Okay, so our blogging frequency has deteriorated even further; we missed the whole month of December. But since most of you were so busy reading Christmas newsletters, you hardly noticed. So here is our mid January report on holidays in Cairo.

Thanksgiving (remember it’s an American holiday except for the Canadians who celebrate it in October before being snowed in for the winter) was actually higher profile than we expected. We started with 75+ in our young adult group on an open-air rooftop the weekend before. Then many Americans celebrated with large, multi-national dinner parties all weekend long. We could have eaten several meals if we hadn’t had church all day Friday! Amazing considering a large turkey could cost $40.
The following weekend we finally made our trip to the White Desert (a 5 hour drive). You first drive through the volcanic Black Desert. After a hike up a huge white sand dune for a panoramic view, we started off for the White Desert. This portion is filled with incredible limestone rock formations left behind after millennia of erosion of what is believed was an ancient ocean floor. The whole thing was like a moonscape—surreal and unique (from anything we have ever seen). Let us not forget to mention that the entire thing was a camping trip with guides who drive you in four-wheel drive vehicles, pitch the tents, start the fire, cook the meal, clean the dishes, and provide all the equipment (including camel hair blankets)! Karan says this is her kind of camping—princess camping! The second night the stars came out in full—hundreds of miles from the nearest light pollution.

Our next holiday highlight was the Christmas Pageant. It was unique in our experience among pageants. To begin, it was the first time Karan has sat in the audience with her family. It was also one of the more creative programs. There were real camels, donkeys, and sheep. No animal let loose a load during the two performances, but the street outside the church gate was another story! The highlight of the pageant was Herod—the king, as in Elvis. Our youth pastor played Herod as an Elvis impersonation with adoring junior high groupies. The wise men on the three real camels were a French Clouseau, an African soul man, and a straight guy with a Scottish accent. The comedy lightened the mood, but the story still came through in a culture not as familiar with the Christmas story as in America.
On December 13, Travis (age 22) and Brett (age 19) arrived on their first overseas flight. The fact that Travis even made the flight at all was a miracle since his plane out of Spokane was 90 minutes late due to the beginning of the 5+ feet of snow that would fall over the next few weeks. When Travis arrived in Seattle, he had 15 minutes to make his international flight in a different remote terminal. They were closing the door as he ran up the ramp. Then in London, Travis and Brett were misdirected to the wrong terminal and made the flight to Cairo by only 20 minutes. It’s no surprise that Travis’ luggage took four days to find him.
After visiting the pyramids and the Coptic cave churches in garbage city (see picture below), we headed off by all-day train 450 miles south to Luxor. We did the tourist thing to visit the tombs and temples (quite spectacular and worth the trip).

But the real adventure began when we tried to leave for home. Our reservation in this 5-star hotel was made on the Internet. We had booked a double room (for two) and a triple room (for three). The problem is that the hotel doesn’t have triple rooms, so they claimed the second reservation was a double room. Even though we tried to make sure it was all agreed on for the three days we were there, they waited until we checked out to demand nearly double the cost of the room for putting a cot in a double room.

As bad as that was, they would not let us leave to catch our train back to Cairo. The problem is that after the Luxor violence 10+ years ago, only two trains per day are secured to allow tourists. The next train that night was booked, as well as trains for the next few days. Even though they had our credit card number and local address, they would not allow our taxi to leave. So we are on the streets of Luxor in plain view of the world with the hotel management creating this scene. Finally we called our church office to ask them to call the tourist police, but instead they called National Security because the senior pastor position at Maadi Community Church is high profile. Once National Security was involved suddenly things changed. They apologized and let us go and strangely found 5 tickets all together on a mid-day train which National Security had to now secure. We were then greeted and escorted at the train station by 6 security officials in Cairo. Steve was quite embarrassed by the whole thing, but it was quite a lesson on how the cultural system works on several levels. Steve’s staff begged him to let them make the reservations next time even if they cost more.

On the church front, Steve still searches for more staff. The African Ministry pastor did not receive a renewal on his visa and was sent home to Nigeria. With outside funding gone for that ministry and questionable accountability and results, we will very soon release them to stand on their own financial feet and provide training and mentoring. We now seek God’s direction for our future outreach focus. There is no shortage of tremendous missional opportunities for peoples of many different nation groups, including Africans.
Karan will begin tutoring a few middle school and elementary kids, particularly those with special needs, as well as substitute teaching. She has put in her application at Cairo American College (Alex’s school, which is a K-12 prep school, not an actual college), but we are not very optimistic she will be hired for the one open elementary position. Tutoring at least gives her more time for other activities, while providing that some help with college tuition.
Alex made the junior varsity basketball team, so he is busy with another sport. He is still adapting culturally to Egypt and the more demanding load CAC expects. It is still an area of challenge and growth for him. We thought it wouldn’t take this long, but since culture adjustment still affects us too, that was pretty naïve! No one ever said having your life perspective stretched would be without pain. Alex absolutely loves the youth group experience here, so that is another bright spot. He is counting the days until June when he will return to Spokane for almost a month.

Travis is a junior at Eastern Washington University in Cheney (outside Spokane) majoring in International Affairs. He also works 30 hours per week as a cook in an upscale restaurant. Brett is a sophomore at Western Washington University in Bellingham majoring in Photojournalism. He works on campus about 10 hours per week.
Feel free to post comments, but remember to be discreet in what you say if you want us to let the whole world read what you say. Karan is on Facebook if you want to communicate in between blogs. Also don’t forget our church website at www.maadichurch.net.

Keep the Son in Your Eyes!
Steve and Karan