اهلا و سهلا (Welcome in Arabic)

Greetings from Luxor, Egypt. I'm in another little internet cafe with a keyboard that keeps typing in arabic randomly if I don't press certain buttons. Today the temperature is about 40 degrees celcius. Yeah it's dang hot. Our team just had our mid term retreat, where we took a cruise along the Nile. It was beautiful. We had two people from Canada join us Rob Thiessen, and John Atchison. The did some devotions with us and really encouraged us. Our team really needed some time where we could just be tourists and not worry about curve balls being thrown at us. It was nice being able to eat somewhat north american food, and be able to where shorts and a t-shirt. I think one of the most exciting things though was being able to use a shower with pressure and a hairdryer. Hallelugah! Haha! So we are feeling on track again and ready to tackle this next 7 weeks. The plan is to be in Luxor for a few days, where we are staying at a Nunery, and visiting churches, etc. After this heading down to Aswan. One prayer request, would be for our team to handle the heat okay, and stay healthy and hydrated. I'm out of internet time though so I'll write again soon.

Longing for Girl Talk

Our team has offically been in Egypt a month and a half. We've got 58 days left and we actually have an idea of what is to come in these next two months. We are pretty excited about this because it's the first time our team has somewhat of a heads up on what we are doing. So far the length of notice we've recieved has varied from one day to about 15 seconds. So having a plan seems like luxury.
The last 10 days or so our team went back up to Alex where we lead a church service, met up with some people we connected with the last time we were there, and then headed off to a disciplship conference. The conference was good. Randy Friesen and two other pastors from the Abbotsford area came to teach. It was really good hearing them, and it was also really good hearing some testimonies of the men at the conference. Yeah it was an all men conference. Sharalin and I are definitly ready for a bit more estrogen company. So far we've done alot with just the male gender in ministry. Anyway Egyptians/North Africian people love to talk, and they have amazing stories of faith to tell. Most of the men at this conference have only been believers for a max of ten years and about a minimum of one. They have stories of God sparing their lives, stories of God asking them to give away money just recieved even though they hadn't had food all week, stories of God providing, and stories of suffering for Christ. The faith of these men is incredible. Just hearing these stories really challanges me.
As a team we're holding up. It's getting to the point where I think we're all rubbing on each others nerves a tad, and team life is becoming a little more real. A verse that I've been challanged with this week is Colossians 3:12-14 "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." This verse is a good reminder to live out compassion, kindness and patience, with love, so that as a team we do stay unified. Without each other we are nothing here. We depend on each other alot. Unity is also really important in prayer. So that is one thing I would ask you to pray for. That we would be able to get rid of anything that may be causing disunity in our team, so we can continue to build strong relationships with each other, and work together as a team.
This next week we are taking a bit of a retreat and going on a Nile cruise with the two pastors form Abbotsford. We are really excited! The cruise takes us from Aswan to Luxor to see the Valley of the Kings, and Valley of the Queens. Two places with alot of history. From there we head back to Aswan for a while, and then to Asut to an orphanage for a while. (Sharalin and I are praying the orphanage will have girls) And then the last few weeks we'll be back in Cairo. This will be the last blog from our base here in Cairo though. I'm not sure what sort of internet connection I will have from here on. I may still be able to post, but they may lack pictures. So anyway. Thank you to everyone who has been following this blog! Hi to everyone at Hepburn MB Church, and Hi to my College and Career group at Ebenezer Baptist. Also HI to all my family in BC, my aunts, uncles, cousins, and of course Oma and Opa (please pass the greeting on to them). HI to my buddies in Saskatoon, and my cruise street roomies. I love all of you and I miss you all. There are times when I miss home alot, but I know I'm living an experience of a life time, and so I'm trying to make the best out of it. Until I write next!

