Volume 31

It’s a concept that leaves desert dwellers cold — but that’s a good thing. In the United Arab Emirates, they’re skiing while temperatures soar to 45°C.

Ski Dubai is the size of three football fields with five slopes of varying steepness. The mini-resort is inside the world’s third largest shopping centre, the billion-dollar Mall of the Emirates in the city of Dubai. It defies both geography and the calendar.

Creating an oasis of winter that maintains 6,000 tons of snow — and a constant temperature of -1°C in a desert — seems impossible. But Ski Dubai has real snow made much the same way it’s produced at winter resorts. Pure water, with no chemicals added, is put through a chiller to cool. It’s then sent through pipes to snow cannons on the ceiling of the facility. When the cooled water is blown into a freezing environment, it crystallises and makes flakes. The end result is identical to nature’s own and 30 tons of fresh snow is made each night to replenish a base that’s 50 centimetres deep.

Looking like a massive metal tube rising 25-storeys above the desert, Ski Dubai is like a giant fridge. The walls have layers of insulation, and the roof is five metres higher than the ceiling, providing efficient insulation. Twenty-three blast coolers frost the air and the dome’s floor has kilometres of tubing that chills the snow and keeps it solid.

With a curving slope 400 metres long, Ski Dubai even has falling snow flakes and sky blue panels to give a real outdoor effect. “This isn't just about skiing but an opportunity to introduce winter activities ... to a lot of people who’ve never seen snow before,” said Phil Taylor, the resort’s chief executive. Raed Al Yousofi, marvelling at his first snowflakes, said, “It's very strange but wonderful. Now Dubai has everything and... our children will be good skiers.”

It seems to me the church is much like Ski Dubai. In it, we must create an environment that’s vastly different from the one most people live in. In a world of scorching judgement and deep spiritual dryness, we’re called to replicate heaven itself. At best, our efforts will only create an impression of that perfect place, but that will count for a lot if people can find a bracing, embracing climate of love and true acceptance that invigorates the heart and revitalizes the soul.

As in skiing, the objective of Christian faith is to work your way to the bottom — through service and self-sacrifice, in our case. We lay down a spiritual base for that by letting a pure trust in God pass through the crisp, refreshing creativity of his Spirit. Once our trust is transformed into love — and released from above into a climate of concern that can sustain it — there’s a deep, consistent foundation upon which people can move. Their experience becomes exhilarating and exonerating as they find a fresh new start in the grace of Jesus.

But that only works as long as the church maintains a consistent Christ-like climate, stays insulated from the sweltering, faith-melting sway of secular society, and strives constantly to replenish the love supply. Only then will people be able to take their own avenue to God, choosing a route with a slope and a scope they can handle.

Deep, reliable love is the best way to introduce spiritual activities to those who’ve never seen God before. If we live and love the way we should, they’ll find him strange in the beginning, but altogether wonderful as they experience the thrill of a headlong rush into a real and powerful relationship with Christ. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the generation behind us got to know a faith so genuine they just learned how to embrace it, despite the conflicting culture surrounding them?

By Rick Gamble. Published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications. To subscribe to this free weekly article, send a note to Rick at sgamble@bfree.on.ca