Egyptian Adventures

Well we are just shy of three more weeks here in Egypt. And even though we are all wanting to go home, there are still things we can get involved with here. The other day we were involved in a Egyptian music video. It was funny our translator, Ehab, calls us up one day and asks if we would like to participate in a music video. So Sunday we head off on the metro (train) to down town Cairo and meet Ehab and Shaadi, who take us to a huge Catholic church. There the director greets us and asks if we know the lords prayer in Arabic. We are not fluent in arabic so we said no and he asked if we could learn it in arabic. So in the time slot of 10 minutes we tried to learn the lords prayer in arabic and sing it to music. It was a bit of a gong show saying the words correctly. We were apart of a scene of many different kinds of people, arabic, handicapped, deaf, foreigners, etc, singing the lords prayer together. Over the period of three hours we "sung" as best we could the lords prayer as they repeatedly took shots and close ups of us singing and praying. Another random Egyptian adventure. Other than becoming random Egyptian movie stars we've been visiting and helping in Garbage City at an orphanage with infants and disabled children. We visited something called the cave churches which are in Garbage City. They are huge churches which hold about 20 000 people and fill up every thursday when they hold a service. The mountain that they are in the Coptics claim to be one that was moved by faith. There's a whole story of a christian being confronted by other religious people about the passage in Matthew about having faith like a mustard seed and being able to move mountains. He was faced with a challange of moving this mountain or he would have to give up his faith, die, or leave Egypt. Anyway the story goes that all the christians in Egypt prayed and this mountain moved and these caves were created because of it. I'm not sure how credible the story is but this is what we were told. The churches are huge though, and quite impressive. So we are finding stuff to do and keeping busy as much as we can trying not to think of home to much so we don't get homesick. We hope to go off to Mount Sinai this next week and climb it during the night and see the sunrise at the top. It should be a neat experience. So if you could just pray for the team to be able to focus this last while and to keep going strong on this last home stretch. To through off anything that hinders and run the race marked out for us.

Hearts full of Hope

The last few days our team has found alot of opportunities to get involved in the community here. We have been taken in by Maadi Community Church and they have plugged us in. We've been getting involved with working with kids. The last to days we helped out with evaluating kids in there eduaction at two Sudanese Refugee Schools. It was an eye opening experience. The first school had kids from the age of about 4 to 12, and the second school had kids from the age of 10 to 18. In the evaluation we ask them to do a bit of reading from an elementary level reader, some simple math equations, and ask them a few questions about their home situation. Most of the children can hardly read, some can do some math equations but usually just make a bunch of ticks on the paper and count them. A majority of the children only have one parent if any at all aswell. One girl I evaluated today really broke my heart. Her english was worse than most of the children, she seemed very sad with eyes that were empty. She had 7 siblings and didn't have a father. The family also didn't have a TV. It may seem weird that I mention this, but even the really poor families have TV's in this country. A TV is a necessity here, everyone has one, so when you come across someone who doesn't have one, you know they are probably really really poor. Anyway this little girl seemed ashamed she couldn't answer alot of my questions and would try so hard but still get the wrong answer. In these schools the education is very poor, and even though the children are very teachable, they don't have the teachers to give them the kind of education that could help improve there lives. Most of the time the teachers aren't in the class room either, this is why the church is doing evaluations to see how they can come up with a better system to educate these children. Anyway this experience just opened my eyes to how much need there is in soo many places in Africa. There is so much hopelessness here, sometimes I think it's because of the "religious culture" that makes people so hopeless and brings on alot of laziness, and taking advantage of because they have nothing to live for or really care about. And yet God is working here, and hope is slowly spilling out into this land, slowly reaching the hearts of people. So I guess the biggest prayer request I have is to pray for this country. To pray for the oppressive, hopeless bondage to be broken and for the hearts of people to be changed. For God's "workers" as they spread life giving words and love in this country. And for the heart's of people here to be changed so they may have hope.

Worthlessness

Here are some pictures from Mokautum or "Garbage City." This is a community that is built around a garbage dump. There is a strong ministry with kids here that is bringing a lot of positive change. Still there are sad stories and feelings of worthlessness here. We were told a story of a little boy who felt less than a donkey because the donkey was allowed to go to town and collect the garbage while the little boy had to stay in this garbage dump with no opportunity. So there are sad stories and lots of poverty in this place, but God is working here.

Patience and Patients

The last while I just started reading a book on re entering your home country, and about how it can be really hard to re adjust if don't prepare yourself.

So I 've been thinking about what sort of things I've learned here, and how I may have changed. I've learned alot about myself while being in Egypt, like how I react in many situations, and the immediate attitude I take on. I've been learning alot about patience in everyday sidtuations, and with people. Being patient is more than just waiting quietly, it's the whole mindset, and attitude you choose to have towards the person or situation. An attitude of Love. 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."