Slime or Crime

The Beach by the Suez Canal

Easter Monday our team was asked to join a church group for the day. They told us we were going to a beach by the Suez Canal. So we hopped on a bus with about 50 people, and drove down to the beach. The only problem was when we got there we couldn't find the beach because there were sooooo many people. Easter is actually a holiday in Egypt, but not to celebrate Easter, but to celebrate the change of seasons. So anyway we squeezed ourselves in amoung all the people and had a great afternoon of interacting with the people from the church. We played a few riddle games, and then they got out their traditional food for the Easter weekend. FISH!! But not just any fish "rotten fish" at least that's what they told us it was. I tasted at tiny bit, and the fish is actually smoked and preserved, but it stinks like it's rotten. It's slimy and they eat it with cooking oil, pita bread, and lettuce. Here are some pictures of our Easter monday.

This is actually a re inactment of me eating the fish, the first picture I wasn't quite so eager to take it. I'm going to get my friend to send me the first picture and then I'll post that one.

Trust In Him and He Will Do This

( This picture is us hanging out in the Kitchen one afternoon, playing scrabble, while I tryed to wipe up some cookies, with Egyptian ingredients. The cookies actually turned out pretty good too.)

This last week was a really encouraging week for me. We had a couple from France staying with us who I really connected with. They are really into the Arts, and they do filming, music concerts with professional artists, etc. So almost every morning of this last week, I was able to talk with Marj over breakfast. We had some really good discussions on things like prophecy and spiritual warfare. We were able to bounce some idea's off each other, and challange each other with these idea's about each subject. We also were able to share our testomonies with each other. Marj has an incredible testomony of brokeness, but she kept trusting God through that brokeness, and he has blessed her by giving her the desires of her heart. I was really able to connect with her story. Trusting God is something I am really learning, especially with my fears. I was thinking about some of the conversations we had, and one of the questions she asked me was, how is God challanging you, and what do you think he is revealing to you while you are here in Egypt? I didn't have an answer for her right aways, but I realized that God is revealing something to me. While I've been here I've been having what I call creative downloads, and have been stretched to use these, and come up with skits or drimes (drama/mimes) we can use while we are here. This has been something I've had a fear of doing back at home. God has now put me in a place where my team needs me to use this ablilty, but also in a place where it is alright if I fail, because the people here will accept anything you bring whole heartedly. So it doesn't matter if it's good enough, because there is no expectation. God is so full of grace. He is allowing me to grow in this creative area, in a place where I can relax into this ability, but also with enough pressure so that I'll actually start to use it. At the end of the week we had a neat opportunity to go to a house church. The space we had was very minimal, so we weren't able to do our normal drama. We decided that we would do one of the drama's I wrote. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous about doing it. I really wanted it to be recieved well. The drama is done to the scripture John 15:1-8 from the section called "The Vine and the Branches". It's about being connected to our heavenly Father so we may bear his fruit, and if we aren't connected to him we can do nothing. So I prayed, and submitted this drama into God's hands, and trusted that he would use it for his glory. Still God wanted me to trust him more. I was also supposed to give my testimony that night. I had prepared something, and I had brought along my notes, but a few minutes before I was supposed to share I really felt God asking me to trust him. I felt him asking me to put my notes behind me, and trust that he would give me the words for my testimony. So I did, and I feel that God really did use my words. I connected my testimony to John 15:1-8, so it tied in with the drama. The drama was also received very well. They told me afterwards, the drama made the words of the scriptures come alive, and really touched their hearts. Then something really neat was asked of me. They wanted to see me dance! In Egypt dance is not something that is done in church, especially by a women. So I danced for them, in the little space that I had, and was blessed by God. Just like Marj kept trusting Him through her brokeness, and was given the desires of her heart, in this little way of trusting God he gave me one of the desires of my heart. Dancing for him, to bless people, and bring them into worship. That is a tidbit of how God has been teaching me this week.

As for the team we are finding that prayer seems to be what we are doing most here. Before we came to Eygpt, our team was prophecied over to be a team of prayer and intercession. We are finding this to be very true. Prayer is something that blasts through any language barrier, even if we are praying with people who only speak or pray in arabic. Our times as a team praying are also unifying our team immensly. God is teaching us how to pray, and is giving us a heart for prayer aswell. Thank- you so much for all your prayers. They are very powerful, and are felt very much over here in Egypt. Have a wonderful Easter!

