* Egypt 2

Hello friends and family!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! As I go into my fifth month here in Egypt, the Lord continues to teach me so many things through the people and culture. At the end of the year I’m not sure whose life will be most touched and changed—those I encounter in ministry efforts, or my own life. Each day I feel I am finding my place here a little better and clearer, and I am so thankful to be here and have genuinely fallen in love with so many people.

Thanksgiving was a little bit of an adventure. I volunteered to bring several items that my family usually cooks for Thanksgiving to the dinner at the Wommack’s with other local missionaries and an Egyptian family. The night before Thanksgiving I could not find many of the crucial ingredients (such as sweet potatoes for sweet potato casserole!). So I decided I would just wake up early Thanksgiving morning and go hunt down the missing ingredients. I walked a few miles asking every street vendor I could find for sweet potatoes. It turns out that instead of asking for orange potatoes in Arabic, I had been asking for an orange father or something that was not correct and got my many weird, confused looks and a few hearty laughs! I finally found some sweet potatoes and made that casserole!

Simple everyday living here certainly comes with challenges in comparison to the American living I’m used to, and can be a little frustrating at times. Some of it has to do with Egypt, some of it just has to do with living without a mom. For example, if I ever want to eat, I have to cook (imagine that!). Often I have to cook from scratch—though many American conveniences are imported, they are expensive and some everyday cooking ingredients (like Rotel Tomatoes and American relish) aren’t here at all. But I’ve learned new ways of doing things! I didn’t know things like tomato paste, relish, and soup could be made without a can! Anyway, in order to cook, I have to grocery shop; to grocery shop, I have to take a taxi. So much is in Arabic which a challenge in itself to this new-comer. Our flat doesn’t have a dishwasher so dishes must be washed by hand, we don’t have a dryer so clothes must be hung out on the line five stories high to dry. I don’t mind at all, it’s all just time-consuming. The wonderful things about all of this are that I have realized that American conveniences are not absolutely necessary,
I’ve learned new ways of doing things, and learned to enjoy the adventures each new day lends itself to (like taxi rides!).

Another recent adventure was my first experience at the outdoor meat market. My roommates and I needed chicken and decided to save money and not get frozen, so we went to the market where we picked out our live chicken. The man then broke its wings when he grabbed it from the cage and plopped it on the scale. Then he took our little chicken, which I named Clucky, as she squawked bloody murder to a table where he slit her throat and chopped off her head right in front of us! He threw her headless body into a bucket where little Clucky kept going crazy. And I was expected to eat our chicken after we put her through all that?! I had to turn around and fight back tears as I said there was absolutely no way I could eat that chicken we murdered. A couple days later I got over it and cooked her, learning that whole chickens come with guts. She was actually quite tasty, and now I’m going on Clucky the Second tomorrow night!

While life here is sometimes rough, comical, and even a wonderful adventure, that is certainly not what has captured my heart and passion in an indescribable, irreversible way. It is the people. To my surprise, the people group I have most fallen in love with and with whom I have found the greater portion of meaning and significance in my being here is the foreign community youth. While many of these kids are Egyptian or half-Egyptian, most are from a variety of foreign. I adore these kids more than I can express. It is my prayer to be there for them the way the Lord would have me be, to love them, to challenge them and encourage them to pursue lives of whole hearted, passionate, genuine love for our Savior; to follow Him with everything inside of them, to be a leader in the faith and seek to know Him and grow in Him more and more each day. I love teaching Sunday school, I love leading youth group with my roommates and Jon, I love leading the girls’ Bible study. I love each of these TCKs and pray the Lord will allow me to somehow be His hands and feet and mouthpiece to touch their lives for Him.

The whole youth group experience has been stretching for me. I have learned, more now than ever, that I am completely inadequate and incapable in my humanity. But I have also learned and know full well, more now than ever before, that I have a God who promises to lead me by the hand through each week, each talk, each service, each devotion to accomplish whatever task is before me with efficiency if I humbly submit to and wholeheartedly trust Him. I am in awe of the greatness of God in our human lives—just to see Him at work in the lives of the youth as they open up their hearts and seek Him is amazing beyond description.

Last Friday during youth service there was a moment when I was flooded with a rushing wave of emotion and love and passion, and thought it may touch your heart like it touched mine. Each teen was handed a piece of paper and a pen, and encouraged during worship to write praises of thankfulness to the Lord. Later we asked the kids to feel free to share something they had written if they were willing. As we sat there in worship teens would randomly read their papers aloud. It was overwhelming to hear them say what they did: “Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. I honor you; my delight is in you; there is no one else for me;” “Lord, you are great. You surpass all earthly power. You have taken me from the land of my ancestors, opened my eyes to what is truly good. You have blessed me; you have redeemed my family. Help me to overcome my sin;” “I am not perfect but I will still surrender to you. Help me to have a pure heart and a clear conscience;” “Lord, I give you my future. Take it and let it be yours;” “Lord, you are great and powerful because without you, I am nothing, and with you, I am made into something great. All I have and all I am is all because of your presence in my life. Thank you for giving me love and good things, for forgiving every sin I have done and do;” “You are good, powerful, and great, Lord, because you care for me even when I feel I have no worth. Thank you for being you, for loving me, for saving me. Thank you for making me me, and for being you. Thank you that you are immeasurable and loving and don’t care how many flaws I have. Thank you that you love even a broken offering.”

As I sat there listening to teenagers share their hearts and what the Lord means to them, tears welled up in my eyes and I thought THIS is what we were created to do—THIS is what we live for. It is because if Him that we live and breath and are blessed. Without Him, I am nothing—but in Him I find my identity, purpose, belonging, passion, and love.

Between organizing the youth group’s Christmas human video production and the children’s Christmas play, making costumes, etc., I continue to [attempt] to learn Arabic, teach English to four girls from the Lillian Trasher Orphanage, and teach at the Sudanese refugee school. They are a hilarious, joyful, and energetic bunch to say the least—and I adore them as well.

While on an assignment, AGWM allows one-year term MAs a two-week vacation.
After much thought and prayer, I decided Christmas break would be the ideal
time to use it as that will be about the mid-way point for my time here, and
things such as youth group and schools will be shutting down for the holidays. So I will be going home for Christmas December 13th! I am SO excited to see my family and
friends in Texas for a couple weeks, and look forward to returning to Egypt after Christmas to finish the second half of my assignment, and spend the Egyptian Christmas (Jan. 7th) at the Lillian Trasher Orphanage in Assiout, about a 7 hour train ride to Upper Egypt.

Jon, one of the youth leaders, has decided to return to the States in January to continue college. He plays a big role as he is our only male leader. Please pray for me and my roommates to have to the wisdom, guidance, and leadership to efficiently lead and disciple this group. Pray that the Lord would continue to stretch me, to help me embrace the joys as well as the stresses of daily life in Egypt, and that He would guide me as I prepare and present talks for youth service. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. May God bless you this Christmas season as we celebrate His Son!

Much Love,
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