Alex is still in the hunt to make the junior varsity soccer team. We thought today was the day to announce the team, but it seems that there is one more cut still. I am having a hard time putting all this in God’s hands. I am afraid that without soccer, Alex will spiral down further in his culture shock adjustments. Plus a parent from last year told me that several Western kids who had talent and performed well on their middle school teams were cut, while a couple of obese Egyptian kids made the team. The coach is Egyptian and team play is not their strong suit. Yet they didn’t win any games in tournament play all last season (there are few home games). So you would think they would catch a clue …. who did I say was struggling with culture shock?! So God and I are wrestling through this issue as I place Alex in His loving hands (even when the immediate results don’t seem so compassionate).
Karan and I had dinner last night with the widow of the former senior pastor. She showed us where he fell from 10 stories trying to belay down three feet to their balcony after being locked out of their apartment. It was, of course, an incredibly emotional and tragic story. I cannot even begin to imagine what that was like on so many levels … She also shared that every year when they flew in to Cairo from a month off summer vacation, as they descended they felt the spiritual oppression. She said the whole family would often drive back from the airport in silence. She also shared some fairly amazing dreams and visions that people (some in a different corner of the world) had right before and during the horrible accident. The content of those dreams and vision were all about the spiritual warfare surrounding the event. People saw things with spiritual lenses in that very location before the fall actually happened or was known. It was a stirring reminder of where the battle really lies even in things that look so mundane and ordinary. It was also a reminder of the incredible privilege, responsibility, and battle that this ministry truly is!
Visitors would sometimes come to see them and observe the trash in the streets and the rubble all around and remark, “How can you live here??!” Maadi is much greener and nicer, but you still have trash, rubble, broken sidewalks, wild drivers, and feral cats and a few dogs that roam the streets. But if you choose to look up at the flowering trees and the amazing culture and the smiling faces of what many believe is the kindest and gentlest people in the Middle East, you can see something quite different. It’s all in where you look. You cannot come here into such a foreign culture and in the midst of intense spiritual warfare without a clear sense of calling. So when those inevitable days of discouragement and frustration come, you flow with it and remember that it’s not about me and my comfort and convenience, rather it’s about God’s kingdom. I have not ever been in a place with more potential for Kingdom impact than here.
We have included some pictures of Egypt to give you a taste of things you don’t always see in tourist photos. Life is quite different for so many people in other parts of the world. So as the global economy is freefall meltdown, remember Who holds the cards.
Steve and Karan
