Bay Area. Having seen, participated and experienced the power of an international Christian community, in a city (Dubai) that is fast-paced, transient, affluent, diverse, multi-cultural and constantly growing and developing, I am excited to see a similar impact translate into the Bay Area, where many of the migrant population are from the same part of the world as I am and share the same geographical and cultural context as I do. (ethnically Indian but a “third culture south Asian” with roots in my own culture yet deep love and appreciation for other cultures and all echelons of society). Though born and raised in a priestly Brahmin sect of Hindus, I have had a radical spiritual awakening as a result of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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The church community locally and globally has been instrumental in my ongoing journey of growth and transformation. I want to see this impact translate into the  Bay Area. What I have observed firsthand, is their struggle to integrate into western society and the ripple effect of niche subcultures and ethnocentric bubbles they have created to help them cope and survive, but I want to see them flourish and thrive. I have the heart to serve these communities by helping them integrate into the diverse and rich multi-ethnic and multi-racial culture prevalent in the Bay Area successfully while maintaining their roots culturally. Furthermore, I want to see relief for all those who are still reeling from the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our collective psyche is still dealing with the stress and trauma of what has happened. The demand for spaces and places to find solidarity, support and solutions to mental and emotional challenges always outweigh what’s available. Coupled with a lack of clarity and uncertainty with regard to the future, a vast majority of people have stumbled into private addictions. This includes young expatriate and migrant professionals that are in the big-tech, digital tech and biotech spaces. Their extended parents and families who are from cultures where conversations around mental health have a stigma. Ethnic minority groups, minimum-age workers, and the poor do not have sufficient tools or resources to deal with the pace and pressures of change in culture and society. I want to see human flourishing across all these groups of people and I have practical strategies to see it through by planting and building an International Church community.

 

As a family, we want to see people from all walks of life and even other faith backgrounds thrive as a result. Our goal is to help people integrate and build deep harmonious relationships across racial, social and cultural barriers. We want them to discover their inherent purpose by empowering and nourishing them spiritually. Our hope thereby is to see a thriving community that will contribute to the cultural edge, social consciousness and influence the Bay Area has on
the rest of the nation as well as the world.