I've also been learning about making relaionships. Even though we haven't settled down in one place for very long and been able to develop deep relationships I've been able to observe the people here in this culture. It is very relational based and a key difference between our societies is time. Egyptian people view the person as more valuable than time. In North America, we give people a time not our time. We do respect and honor a person by being on time, but once there slot of time is up we're onto our next scheduled thing. I've really had to learn to be content with slowing down here, and not worrying about always having to be doing something. This has really given me the opportunity to observe how giving people your time is important to good relationships. People here in Egypt are really good friends, and they love to help, and be hospitable. Last week while we were down in Aswan we went with a Doctor to an eye clinic in a small town just outside of Aswan. It was an incredible experience. We were able to see her in action with the patients. She let us look at some eye cases through here equipment, and even watch her do some surguries. It was very very interesting. Anyways it was neat watching her with the patients, she wasn't rushed and in a hurry to get her work done. She was interested in the here and now, how this patient was doing physically, but also emotionally and most important spiritually. In the waiting room of her clinic she had the Jesus film playing, and every eye was glued to it until it was there turn. This doctor saw what was important, the person, not so much the job, even though she did still take great care of the patient. God really is teaching me about relationship, and how important it is, and how important love is in relationships. Love is the greatest testimony!
So anyway we are living in a little basement flat in the bottom of a pastors house in Cairo for the next five weeks. It's going to be tight. One of our bedrooms just has sheet walls which can make quiet times hard. But we are excited about these next to months. We are just staying in one place for once and are going to be able to have somewhat of a routine. We plan on visiting a place called garbage city which is really just a huge garbage dump where people live, and sort garbage for a living. We hope to be able to interact with some of the workers there and just experience a speck of what there life is like. Also on the agenda is visiting mount Sinai. Which is going to be incredible being in a place where God was!!! So that's what's going on. I'll write again soon.

Stepping Out!

So May 2nd we boarded a train headed for Asswan, not really sure of where we were staying, or what we'd be doing. But when we arrived two people were there to pick us up, and we are staying in a great place with a/c in our rooms. We were all pretty thrilled. Asswan get's hotter than Luxor, and Luxor was already really really hot. We're talkin between 45-50 degrees celcius. We also found out what we would be doing here over the next week. The plan is to visit people in a hospital here in Asswan, do some more prayer walks, sharing a skit or two at a church, maybe visiting some near by villages, and doing a little site seeing.

I am holding up. Everyday has its own challanges, and some days are harder to get through than others. God is really giving me a heart for the women here, and so that's been a main focus for me in prayer. Women here are second class, and there is a heavy spirit of oppression over them. I've been able to talk to a few women in the church, and they have shared with me some of the everyday struggles and hardships. Even in the church there are rules and ideas that are coming over from this countries "society". This really frusterates me some days, and I wish I could really rebel against it, but I do have to respect these people. I have to remember this is what they have grown up with, and all they know. Still our team had an opportunity to serve at a church for there morning service in Luxor. It was here that a women who had translated for us shared with me how she really did feel the oppression here in Egypt over women. This had been her first time translating in there church. Normally a man would do this, but was abscent that morning. Women are not allowed to go up to the front of the church, and hold a mic to sing or pray. I was really heart broken at the thought of this. We are supposed to be free in Christ! God loves us all, and even though he created men and women with different strengths and weaknesses, he did not create one to be beneath the other, but to come along side and care for each other, to complete each other. Our team was then invited to come back and take over the whole evening service. So we agreed and it was there that I decided it was time to take advantage of our foreigner status. Sharalin and I agreed that it was important that we both share our testomies, and sing up front. These women needed encouragment, from other women. We also tried to think of a way to get the women who translated for us in the morning back up in front translating. So that evening we sung some songs, and then started to share our testomonies, but the man who was translating was having a difficult time, and so when Sharalin and I got up to share, he called the lady who had translated for us that morning to come up front and translate. Sharalin and I were both rejoicing inside when this happened and the woman did a phenomenal job. Afterwards the women of the church came and talked to us and thanked us so much for sharing, because it really encouraged them. PRAISE GOD!!! So I am praying for these women here. I really do believe that the revival in Egypt is going to start with the women rising up. I'm not sure how, but my prayer is one day these women will be free from there everyday harrassment, and oppression and be free in Christ. The one song that has really seemed crucial the last while is "Freedom Reigns" - Freedom reigns in this place, showers of mercy and grace, falling on every face, there is freedom. These are the words of the chorus. This song means so much more when you are in a place where freedom doesn't reign, especially for women. Anyway that is just a little tidbit of what we've been doing. I'd love to share in more detail, but circumstances don't permit.

Prayer Requests:

A refreshing of the Holy Spirit for our team. This culture can be very frusterating at times for us, and can make it hard to show love.

Also energy and physical strength, the sleeping pattern is different here. You stay up late, get up early, and sleep in the afternoon. So it throws you out of wack a bit.

And for the women here! Majority suffer from some sort of oppression, and only some have freedom in there hearts.

Thank you so much for your prayers!!