(our two chawches in there new suits they got for an incredible deal)
(Kissing our new sweet heart at El Borgs restaraunt who makes the best fish I've ever tasted)

A litte Taste of Egypt

So I promised my Sister, Sara-Jane, I'd put this picture on my blog. I was telling her about how there are two names for meat here. The first is Chicken and for any other sort of meat it is called Meat. Not beef, or goat, or lamb, or even dog. No they just call it meat. Anyway needless to say this mystery meat has a very interesting taste to it, and I am actually not certain what sort of meat it actually is, but if you could imagine this cow had a taste, that would probably be pretty close to the taste of the "meat" here in Egypt. Anyway that's my little story. Enjoy the rest of the pictures.

Big catch of the day from the Mediteranean Sea

Some of the beautiful flowers hanging over the fences.

This is a common sight and sound in Egypt. Men drive there bicycles around with propane tanks on the side, and bang them with a stick, so if people need propane they can come out and buy it. You often here this clanging earlier on in the morning, it was a sound I woke up to each day when visiting the orphanage.

Goats being herded down the road is another common site, aswell as goat grazing on the garbage. What can I say ... it's Egypt

Waiting for shwarma's an Egyptian sandwich made with "meat" that roasts on a skewer all day.

This is a truck full of Garlic. It is common to see tons of Trucks loaded with bulbs of garlic.

I've got a Bone to Pick...

This last week and weekend we went to an orphanage to help out, clean, and interact with some of the children. To our suprise it was an all boys orphange with the age range from 7 to 21. So at first Sharalin and I were a little unsure of how it would go. In Egypt women are of a lower class compared to men, and usually interaction with males is limited. So we weren't sure how or if we would be able to create relationships with these boys. The first whole day we were there, we started out by cleaning their cafeteria. I wish I could have taken a picture for you to see. When you walked in you were greeted by what seemed like hundreds of flies. There was the smell of rotting food. The floor was smudged with mud, and there were bones lying around each table. The walls were splatted with food, and the garbages held about a weeks worth of unfinished food. So needless to say we had a quite the job of cleaning on our hands. But we cleaned it and the transformaiion was incredible. We ended up eating there a few times after, so I personally was very glad we had the opportunity of cleaning it up. We also were able to interact with the boys. The orphanage was a christian orphange, and so the boys had been brought up in a way to respect women. We were able to play with the younger kids, and hang out, teach guitar, play pool with some of the older boys. I was able to share a bit of my testomony with one of the older boys there, and we were able to talk a bit about how Christ helps us through tough times in our life. It was a good conversation and he had some good questions. I've been praying for him and that the words exchanged between us would have an impact on him. At the end of our time there it was hard to leave. It was like saying good by to about 20 brothers. We then came back to Cairo and prepared some more for a "sunrise" service we would be singing at the next morning. ( I use quotes because Egyptians stay up late and get up late, so the service only started 3 hours after the sun had risen.) This service was held in a beautiful little courtyard by a mission house. The people told us they were very blessed by us coming and singing for them. We then had breakfast with them which consisted of Fool- which is beans, lentals, pitas, tomatoes, strong cheese, olives, and cucumbers. This is a typical Egyptian breakfast. We then participated in an Easter tradition of weaving with palm. We made little donkey's which Jesus road on, and crosses. And then in the afternoon had the experience of floating in Falooka, which actually looks like a sale boat, on the Nile. The only disappointment was the boatsman taking us refused to put the sale up so we just floated. It was a very nice Sunday afternoon. This next week we again are not sure what is going to come up, so we'll just keep praying. Prayer seems to be the only thing we know we will be doing, everything else just pops up on the fly. Here are some pictures of our week.

( The two girls in the picture are just visiting for the day)

(Sharalin teaching a song on guitar)

(eating in the cafeteria we cleaned)

(a Falooka,

with the sail out)

(Floating with out the sail in our Falooka)